Setup of USB Hard Drive on Airport Extreme for Time Machine

Hi all,
I upgraded to Mountain Lion a while back and am running the latest Airport Utility. Here's the problem: I can't get Time Machine to work anymore with my USB Hard Drive attached to my Airport Extreme. Is this setup no longer possible under Mountain Lion? Do I have to buy a Time Capsule? For the last couple of years I've had two MacBooks backing up with no problem to the USB drive connected to the Airport Extreme. Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris

While you can do this as Kappy points out, there a few details that you might want to consider before you make the move.
1) Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple. While this does seem to work for some users, others (like me) have difficulty with corruption issues. The bottom line is that this is not a reliable method to back up your important data....and, no support or help from Apple if you do have difficulties.
Reference this Apple Support Document to confirm:
"Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme......"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
2) If you move the iPhoto library to the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme....your original or master library now resides on that disk.....and you have no backup for the library.....when, not if.....the drive has a problem.
3) You might want to post in the iPhoto forum to ask if it is still an iPhoto requirement that only one user at a time can have iPhoto open with the shared library arrangement.

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Adding external hard drive to airport extreme for time machine error

Hello,
I recently bought an airport extreme that I wanted to combine with an external hard drive in order to do wireless time machine backups. I hooked this up and the hard drive shows up in the devices menu.
However, when time machine starts to backup, I get the following error:
"The backup disk image “/Volumes/Blackmer External MyBook/Benjamin Crispell Blackmer’s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” could not be created (error 1)."
When my computer is connected directly to the hard drive, it works fine.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.

It is important to understand that Apple does not support Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme. So, that may be an issue here.
Despite this, users try it anyway. Some appear to be successful for a time, some partially successful, some can't get it to work at all.
Even if it does appear to work initially, corruption issues may occur down the line without warning. Having tried this myself as a test a few times, I can attest to that.
If you want to try this anyway, the two important things to check are.....
The drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Other formats will not work
You almost always need to use a powered USB hub...even if the hard drive has its own power supply....because the USB port is under powered on the AirPort Extreme
You might also want to consider a secondary backup plan to protect your important files

Hard drive to airport extreme for time machine and iPhoto library

Can I buy an external hard drive and connect to my airport extreme to be used to host my iPhoto library. Meaning that no mater what Mac I upload an image to iPhoto in, it is referencing the same library on an external drive.

While you can do this as Kappy points out, there a few details that you might want to consider before you make the move.
1) Time Machine backups to a drive at the USB port of the AirPort Extreme are not supported by Apple. While this does seem to work for some users, others (like me) have difficulty with corruption issues. The bottom line is that this is not a reliable method to back up your important data....and, no support or help from Apple if you do have difficulties.
Reference this Apple Support Document to confirm:
"Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme......"
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html
2) If you move the iPhoto library to the hard drive attached to the AirPort Extreme....your original or master library now resides on that disk.....and you have no backup for the library.....when, not if.....the drive has a problem.
3) You might want to post in the iPhoto forum to ask if it is still an iPhoto requirement that only one user at a time can have iPhoto open with the shared library arrangement.

Can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?

can I encrypt a USB hard drive that's not for time machine?

Yes, if it has the GUID Partition Map Scheme, but only by erasing it and choosing a new format.
See #2 in Using Disk Utility.

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.

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine

I want to know about time machine if i can use the hard drive that i use for time machine back up as a normal hard drive too or if it's only for time machine
and if it yes i want to know if i have 1TB hard disk to use the 500gb for time machine and the other 500gb for normal use

thank you very much because i am considering to buy the porsche design hard disk 1TB and i want to have it for normal use and for time machine is a pitty to give 1TB for back up only again thanks and i know seperate the back and the working jobs are better but the i have to have 2 hardisks and i want only 1

Can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine

can you unplug the external hard drive you are using for time machine and then plug it back in and it work normals because i have a mac book and don't want to always be carrieing the external hard drive every where i go so can you ?

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

Usb hard drive and AirPort Extreme

I have been using an external usb hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme to store music which is then picked up by a Sonos system to play music even when my iMac is switched off - has been working great. However I became aware recently (and I think this pre-dates upgrading my iMac to Mountain Lion) that my external hard drive no longer shows up as a shared drive within Finder. If I go into Airport Utility / Edit / Disks - 'enable file sharing' is checked. Disk Utility doesn't see the drive but I'm not sure that really means anything as a network drive rather than a drive connected directly to the iMac.
Has some recent upgrade disabled network drives on Airport Extreme's (ie assuming we are all now backing up to iCloud so don't need it)?
Thanks

OK, I feel silly on this one.
After looking for issues with the airport and not finding any and needing a file from my backup drive, I had to connect it up to my PC. That's when I found my solution.
The Drive I had connected had stopped responding. That's why the Airport was not showing it and not allowing connections. I had power cycled the drive a few times while testing, just not long enough. I unplugged the drive for 2 minutes, all cables, then reconnected. After about 5 minutes, the Airport was able to confirm the drive and turned the share back on.
Hope that helps.

File transfer speed in Shared USB Hard Drive via Airport Extreme

I' am planing to buy one of this, but first I need to know what kind of file transfer speed I can expect when sharing USB drive via Airport Extreme 1000Mbps Ethernet.
Thanks.
Message was edited by: Robert81

most likely 14m/sec but normally 10.5 this is ethernet wired and usb attached. wireless would be about 8M/sec
Wired is good enough I use it for Finder copy frequently.

Using an HD connected to Airport Extreme for time machine... HELP!

So I have an airport extreme, set it up using airport utility, everything is working fine. I have a 500GB HD plugged into the extreme's USB port. I am able to access the drive using finder, however when I try to set it up as a backup drive for time machine, it won't show up in the "use for backup window."
Any ideas?

I answered my own question.
http://www.macworld.com/article/132613/2008/03/airporttime.html

My mac mini quit recognizing the external hard drive i am using for time machine.

I have an IOMEGA external hard drive hooked up to my mini for Time Machine. It was working for about 4 months then quit. The PC will not recognize the hard drive and I have switched usb cables and tried different ports to no avail. Any help would be gladly appreciated!!

Yes, that will work fine. It will back up normally once you plug it in again. I do this with my MacBook.

My external hard drive has been used for Time Machine, now it doesn't work on my TV?

I bought a new external HD 3TB, I used it as a back for Time machine and also wanted to use it for watching my movies etc on my TV. The TV won't recognise any video's on the HD. Is there some reason this would happen due to using it for Time Machine?

If you are talking about a drive that you connect directly to your TV, typically they will recognize only drives formatted in some specific way & only certain kinds of movie files. You can check your TV users manual or its manufacturer's web site for information about this, but in general they will not recognize drives using the format Time Machine requires.

Lion won't install can't select hard drive that is used for time machine backups

I installed Lion, agreed to the eula but both drives are greyed out. My Macintosh HD - ( this dirve is used for time machine backups) and my external drive (this drive does not use the GUID Partition Table scheme...). Though I don't use time machine, I tried turning it on and selecting the external drive with no luck. I'm stuck - any ideas?

"Backups.backupdb" if the file in Time Machine. As the discussion says, you have to find that file and trash it. Try spotlight to locate it. If that does not work, down load OmniDiskSweeper from the Internet (free) and go through an organized search to find "Backups.backupdb". If that takes too long or is too tedious, then if you have everything backed up, erase the HDD and start from square one.
Ciao.

Incompatibility Issues with connecting USB Hard Drive to Airport Extreme

Over the last few days i have been fiddling around with my new Airport Extreme Base Station N router. I can connect a printer and use the internet through it seamlessly. I can even share two of my hard drives through a USB hub, however, my Maxtor 500 gb One Touch 4 HDD will not connect with my macbook through AEBS. It is only this drive that is not working with AEBS and it is the one i need to be connected and sharing. If i plug my 500gb Maxtor directly into my macbook it works fine, i can read all the files. This drive is formated as Mac OS Extended (journaled).
I am about to give up on this because i have tried everything:
1. Reformatted HDD
2. Downgraded Firmware
3. Searched Forums for advice
4. Reconfigured AEBS in, i think, every way possible
So, these are most of the things ive tried and so far there is no solution in sight. I have one hypothesis: my particular HDD (Maxtor 500gb One Touch 4) is incompatible with AEBS at this time, but it is possible that a future firmware update could fix this.
Does anyone have any advice? I'm lost and disappointed. Please help, thanks.
Message was edited by: benjaminwooda

Chances are pretty good that the power draw of your external drive is just at the "tipping point" for what the USB port on the Extreme can deliver. Powered USB hubs are inexpensive and should help in this situation.

How to setup a Wireless Hard Drive on Airport Extreme to access on anywhere

Is there anyway to access a Hard Drive connected to my Airport Extreme via USB from anywhere? It works great on my local network but would like to be able to access it anytime anywhere? Is there an application I need and will I also be able to see everything on my iPhone?

apple doesnt sell hard drives. Look on newegg.com or macsales.com. Any 2.5" that is 9.5 mm or less in height will fit. Here are installation instructions: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Late+2011+Hard+Drive+Rep lacement/7513

Setup of USB Hard Drive on Airport Extreme for Time Machine

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