Can't find Hard Drive in Windows 7.

Question

Level 1

45 points

Can't find Hard Drive in Windows 7.

I've connected a hard drive to the Airport Extreme (Latest dual band 5th Gen version). The disk shows up in Airport Utility, but I cannot find it in Windows Explorer. Also, it doesn't show up in the "Airport Base Station Utility" that's in the system tray.

In Airport Utility, I've added the workgroup name, etc.

This hard drive works fine when connected directly to the same Windows 7 system.

I called Apple, and they refused to help me figure out why it wasn't working on a Windows system. They said they would only do it on a Mac.

Thanks for any help.

Posted on Jan 3, 2013 9:19 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

742,661 points

Jan 3, 2013 9:50 AM in response to LL600

The AirPort base station can't read or share NTFS or ExFAT drives. In addition, the drive may need to have a separate power supply.

(73643)

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Answer 2

LL600 Author

Level 1

45 points

Jan 3, 2013 10:38 AM in response to Niel

Thank You! This is the issue - both of my external drives are NTFS volumes. I tried a FAT32 USB thumb drive and that showed up perfectly.

It's amazing that the Apple support rep didn't know this or tell me this. She blamed the problem on Windows. And it's also amazing that Apple did put this in the Airport Extreme documentation, or in the special article the Apple rep referred me to:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

If they simply told me what you did, it would have saved me hours of troubleshooting.

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

Jan 19, 2013 1:44 PM in response to LL600

Wheres can i find what drive i have? ( NTFS or ExFAT)

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