Airport Extreme USB problems

Question

I am posting this information as part of case number 757-73818. Level 2 support for Airport Extreme has not returned phone calls, despite giving me a specific telephone number to call.
I am new to the MAC world and I must say, I am disappointed. I have been having EXTREME problems setting up my with a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme. I have a brand new iMAC (Intel version) and OSX with all of the updates. I have Microsoft Office Suite for MAC - 2004 with all of the updates installed. I have also conducted tests with a new Maxtor 300G external USB-2 drive and a Lacie 500G external USB-2 drive. The drives were both formatted using Apple's "journalled HPF+. The problems encountered are repeatable with both products. I have spoken with Apple Level 2 technical support and they are unresponsive and have not followed through on any promises. Based upon personal investigation, I have been able to run the following tests which might help someone correct the problem. I am not an engineer, I am a lawyer, so I apologize in advance if you find the approached flawed:
HERE ARE THE THREE PROBLEMS - THE FIRST WHICH I RESOLVED.
PROBLEM 1: When a USB-2 drive is mounted to the AirPort Extreme and I logged-off as a user, the system hungs. After numerous tests, all of which are repeatable, I determined that one Airport Extreme configuration will cause the system to hang, and the other will log-out normally. See my notes below:
1 Log-Off User w/o hanging computer connected to Airport Extreme with USB Drive
Option Checked Option Unchecked MENU ITEMS
System Preference
Network
Options
Disconnect from wireless
network when a user
logs out Hangs Normal log-out
PROBLEM 2: When saving Microsoft Word documents to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get an error message and the program crashes. The same file with the same extension can be saved to the local drive without a problem and to the USB drive if directly attached to the iMac. The problem appears limited to the .DOC extension. The file, saved locally, can be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message and the results of my tests:
Note 1: Microsoft Word Message
There is an unrecovable disk erron on file "Word Work File D-2" The disk you're working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using it.
Try the following:
* Try formatting antoher disk.
* Save the document to another disk.
When trying to save the file as "Test.doc", a file is created by Word called "Word Work File D_X"
In "Finder" get info. The icon shows the file as EXEC. The file cannot be opened as an Excel file.
I duplicated this problem on a Maxtor and Lacie USB drives connected to the Airport Extreme.
I tested the following file extensions and obtained these results
2 Saves Microsoft Word Document
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
.Doc Yes No (Note 1 above) Yes
.RTF Yes Yes Yes
Text Yes Yes Yes
.HTM Yes Yes Yes
PROBLEM 3: When saving Microsoft Excel Workbooks to a USB-2 drive attached to the Airport Extreme, I get the following error messages. If I save the same file using any Excel extension to the local drive, no problem and no problem with the USB drive connected to the computer. The problem appears to apply only to the certain Excel file extensions when saving to the Airport Extreme USB drive. The files can also be copied from the local drive to the USB-2 Airport Drive without issue:
Here is the error message
Note 2: Microsoft Excel Message:
Microsoft Excel cannote access the file '[servername] SERVER:\{username]:Documents'
There are several possible reasons:
* The file name or path does not exist.
* The file you are trying to open is being used by another program. Close the document in the other program and try again.
* The name of the workbook you're trying to save is the same name as another document that is read-only. Try saving the workbook with a different name.
None of the above recommendations had any utility. Here are the results of my tests:
Saves Excel Worbook:
EXTENSION LOCAL DRIVE USB/EXTREME USB CONNECT TO IMAC
Excel Workbook Yes No (Note 2 above) Yes
Excel 97 - 2004
& 5.9/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 5.0/95
Workbook Yes No Yes
Excel 4.0 Yes Yes Yes
If you have any information that can resolve these problems, please contact me. Thanks!

Answer 1

I have apples new Airport Extreme base station and I
am trying to get a USB harddrive working. I have a
USB hub connected to the Airport USB connector. I
have a USB Printer and a Seagate USB Harddrive
connected. When I run the Airport setup program, it
finds the drive and configuration goes well. The
drive also works fine when connected directly to my
notebook.
After the Airport restarts, the USB Drive can't be
found.
The Printer works fine. Does anyone know whats going
on here?
Macbook Pro
2.33 Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Macbook Pro 2.33
Dure core 2 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
The USB drive ability or lack of really is very upsetting. I am sure Steve will have someone take care of it...
WR