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

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Is using external HD connected to AP Extreme for Time Machine supported?

Hi,
I'm reconfiguring my network and looking at different back up options for the family's computers. I have a few external drives that I use to back up but I'd like to connect them to an Airport Extreme so I can centralize them.
After doing some research I can't seem to get a clear answer on this-
-Can I back up via Time Machine to external HDs that are connected to an Airport Extreme?
-How much of a hack is this/is this officially supported or am I better off going with a time machine?
Thanks.

If you don't have an AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS) yet you may want to save some money and simply share the drive from one of your Macs. The other Macs can use that as a destination for Time Machine backups.
I have a TB drive connected to an iMac which shares the drive. Time Machine on my iBook uses that drive as the destination for it's backup. The iBook is wirelessly connected to the network while the iMac is connected via Ethernet to the network.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

Anyone find a way to use an airport disk for Time Machine?

Apple says it is not possible ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306833 ). Yet I have seen some posts of people who claim they are doing it. How?

Here's the workaround that has been posted ...
(NOTE: Caution!!! There is a reason Apple did not include Air Disk support for Time Machine in the current release of Leopard. I would strongly discourage implementing any workarounds, especially if the data you are backing up is critical to you. However, if you're just curious to see if it is possible, then proceed with caution.)
Here's a workaround for the Airport disk problem that may or may not work for you:
1) disconnect airport disk and plug into computer as a USB drive directly.
2) Set up time machine to use this volume.
3) In terminal cd to volume "cd /Volume/HDD"
4) In terminal "touch .com.apple.timemachine.supported" this will create an invisible file.
5) In terminal "sudo chown root:admin .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
6) In terminal "sudo chmod 1775 .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
7) In terminal "ls -l -a" the .com.apple.timemachine.supported file should be -rwxrwxr-t
8) eject disk, unplug from mac, plug into Airport.
9) mount at mac using connect to server in finder (command k) and afp://airportname.local./HDname
10) see if time machine now sees the drive and tries to use it.
As reported at Macrumors (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=4387985&postcount=50)

Connecting to Airport Extreme w/ Time Capsule

How can I connect a MacBook Pro to an Airport Extreme w/ Time Capsule?
The computer does not have an ethernet connection.
I would like to perform the first backup to Time Capsule with the computer physically connect to the Airport Extreme.

You'll need Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter - Apple Store (U.S.)

New AirPort Extreme w/ Time Machine disk crashes every few days

I bought an AirPort Extreme base station about a month ago. It's currently in bridge mode, connected to my U-Verse residential gateway, and has a 1 TB hard drive attached to it that I use for Time Machine backups. The drive is formatted HFS+ and both computers that connect to the AirPort are MacBooks. Every few days, usually overnight, Time Machine will stop working, saying that it cannot connect to the backup disk. If I try to access the shared disk in FInder, it times out. The Internet connection works fine and if I go into the AirPort Utility, it shows up. But if I click on "Manual Setup," it will time out. If I try to restart the router from the menu bar option, it will time out. The only way to fix it is to manually unplug the router and restart it that way. Is anyone else having a similar issue, or know how to prevent it?

Jonathan Kleinow wrote:
I bought an AirPort Extreme base station about a month ago. It's currently in bridge mode, connected to my U-Verse residential gateway, and has a 1 TB hard drive attached to it that I use for Time Machine backups.
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
Every few days, usually overnight, Time Machine will stop working, saying that it cannot connect to the backup disk.
Yup, that's the sort of thing that happens sometimes in this scenario.
You might be able to improve that by, of all odd things, changing some names. See #P1 in the same place.
Another possibility is the external HD going to sleep and not waking up quickly enough. Check with the maker for firmware updates or ways to adjust it's sleep (or "spin down") performance.
But if I click on "Manual Setup," it will time out. If I try to restart the router from the menu bar option, it will time out. The only way to fix it is to manually unplug the router and restart it that way. Is anyone else having a similar issue, or know how to prevent it?
That, I suspect, is a different problem (and mostly out of my area).
But this Apple article may be helpful: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3728
Hopefully one of the networking gurus, such as Tesserax or Bob Timmons, will have more insight.

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.

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.

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

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