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I'm having trouble with an External HD attached to my Airport Extreme

I connected an external HD to my AirPort extreme using USB. I assigned the disk to my Time Machine backup, but when I try to back up I get a message that the disk is unavailable. The HD is mounted on my desktop and is formatted as MAC OS Extended (Journaled).

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Sep 13, 2013 2:21 PM

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15 replies

Sep 13, 2013 2:30 PM in response to Joseph Buoscio,

No problem, just wanted to be sure we were talking about the correct base station.


If I understand you correctly. You can connect this HDD to your Mac and it is recognized properly by the Disk Utility and that it is formatted for OS Extended (Journaled). Your Mac can also read and write to this HDD when attached this way? ... and that Time Machine can recognize it as an appropriate drive for backups?


The issue arises when you take this same HDD and attach it to your AirPort Extreme ... correct?

Sep 14, 2013 11:47 AM in response to Tesserax

Yes, I connected the HDD to my iMac and formatted it to OS Extended (Journaled). Next I connected it to my AirPort Extreme through the USB port. I opened Air Port Utility found the HDD in the Disk tab of the AirPort Extreme and checked "Enable file sharing". I chose to "Secure Shared Disks" with "Device Password". I can access the HDD on all the systems on my home network through the AirPort Extreme. Next I opened my Time Machine Preferences, made sure the HDD was mounted on the iMac desktop, and choose the HDD to back up to. The HDD shows up in the Time Machine list, but when I tell it to back up or it counts down to back up, I get a message "Time Machine couln't complete the backup to <AirPort Extreme>. The backup disk is not available."

Sep 18, 2013 11:32 AM in response to Tesserax

Sorry its taking me so long to reply. I tried the options in Pondini's article to no avail - I shut down the whole network and started up the Modem, waited, started up the Router, waited, and then the iMac. I still got the same message "Back up disk not available". Next I Reset the Extreme to Factory Defaults, (Had to spend 3 hours with AT&T to get my internet connection back), and still No Backup Disk available. I can not imagine why Time Machine will not recognize the HHD connected to the Air Port Extreme. It is available in the list of back up disk's and it is mounted on the desk top. Are there any other options?

Sep 18, 2013 12:02 PM in response to Joseph Buoscio,

According to Apples website RE: Time Machine and AirPort Base Stations. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038. It seems that a USB drive connected to a AirPort Extreme is not supported for Time Machine backups. You can connect a USB drive to a Time Capsule and it will work with Time Machine, but it seems like I'm out of luck. Unless someone knows a work around.

Sep 28, 2013 3:24 PM in response to Joseph Buoscio,

I too am having problems linking an external hard drive to my new Apple Extreme (the tall one!) and using it for Time Machine backups. It will not recognise any external drive, let alone using it as Time Machine. I am sure it was advertised as being able to do this. I have also tried several different external drives, to make sure that wa not the problem. Rather disappointed with the new unit so far.

Sep 28, 2013 3:51 PM in response to Joseph Buoscio,

I currently have three devices, a MacBook Air 2011, MacBook Air 2013, and an iMac 2010 backing up via Time Machine to a USB drive, Western Digital MyBook, attached to an Airport Extreme 6th generation. How I eventually accomplished this feat was probably just good luck. Although it states in the Airport Extreme setup guide, page 13, that the time machine is supported that is not the case. Apple has back-pedddled on this issue and will not offically support it. I had experienced a few Apple tech support folks that have been helpful but they are limited as to how much time they can spend on problem resolution.


I have tested the Time Machine recovery of individual files and everything looks great. But I would not recommend depending on this configuration to run your enterprise.


I would appreciate Apple taking a official written position on this support. But right now it is working.

Sep 29, 2013 1:42 AM in response to KlaatuBarada

New formatted hard drive plugged into Extreme - yes, formatted Mac Journal. The new drive is seen on network, but it cannot be applied as a Time Machine function on my iMac.


I edit the Extreme on Airport utilities - add disks. The hard drive is shown. I enable file sharing, secure shared disks with device password - and update. Nothing happens from that point onwards.


Reading a number of other questions from people with similar problems on other sites, it seems that although this feature is advertised and promoted by Apple in the instruction booklet (page 13), Apple have backed away from this facility post production. Maybe it is not reliable enough in its present form?


I am very disappointed about this as I had intended to use the Extreme to back up several devices in my home and office.


Any other ideas would be welcome.


Thanks

Sep 29, 2013 10:36 AM in response to Canaryguy

I gave up on trying to use my HHD connected to my AirPort Extreme (APE)(2nd Gen) for Time Machine Backups. I really don't want to upgrade to a new AirPort at this time, I have an extended network with a 5th Gen and 2nd Gen AirPort Extremes connected by Ethernet, my 5th Gen acts is connected to my DSL Modem. I have my HHD plugged into my 2nd Gen due to it's location. I had used Retrospect (EMC Corporation) for back ups in the past, but gave it up when Time Machine showed up because Time Machine is basically a no brainer. When I could not use my APE for back-up, I upgraded my Retrospect product to 10.2.0 and am now backing up my home network (5 assorted Macs), to the 4TB HHD connected to my APE. Is this ideal, not really - Retropect is powerful, but more complex and time consuming to use - Time Machine is more elegant, but for now this is working for me.

Jan 2, 2014 9:14 PM in response to afig7590

It can be done (use an external HD with a USB connection to an Airport Extreme with Time Machine). I have used a 3.5 year old Airport Extreme (2.5 and 5.0 Ghz networks) for 3.5 years now with hard drives connected via a Belkin USB 4 Port hub to make backups via Time Machine. There were two hard drives connected via the hub. One old 300 GB Seagate used for storage and a 1.5 TB Seagate HD for Time Machine until the Sparce Disk Image Bundle file got corrupted (can read it but not write to it).


I switched the 1.5 TB Seagate to a Iomega 1 TB hard drive and have used it with Time Machine for the last year. I've just got a new MBP Retina and bought two new Western Digital 3 TB hard drives that I connected via the hub (making a total of 4 hard drives connected. I intend to use these two drive to BU my new system and the old one that my daughter is now using.


NOW I am having some issues with the Western Digital not playing nice with this system. I'm wondering if it is particular to the WD HDs. Could it be that WD has some formatting issues (since it did not want to format with Disk Utilities until I formatted it with WD Mac formatter. It then showed up as two partitions initally with 57 files and 1 GB hidden. I was able to make several Time Machine backups with my new system (20 hrs via an ethernet cable to the Airport Extreme) but now can't see that or the second WD HD. I can see the Iomega drive with no problem and it is available for Time Machine. I just don't want to use it any more and want to save the old backups!

I'm having trouble with an External HD attached to my Airport Extreme

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