Airport Extreme Not Recognizing 4TB External HDD via USB

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Airport Extreme Not Recognizing 4TB External HDD via USB

Hey all, I'm working on a solution to allow full Time Machine backups of my MBP both at work as well as at the office. My current setup at home is a 2TB Time Capsule and it works GREAT so I was given an Airport Extreme to use at the office in order to accoplish the same task and in order to allow for growth I purchased a 4TB external HDD to connect to the Airport Extreme in order to use for Time Machine backups there as well (so that I have full backups in two places). Well, I cannot seem to get the 4TB drive to be recognized on the network (Arport Extreme), any ideas?

Thanks!

Time Capsule 802.11n (4th Gen), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Jun 18, 2013 5:44 AM

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Answer 1

Bob Timmons

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Jun 18, 2013 5:59 AM in response to WagarFamily

Check to make sure that the hard drive has been formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

If the drive is formatted correctly, you may need to use a powered USB hub with the AirPort Extreme, which I assume is the "new" model.

I am not certain if the AirPort Extreme can handle a 4 TB drive, but it will work with a 3 TB drive.

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Answer 2

WagarFamily Author

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Jun 18, 2013 6:04 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob,

thanks for the advice, I should have included that the 4TB drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Encrypted) and since it's an external desktop drive (with it's own power source) it shouldn't need a powered USB Hub. Also the drive is USB 3.0 backward compatable with USB 2.0.

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

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186,290 points

Jun 18, 2013 6:19 AM in response to WagarFamily

I have three drives here formatted for Mac that all have their own power supplies, and none of them will work when I connect them to an AirPort Extreme unless I use a powered hub.

This is because the USB port on the AirPort is under powered.

The same drives work fine when connected directly to a Mac.

I'm not saying that this is the "fix", but we have numerous posts from other users who report the same findings.

I don't have a 4TB drive here to test, but the firmware on the AirPort only supported up to a 3TB drive as far as I know. The "new" AirPort Extreme introduced a week ago might be able to handle a 4TB drive, I cannot say.

If you try a 3TB drive and it works, and the 4TB does not, you likely have your answer.

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Answer 4

Oct 7, 2016 7:42 AM in response to WagarFamily

Not sure Airport Extreme can handle Encrypted drives. Try formatting as regular.

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Answer 5

Tesserax

Level 10

158,544 points

Oct 7, 2016 9:20 AM in response to Vladimir Kotal

Good catch!

From About USB disks - Apple Support: "Note: Encrypted volumes, ExFAT, and NTFS formats aren't supported."

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