New Airport Extreme USB drive - 5th Gen stuck in preparing backup?

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Klaatu1947 Author

Level 1

15 points

New Airport Extreme USB drive - 5th Gen stuck in preparing backup?

I know that there are lot of old discusiions on this subjet but I have tried all of the suggestions without sucess. I have an iMac, 2010 LION (10,7.4) model and a brand new Airport Extreme with a USB attached Western Digital hard drive formatted OX extended journaled. I have configured the Time Machine to point to the drive and it has been running in the preparing backup for over 4 hours. I have verified the integrity of my MAC;s hard drive and everything is fine. Why is this so difficult? Has ANYONE been sucessful in using a shared USB based drive on an airport extreme? This whole effort is giving me Microsoft flashbacks.

Posted on May 23, 2012 4:28 AM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

148,447 points

May 23, 2012 7:48 AM in response to Klaatu1947

Why is this so difficult?

Maybe because Apple does NOT support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks attached to the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBSn)?

Please check out this excellent Pondini article for more details.

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Answer 2

HACKINT0SH

Level 5

5,804 points

May 23, 2012 3:22 PM in response to Klaatu1947

Either plug the disc directly to your machine(s), or get a Time Capsule.

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Answer 3

Klaatu1947 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 23, 2012 5:17 PM in response to Tesserax

You would think that Apple would either state that this is not supported or heaven forbid, when you attempt to assign a AE based USB drive, simply issue a warning. Lazy programming.

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Answer 4

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

May 24, 2012 3:27 PM in response to Klaatu1947

Absolutely. If someone at an Apple Store told you it would work, take it back and demand (firmly but politely) a refund, and ask the Store Manager to be sure all their personnel are aware.

If they don't believe you, have them search Mac Help for Disks you can use with Time Machine.

And tell Apple about it here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/timemachine.html

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Answer 5

Klaatu1947 Author

Level 1

15 points

May 25, 2012 5:30 PM in response to Pondini

Thank you for your response, I did leave them a comment at the feedback link.

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Answer 6

Nov 10, 2013 4:23 PM in response to Klaatu1947

Apple does support USB connected drives for Time Machine as long as the drive is connected to theNEW Airport Extreme. The tall one.

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Answer 7

Nov 10, 2013 5:49 PM in response to Rick Whitelaw

Maybe you were not aware that Apple updated this support document a few weeks after the new tower AirPort Extreme was introduced?

Additional Information

Time Machine is not supported with USB hard drives that are connected to an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme device.

Last Modified: Jun 11, 2013

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038

Apple Support confirmed that the new AirPort Extreme is not supported in this regard a few months ago when I spoke to them, and indicated that the Setup Guides for new shipments were being updated. I do not know if this has ocurred.

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