I have a 16g jump drive plugged into my AirPort Extreme and my computer and IPad which has file browser can veiw the files. However, I reformatted my simple drive to Fat 32 which is the same as the jump drive but neither my computer or Ipad can veiw this

Did you format it on a Mac?

In the larger sizes the disk format might not work from windows.

Is the Simple drive plugged into the Airport Extreme via USB?

We have found in TC that it doesn't always work.. nothing to do with format.. is the drive USB powered? That likely won't work.. you need a powered drive.. you also might need a powered hub even with a powered drive.. the usb chips that are recognised by the apple routers are a much smaller number than by computers.