Time Capsule not recognizing external hard drive?

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Time Capsule not recognizing external hard drive?

Hoping someone here might be able to help me out with this...

I just picked up a Time Capsule and was able to set it up with no issues. My MBA and PC laptop was able to connect to it with no problem.

I had a 2TB Seagate Goflex external hard drive that I wanted to connect to the Time Capsule via the USB port and have the Seagate act as a network drive that I can read/write from any of the computers at home (4 in total). I'm a photographer so I wanted to use the time capsule to backup my MBA and my pictures only. I would use the Seagate for videos/docs/pics/everything else. Seagate drive is formatted to work on both PC and Mac.

It connects fine, but I am not able to locate the Seagate on any of my computers. I am able to see it through the Airport utility and have it enabled to share in my network. However, I can't see it through my windows explorer in PC nor my Finder in MBA? Am I missing something?

I can connect the Seagate directly to my PC or MBA and it recognizes it fine, able to read/write. Only when I connect to the time capsule is when I can't find it anywhere?

Help??

Time Capsule-OTHER

Posted on Feb 1, 2012 9:54 AM

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Answer 1

jguther

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145 points

Feb 1, 2012 10:55 AM in response to NamelessJiN

I had to re-format mine (MacOS Extended, Journaled) to make it work.

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Answer 2

NamelessJiN Author

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Feb 1, 2012 6:53 PM in response to jguther

I am able to recognize the drive if I plug it in directly into either the PC or MBA, it's only when I plug it into the time capsule - would I still need to format the drive if this is the case?

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Answer 3

jguther

Level 1

145 points

Feb 5, 2012 7:47 AM in response to NamelessJiN

Yes, I believe so.

PC and MBA support the FAT File System and MBR Partition table, but the Time Capsule and AE apparently don't.

Just copy everything to a backup volume, partition and format the drive with "Disk Utility", then copy back all the files, and you should be ok.

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Answer 4

danny111

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Jul 11, 2012 2:39 PM in response to jguther

I have the same issues, except I have anothor drive (not seagate) hooked to one of my timecapsules (yes I have 2 for diff parts of the house), and it is formated for PC and it works fine. The seagate ones seem to be the issue (plugged into mac works fine, had to install NFS software to be able to write to it. Read someplace online that people say to remove and seagate drivers fro the mac, but that does not make any sense if issue is with time capsule?

If I reformat, then I can easily use for direct plug to PC as needed for larger movements. ANy other ideas on how to get seagate to play with Time Capsule?

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Answer 5

Jul 11, 2012 10:05 PM in response to NamelessJiN

It's likely that you have to reformat your drive. Follow HT2426.

The AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule support USB storage devices that are formatted as Mac OS Extended (HFS-plus), FAT16, or FAT32. Formatting a storage device as Mac OS Extended with journaling is recommended, as it may provide some more resilience if the device is removed or powered down while in use.

Note: ExFAT and NTFS formats aren't supported.

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Answer 6

NMMacGuy

Level 1

9 points

Sep 2, 2013 4:09 PM in response to NamelessJiN

I have a 3tb Seagate goFlex drive already formatted for Mac OS extended journaled which shows up that way when connected to my macbook air, but my new Time Capsule (tower version) won't recognize it. Any suggestions, (I can't reformat it, it has tons of archival files.)

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Answer 7

Sep 2, 2013 4:32 PM in response to NMMacGuy

no solution...sorry...need Apple to come up with a firmware update...go back to the older AE as I did..all is good to go now...

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