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Time Capsule won't recognize External Hard Drive?

Ok so I have a 1 TB Time Capsule that I previously had a 1 TB G-Drive attached to store excess data, movies, ect. I needed more space so I purchesed a 6TB G-Drive, connected it to my Mac Book Pro and coppied all the information to it from my other two 1TB external hard drives. Then I connected it to my Time Capsule. However here is the the problem I can't locate the hard drive throught the Time Capsule. If I connect it directly to my Mac Book Pro I it works just fine but no such luck finding it when it is connected to my Time Capsule? While connected to my Mac Book Pro I checked Disk Utility and it is formated with OS Extended but not (Journaled). Does that matter and if so how can I format it without dumping the info on it as it took 10 hours to load it the first time. Please help.

Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Gen), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 4, 2012 11:04 AM

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Posted on Jul 4, 2012 11:29 AM

Apple recommends that the drive should be formatted in Mac OS Exended (Journaled) when it is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule, or AirPort Extreme, so that might be an issue here.


Another issue might be that the USB port on the Time Capsule is borderline as far as its ability to supply adequate power for a hard drive....even if the hard drive has its own separate power supply.


See if you can locate the drive as follows:


Click anywhere on the open Desktop to display the Finder menus at the top of the screen

Click the Go menu, then click Network

If the Time Capsule icon appears, double click on it and a folder representing your hard drive will appear if the format is being read

(You may need to click Connect As the first time that you do this and enter the Time Capsule device password)

Double click the folder representing the hard drive and it will mount on the desktop


If the folder for the hard drive does not appear, then the formatting issue or power issue may be at work here. Try a powered USB hub to see if that will allow the drive to be displayed in the Finder.


If still no luck, the only other thing that I can think of is that you will need to re-format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). That means moving all the data on the drive to another storage area, formatting the drive using Disk Utility and then transferring the data back on to the drive.


Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that this will work either, but I know of nothing else to try.


Maybe another user has another idea.

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Question marked as Best reply

Jul 4, 2012 11:29 AM in response to Devilman 211

Apple recommends that the drive should be formatted in Mac OS Exended (Journaled) when it is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule, or AirPort Extreme, so that might be an issue here.


Another issue might be that the USB port on the Time Capsule is borderline as far as its ability to supply adequate power for a hard drive....even if the hard drive has its own separate power supply.


See if you can locate the drive as follows:


Click anywhere on the open Desktop to display the Finder menus at the top of the screen

Click the Go menu, then click Network

If the Time Capsule icon appears, double click on it and a folder representing your hard drive will appear if the format is being read

(You may need to click Connect As the first time that you do this and enter the Time Capsule device password)

Double click the folder representing the hard drive and it will mount on the desktop


If the folder for the hard drive does not appear, then the formatting issue or power issue may be at work here. Try a powered USB hub to see if that will allow the drive to be displayed in the Finder.


If still no luck, the only other thing that I can think of is that you will need to re-format the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). That means moving all the data on the drive to another storage area, formatting the drive using Disk Utility and then transferring the data back on to the drive.


Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that this will work either, but I know of nothing else to try.


Maybe another user has another idea.

Jul 5, 2012 6:41 AM in response to Devilman 211

Bob,


First of all let me say thank you for the quick response. Second I'll post what worked for me for anyone else out there who may run into this problem. Folks as Bob suggested the Time Capsule is very particular in its formating needs, so please learn from me and save your self 11 hours of backing up data a second time. For the Time Capsule to recongnize and external hard drive it does have to be formated in Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Once I reformated my drive this way using Disk Utility and plugged it back in to the Time Capsule I was able to see it immediately. So here is the end all beat all as I can figure.


1. Plug your new hard drive directly into your Mac Book Pro.

(Back up any data you want onto your hard drive or another external as this will erase all existing data on the drive you are attempting to format)

2. Go to Disk Utility using your Spotlight or Applications Window.

3. Once you see your Hard Drive on the left and its sub catagory Select the Main Hard Drive NOT the sub catagory.

4. Go to erase there you will find multiple options that can be utilized for reformating one of which is Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

5. You can use the security feature to write over data that you no longer need however if this is a new hard drive this step is not neccssary.

6. Re-Name and Erase.

7. The process is very quick and should only take a couple of minutes.

Thats it plug it into your Time Capsule, pull up your hard drive in a finder window click on your Time capusle on the left hand side and when it pulls up there should be two files one called DATA and the second being what ever you named your storage device. Hope this helps and again BOB thank you for the insight.


Regards and good luck.

Time Capsule won't recognize External Hard Drive?

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