Airport Time Capsule and WD MyBook

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Johnny_V1954 Author

Level 1

8 points

Airport Time Capsule and WD MyBook

I am a newbie Macbook Pro owner, about 1 week now, running El Capitan.

I just hooked up my Airport Time Capsule (3T) and it seems to be working, as Time Machine reports the Backup Complete. I am also connected to the Airport WiFi.

The Setup Guide says I can hook up a hard disk through the USB port. I've connected a WD MyBook to the USB; it is formatted as exFAT and contains data from my old Windows 7 computer.

What do I need to do to make this accessible to the Macbook Pro? I don't see it anywhere in finder.

Airport Time Capsule 802.11ac, iOS 10, El Capitan

Posted on Sep 15, 2016 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

742,955 points

Sep 15, 2016 9:54 AM in response to Johnny_V1954

The Time Capsule can't read USB drives formatted as exFAT or NTFS. Connect it directly to the Mac.

(144647)

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,562 points

Sep 15, 2016 11:38 AM in response to Johnny_V1954

Drives attached to the AirPort base stations' USB port work best if formatted in HFS+. Unfortunately, exFAT or NTFS formatted drives will not work.

However, your MacBook Pro (MBP) should be able to read/write to your exFAT-formatted WD MyBook if directly connected to it by USB.

What I would suggest is that you first attach this drive to your MBP; copy or archive any files off the drive, and then, reformat the drive for HFS+. You can then detach the drive from the MBP and re-attach it to the Time Capsule's USB port.

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Answer 3

Johnny_V1954 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2016 10:08 AM in response to Tesserax

Thank you very much. The drive was originally formatted as NTFS. I tried to format it from the MBP, but couldn't figure out how. If you have a quick answer for how, I'll take it, but I will also research on my OS X Bible.

because it wasn't evident, I reformatted it as exFAT because I could read and write from the MBP. Set learning curve on?

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

158,562 points

Sep 15, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Johnny_V1954

To reformat the drive, you will want to use OS X's Disk Utility that you will find it the Utilities folder.

Connect the drive to your MBP. It should show up as an external drive in the utility.
Select the drive, and then, click on the Erase button.
Provide a volume name of your choosing.
For Format, select: OS X External (Journaled). That is the same as HFS+.
Click on Erase.

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Answer 5

Johnny_V1954 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Tesserax

Thank you once again. I am copying the data now and will try to reconnect when completed.

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