How do I safely eject an external disk from airport extreme?

Question

How do I safely eject an external disk from airport extreme?

Hello,

I have an airport extreme and an external disk attached to it. Because I have an macbook air I do need this disk from time to time and therefore want to unmount it. How is this possible without just pulling the plug and having the danger of data corruption?

My airport utility is version 6.2, so there is no "Disconnect all users".

I've seen a number of older blogs about this in Apple Support, but none found a real solution yet. So, is anybody out there who knows an easy solution?

Thanks in advance

AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 3, 2013 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Mar 3, 2013 1:34 PM in response to Macboderdritte

The drive should be mounted on the Desktop, so as with all other external media: select the Desktop icon for the drive then CTRL- or RIGHT-click and select Eject "diskname" or drag to the Trashcan icon on the Dock.

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Answer 2

Mar 3, 2013 2:33 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the quick reply. It sounds like an easy solution.

However, by doing so the external disk does not automatically spin down, it is still rotating and working. This means that I need to wait quite a long time unil it goes into sleep mode to unplug it.

So this is not really an option if you want to leave the house in a hurry.

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

Level 10

185,114 points

Mar 3, 2013 4:10 PM in response to Macboderdritte

My airport utility is version 6.2, so there is no "Disconnect all users".

You can download and install AirPort Utility 5.6 on Mountain Lion if you want the ability to "Disconnect all users".

This article will tell you how:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167965/mountain_lion_and_the_ancient_airport_ba se_station.html

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Answer 4

Mar 4, 2013 12:41 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thanks for the link. I will definitely try this.

When I read the other blogs I could, however, not find out if this is really a proper solution. It might disconnect all user so that nobody is working with the external drive. But does it really unmount your disk so that it can be diconnected?

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Answer 5

Mar 4, 2013 1:02 PM in response to Macboderdritte

Ok, done it. And I think apple just delivered me the solution.

Directly on top of the "Disconnect all users" button in AirPort Utility 5.6.1 (not sure about 5.6.) is written:

"Click Disconnect All Users if you want to unplug a disk."

Why would somebody erase this possibility with an update?! Did it not work properly? Why Apple Why?!

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