Airport extreme with time machine

Airport extreme with time machine bought in September 2007 can it be reformatted to use as a back up drive for other than time machine and how. It is 1TB but can only seem to get two disk images of e

Airport extreme with time machine
This sounds like you have a Time Capsule, correct?
can it be reformatted to use as a back up drive for other than time machine
You can place other type of files and folders on the Time Capsule hard drive. No additional formatting is required for this.
and how
Use the Finder to click on the Time Capsule under the SHARED heading on the left side of a Finder window
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then double click on the folder named "Data" (unless you have renamed the drive), and "Data" will mount on the desktop.
You can drag/drop or copy/paste files to "Data" just like any other hard drive
t is 1TB but can only seem to get two disk images of e
The disk images contain all of your backups. Leave them alone.

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Am replacing airport extreme with Time Machine and want to upgrade from Tiger to Snow leopard. Am told I should manually back up into T Machine before OS update but set up utility won't allow anything with OS below 10.5 and I'm 10.4.11. What to do?

Am replacing airport extreme with Time Machine and want to upgrade from Tiger to Snow leopard. Am told I should manually back up into T Machine before OS update but set up utility won't allow anything with OS below 10.5 and I'm 10.4.11. What to do?

I think you mean you are replacing your Airport Extreme with a Time Capsule. Time Machine is software integrated into OS X 10.5 & 10.6 used to automatically backup a system to an external HD. Time Capsule is an Airport Extreme that has a hard disk integrated into it that can be used for storage or as a Time Machine backup drive.
Because you are currently on Tiger 10.4.x you can backup to a external HD using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Having a backup is very wise before doing any major system update. After you have created the backup and have successfully upgraded to Snow Leopard you can still use the external HD for many things. The strategy I'd recommend is to use the new Time Capsule as your Time Machine backup and then use the external HD as backup using SuperDuper or CCC. Redundant backups is wise because backups can (and do) fail too! In addition both SD and CCC are bootable clones, this is useful in that if your internal HD crashes you can boot from a cloned drive and continue working until the internal HD is replaced.
Below are some links to some articles from MacWorld, I would recommend reading them where you find a common theme, redundant backups. Backup Plan I, Backup Plan II & Backup Plan III.
Roger

HT201250 how to replace airport extreme with time machine

I have airport exreme in use and want to replace with time machine. Is it easy to do?

Do you mean Time Capsule? Time machine is a back up application. Check out "more like this" on the right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Using an External HD, via AirPort Extreme, with Time Machine

I just picked up one of the new airport extreme base stations today so I could wirelessly back up my MBP via time machine. When I got the airport it self working and plugged in my external HD it said the back up was "delayed" and it "could not connect to disk." I called apple to ask them what I need to do and they told me that the airport extreme is not made to backup to time machine. You can only backup the old fashioned way by manually moving files to the disk. About to pack it up and take it back to the store I thought I would do a quick google search and see if anyone found a way around it. Oddly enough they have and it is very easy. I'm not sure why apple couldn't tell me/ didn't know. I want to preface this with I already had a time machine back up on the same HD that I connected to the airport extreme (im not sure if it made a difference or not). Here are the steps I followed:
1) Open "Time Machine Preferences"
2) Open the "finder" and your external HD should be listed under the "shared" tab
3) Open the file "Time Machine Backups"
4) Go back to your "Time Machine Preferences" and click "Select Disk"
5) Select your external HD from the list. It should have an icon with a wireless symbol in it
6) Start your backup
Oddly it did not work when i just clicked on the "shared disk." I had to open the file that said "Time Machine Backups" and then Time Machine recognized it.
Also, it backed up from scratch so it takes forever. Mine has been going at a rate of about 12GB per hour. I am not sure why couldn't recognize the other file (from the USB backup on the same HD).
I hope this helps. I thought I would make a post because Apple told me they don't support it and it does work!

This is very helpfull.
I consider buying the Airport Extreme. I currently use a Lacie 500GB external HD. I partitioned the HD and use one part for Time Machine Backups and one part for my iTunes and Iphoto libraries (so Music and photos are on the HD, as well as the iTunes Library file).
If I connect the HD to the Airport Extreme, can I use the iTunes Libray and Photos through the wireless network? And perhaps soem movies? It then will be much like a Time Capsule. The reason I don't want to but a TC is that I already have a HD and I could save money buying an Aitport Extreme instead of a Time Capsule.

How do I add an Airport Extreme with Time Capsule to an existing non-Apple network?

How do I add an Airport Extreme with Time Capsule to an existing non-Apple network? I have an ISP provided wireless Router that has to remain as the base station. I am able to join my 1/2TB Airport Extreme and Airport Express to the network, but I can't access/use Time Machine.

One option would be to connect the Time Capsule (TC) to the ISP-provided wireless router by Ethernet. You can then configure the for a roaming network. Then, depending on what your goal is for the AirPort Express, you can either: 1) Add it to roaming network, 2) Configure the TC & the Express for an "extended" network, or 3) Configure the Express to "join" the roaming network for AirPlay.

Still possible to use airport extreme for time machine?

I know apple doesn't officially support it but I remember with one of the airport utility updates, it allowed you to use an external HDD with an airport extreme for time machine backups. I tried hooking my external western digital to my airport extreme and it showed up as an airport disk, however I couldn't get time machine to access it. Is there a way I can get this to work?

I followed the instructions found on the link above and had a couple of issues:
1) Instructions state "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." Could not find that check box anyplace.
2) Using first disk and then airport passwords as security, the disk does not show up in the Time Machine preferences. Am I to mount the disk first? Does not state that in the instructions.
3) If I mount the disk in the finder (security is a disk password), I am then able to see the drive in Time Machine and the back-up commences. The disk icon appears on my desktop and contains machine.sparcebundle. Another "disk" also appears on my desktop with the name "Time Machine Backups" and which contains the folder Backups.backupdb. I am also able to remotely attach to the machine doing the TM backup from another mac on the network and login.
4) Back-up started and appeared to go well (240G backed up with several partials after that) until I rebooted.
5) After reboot, it was frozen in "Making backup disk available" Opened preferences and it locked up. Had to force a reboot.
6) After restart, manually mounted the extreme external, opened Time Machine prefs, and when selecting back up location saw one with a red "∅" which I could not select and the other the extreme drive with 240G used. Attempted the back-up to the drive and I got "Making backup disk available" on the menu bar and the same message on TM system prefs with a spinning beach ball. Have been able to force quit system prefs and sent to error log to apple, but a forced reboot is still required because the TM icon on the menu continues to spin. Even a "sudu shutdown -r now" in terminal will not reboot the machine. Get to a blue screen with the spinning tick marks and it just sits there.
I wonder if the fact that I could not find "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." is the issue. It does not appear to be available in the current version of the extreme base 7.4.2. Could those of you who were able to configure it with a previous version get grandfathered in? I wonder if I need to manually mount the extreme hard disk each time I reboot the machines. I am not sure how to do that but will try and see if it works.
I will be losing internet and e-mail access for a few weeks so will look at this thread again when I return.

Replacing older airport extreme with time capsule

I am thinking of replacing my airport extreme with time capsule. I had a lot of problems setting up airport extreme a few years ago - now it is very reliable. I don't want to have the same issues with time capsule. Can I simply physically replace the airport extreme with time capsule using the same settings as previously
Advice gratefully anticipated

Welcome to the discussion area, pancuronium!
You will use AirPort Utility on your Mac for this operation:
(Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility)
Open AirPort Utility and click Manual Setup
Click the File menu at the upper left corner of the screen near the Apple icon
Click Export Configuration File
Assign a name to the file and save it to a convenient location like the desktop
When you are ready to install the Time Capsule....
Open AirPort Utility and click Manual Setup
Click the File Menu
Select Import Configuration File
Navigate to locate the file that you exported to import all the settings into a new configuration for the Time Capsule
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

External Drive connected to Airport Extreme, need Time Machine 3 Mac's Help

I own an Airport Extreme and just recently added two new Macs with the Time Machine feature to our household. I would like to use Time Machine to backup to my Airport Extreme that has a 500 GB hard drive connected. It seems Apple has this blocked since they have released the Time Capsule version of the router. Is there a work around this feature so I don't have to go out an purchase what I basically have already got? Please help. We would like to upgrade our older macs to Leopard and us the same system to back them up as well. Please advise. Thank you.

I had my USB drive on my APE working with Time Machine under 10.5.1 very reliably. A few days ago however, I needed to suspend a backup operation, and when I came back to restart it, time machine refused to mount the disk image on the drive. After several attempts to get it to connect with no luck I decided to delete the image (the sparce image file) and start over. Now TM refuses to create a new image.
BTW, on the Mac OSX hints site there have been suggestions to start a backup with the drive directly connected, then stop the backup, move the sparce image file to the root of the drive, reconnect the drive to the APE base station to get it working. I tried this again, but I think Apple has changed something in 10.5.2, because when directly connected TM no longer creates a sparce image file.
Anybody else seen this behavior after upgrading to 10.5.2?

Airport Extreme and Time Machine. Despite now being officially supported, does it work?

The subject says it all. After purchasing the new tall Airport Extreme and connecting a WD 2TB drive (as I had with the earlier AE) I have yet to have a backup execute properly. It will be fine for a few days then TM will announce it's done a verification and a new backup is required. Thank goodness I have offsite backup since TM is doing absolutely SFA for me at the moment.

Yuri van Hoof wrote:
Now I connected this USB External Disk to the Airport so I can use it as an network disk. This is working as well. I can get it mounted and read and write on it. Nice...so far.
Now I want TIme Machine to update/compleet my latest back-up, and here the problems start.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is unreliable and not supported by Apple. See: Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk.
But then I got the message; disk is full. Hmm?
Yes, because Time Machine stores backups differently when done over a network, it doesn't see the ones made while directly connected. See the blue box in #17 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
Does anybody now how to get the old 'Backups.backupdb' connected ore recognized as the ONE which TM should compleet?
Realistically, you have two choices:
Knowing the considerable risks, as detailed in the first link, if still you want to back up wirelessly, connect the disk to your Mac and erase it. Then connect it to your Airport and let Time Machine start fresh.
To return to backing-up while directly-connected, delete the <Computer Name>.sparsebundle from the top level of the drive.

Differences between Time Capsule and Airport Extreme re Time Machine?

We are [told|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2299608] that a "USB drive connected to a recent dual-band Airport Extreme may work as a destination for Time Machine backups," but that "... it's not supported by Apple."
With regard to Time Machine, what are the relevant differences between a Time Capsule and an Airport Extreme acting as a USB disk server, e.g. protocol used, size limits, server limitations, etc.?

+We are told that a "USB drive connected to a recent dual-band Airport Extreme may work as a destination for Time Machine backups," but that "... it's not supported by Apple."+
A bit of clarification. For the record, Apple says that you cannot do this in this Support Document. I haven't seen a similar document for Snow Leopard, but I'm sure it's out there. You will receive no assistance from Apple in the event of any problems.
Despite this, some users have tried this anyway. Some report success, others report some success and yet others report no success. We've also seen a number of recent posts from users who say that it worked for them for a time...several weeks to several months...but they are now experiencing problems.
Having experienced the latter myself first hand, my opinion would be that it would be unwise to even consider Time Machine backups with the AirPort Extreme unless you have another backup strategy already in place.
The Time Capsule was designed to work with Time Machine backups. The AirPort Extreme was not. The answer may be that simple.

Swap airport extreme with time capsule

My family has an Airport Extreme (2 years old) with two additional Airport Expresses for Airplaying music from iPad, iPhones and iPod Touches. Just purchased a 2 TB Time Capsule for backup purposes of the MacBook Pro. Would like to exchange the Airport Extreme with the Time Capsule but really could use detailed step-by-step, since I would like to keep all passwords/configurations the same. Could somebody help?

Easy solution:
Shut down everything (remove power.) Disconnect the AEBS. Replace it with the Time Capsule by connecting all cables in the same way. Then turn on the modem and wait for it to communicate with your ISP. Next turn on the Time Capsule and wait until the status light turns green or blinking amber. Last, turn on the computer(s). You should be all set. Open Airport Utility to do any tweaking that may be needed for security and wireless, etc.

Airport Express with Time machine vs. Time Capsule?

I'm looking at replacing my backup system. I like the idea of Time Capsule with Time Machine, but I'd like to know if Airport Express with an External drive really works as reported with the March '08 firmware update. I can't find a single place where Apple confirms this.
Also, I look at time capsule and think it's cool, but with $179 (AEBS) + ~$200 (USB 1TB drive) = $379
and 1TB TC running $499, why would I buy TC? The AEBS system gives me the ability to easily swap the drive if it fails and I could buy a drive with a 3-5 year warranty vs. the 1 year on a Time Capsule?
Comments?

I assume that this is a new AirPort Express and you have not tried to configure it previously.
Locate the AirPort Express in the general area where you would like to have more wireless signal coverage.
Connect the Ethernet cable to the WAN "O" port on the back of the AirPort Express
Power up the AirPort Express and let it run a few minutes. The amber light will be blinking slowly at this point.
Click the AirPort icon at the top of your Mac's screen and wait a few seconds for a listing of New AirPort Base Station to appear. Just below that, click directly on AirPort Express.
AirPort Setup will open up automatically on your Mac, take a minute to analyze the network, then announce that the AirPort Express will be configured to extend the Time Capsule network.
Enter a device name that you want to use for the AirPort Express and click Next
Wait a minute while AirPort Setup configures everything for you. When you see the indication of Setup Complete, click Done.
You should be all set.

Replacing an Airport Extreme with Time Capsule

I have had my wireless network setup and working for a few years.
I've decided to replace my Airport Extreme with a Time Capsule.
Can I simply disconnect the Airport Extreme, connect the Time Capsule and configure it with the same SSID & Password? or is there a procedure for accomplishing this that I'm not aware of?
Rick

rickinlv wrote:
I have had my wireless network setup and working for a few years.
I've decided to replace my Airport Extreme with a Time Capsule.
Can I simply disconnect the Airport Extreme, connect the Time Capsule and configure it with the same SSID & Password? or is there a procedure for accomplishing this that I'm not aware of?
Welcome to Apple's discussion groups.
What you describe should work, but first you might want to try this approach: Use AirPort Utility to put the Extreme into "manual setup" mode. Use the menu option File -> Export Configuration File to write the configuration to a file. Replace the Extreme with the Time Capsule, put it into "manual setup" mode, and use the menu option File -> Import Configuration File to read the Extreme configuration into the Time Capsule.
Full disclosure: I haven't tried this. If it works, you'll have saved yourself several minutes of configuring. If it doesn't work, then proceed as you originally planned. And let the rest of us know how things went.

I'm having a hard time setting up my external hard from with my AirPort Extreme and Time Machine Backups.

I have been using a Mac Mini with an external hard and Time Machine. I bought an Airport Extreme and have had problem setting up the hard drive using the USB port on the Airport Extreme. I also just recently bought a Mac Book Air and hope to have both computers back up to the external hard drive using Time Machine and Airport Extreme. I have been using the optical drive from the Mac mini to load programs into the Mac Book Air. I think I'm just getting confused in Finder. I am just not seeing the hard drive. I ended up plugging the hard drive back into the Mac Mini and that is work fine again. How do I setting the external hard drive up to the AirPort Extreme and use for both computers? Or at least to start with the Mac mini.

It's critical to understand that Time Machine (TM) stores backups differently between local and network drives. That would mean the TM backup on your locally attached USB hard drive will not be directly useable when it is connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). There is a way to copy a local version to a network version, but it is not fool-proof. When you do connect this drive and point TM to it, TM will start a brand new backup, leaving your existing backup as is.
If your current backup is critical to you, you may want to consider getting a second USB drive to attach to the Extreme and use your existing one as a backup ... or use TM's multi-backup process to backup to more than one destination drive alternatively.
So, at this point, you may want to make a decision on how you want to go forward to help provide a solution for you.
To directly answer your question, when you go to select a destination for a Time Machine backup, the drive(s) that show up under "Backup Disks" are those that TM already recognizes and has backed up to. Those listed under "Available Disks" are drives (either local or on the network) that TM can back up to.

Issues with Airport Extreme and Time Machine

I have a Airport Extreme that is connected to a cable modem, that airport extreme is then hardwired connected to a time machine.
Recently, I have had trouble connecting wirelessly to the airport extreme. Even more troubling is that I can no longer can connect via ethernet to the time machine directly. In other words, the only way I can connect is by directly connecting to the airport extreme.
Any help would be great. Oh I have a MBP with the latest updates and a MB that is not connecting to the time machine or wireless to the extreme

angelop wrote:
I have used the following for about two years.
-MBP, Airport Extreme, External HD (1TB) for my time machine.
You probably know, that's "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
To get around this issue, I have switched off the Time Machine, and am only turning on once a week or so, to grab any changes or additions I've made. I've been doing this for about 6 months now with no problems.
Now whenever I do this, (It should only be backing up an album or two from iTunes,) it tries to back up my whole system again. EVERY TIME. It did not do this before.
If you go too long between backups, Time Machine will do a new, full backup. And once it decides to do that, it will keep trying until it succeeds. There are some other possibilities as well. See #D2 in the Using Time Machine with a USB drive connected to an Airport Extreme *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum.
If none of those seem to explain it, see #A1 there; download the TM Buddy widget, copy and post the messages here.
Why are you only backing-up once a week? Time Machine was designed to back up changes hourly, as long as your Mac is awake and the TC is in range. It will protect you best that way, and unless there's a problem, those backups will usually be very quick.
But if you're only going to back up once a week or so, then Time Machine is not the best app for you. See Kappy's post on Basic Backup, complete with links to the web sites of each product.

Airport extreme with time machine

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