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How to Connect External USB Drive to Windows XP

SO FAR:

- Recently purchased 2TB Seagate GoFlex external USB hard drive, formatted NTFS.

- Have Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS), connected to Windows XP desktop machine.

- Want to connect Seagate 2TB to USB port on AEBS, to share among several computers.

- Learned that NTFS is not supported by AEBS; reformatted Seagate drive, using Macbook Pro, to HFS+ [i.e., Mac OS Extended], non- journaled.

- Seagate Drive is visible is Disks tab of Airport Utility, but does not appear in Win XP / My Computer device list.


SO NOW:

What additional steps are needed to have Windows XP detect the Seagate drive when it is connected to the AEBS?

Dell Dimension3000, Windows XP Pro, Intel Pentium 4, 3 GHz, RAM 512MB

Posted on Apr 29, 2011 10:50 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 29, 2011 11:15 AM

Click here and follow the instructions.


(58082)

2 replies

May 2, 2011 8:00 AM in response to Niel

Thank you, Niel! I was able to mount the disk manually by following the instructions at the linkhttp://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331you provided to Apple Support Knowledge Base article HT1331.


For those in a similar situation (please read my OP above for specifics) I add the following details:

  • The article has instructions for both Mac OSX and Windows XP and Vista operating systems. Obviously, followed the Windows XP branch.
  • Within the Windows XP instructions, there are three options. I chose the second one:

Mounting by mapping a Network Drive

  • Go to My Computer (Start > My Computer)
  • From the menu, pull down Tools and select "Map Network Drive"
  • Enter a drive letter that is not in use (for example, "Z")
  • Enter the path to the drive. This is formatted as: \\IPaddress\drivename (for example, \\10.0.1.1\mydrive)

  • To complete step three, I looked at My Computer to see which drive letters were already in use (in my system, that's A:, and C: through G:), then I chose the next available drive letter (H:).


    To complete step four, I got the IPaddress parameter from the Airport Utility's main screen, 'IP Address' field. I got the drivename parameter from the Airport Utility's Settings > Disks > Disks tab, 'Name' field.


    Thereafter the drive appeared in My Computer along with the other disks and devices attached to my system.


    Now, I ask for additional advice: how can I make this process automatic for future connections and disconnections of this USB drive (or other USB drives connected to the Airport Extreme Base Station)? In other words: a USB device connected directly to a USB port on the computer is automatically recognized and added to the system's devices. Can the same automatic connection be made with a device connected to the USB port on the AEBS?

    How to Connect External USB Drive to Windows XP

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