Airport Extreme - Cannot see hard drive

Since Airport Utility can see the HDD, it's basically working.

I assume that AE with HDD works like TC.
When you say you can't "see" the HDD, how exactly have you been trying to use it? Have you tried connecting with Finder - it should show under network or shared.

Maybe it's a format problem. IIRC, I couldn't use an NTFS HDD with TC, needed to be extended journaled.

As the post from clockworks suggest,I would try to connect using the finder,on my macbook I open up finder and then in finder sidebar under the heading shared it has the Airport Extreme,click on this and it then shows my connected usb HD.If none of this is showing in finder you may have to open the finder preferences from the toolbar and then tick some boxes under sidebar/shared until you can see it.You will be using as shared as you did before because its plugged into the AEBS and all devices connecting will be able to access it unless you put a password on it in airport utilities.

Like I said, I think that I had the same problem - an NTFS formatted HDD wouldn't work with a TC. Reformatting extended Journaled fixed it.
Copying the data somewhere else, reformatting, then copying the data back on should fix it.

With the TC, PCs are able to read and write to Mac formatted disks no problem. The controller board in the TC actually handles the reading and writing, converting the data from the Mac format disks into standard network "packets" that can be understood by just about any computer.
I assume that the AE works the same way.

So, while the HDD is connected to the AE, your PCs will read and write fine. You won't be able to connect the HDD directly to the PC using USB.

Message was edited by: clockworks

Message was edited by: clockworks

You need to configure the AE - again, I assume that it's the same as a TC....

Run Airport utility, and click "manual setup". Click "disks", "file sharing". Tick "enable file sharing" and select "read and write" in "Airport disks guest access".

Change "workgroup" to whatever your Windows PC calls it's network (take a look in Explorer/networks). In my case (XP Home) the workgroup is called "Mshome" by default.

Save the settings, and it should now work with your PC.

I had the same problem and the info in this and other posts helped but didn't completely solve the problem. The final piece of the puzzle was my TC's name.

When I setup the TC I have it a long name like, "reptile joe's time capsule". The name worked great in Mac-land but it would not show up from my Windows machines. I renamed it to something that Windows would swallow, (8 or fewer alpha/numeric characters, no spaces and most special characters). Works great. I can also get to it from my Fusion VMs.

I get the same thing - pop-up window asking for name and password. Once I've entered the name (user name seems to be the account name, normally the first part of the TC or AE's name that shows in Finder) and password (password is the one that you used when you set up the TC/AE using Airport Utility), everything works OK.

I've not managed to find a way of stopping this pop-up. The TC/AE won't work without a password. Macs remember the login details in the "keychain", but Windows PCs don't seem to have this kind of facility in this case.

Just a thought, but I wonder if using the same account name and password on the PC as was used on the Mac that configured the TC/AE would allow instant access?
It could be that the pop-up only occurs for guest access (i.e. a different user name). When I access it from my iMac (which I used to configure the TC), I get straight in. When I access it from my Mini, I get the pop-up, but all the details are pre-filled. From a Windows PC, I get the pop-up and have to enter the details.

If I was logged on to all the machines with the same account name, I maybe could get in with no pop-up?