Connecting External Hard Drive to Airport Extreme on Windows 10

Question

Connecting External Hard Drive to Airport Extreme on Windows 10

I can't figure out how to connect to set up a NAS device on my airport. I have gone through the instructions I have found using the airport utility and clicked enable file sharing. Next I believe I am supposed to use This Computer and launch "Map Network Drive". When I click on Browse, it asks to select a network folder, but the only thing listed is Network, and the actual drive doesn't show up.

So instead of Browse, I tried to type it in manually which I believe is \\IPAddress\Drive Name. I don't know if I know my drive name. When it is connected to the computer it is "Seagate Expansion Drive (E:), and the airport utility says the name is "Seagate Expansion Desk 9401". But neither Seagate Expansion Drive or ...Desk9401 allow it to connect. It says to check the spelling of the name. Do you know what I need to do?

Thanks,

Greg

null-OTHER, Windows 10, Apirport Extreme

Posted on Apr 19, 2017 10:25 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,244 points

Apr 20, 2017 5:46 AM in response to gregoryfromfort worth

Hi Greg

There are many many reasons why this is a really lousy idea..

But let me start with the big ones.

What format have you given the disk? If it is formatted NTFS it will not work.

I am guessing the drive is 5TB.. as it is showing a formatted size of 4.5TB.

So you really only have one choice.. it has to be formatted Mac OS extended journaled. (Called HFS+ for short).

The Apple OS can only read FAT32 (absolutely bog standard FAT32 not some new fangled version of it, and HFS+)

Secondly it could have issues just with disks if the unit has a pair of drives. I hope it is a single 5TB drive.

If you have a Mac or a friend has a Mac plug it into that and format the drive.

Once you do that Windows will see the drive..

And you will hit the third major problem.

To windows it is FAT32 because the airport is seen as NT server.

As you might know FAT32 has severe limitations but the main one is files cannot exceed 4GB.

There is a way around this.. using virtual disk.. see post here.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7634997?start=0&tstart=0

Then you will hit the Fourth major problem.. speed.

Over network a USB 2 port on a router is going to run at the speed of cold treacle.

Anyway solve the problems one at a time.. starting with formatting it HFS+.

If you need to then Map the drive it should work without too much trouble.. but I can see you are using a public IP .. which is wrong..

\\IPAddress\Drive Name

The standard IP of the airport is 10.0.1.1

The drive name is set by the airport.. and please make it really simple.. data is default in a Time Capsule and that helps. Do not use names with spaces.. it is not a valid network name. You must insert dashes..

Your airport name is also not valid.. just btw.. Greg's Airport Extreme in network jargon is gregs-airport-extreme

The apostrophe is illegal character so is left out. Apple networking copes with these things.. but windows not so well.. so let me strongly advise.. all names short, no spaces and pure alphanumerics.

Same with passwords btw.. but can be longer.. if you suffer paranoia. 😉

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Answer 2

Apr 20, 2017 6:00 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks, I really got stopped at a USB 2.0, I somehow totally missed that when I bought it. That is ridiculous that they handcuff it. I guess to keep it from taking away from Time capsule sales? It's really not worth the other hoops if I'm stuck at 2.0 speeds. I'm using it for an automatic backup and file backup, I think it used to take me like 12 hours on a 2.0 port to run a backup.

Fortunately I also have a Linksys 1900AC router, the Airport has just been more reliable. I suppose I will just try that. Either that or give up on my NAS dreams and keep plugging it in like a sucker.

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Answer 3

Apr 20, 2017 6:10 AM in response to gregoryfromfort worth

It's really not worth the other hoops if I'm stuck at 2.0 speeds.

Actually, it is worse than 2.0 speeds. Due to processor limitations, the port on the AirPort runs at about half the speed of a USB 2.0 port on a computer.

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Answer 4

Apr 20, 2017 1:30 PM in response to gregoryfromfort worth

Either that or give up on my NAS dreams and keep plugging it in like a sucker.

If you have a wired computer on the network... plug the USB drive into that.. obviously formatted NTFS for windows and share it with the network. You can then backup over the network on your laptops and the process will be as fast as wireless can be.

There are also alternative firmware to the WRT1900AC which might do the job with more reliability.

IMHO when you need a NAS.. buy a NAS.. or make your own. Plenty of instructions available for using old PC or new NUC to construct a decent file server.

Never use USB over network if you can avoid it.. Even in the example above the speed of the drive would be hugely improved by plugging it into a normal SATA connector. USB can have high speeds but it is CPU intensive and high latency. The best idea is to keep USB to backup the backup. With Ransomware becoming more of a problem a disconnected backup drive can rescue your system.

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