Airport Express connected to a external hard drive

Question

Level 1

5 points

Airport Express connected to a external hard drive

I have successfully set up my Airport Express to my cable model with an ethernet cable.

Through the USB port in the back, I plugged in a Western Digital External Hard drive. I want to be able to use that wirelessly since I have a PC and a MAC that I want to start backing up files to. At the Apple store, they said this was a good option, however, even though I have it connected, I am not sure why the drive isn't showing up. Where would I find the external hard drive to look at? I am not sure where this would be.

Thank you for your advice.

Posted on Dec 19, 2012 10:09 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

Level 10

726,737 points

Dec 19, 2012 10:11 PM in response to rinkadink1

The AirPort Express doesn't support USB hard or flash drives.

(72907)

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

140,948 points

Dec 19, 2012 10:13 PM in response to rinkadink1

The USB port on an Express is intended for a USB printer only.

Uses for the USB port of Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express

Apple should read this stuff once in a while.

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Answer 3

rinkadink1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 19, 2012 10:13 PM in response to Niel

The people at the Apple store told me that's all I needed. UGH. I hate mis-informed sales people. Lame.

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Answer 4

lunieri

Level 2

284 points

Dec 19, 2012 10:16 PM in response to rinkadink1

It's possible the Apple salesperson was thinking of the Airport Extreme, which does support an external drive connected to the USB port. At the very least they should have explained the difference between the capability of the Extreme and the Express.

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Answer 5

rinkadink1 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 19, 2012 10:18 PM in response to lunieri

I'm new to Apple products within the last year, and I guess they just over simplified it when I was explaining my needs, but did not offer the right product.

Will exchange.

Thanks for your information!

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Answer 6

toddjb

Level 1

10 points

Apr 4, 2013 5:57 PM in response to rinkadink1

Thanks for posting this question. I'm not new to apple products but still figured..."USB port? USB drive!" No such luck I guess.

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Answer 7

Jun 24, 2013 8:55 AM in response to rinkadink1

I just purchased the Airport Exteme and also read that if you connected a USB drive to the USB port you could use it as a network drive. This is completely true. The drive will show up in your Shared section of the finder window with the name of your AirPort Extreme. This is really sweet. You can set up your time machine to that drive as well. This is an impressive product. Unfortunately it cannot boost my original connection speed. I pay for 24 meg and only get 22. This is not an apple issue but AT&T.

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Answer 8

ronjack

Level 1

4 points

Sep 6, 2013 10:48 AM in response to Tcampbell711

@ Tcampbell711 No - the problem is with Apple. The Airport EXTREME you bought does what is requested. The Airport EXPRESS the OP bought does not. One works, one doesn't, with no explanation from Apple why the Express was gimped to only work with printers in the USB port.

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Answer 9

gdh2

Level 1

0 points

Sep 27, 2013 9:28 PM in response to rinkadink1

I'm in the same boat as the OP (Airport Express, just purchased an external hard drive thinking I could connect it via the USB port). Are there any other workarounds that would allow me to back up all of my household computers wirelessly with Time Machine? Obviously, I could just go out and buy either Airport Extreme or Time Capsule, but I'm looking for a way to do it without spending $200+ and getting a new router when my current one is working just fine.

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Answer 10

tsovking

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:10 AM in response to rinkadink1

Guys the best & cheapest option is a raspberry pi! You can hook up anything to it, it costs $25 - $35. Use it as a router, file server, Time machine and you find tons of tutorials online 🙂

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Answer 11

May 30, 2014 3:46 AM in response to rinkadink1

I think you can attatch a network drive to it via the ethernet port. Not shure about it.

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Answer 12

Mar 19, 2015 5:06 PM in response to rinkadink1

USB external drive works with both model of Airport just it needs to be formatted as HFS+

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Answer 13

Mar 19, 2015 6:44 PM in response to bhushanny

USB external drive works with both model of Airport just it needs to be formatted as HFS+

If you are saying that you can connect an HFS+ formatted external drive to both an AirPort Extreme and/or AirPort Express, then your information is not correct.

The AirPort Express does not support a hard drive at the USB port.

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