i have my Apple tower connected to my wi-fi. I am plugging a hard drive into my apple tower with ethernet cable, and I am running another ethernet cable to a multi port dock. I can't see either hard drive or dock in my finder window. How can i determine if the tower is working and where are my devices?
Help us help you. Apple have made towers since 1994, and we are not very good at guessing. Please give more info about the model and sub-model so we can give you a specific solution.
This forum section is for pre-1998 Macs and get almost no views. If yours is newer we can get this moved to a more active forum section. Asking here is like hanging a "lost dog" in an unlighted basement!
Thanks Alan, actually the "tower" i refer to is the Apple Airport extreme. I am using a mid-2015 imac 27 computer. I am trying to hook up a Synology disk station with a western digital 4T hard drive in it. I think i need to format the WD hard drive, but I can't find it in Finder. I have plugged it directly into my iMac through the ethernet port, but it doesn't show up.
Is your AirPort Extreme base station the only router in your current network configuration? That is, is it connected directly (by Ethernet) to a simple modem? ... or is it, instead, connected to another router or gateway device? It appears, from your post, it would be the latter case.
You mentioned it is connected to your Wi-Fi. Is this Wi-Fi provided by another Apple router or another brand?
the airport extreme is connected directly to the modem--Arris surfboard. I now want to connect the Airport extreme to a dock. I am working on acquiring USB>USB cable to connect the WD hard drive to the Airport extreme and hopefully i will see the WD hard drive in the Finder window so i can format it.
By "dock" are you referring to an Ethernet switch? If so, is your plan to place this switch between the modem and the Extreme or downstream of the Extreme by connecting it to one of the available LAN ports on the Extreme?
I am working on acquiring USB>USB cable to connect the WD hard drive to the Airport extreme and hopefully i will see the WD hard drive in the Finder window so i can format it.
Sorry but in the previous discussion the WD drive was in a Synology NAS.
I am trying to hook up a Synology disk station with a western digital 4T hard drive in it. I think i need to format the WD hard drive, but I can't find it in Finder.
The format of the drive is purely a NAS consideration.. The procedure to make the NAS accessible by your Mac and Time Machine is in the Synology instructions.. you need to read them and carry them out.
You can plug the WD drive in a USB enclosure into the Mac to format it HFS+ which is the only format the Airport can use for backups. But it will be super slow.. and nor can you put the WD disk back in the Synology as that will not work. Synology must format the disk in the correct way for its internal OS.
Ah! Now I see. Thank you. I will ask our Hosts to move this to the Airport forums where there is more expertise and, more importantly, more eyeballs!
Have a good 'un.
Allan
configure apple tower as LAN
