Will connecting an external hard drive through an airport express work?

Using an airport express can an external hard drive be used successfully to store photo files directly to be used with Iphoto?

The only way a network drive format can be relevant is using a virtual disk. Otherwise it is not offering HFS+ or FAT32 or NTFS or anything else.. it is offering a network protocol for file storage. You can of course create a virtual disk space using methods pondini mentions here.
http://pondini.org/TM/TCQ3.html
I know TM requires HFS+ to work.. and I do have it working on an SMB drive in a NAS.. the NAS has formatted the drives XFS I think or EXT3.. but it will be some linux format.. TM creates the sparsebundle on the disk.. the sparsebundle is a virtual disk which is HFS+ as required..
Whether that is required ofr iphoto I don't have experience with to know. You could well be right.. in which case it explains why iphoto gives so much trouble if people even use TC as a place to store the library.
Nevertheless the NAS itself cannot use HFS+.. the only device that i know of that uses HFS+ for internal format of the disk is Time Capsule. There is no other NAS on the market that uses it because Linux cannot reliably write HFS+.. it can handle HFS. Almost every NAS in existence runs Linux.. again the TC is unusual running NetBSD. Which is probably a requirement so it can run HFS+ on the disk. And so Time Machine can work reliably.

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Can I connect an external hard drive to my Airport Express and share it to store files on between two machines via the usb port. The machines are a MacBook and a fairly new Win machine. Printers and Airplay as well as wifi work perfect.

Wondering about the above.

... I bought a hard drive at an Apple store because they told me I could hook it up through my Airport express.
Bzzt. Nope. Bring it back.
Read: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2421
Question: What is an AirPort Express?
Answer: An AirPort Express is a Wi-Fi base station. Besides acting as an Internet access point, it has several specialized features which make it ideal for specific needs.
Printer - Act as a wireless interface for one printer connected to the USB port, making it available to your network
"Hook it up" - in the sense that a wireless device may be wirelessly "hooked up" to an Express - is a different matter; like "hooking up" with a friend.
Words mean things. Imprecise words mean imprecise things. That generally doesn't end well.
Apple ought to read this stuff once in a while.
John Galt wrote:
I thought you were asking about a USB hard disk attached to the Express. That won't work.
I thought right. That won't work. An Extreme or Time Capsule will.

How do I connect an external hard drive to an airport?

Here what's going on. I have an old aiport, Iomega external hard drive and a Netgear N router. My goal is so connect the external hard drive to the airport via the USB port so I can access my photos through the network. I have a Mac Book pro with a full hard drive and a PC laptop. The Netgear N router is currently connected to my cable modem and the Airport is connected to the Netgear Router in bridge mode. However when I connect the External HD to the Airport it cannot be seen. I can see it when I connect it to my mac directly but I would prefer to share my pictures over the network and keep the External HD stationary instead of moving wherever my laptop goes. I also read that the Airport can slow down the internet speed because it is not an "N" so that is why I currently have it in bridge mode. Is there anyway to get this done? Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: lineaurd81

Can you clarify what model you mean by an old Airport? There's dozens of different AirPort base station models, and the only ones that work with a USB harddrive are the AirPort Extreme's with 802.11 n (flat, square-shaped with 4 ethernet ports). The AirPort Expresses and older dome-shaped base stations do not have that capability.
If you have an AirPort Extreme which meets the requirements of connecting a USB drive, you can verify whether it's connected by configuring it manually using the AirPort Utility and looking under the disks tab.
The following article tells you the various ways of connecting to the disk if it is recognized in the AirPort Utility and properly formatted:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

External hard Drive on AX (Airport Express)

Hi...I know a lot of replies to this question ahve been a 'no', but I bought Airport Express froman Apple Store after having expressley (no pun intended) explained what I wanted to use my wireless network for – to connect 2 computers (G4 mirrored rdrive door version and ibook G4) and also to share an external hard drive. They recommended Airport Express. Now I find that it seems you can't actually do what I wanted it to do. Is there really no way around this? Can you see hard drives that are connected to the other computer possibly, or is there any software downloads for the Express that might allow a hard drive to be shared between the two computers?
G4 PowerMac Mirrored Drive Doors Mac OS X (10.3.9) Running Airport Express

Klammstein, Welcome to the discussion area!
What are you trying to do?
You can not connect a USB hard drive to the AirPort Express (AX). The AX does not support a USB hard drive.
You could connect an Ethernet hard drive to the AX's Ethernet port IF the AX is using WDS to join a wireless network. This is easy if the source of your wireless network is another AX or an AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS). Unfortunately very, very, very few 3rd party devices support Apple's WDS.
If the hard drive is connected to one of your computers, you must enable File Sharing on that computer and then the other computers can access that drive.

I am having an issue with connecting my external hard drive to my airport time capsule.

I just recently purchased the new AirPort Time Capsule. The network set-up easily. However, when I connected my external hard drive (via USB) to it, the external hard drive does not show up in my Finder and I am otherwise unable to access the external hard drive from any computer connected the the network. When I plug the external hard drive in directly to my iMac, the external hard drive is recognized right away and I am able to access all folders. Any tips?

Check to make sure that the drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended Journaled or FAT32.
If the drive is formatted correctly and recognized by the Time Capsule, it will appear when you open AirPort Utility and click on the Disks tab.
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit
Click the Disks tab at the top of the next page
If the drive is formatted correctly and not recognized, you will likely need to use a powered USB hub with the drive....even if the drive has its own power supply, since the USB port on the Time Capsule tends to be underpowered.

How do I connect an external hard drive to the airport extreme using the Window's based airport utility?

I'm having trouble connecting an external hard drive to my home network via a Widows based operating system and the Airport utility. Please help.

No, you can't. Only a printer. You can with the Extreme, though.

Mounting thumb drive/external hard drive enclosure on Airport express

For unknown reasons it wouldn't see the external enclosure anymore. It totally did before. Now it doesn't even mount a thumb drive.
Am I doing something wrong? I just plug in the usb port and it should work right?

No way, I formated 1.5TB with my mac. Or did I do it with the USB port on the air?
Uhhhhh
Are you sure it's for printer only? Because if that were the case that's a very huge crying shame on Apple. I don't want to use up my only on-board USB port for something as dumb as a mere time machine backup drive.
Unless I hook up my bleeding USB splitter, and that's pretty much not what I want, because I am not entirely sure it will power my external hard drive.

I am attempting to connect an external hard drive to my airport extreme and see this hard drive under time machine preferences. I used to able to do this under Leopard, but no longer under lion, even after downloading Airport utility 5.6.

Hi, I am attempting to see my extrenal hard drive, connected to my airport extreme base station, in time machine. I formatted the disk, backed up my mackbook pro to it via usb, and now want to be able to backup over wifi with my disk connected to my airport extreme base station. I spoke with Apple Care, and they told me Apple doens't support this. I used to be able to do this with my older MB pro and under older osx's. I do see the external hard drive connected under disks, just not in time machine preferences. Is there a workaround available that anyone is aware of?
Thank you so much,
Tabeer

How do I connect an external hard drive to my airport for my macbook (10.4.11)?

The instructions below are what I found on Apple help. But when I double click on the base station name in the Airport Admin Utility, the configuration window that comes up doesn't have a 'Disks button', as the instructions below say it should. It seems like I'm seeing a slightly different user interface than these instructions assume. Can anyone help? Thanks. Angus
To share a hard disk on your network:
1 Plug the hard disk into the USB port on the back of the AirPort Extreme Base Station
or Time Capsule.
2 Open AirPort Utility, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder on a Mac,
or in Start > All Programs > AirPort on a Windows computer.
3 Select your AirPort Extreme Base Station or your Time Capsule, and then choose Base
Station > Manual Setup, or double-click the device icon to open its configuration in a
separate window. Enter the password if necessary.
4 Click the Disks button, and then click File Sharing.
5 Choose “With a disk password,” or “With base station password” if you want to secure
the shared disk with a password, or choose “With accounts” if you want to secure the
disk using accounts.
Â If you choose to use accounts, click Configure Accounts, click the Add button,
and then enter a name and password for each user that will access the disk.
6 Choose “Not allowed,” “Read only,” or “Read and write” to assign guest access to
the disk.
7 Select the “Share disks over Ethernet WAN port” checkbox if you want to provide
remote access to the disk over the WAN port.
Data transfer speed may vary, depending on the network.

I assume that you are using Mac operating system 10.4.11, as your profile indicates.
The instructions that you referenced are for use with AirPort Utility....not AirPort Admin Utility.
Suggest that you download and install AirPort Utility 5.4.2 for Mac , which will run on 10.4.11.
Also noticed that the instructions do not tell you that the hard drive should be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to work with the AirPort Extreme, but they should.

How do i find my external hard drive through my airport extreme?

I have just installed my airport extreme. and also connected my external harddrive on it.
but i do not see it appearing anywhere?
what did i do wrong?

If you have an 802.11n AirPort Extreme, click here and follow the instructions; an NTFS partition cannot be used through it. If your AirPort Extreme isn't an 802.11n model, you can't.
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Can I connect a external hard drive to the TC thru the Ethernet instead of the USB port so it will transfer data faster

I Want to connect the external hard drive so that I can transfer files faster then the USB 2.0. There is a thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter that you can buy I I just want to know if the hard drive can be accessed thru the Ethernet line instead of the USB. I think it will work faster than the USB. But not sure

It won't work.. the thunderbolt to ethernet adapter doesn't work without drivers and the external thunderbolt drive is not now or ever a network drive.
Yes you can plug an ethernet type drive into the TC.. or into anywhere on the network.. it is after all another network drive..
eg Another TC is a network drive.
Seagate or WD make reasonably priced network drives. But they will not have the HFS+ format which the TC does.
You can buy a NAS from any of a whole range of companies.. A NAS is an ethernet connected drive.
See the reviews here to pick a NAS.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-charts/view

If i connect an external hard drive to my time capsule will it be backed up on time capsule?

I recently connected an external hard drive to my time capsule using the usb port on the time capsule. Will that external hard drive be included in the time machine back up? If not, how do I include it?

Time Machine cannot back up a hard drive that is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule.
If you want to backup the hard drive, it must be connected to your Mac to be included in Time Machine backups. Additional settings will need to be made if you do this, so post back for details if you need them.
If you cannot connect the drive to your Mac, then you will need to use another backup program like Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper or Chronosync to backup the hard drive to the Time Capsule.

I cannot connect my external hard drives (1 WD My Passport and 1 LaCie Porsche Design). The drives were connected and worked perfect, the WD is used as a Time Capsule, the LaCie is formatted as exFAT and used for miscellaneous. They are both USB 3.0

I cannot connect my external hard drives any longer. I have one WD "My Passport" used as a Time Capsule and one LaCie Porsche Design used for all different kind of data, formatted in exFAT. They worked fine, connected direct or through an additional USB hub or also attached to a Dell monitor. The Lacie helds my iTunes Library and the iPhoto library.
After I moved the iTunes library to the external drive, from time to time the drive went into a never ending loop and I had to shut down the laptop (MacBook Air).
The last time starting again the drives were not recognized any longer. I tried to connect them to another MacBook, which didn't work.
Starting with Windows 7, the WD is also not recognized at all (perhaps because of time capsule format?) and the LaCie gives an error.
Could anybody tell me if there is a chance to get them alive again? When I connect them now, they start to heat up quite fast without anything else happening.
Thanks

Hi,
Just want to clarify, have you checked to make sure the cords are not damaged (going from hard drive to computer and or any power source )?
You have also check to make sure that usb ports are working correctly?
If you have checked these things it may be that the external drives have failed.
I would google the error message from the LaCie drive before I do anything.
There are several ways that I know of, one is to put the hard drive in the freezer for a while (make sure you wrap it air tight) if this works it is not a permenint fix. You might be able to transfer information to another source.
The other method is to plug the hard drive into a hard drive connector a product like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707192
to do this you would have to remove the hard drive from its enclosure and still this is not a guarantee it will work.
The finally way I know is using a recovery service. This can be rather expensive, and there are no guarantees

How do I backup with TimeMachine to my External Hard Drive through iCloud?

I have connected my external hard drive to my iMac and it has Back to My Mac through iCloud enabled. On my Laptop I have been able to access the iMac through the shared computer section of the Finder and then mount the external hard drive to my machine. In Time Machine preferences I have selected the disk that I mounted and it shows me the name in black and below it iMac in grey. However when it goes to back up it gets an error and says the Backup disk is not available. What do I need to do to make the disk available?
Thanks!

Two ideas.
1) You need to drag the little icon next to the Event in the Event Library List (on the left) to the litlle icon for the drive in the event library list. Do not drag anything from the main Event Pane.
You should also know that a simple drag and drop will copy the Event to your external drive. If you hold down the Command Key while you drag, it will be a Move rather than a copy. If your goal is to save space, use Move.
2)
The external drive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). Also known as HFS+.
FAT32 drives will not work. NTFS drives will not work.
If you right-click on the drive in the Finder and "Get Info", you should be able to tell how the drive is formatted.
You can reformat if necessary using Disk Utility, but this will erase anything that is currently on the drive.
If the formatting appears to be correct, report back and maybe we can think of other things to try.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks!

I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

Will connecting an external hard drive through an airport express work?

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