External backup drive connected to airport router giving "... backup disk image ... /.../... is already in use" error.

I just added an external backup drive to my airport router for my desktop and my laptop to use. Initial backups worked, but now I'm getting "... backup disk image ... /.../...MacBook Pro.sparcsbundle is already in use." This message is on laptop even after stopping timemachine on the desktop. The initial backup worked for both machines. Is this a timing problem? It shows the last backup happened earlier this evening, but I'm concerned about the major amount of work I did after that time.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

You can't use that configuration for Time Machine backups, if that's what you're doing.
Mac 101: Time Machine

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How do I access external hard drive connected to AirPort Extreme via iPad

Hello,
How do I access external hard drive connected to AirPort Extreme via iPad / windows laptop.
I donot have a Mac and I use windows laptop.

For your iPad, you will need an app, like FileBrowser, to access the external drive.
For your Windows laptop, you would access the drive like any other network share. The basic format is: \\<servername>\<sharename>, where, in this case, the servername is the base station name and the sharename is the name of the external drive.

HT3275 My time machine is sending me messages that the disk image is "already in use" as the reason it can't complete a backup. What gives?

My time machine is sending me messages that the disk image is "already in use" as the reason it can't complete a backup. What gives?

That is our most common error.. ever since Mountain Lion came along with its inability to remember beyond a few hours. where the devices are located.. and so forgets to dismount properly.
Look at the right hand.. More Like This.
A simple restart fixes it. ie pull out the power cord.. count to 10.. plug the power cord back into the TC.
More details C12 here.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

I get a message saying backup failed on my Time Machine because backup disk image is already in use. I am the only one using this machine.

My Time Capsule keeps telling me that backup failed because backup disk image is already in use. I'm the only one using this machine.

Pull the power cord from the back of the Time Capsule
Count to ten
Plug the power cord back into the back of the Time Capsule
Wait a few minutes, then try a backup

Backup an external hard drive connected to Airport -- is this possible?

Currently I have a hub connected to my airport extreme. There are 2 external hard drives connected to the hub. One has my iTunes library on it, and the other is being used for time machine backups.
I have no problem doing the backup wirelessly to the one hard drive. In time machine, I could pick either external drive to back up to. What I am trying to do is back up the external drive too. Time machine is only seeing the hard drive on my laptop. The exclude list is blank and when I try to add the itunes HD to the exclude list (to remove it), it won't let me select it-- it is greyed out.
If I connect the itunes HD directly into my laptop, I can run the backup, but that is not very convenient. Is what I am trying to do possible? Does anyone have any ideas? Are there any other posts discussing this (I could not find any with my specific problem).
Thanks!

nealmay wrote:
Currently I have a hub connected to my airport extreme. There are 2 external hard drives connected to the hub. One has my iTunes library on it, and the other is being used for time machine backups.
I have no problem doing the backup wirelessly to the one hard drive. In time machine, I could pick either external drive to back up to. What I am trying to do is back up the external drive too. Time machine is only seeing the hard drive on my laptop. The exclude list is blank and when I try to add the itunes HD to the exclude list (to remove it), it won't let me select it-- it is greyed out.
That's correct. Time Machine will not back up a network drive (see #2 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip* at the top of this forum).
You're going to need a different app. Which one will depend on where you want the backups to go; some apps will not back-up from a network drive; others won't back up to a network drive. I don't know, offhand, of any that will do both. Perhaps Kappy, V.K., or others will.
For backups to a local disk, try either CarbonCopyCloner (which I use to make a full bootable "clone" in addition to Time Machine), and I think SuperDuper will do this as well. CCC is donationware, so you can try it for a while, then send them some $$ so they can keep it current. It can be scheduled to run automatically, and you have the choice of it keeping only current copies or to archive prior versions as well. SuperDuper has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do scheduling. I don't know if it will keep archive copies.
There are many other backup apps, some of which will handle network drives. Check Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.

External hard drive connected to Airport Extreme not working on PC

I have a Macbook Pro running 10.9.1 and my work laptop, which runs Windows 7. I have a WD 2TB external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme, with 1TB formatted for Mac and the other 1TB formatted in FAT format. My Macbook can connect to the drive and read/write perfectly fine, but I'm not even seeing the drive on my PC anywhere. I'm wanting to use the Mac formatted partition to backup photos and personal documents and the FAT partition to backup my work.
Is there a setup thing I need to do on either the Airport Extreme or on my PC to connect to have the drive visible? Both drives are setup to allow file sharing and my Airport Extreme is running version 7.6.4.
Thanks!

There are 3 different methods to establish a connection from your PC to the hard drive in this Apple support document:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

Using Time Machine w/external hard drive connected to airport extreme

I hooked up an external hard drive on my airport extreme. I see it in sharing, however, Time Machine doesn't recognize it as a back-up drive unless I have it directly connected to my MacBook Pro. How do I get Time Machine to recognize the external drive when it's connected to the airport?

FWIW, the AEBS has known problems sharing a directly connected HD. Take a look over in the AEBS forums, and you'll see that this is a very common problem. Perhaps Apple will update the firmware and rectify this problem.
Cheers,
Andreas

Connecting to an external hard drive connected to airport extreme via usb

I have two computers running off my airport extreme base station. I have a desktop computer connected via an ethernet connection and i have a laptop that connects wirelessly. I have an external hard drive connected via the usb on my Airport. I installed my airport disk utility software on my desktop as it is the computer i store all my itunes material on and it syncs to my ATV. I am able to see my external hard drive as a networked drive on my desktop, and it works fine. However i am not able to see the networked drive on my laptop. I am running Norton 360 on both machines and both machines are running Windows Vista.
Do I have to install the Airport Disk Utility on both machines? I have read thru lots of threads about this and have not been able to solve this problem. I have gone into my firewall settings and allowed file sharing on my laptop. I cannot think of anything else to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this is the main reason I purchased my Airport Extreme.

I have exactly the same set-up, but I can see the portable drive with my MacBookPro but not with the PC connected by an ethernet cable to the Airport Extreme. How did you get the PC to see the portable drive on the Airport?

Using external hard drive connected to desktop as time machine disk for laptop

I recently purchased an external hard drive for the purpose of backing up my laptop and desktop macs. Both are running Mountain Lion (10.7.5). The desktop is physically connected to both the hard drive and to my modem. I have enabled pretty much every sharing option on both the laptop and desktop. When my router crapped out I began just using the internet sharing capabiilty.
I have been able to chose the desktop as the disk for backing up my laptop, but I want to use the hard drive (connected to the desktop) as the disk. I cant figure out how to do this yet. I can easily access the hard drive by using either the "connect as user" option. I thought that perhaps I could broadcast the connection somehow as an airport connection, but I don't know how to, or if this is even possible.
The desktop is a mac mini, and the laptop is a macbook pro. Both were purchased in mid 2011.

This may assist you:
http://pondini.org/TM/4.html
Ciao.

How to share external USB drive connected to airport time capsule

I have a 4TB Seagate USB Hard Drive connected to my Airport Time Capsule. The Time Capsule connected to a newer iMac running Maverick.
I use the Time Capsule for Time Machines Backups and as a Router, as it was designed for.
I want to use the external Seagate drive to share content with other devices (Mac, IOS, Windows) on my home network
Problem: I cannot figure out how to SHARE the external Seagate drive so that any other devices can see it.
Steps tried: Go to System Preferences, Sharing, and I am unable to add this Seagate drive to list of sharable objects. It is grayed out.

the drive is formatted as AppleShare. Is that a potential problem?
No, that is the correct setting if you want to share out the drive.
Finally, when I run Disk Utility I don't see the Seagate drive (nor the Time Capsule) at all.
Remember that the Time Capsule is a network drive. Any other drive connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule is also a network drive.
Disk Utility cannot be used on a network drive. It only works on a drive that is directly attached to a Mac. If you need to partition the USB drive or something similar, you will need to connect it directly to your Mac for the operation.
Otherwise, everything looks correct in AirPort Utility.

Time Capsule wont recognize my external hard drive connected to my router.

I purchasd a Netgear N600 Ruter and connected a WD MyBook for Mac Hard Drive to it with the hopes of setting up a wireless Time Machine Backup system for my MacBook and iMac. Unfortunately Neither computer will recognize the MyBook Hard Drive as a Hard Drive for Time Machine. I can get to the files through the finder window just fine, but Time Machine won't recognize it as haveing space to back things up in. In disk Utility it stays that my external Hard drive is formatted to "Macintosh Formatting".
Also in Time Machine>Select Back Up Disk>Other Time Capsule>Set Up it opens the Airport Utility. In Airport Utility If I go to File Menu and go to Configure Other it Requests a address and password. For the address I chose the files that the Hard drive is listed to which is smb://192.168.1.1...(etc) It says "An error Occured while reading the configuration." Do I need to reformat my external hard drive? I was on support for about 2 hours with the Router support and they finally said to contact apple Support. Any Ideas would be great. Please Help!

Netgear made WNDR3700 and WNDR3800 as well as a specific Mac version.. all called N600 as well as some modem models also called N600.. So tell us a precise and exact model number.
I think the Netgear are supposed to handle AFP file protocol, but we need the exact model to check... also if it can handle AFP since Lion.. because a lot of things changed and units that could do TM backups no longer worked. AFP in Lion increased security beyond what the firmware of the router could handle.
You also need to understand, you cannot see a TM backup that was done on an external drive if it is plugged into a network device.. TM handles network drives differently to local drives.
But there is no reason to do what you are doing.. In fact it is much better to leave the disk plugged into the iMac.
You can still access it from wireless with your laptop, by simply sharing the disk to the network from the iMac.
See http://code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-on-a-network-drive/

Can Time Machine back up a external hard drive connected to Airport Extreme

I recently purchased a new macbook pro, and airport extreme.
I attached a 750 GB external hard drive to the macbook pro, and reformatted it so time machine made the initial back up and hourly back ups from there.
Is it possible to now to unattach the external hard drive and attach it to the airport extreme, where the mac book time machine will back up to the external hard drive through airport extreme?
i have seen conflicting posts is if this is possible.

That would probably be safest.
Note that Apple's position on this got even more negative with Snow Leopard: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
It does work well for some folks, not so well for some, and not at all for others.
I got a refurb dual-band model in September. It worked well for about 3 months, but lately I get the error 109 and corrupted backups every few days, that Disk Utility can't fix. Once, Disk Warrior could, but since then, if they're corrupted, nothing helps. That's on a year-old Seagate drive that seems fine otherwise, especially when connected directly.
And I have an excellent wireless connection; it's only about 10 feet from my Mac, speeds are great, S/N ratio is good, etc.
It makes no sense to me that a TC would work better, but they seem to.

Access external hard drive connected to Airport Extreme USB via Windows & Mac

I have an Airport Extreme and I would like to connect an external hard drive to it via USB so that I can backup pictures, music, documents etc. I need to be able to see the external hard drive from my windows PC. I eventually will be buying a Mac so I would like to be able to also get to my pictures and documents via the MAC as well.
I currenlty have an iPhone, iPad and Apple TV so getting to the external drive from these devices would be a huge bonus also if that is possible.
I recently bought an ioSafe Solo External Hard Drive and I had to return it because it was only formatted for the PC. When I plugged it into my Airport Extreme, I could see the drive via the Airport Disk Utility but I could not see it from my PC and I could not map a drive to it. When I contacted ioSafe support, they said that what I was trying to do was not possible since I did not have a MAC available to me to reformat the drive.
I hope that I am not trying to accomplish the impossible because I will always need to live in a MAC/PC world.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

You must know people with Macs.. it is 2min work to plug a USB drive into a Mac Laptop and format it Mac OS extended with a quick format.. And that is better IMHO than buying a utility or buying a pre-formatted drive which are often more expensive for no very good or obvious reason.
Another option is a Linux boot disk.. Linux distributions have very similar command line tools to the Mac OS. (some are identical) and HFS+ has been available for ages in Linux.

What is the best way to manage itunes content using an external hard drive connected to airport extreme?

Just a little history on what I've already tried. I have my itunes folder on my external hard drive with an alias linking to my macbook pro. My hard drive is networked from airport extreme. Streaming content is not a problem. Syncing my iphone is the problem. I just get the pinwheel and a message stating sync unsuccessful because itunes was unable to connect. It takes a very long time to change any settings in itunes for mu phone.I have 8g of ram so that shouldn't be a problem. Any help would be appricated.

The best solution would be two different types of backups, one local (in your own home) and one elsewhere. So, option 3 is the "best" solution.
I, personally, use Crashplan to backup all of my computers because it's much more convenient than an external hard drive.
With an external hard drive, you can either use Time Machine to create the historical/incremental backups OR you can create a bootable clone periodically using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.
I don't know of any way to make the machines mirror images of one another - as far as I know, the best you could do is transfer data from one to the other at time of purchase and then use something like DropBox to keep files in sync.
~Lyssa

I want to use external hard drive connected to airport extreme that contains iTunes library to airplay library to apple tv

I have a macbook 4.1 with 4gb ram running lion. I have a 3 tb external drive that i use for time machine bakcups and a partition for my itunes library. When I want to watch a movie I connect the external hard drive to my macbook, open itunes and airplay it to my apple tv. However, this solution is not optimal because I lose the use of my macbook when it has to be connected via usb to my hard drive.
What I want to do is be able to watch a movie on my apple tv via my external hard drive wirelessly.
I realize that hooking up an airport extreme to a harddrive for time capsule purposes is not supported and thats fine.
However, will this work for the purpose of airplaying itunes library to apple tv.
Also would this work with most other wireless routers that support external hard drives? Not asking for specifics here, because i know no one can know every device. But is there any technical problem that would prevent it.
Thanks

Yea I'm just going to wait for a solution I like better. The easiest way would be for apple to have some kind of itunes server software. Theres no reason that my computer running itunes shouldn't be able to communicate with with hard drive wirelessly just as it would with a usb cable. Kind of like wireless itunes synching with my iphone.
I don't want to use Itunes match because music is not my concern. It is the 1,000 movies that I want to watch on apple tv without tying up my laptop.
Thanks anyway

External backup drive connected to airport router giving "... backup disk image ... /.../... is already in use" error.

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