Airport Extreme and USB Drive

Hello,
It appears there are two hardware versions of the Airport Extreme base station - the UFO shaped one that I have and the flat rectangular version. I would like to know if it is possible to use my AEBS with an external USB drive. I have searched the forums and found posts regarding 7.x software and external drives. I am using 5.3.1 and there doesn't seem to be an option for an external drive. I have tried the software update and it indicates there are no updates.
I just bought this base station along with my MacBook Pro at an Apple Store last November. I am going to be very unhappy if they sold me an outdated unit.
Thanks for any suggestions!
Roger

The round 802.11b/g AEBS does not support USB hard drives.

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Airport Extreme and USB HD not detected in Vista but work in OSX

I have a hard drive and a printer connected to a USB hub that's hooked up to my Airport Extreme. USB hub is a good one, powered. Everything works like it should on the two Macs I have. Airport Utility detects everything fine, all works well. Great.
On my Vista PC, which is my main computer, being by far the most powerful, I have Airport Utility installed so that I can have access to my network hard drive. Weird thing is that it gets detected sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. When I re-install Airport Utility, everything works for that session. After a reboot it may or may not work. Usually it stops working all together after 2 or 3 reboots.
Internet access works all the time, mind you, as well as printing to my printer that's connected to the extreme. Just no base station detected in Airport Utility and no hard drive access, because the base station isn't available.
Thing to note, my computer goes through a gigabit switch, D-Link DGS-2205 to get to the airport extreme. I have an iMac that also goes through that switch, but doesn't have these problems.
Any ideas what to do? I'm sick of re-installing Airport Utility every couple days.

Nobody had a similar problem? Re-running Airport Utility installer again and Repairing the current installation fixes it for a short period of time, but the same problem comes back after about 3 reboots. Any ideas?

Airport Extreme and USB/Firewire Combo Hub

This has probably been covered before and I didn't find it. So I apologize...
I bought the new Airport Extreme and a firewire/usb combo hub so that I could connect my external HDs (3 are firewire and 1 is USB) - the USB is the only one that is working....
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Thanks,
Tim

I have a related question. I want to buy a triple interface drive (ethernet, USB, Firewire). The plan is to connect the drive an ethernet port on an Airport Extreme. The question is - can I later 'daisychain' on an additional firewire drive?
So the first drive would be connected via ethernet and the second connected to the first via firewire.
Based on Niel's post, I am guessing this won't work. Comments?
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Time Machine, Airport Extreme, External USB Drive

Having some challenges using Time Machine on an external drive connected to my Airport Extreme. I've tried several configurations all of which started with formatting the drive with a single partition Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID.
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The second configuration was where, after reformatting to single partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) GUID, I connected the drive directly to the Airport Extreme without having done a Time Machine Backup. After mounting the drive, I started Time Machine and it began to run. I left it over nite to back-up and, while it got started, it did not make it past about 9GB after over 6 hours.
Any help here would be most appreciated...
Happy New Year

See solution in this thread.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8742787

AirPort Extreme and USB NTFS External Drive and Canon MP810 printer

The AirPort Extreme works great as a wireless router. And with the additional AirPort Express, I now have a WDS in my house. I can also stream my iTunes downstairs. This is all great, it's working.
What's not working is:
1. Adding a USB NTFS-formatted external Maxtor drive to the USB port Extreme.
2. Able to copy, scan, and use "all" printing functionality of the Canon MP810 USB printer when connected to the USB port of the Extreme. Please I note I can choose File, Print from most applications and it works, but I can't use Canon's My Printer tool to access the printer wirelessly.
I guess I'd like an unofficial confirmation that this is correct. I am a little disappointed that Apple didn't communicate this correctly in any of their specifications.
I will begin looking into the comparable Linksys wireless router, but I have the strange feeling that I will get the same results.
I don't know how Dell is able to do it with it's AIO 966 printer.
Thanks,
Frank

1. Adding a USB NTFS-formatted external Maxtor drive to the USB port Extreme.
Problem arises as OS X can not write to NTFS formatted drives and therefore you need to use HFS+ or FAT32.
2. Able to copy, scan, and use "all" printing functionality of the Canon MP810 USB printer when connected to the USB port of the Extreme. Please I note I can choose File, Print from most applications and it works, but I can't use Canon's My Printer tool to access the printer wirelessly.
Can I scan using my all-in-one when it is connected to the USB port of an Airport Express or Airport Extreme Base Station?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=610763&#610763
I guess I'd like an unofficial confirmation that this is correct. I am a little disappointed that Apple didn't communicate this correctly in any of their specifications.
As you can see from this page
http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/specs.html
It does state quite clearly
+For shared printing with a USB printer +
If it allowed scanning, I am sure it would have said
+For shared printing and scanning with a USB all-in-one+
or similar.
If it doesn't explicitly say it will do something I would assume it can't.

Read/Write speeds with Airport Extreme and USB Hard Drives

Anybody know how fast the read/write speeds are with a USB hard drive and the Airport Extreme Base Station?
My Setup
I have a 17 MBP (2010) and a 13 MBP (2011) - no SSD's
MBP generally connect via 802.11n 5Ghz with a very strong signal
Gigabit connection on a Windows Desktop
I have a variety of external drives (7200, 5400, Drobo) at varying capacity (320GB, 2TB, 5.6TB)
Goals
Backup: Time machine
Backup: File copies of pictures and home videos (greater than 1GB files)
Backup: Crashplan
File sharing: Aperture libraries--not sure if that is possible or practical. That is something that I need to research further...but on the off chance people have experience with it.
Thanks!

ishjen wrote:
Anybody know how fast the read/write speeds are with a USB hard drive and the Airport Extreme Base Station?
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
Apple's AirPort base stations aren't known for fast file serving, but for most purposed they're fast enough.
I can't comment specifically on your Aperture plan, but with some software it's important to avoid simultaneous access by more than one user.

Airport Extreme and USB Hub + Printer and Hard Drives

I have been using my Airport Extreme with a USB hub with 2 external hard drives and one printer for a while now and everything has been going fine. However, recently, the hard drives have stopped registering when I have the USB hub plugged in. I have plugged the hub directly into my computer with everything attached and it works fine but the moment I plug the hub into the Airport, nothing shows up except that the printer still works.
Does anyone know what is wrong? Thanks!

Hi, I've had this same problem now for more than 1 year, and nothing had solved it, until recently. I think I know what the problem is.
It turns out that not all USB 2.0 hard drive enclosures are the same. I had been using "Metalgear Substance II" enclosures for my 500-GB drives, and I had assumed all along that these were fine... I had assumed that one USB 2.0 enclosure was as good as the next USB 2.0 enclosure. WRONG!!!
By accident, I noticed that the drive-to-drive copy times from MetalGear USB 2.0 boxes was about 22 hours for a full 450-GByte transfer of information, while placing the SAME drive into a MacAlley enclosure reduced the copy time down from 22 hours to 6 hours... About 3.5 times faster!!! This means that the piece of crud Metalgear boxes I had been using for my network drives were ssssllllooowwww.
A big bright light blinked on in my head regarding my issues and problems with the Apple Airport Extreme Base-station and all of the problems I'd had with multiple drives, the AEBS locking up etc.. All of my issues had been associated with using the el-cheapo Metalgear enclosures.
As soon as I replaced the Metalgear USB boxes with MacAlley boxes, everything started to work great. No more issues with my Airport locking up. None. Problem fixed. Problem solved.
I can only assume that NOT ALL USB 2.0 BOXES ARE THE SAME. USB 2.0 does not mean that the transfer rates will actually be at 480-mbps. Quality matters. DO NOT USE METALGEAR BOXES WITH APPLE EXTREME. There may be other brands with suck just as much. I can vouch for the MacAlley boxes. They work great... and there may be other boxes that work too. There must be some issue with Apple Airport Base Station timing out on slower USB 2.0 crapola equipment... something that causes it to hang.
Anyway, I hope this helps. My problems are solved since going to the MacAlley enclosures.

Airport Extreme and USB Disk Connection

I have attached a Western Digital external drive, that I can successfully see the files on it when connected by USB to my iMAC, but when connected to my Airport Extreme I am unable to see it. I can however, see it successfully within the "airport utility" as a storage device connected to the base station. Why can I not see it and where should I be able to view it from?
Thanks in advance Neil

1. I do not see the AEBS in "finder" as I do idisk etc.
2. I do not see the AEBS in "disk utility" either
You will not see the disk in either Finder or Disk Utility until it is mounted.
I've had the same issue. Always have resolved them by shutting down the disk and disconnecting the USB, also cycle power on your USB hub if your using one. Reconnect the disk and power-up.
I can connect to the server (though not sure what account I should do this as) but there are no volumes to select.
Disk Utility> Disks> File Sharing> Secure Shared Disks, if it's set to "With base station password. you would use the Name and Password of your AEBS
Sounds like your connecting properly, it's just not recognizing the Disk.
One other thing, do you know how your disk is formatted?
Powerbook G4, MacBook Pro, Mac G5, Mac G4, Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Airport Extreme and USB Hard Disk

I did the following
1. Plugged the Maxtor Basics 3200 into my MacbookPro USB port
2. Formatted it FAT32
3. Unplugged it.
4. Plugged it into AEBS USB port, put around 50g of files on it.
Now, from my MacbookPro I can see the drive, but not the files.
If I plug back into the MacbookPro USB I can see everything.
Any ideas???
I tried with firmware 7.1 and 7.11, no difference

You might make sure that you eject the disk from your MacBook before putting in back in your Airport Extreme.
I had three issues specifically because of not dismounting:
Couldn't write below the root directory if I didn't dismount
Couldn't connect to the drive if the network name changed
Passwords were not accepted when I attempted to remount the drive
I'm using a Maxtor 500GB Personal Storage 3200.
Good luck!
Chris
Message was edited by: MegaJustice

Airport Extreme and USB harddisc indexing?

Hi...
I've just puchased myself an Airport Extreme Base Station, and connected my external USB 2.0 harddrive to it, but there seems to be a problem... Whenever i try to gain access to the drive, it seems that folders with large amounts of data in it fails to show me the data... When i connect the drive directly to my mac, it all shows up, but not when i access the drive through the base station... I've tried to look deeper into the settings of the station, but i can't seem to find any way of changing any settings for the way it handles harddrives..
Anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks in advance

Does this mean, that if you connect an already "used"
disc (with previously used data), you can't expect it
to read it all? Would it be a solution, if i put all
the data over on another disc as backup, and then
remotely transfered it to my external disc connected
to the AEBS?
Until apple provides a way to change the rights on files using the base station, then the steps you outlined above will work.

Airport Extreme and USB hub

Okay I connected a hub to my USB on the airport extreme. Now I can see both hard drives however I get an IP address conflict and the network basically shuts down. Is there something I am missing here?

Try reading the entire conversation, Duane, and you'll realize that I'm fully aware of the fact that he's talking about a USB hub. And let me point out the fact that your misunderstanding makes no sense because even if I had thought he was talking about an ethernet hub, an ethernet hub has no IP address of its own.
His problem is that he gets an error message indicating that an IP that has already been allocated is being used by another device. A USB hub gets no IP nor does a simple USB external drive. Still, when he plugs in the hub that error message pops up. Why? The only explanation I could come up with is that one of the drives he is attaching to the USB hub isn't a standard external USB drive.
Have I connected all the dots for you okay?

Which to buy? Time capsule or Airport Extreme with USB drive(s)?

I'm getting either a TC or an Airport Extreme with an external drive.
Archive:
I noticed that TC can archive to an external drive. It seems this can be handy for creating off-site backups. Can I do this with a drive on Airport Extreme (with a powered hub and another drive)? Or do I need to move the drive to a Mac and copy there? Or should I use a network backup instead in either case? I guess this is my main question: Can archive work with Airport Extreme?
Mounting:
Is mounting the Airport Extreme for WiFi range any easier than the TC?
Drive failure:
Is the TC drive likely to fail over the next couple years? And the other way, if the TC breaks, is the drive something I can use elsewhere? I'm a little concerned about having all my eggs in one basket.
Other:
Anything I should be aware of in making this decision?

+Are there any constraints in the orientation of TC that the AirPort Extreme does not have?+
No, not really as long as you give either device plenty of airspace as they both tend to run warm to very warm. I thought mounting the AirPort Extreme might improve the signal strength a bit, but it made no measurable difference for me.
+Is the TC significantly heavier?+
The Extreme is under 2 pounds, the TC comes in a bit over 3 pounds.
+Is mounting on a pegboard bad for the HD?+
I think you may be asking if you can mount it vertically. That's not a problem and the Apple store even sells wall mounts for either device.
+Yikes. I got bad info. I read the "unsupported" constraint was dropped a couple versions ago. I thought all the comments on this were referring to the older versions of AirPort Extreme.+
Here's the Apple document. Nothing changed with Snow Leopard and I saw a specific Snow Leopard document about this...just can't find it at the moment. I'm sure other forum regulars will confirm as well if they see this post.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
+Is there a list of file servers that Time Machine is compatible with?+
Sorry, I don't have first hand knowledge on that and my policy is to only offer advice on things that I've done myself. That question might be worth a separate post since few people will see this question buried where it is.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Airport Extreme and USB printer

This past week upgraded my home system to Verizon's FIOS--new router, wiring, etc. Got the Airport up and running without too many glitches. I did have to unplug it a few times in the process. But now I find the Airport no longer sees my Lexmark C510 printer. It's never had a problem seeing it before and I fail to understand why any external changes would affect this connection between the Airport and printer. I note, too, that in the past week I updated the Airport firmware to the latest, and have heard that others have problems with printers subsequent to that. The Airport DOES see the USB hard drive connected. No trouble there. This is purely a printer issue.
I have unplugged the printer, unplugged the Base Station, and shut down everything and brought it up one piece at a time, but no change in the status of the printer.

Gregory Frost wrote:
SNIP>>>> I note, too, that in the past week I updated the Airport firmware to the latest, and have heard that others have problems with printers subsequent to that. The Airport DOES see the USB hard drive connected. No trouble there. This is purely a printer issue.
I have unplugged the printer, unplugged the Base Station, and shut down everything and brought it up one piece at a time, but no change in the status of the printer.
Try as others have to roll back the firmware to 7.3.2. Worth a shot since it was running ok before the upgrade.

Airport Extreme and USB Printer Problem

I have an Epson printer connected to the USB port of my Airport Extreme. This has worked just fine for years. But from today neither my iMac nor my MacBook Air can "see" the printer any more. I have rebooted everything a couple of times, but still no joy.
I have connected the printer directly to a USB port on my iMac, and all is well, so I guess the problem is not with the printer.
The only thing significant done to my system in recent times is the latest security update, which I installed yesterday.
Can anybody give me a clue as to why this problem has suddenly raised its head after all these years?

Hi bricknell,
It sounds like you are experiencing some printing issues after performing an update to your computer’s software. Here is an article for you with some troubleshooting steps that will help you address this issue:
Troubleshooting printer issues in OS X - Apple Support
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203343
Thanks for being a part of the Apple Support Communities!
Regards,
Braden

Airport Extreme and USB Disk Error -50

Hy all!
Sorry for my bad english, but i'm italian.
So, i have bought a new Apple Extreme Wireless station and i have connected a 2.5" external hd by Western Digital, so dosn't need external power.
The Hd have two partitions, one in hfs+ and the other in Fat32.
On the Fat32 partition i have a .iso file of 2,5gb and i want to transfer it on my macbookpro hd, via cabled network.
All runs well since the 99% of the procees, after i receive an unexpected erron n° -50, and the copy aborts.
if i try with a smaller file, on 600/700 mb, all working well.
It seems that i have problems over the gb.
Could anyone help me?
Thanks
Luke77
Macbook Pro 2.33 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I had the same problem. I reformatted the disk to " Mac OS Extended (Journald) and then it worked fine. I transmitted over 100 gigs of information to it and no errors. It seems to be a problem with the Fat32 or any Windows format.
17inch powerbook( 1 gig ram, airport extreme) ibook (4 the kids), g4(old), G5 Dual 2.3 - 2 gigs Mac OS X (10.4)

Airport Extreme and USB Drive

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