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Level 1

4 points

Airport Extreme REQUIRES powered USB hub for external HDDs

Just bought an Airport Extreme Wireless dual-band N router (January 2012). It works very well and having the separate 2.5 and 5 GHz bands is a fantastic feature. Setup was really easy and it essentially worked 'out of the box'. The one issue I had is attaching a USB Western Digital 1 TB HDD to share on the network and use for Time Machine backups from multiple MacBook Pro laptops.

The drive would appear in the Aiport Utility's "Share Hard Drive" tab, but it was listed as zero bytes and wasn't available to actually share out over the network. I formatted it as a single volume to make sure there wasn't an issue with the drive itself (although it should support multiple partitions on a drive), and it mounted to my Mac just fine, but it still would not work with the Airport Extreme.

After reading several posts on these Apple forums I picked up the fact that the only way most people get their hard drives to work is by purchasing a powered USB hub and connecting that between the Extreme and the hard drive. Some hard drives do appear to work plugged directly into the Airport Extreme, but that seems to be more of the exception than the rule.

The reason given is that the USB port on the Airport Extreme was originally designed for printers and is basically underpowered for proper HDD connections. Adding a powered USB hub not only allows USB hard drives to work, but you can connect multiple USB devices (hard drives and printers) to share over the Airport Extreme through the powered hub, so you do get that added feature.

So if you have plans to upgrade to the incredibly fast and efficient Airport Extreme and plan to do your Time Machine Backups wirelessly (which works very well), add a powered USB hub to your purchase to avoid some frustration. I picked up a four-port powered USB hub at Staples for $30.

It's a great purchase otherwise. Four out of five stars in my review.

Airport Extreme-OTHER, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Jan 29, 2012 9:20 AM

39 replies

Feb 5, 2013 5:19 PM in response to Pondini

That's what I ended up doing. The formatting software from WD kept returning an error. I used Disk Utility and somehow when it got done it was different. Last time I formatted it I formatted it (Journaled, Encrypted) so I just did it (Journaled) this time and now it's all set up.

My plan for the external is to run iTunes and store movies to watch through my AppleTV.

Thank you for the help.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 5, 2013 5:33 PM in response to totalkaos04

totalkaos04 wrote:

. . .

Last time I formatted it I formatted it (Journaled, Encrypted)

Ah, that's it. Encrypting drives was introduced, for internal and directly-connected HDs only, with Lion. The Apple article hasn't been updated since before Lion was released -- it should specify that Airports and Time Capsules won't work with them. I'll see if I can get them to clarify that.

Anyhow, glad it's sorted out. 🙂

Feb 5, 2013 5:57 PM in response to totalkaos04

I just noticed that the drive isn't listed under the shared drives on my wife's MacAir, I can't think why it wouldn't be on there. The computer is online and on the same network.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 5, 2013 6:28 PM in response to totalkaos04

totalkaos04 wrote:

I just noticed that the drive isn't listed under the shared drives on my wife's MacAir, I can't think why it wouldn't be on there. The computer is online and on the same network.

Is the Airport listed in her Finder sidebar? If so, click it and see if the drive appears. She may have to "connect" to it and enter the password you set up for it (if any).

Feb 5, 2013 7:23 PM in response to totalkaos04

On my computer the driv shows up on the sidebar of finder under "Shared" but on hers it's not anywhere. Again it works fine plugged in. Before I got it solved I updated the drivers on my machine and I don't know if that helped but I did the same on hers and it didn't seem to make any difference.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 5, 2013 7:28 PM in response to totalkaos04

totalkaos04 wrote:

On my computer the driv shows up on the sidebar of finder under "Shared" but on hers it's not anywhere.

Does she have Connected Servers and/or Bonjour computers checked in Finder > Preferences > Sidebar?

Before I got it solved I updated the drivers on my machine

You shouldn't need any special drivers to see a USB drive. And none for one on a network.

Feb 5, 2013 7:51 PM in response to totalkaos04

Okay so let me go ahead now and say the I am an IDIOT!!

I am still getting used to the Mac. Im used to Windows having an arror next to something and the orientation dictates whether a folder is expanded or not. Well as I am trying to fix this issue on her computer the mouse just happened to pass over "Shared" and my eye caught a very brief glimpse the word "Show". I hovered the mouse back over it and clicked it and wouldn't you know it, there is the drive all ready to use.

Thank you again for all the help and the prompt responses.

P.S. I can never see your latest post until after I post again. Doesn't hurt anything because I can see what you are posting in the email that gets sent but it isn't displayed on the thread.

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Feb 5, 2013 7:56 PM in response to totalkaos04

totalkaos04 wrote:

. . .the mouse just happened to pass over "Shared" and my eye caught a very brief glimpse the word "Show". I hovered the mouse back over it and clicked it and wouldn't you know it, there is the drive all ready to use.

Yeah, I hate that -- and never think to mention it to folks, sorry. 😟

P.S. I can never see your latest post until after I post again. Doesn't hurt anything because I can see what you are posting in the email that gets sent but it isn't displayed on the thread.

Yes, the forum gremlins are at it again - - this software does all sorts of odd things from time to time, including posts not showing up until you post again, some users sometimes not seeing images, the Latest Reply link not working, etc.

We have alerted the hosts about the delayed posts -- hopefully they'll work their magic again.

Anyhow, glad you've got both Macs working now!

Feb 6, 2013 3:25 AM in response to Pondini

A Seagate USB HD connected to Airport Extreme is backing up happily as I write. Lion 10.7.5

Airport Extreme REQUIRES powered USB hub for external HDDs