Using Time Machine with an External HD attached to a Netgear Wireless Router

Requirements to use Time Machine

Time Machine is only available with Leopard or later.

1. External FireWire or USB 2.0 drive mounted on Desktop
2. Time Capsule
3. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 or later using File Sharing
4. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 Server
5. SAN volume managed by Apple's Xsan file system

A TM drive must be partitioned with either APM (PPC) or GUID (Intel) and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

• The Seagate HD is connected to a Netgear Wireless Router USB port.
• The Seagate HD is formatted as "Journaled HFS+".
• I can "see" the Seagate HD -- via Wi-Fi -- in Finder.

Can you mount the hard drive on the desktop of your Mac...and...drag/drop or copy/paste files to the drive that way?

If you cannot mount the drive on your desktop, then there is no chance that Time Machine will be supported with the drive. And.....even if you can mount the drive, that does not mean that Time Machine will be supported. But....you can try it.

Then, if it will not show up as an available Time Machine target, the process is not supported.....probably because Netgear uses a different protocol for network drive (SMB) than Time Machine.....Apple....does (AFP).