USB Drive speed vs. LAN Network Drive

I am going to purchase a new external drive to connect to my Airport Extreme Base Station. I keep my music and photos libraries on this drive. I have been looking at "network" drives that work through the LAN port on the AEBS and USB drives.
Which of these will be faster, will be a more reliable connection and will be recognized by iTunes and iPhoto as the library when I open the applications??? I currently have a USB drive hooked up to the extreme and I have to go into my network, connect to the drive before I open iTunes or iPhoto for the applications to locate the libraries on the external drive. This wasn't the case before Leopard and I want to avoid having to do this.
Thanks,
Peter

I have set this up a few times, here is what I do:
To change your iPhoto Library, first make sure iPhoto is closed. Then, you need to locate your current library in your Pictures folder and change the name. I usually just add a in front, so it will be called "-iPhoto Library".
Then, open iPhoto. A window will open asking you to locate your iPhoto library or create a new one. For this first time, you will want to create a new library. Another window will pop up and you will want to chose your external drive and make a folder for your iPhoto library. After you do that, then, you import your old library into your new one.
Now the difference between iTunes and iPhoto is that if your library is not found, iPhoto asks for you to find it and iTunes automatically makes a new one in the Music folder. And this is my problem. I have to manually go in an change the folder in iTunes preferences all the time since upgrading to Leopard. Unless I manually click on my external drive and access the iTunes folder before opening iTunes.
But it shouldn't be that way. If Apple moves to flash drives on their laptops and keeps making us more and more dependent on external drives, they better come up with a more reliable way of making their applications work with these drives.

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Latest model Airport Extreme: LAN NAS vs usb drive

new model AEBS: LAN NAS drive Vs usb connection.
Is there an actual (vs theoretical) speed advantage in using a NAS drive connected to one of the LAN ports, vs just connecting via the usb on the latest AEBS? I read the usb performance is much better on the new model: 192 Mbps read and 172 write via usb as per cnet test:
http://reviews.cnet.com/wireless-access-points/apple-airport-extreme-base/4505-3 265_7-34837270-2.html?tag=mncol;rvwBody

Scott Revlin wrote:
I'm trying to run a home media server wirelessly due to space constraints on my MacBook. I recently bought a 1TB USB drive and plugged it into my new Airport Extreme, but the download/upload speeds are not great. Would I be better served (pun intended) by a NAS drive connected via ethernet to the Airport? What kind of speed improvement would I see, if any?
here's what Tesserax posted recently:
Possibly.
+Use the following guidelines for typical throughput performance of an AirPort Disk depending on how the network client is connected to the AirPort Extreme:+
+o 5 GHz 802.11n: 2 MB/s (write) / 3.5 MB/s (read)+
+o Gigabit Ethernet: 3 MB/s (write) / 6 MB/s (read)+

I want to add more capacity on hard drive of time capsule. Can i add a normal usb driver? I will see it as an external drive in the time capsule network? It will work as fast than time capsule? Thanks

I want to add more capacity on hard drive of time capsule. Can i add a normal usb driver? I will see it as an external drive in the time capsule network? It will work as fast than time capsule? Thanks

Can i add a normal usb driver?
Yes, but be sure that the drive is formatted correctly for Mac in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
I will see it as an external drive in the time capsule network?
The drive will appear as a shared network drive, like the Time Capsule.
It will work as fast than time capsule?
No, the drive will operate at about half or 50% of the speed of the Time Capsule.

Airport Gigabit USB drive speed.

Hi,
I thinking of getting the new Airport Extreme and connecting a USB drive to it. (probably the LaCie mini Hard Drive, as it can sit neatly under the AE).
My question is: how would the drive access speed with a cabled cat 6 gigabit connection compare to connecting the drive directly to my mac via USB or Firewire.
I want my Macbook to access it, thus, the need for an Airport Disk. But my Mac Mini will use it all the time.
If the speed will be massively compromised via the Gigabit I'll buy two drives, one Airport and one Firewire.
Your advise would, as always, be appreciated.

Compromised? You bet!
I have AE with 400MB USB 2.0 Maxtor HHD connected and, don't matter if I'm connected trough cable (network) or Wireless, the speed is too slow. Maximum of 7.5 MB/s of transfer... HUGE difference for the direct USB or Firewire connection speed.
Be aware of this. I'm "kind" of unhappy with my AE.

USB drive on airport network?

I have installed a usb 50 gig drive to my airport base station. The airport utility "sees" it. I have all the settings correct (as far as I can tell- sharing etc.)
However my iMac connected via the LAN to the base station will not see it and neither will my laptop on the network. Neither does the airport disk utility. Sounds as if I am leaving out some simple but critical step in the process? Any advice is, as always, much appreciated.

I had the same issue in that most USB drives seem to be preformatted NTFS and once I connected directly to my MacBook Air and ran the WD drive utility and reformatted to MAC file system it worked. My AEBS recognizes the drive now in the Airport Utility and I can even map a network drive from my Windows PC.
But, I have tried all suggestions and I simply still cannot get the MacBook air to map a drive/mount the volume. I keep getting this error saying the thing is already connected to your system try and use it locally or some such thing.
It's really pathetic that I can access the Mac formatted drive on a Apple router with my Windows PC but can't get it to work on my MacBook Air.
Any other ideas out there or wait for update? I have ran all the latest updates available 10.5.2 on Leopard and 7.2.1 on the base station. Again, the base station seems fine and I can access it with Windows so the problem must lie with the MacBook itself. I am connecting the MacBook over wireless and the Windows PC over hardwire - don't know if that makes a difference.

Custom Reporting on Imported Hardware Inventory set classes for USB Super Speed driver

I am trying to create a report with report builder 3.0 to pull data on a USB Super Speed driver under
ClassContext("local|HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Class{36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}")
I tried following the article
http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgr_geek_speak/archive/2013/11/10/inventorying-and-reporting-network-adapter-driver-details-and-how-to-report-only-the-wireless-type-in-configuration-manager-2012.aspx and changed a few of the Class descriptions and cannot
get any data in the report.
I imported this into the Hardware Inventory set classes:
#pragma namespace ("\\\\.\\root\\cimv2\\sms")
[ SMS_Report (TRUE),
SMS_Group_Name ("USB"),
SMS_Class_ID ("MICROSOFT|USB|1.0"),
Namespace ("\\\\\\\\localhost\\\\root\\\\cimv2") ]
class Win32Reg_USB : SMS_Class_Template
[SMS_Report (TRUE), key ]
string Index;
[SMS_Report (TRUE) ]
string DriverDesc;
[SMS_Report (TRUE) ]
string DriverVersion;
[SMS_Report (TRUE) ]
string DriverDate;
[SMS_Report (TRUE) ]
string ProviderName;
Under the Configuration.mof file I am not sure what to change in order to report on this. Any help appreciated. We are looking for all of the USB super speed driver details.
Thanks,
Brit

have you looked at V_GS_system_Device if your device info available or not ? Use the below SQL query to list all system devices on your clients.
SELECT DISTINCT name0 FROM v_GS_SYSTEM_DEVICES
GROUP BY name0
Eswar Koneti | Configmgr Blog: www.eskonr.com | Linkedin: Eswar Koneti
| Twitter: eskonr

Sometimes my computer takes too long to connect to new website. I am running a pretty powerful work program at same time, what is the best solution? Upgrading speed from cable network, is it a hard drive issue? do I need to "clean out" the computer?

Many times my computer takes too long to connect to new website. I have wireless internet (time capsule) and I am running a pretty powerful real time financial work program at same time, what is the best solution? Upgrading speed from cable network? is it a hard drive issue? do I only need to "clean out" the computer? Or all of the above...not to computer saavy. It is a Macbook Pro osx 10.6.8 (late 2010).

Almost certainly none of the above! Try each of the following in this order:
Select 'Reset Safari' from the Safari menu.
Close down Safari; move <home>/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db to the trash; restart Safari.
Change the DNS servers in your network settings to use the OpenDNS servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Turn off DNS pre-fetching by entering the following command in Terminal and restarting Safari:
defaults write com.apple.safari WebKitDNSPrefetchingEnabled -boolean false

Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine

Can I connect a 4 TB USB drive to the airport extreme and use it as a network drive for Time Machine

Yes, if the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
The USB port on the Time Capsule is under powered, so you may need use a powered USB hub with the 4 TB drive...even if it has its own power supply.

Network Drives/External USB Drives?

If I have a NAS box on the network or a couple of external USB drives connected to computers on my network, will Network Magic "see" them and allow me to share folders on them with the rest of the network?
Thanks...

Cartaphilus1946 wrote:
Thanks for the prompt reply. I was hoping that since the USB drive will be mapped to a drive letter that it could be shared. But I guess not. I may just invest in a NAS interface like the one from Iomega for my USB drives.
Hi Cartaphilus1946,
What type of Interface is being employed by the USB Drives?
If SATA, you could move all the existing files and folders onto the computer, then buy either the D-Link DNS-321 or D-Link DNS-323 which has a built-in FTP Server. They use SATA Hard Drives.
Just a thought.
thecreator - Running Network Magic version -5.5..9195.0-Pure0 on Windows XP Home Edition SP 3
Running Network Magic version -5.5.9195.0-Pure0 on Wireless Computer with McAfee Personal Firewall Build 11.5.131 Wireless Computer has D-Link DWA-552 connecting to D-Link DIR-655 A3 Router.

How to lock a specific files on a shared network usb drive connected to an airport extreme on a mac running lion?

Is it possible to lock a specific files on a shared network usb drive connected to an airport extreme on a mac running lion?

Here is one from Pondini, who was the foremost Time Machine expert in the world.
http://pondini.org/TM/Airport.html
And another from Apple. Info near the bottom.
AirPort base stations: About USB disks
And another miscellaneous from Apple:
AirPort base stations: Time Machine hard drive compatibility

Can't see shared Airport USB Drive on Network

I have a AirPort Extreme (5th Generation) with a USB drive attached. I am using OS 10.9.2 on my desktop and laptop. I can see the drive on my desktop Mac which has a ethernet connection to the Airport, but my laptop can't see the shared drive. I used Airport Utility (under "Disk" Tab) to Enable file sharing and share disks over WAN. I have set the "Secure Shared Disks" to "With a disk Password." On the laptop, I have set Finder preferences to see "External disks."
However, the disk does not show up on the Finder sidebar under "Devices" or "Shared."
Any suggestions on how I can make this "Shared Drive" visible?
Thanks,
Dave

Also make sure that Finder Preferences is set to show Connected Servers on the desktop.
Restart the entire network as well by powering everything off, waiting a minute, then starting the modem first, followed by the next device connected to the modem, etc until everything is powered back up.

Sharing an Attached USB drive on Network

I have an intel Mac Mini on a network. I would like other machines in the same subnet to see the Mini Pal USB drive I have attached to it. All I have managed to access from the other PCs is the main drive via the home folder.
This is trivially easy to do this on my XP machine. Am I just dense or is it not possible on the Mac?
Thanks for any guidance you can lend.
- Dave -

I hate mysteries, so sooner or later I'd like to find out how to set those attributes "manually".
Sharepoints is a GUI and you can see how it manipulates the netinfo database when adding new sharepoints.
You can also see what it writes to the windows sharing config file /etc/smb.conf
This will give you an understanding of how to this manually. However it is by far easier just to use sharepoints. Or if you invest in professional server software you can use the workgroup manager.
BTW could you mark this thread as solved as it helps other users who search the forum find specific answers. Thanks.

Windows 8 to windows 7. USB driver and network driver -

i changed to windows 7 and now i dont have the network and the usb driver.
i have pavilion touchsmart 14-b115ej sleekbook.
tnk

Hi:
Below is the link to the usb 3 driver you need...
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdDetails/?sp4ts.oid=5359407&sp...
If you need the ethernet controller driver (wired), below is the link to the driver you need for that...
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/psi/swdDetails/?sp4ts.oid=5359407&sp...
In order for me to provide the link to the wireless card driver you need, please do the following...
Go to the device manager, find the Other Devices category, and click on the Network Controller needing drivers.
Then click on the Details tab at the top of the network controller window.
Now you see a Property drop down list and it is defaulted to Device Description.
Drop down on that and select the second item on the list (Hardware ID's).
Post the top string of characters.

Time Machine cannot see networked USB drive

I'm trying to set up time machine with my USB drive attatched to an Airport Extreme but the "choose backup disk" box is empty when selecting a backup drive.
I read something that said "Time Machine will not work on any network-attached storage unless it's HFS+ on Leopard being shared via AFP (not SMB)", but I'm new to Macs and don't understand what this means.
I've noticed that browsing the info of the USB disk (which incidently IS mounted on my desktop) it says the server location is at 'smb://airportextreme' etc etc. I'm assuming the 'smb' is where the problem may lie?

Hello FizzyFizz
I had been wondering the same thing, and in my research I found this, rather long discussion:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=4402934
It gives a few different things to try, I have not tried any myself but they might help you.
~A

USB Hi-Speed vs FireWire 400 external drive write speed comparison

Since there were a host of external hard drive questions, I thought I'd just try out my own speed test while I'm watching TV in the background.
The drives I used were a bus-powered 250 GB LaCie Little Disk USB Hi-Speed + FireWire 400, and an adapter-powered 320 GB Western Digital MyBook Home USB Hi-Speed + FireWire 400 + eSATA. I judged the speed by running Activity Monitor and checking for Disk Activity's Data written/sec. There didn't appear to be much else happening, so I thought that the average rate was an accurate indicator. I plugged them directly into my MacBook's ports (no hubs or daisy-chaining).
_LaCie Little Disk (using the USB power-sharing cable made no difference - I tried both):_
USB: 23-25 MB/sec.
FW400: 32-33 MB/sec
_Western Digital MyBook Home (7200 RPM):_
USB: steady 27 MB/sec
FW400: 32-33 MB/sec
So definitely FireWire won out, although I wasn't getting the same speeds as advertised. WD doesn't specify anything other than the interface's raw speed, and of course those are never achieved for bulk transfers due to negotiations, overhead, etc. LaCie advertises up to 41 MB/sec for FW400 and up to 34 MB/sec for USB.
I found it a little bit strange that the LaCie drive was a bit slower with USB than the WD drive, but that could have to do with the particular chipset used.
I was going to post the product page of the two drives I used, but I had one thread deleted because I posted a product webpage link without using it to answer a direct question.

Oso Grande wrote:
I love Firewire but what has really pushed it out of the home/prosumer market is the TON of cheap USB 2.0 drives available.
I just pulled out my WD Passport Essential 160 GB drive with the original FAT32 format. I'm getting about 15-19 MB/sec although that was on my second try. The first try was only 12-14 MB/sec. Strange. I thought it would have been faster. I'm wondering if FAT32 makes a difference. Reads were at about 32-35 MB/sec, although there was a huge spike at the start before settling down to about 33 MB/sec.
I forgot to mention that both drives in my first test were HFS+ formatted. The LaCie drive used Apple Partition Mapping as a backup for two PowerPC Mac backup partition and an additional swap space. The WD MyBook Home used GUID Partition Mapping. Let me give reads a try.

USB Drive speed vs. LAN Network Drive

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