Hello,
My family still uses the old UFO styled airport extreme, and it has the same USB slot in the back of it as one can see in the updated version's image. I've heard that it is intended for the use of a printer on a network, but I was wondering if anyone has heard of connecting an external hard drive to the device? As the thread title implies, I'm interested in creating a time-capsule-like system without purchasing a new one for 300 or 400 dollars.
Would anyone happen to know of any ways to do this, or if there are any tutorials online?
Many thanks!
Discussion about
Impromptu Time Capsule?
As far as I know that port on that base station only support USB printers. The new model you have picutred supports hard drive and you can time machine to a hard drive plugged into the new one, but the old one won't support it as far as I know you would have to mod the heck out of it.
if you have the one that looks like a box that just plugs into the wall . . . i have the same one and i spent a good 3 months looking for an answer to that question . . . i never found anything but a printer that would work . . . if you know another solution . . . or router that would let me do that it would be great since i just came into a 1.5 tb hard drive lol
You can connect an external hard drive or a printer to the USB port. However you cannot use Time Machine with the external hard drive. Make sure you have the updated firmware. In the Airport settings just tell how you want people in your network to access the hard drive. Then it should appear as an external drive on your computer. When you double click it, it will ask you for a password or what ever you setup to access the drive. You only need to do this once.
I use Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme. In order to set it up, you need to connect the hard drive to your Mac and format it as HFS Journaled (aka HFS+) in Disk Utility first. Then connect it to your Airport Extreme's USB port and enable disk sharing in Airport Utility.
This will not work with the Airport Express or the older UFO Airport Extreme. Only the one that is pictured here and is capable of 802.11n.
This will not work with the Airport Express or the older UFO Airport Extreme. Only the one that is pictured here and is capable of 802.11n.
Are you running time machine on a MacBook/Pro over wifi or are you hard wired to your airport extreme? The apple onecare guy told me that time machine doesn't work over wifi with airport extreme and a USB hdd, even if it is reformated. Reformating my hdd would be a pain but I would absolutely do it if that guy was wrong.
I recently purchased the airport extreme over the time capsule for this exact reason. It works really well. I just wish there was more of a true firewall/vpn ability built into it so I could use it as my primary router/firewall.
FYI rokorre you can hook up a usb hub (2.0 recommended of course) and then connect both a printer and an HD to it. I believe it will support multiple drives and printers but I haven't tested that myself.
Good luck.
FYI rokorre you can hook up a usb hub (2.0 recommended of course) and then connect both a printer and an HD to it. I believe it will support multiple drives and printers but I haven't tested that myself.
Good luck.
