Adding an External Hard Drive to Airport Express

[Claybe]

So, I have been working all day on this and can not figure it out. Here's what I have and how I hooked it all up:


Cable Modem to Linksys router (acting as a switch/spliter)
Linksys router has the airport express plugged into it and a mybook external hard drive

I can not see the external hard drive on the network. When I hook it to my computer via ethernet cables I see the drive fine. But, when I hook it to my network I can't see it. It only has ethernet hook up capability. I downloaded the new firmware from apple for the airport express and that didn't help.

Does anyone know how to make this work??? It is driving me MAD!!!!!

Thanks for any help and Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[GGJstudios]

The AirPort Express doesn't support hard drives, only printers. If you want to share an external hard drive, you need AirPort Extreme.

 

[Claybe]

The AirPort Express doesn't support hard drives, only printers. If you want to share an external hard drive, you need AirPort Extreme.

I understand you can not directly plug a hard drive into the express, but it seems that you should be able to see the hard drive if both the hard drive and the express are plugged into the splitter since the express "sees" the cable modem by being plugged into the same splitter. Am I not right?

 

[flopticalcube]

As long as they are part of the same network, yes, you should be able to see it. Just to clarify, the MyBook is interfacing via an ethernet port. Correct?

 

[GGJstudios]

I understand you can not directly plug a hard drive into the express, but it seems that you should be able to see the hard drive if both the hard drive and the express are plugged into the splitter since the express "sees" the cable modem by being plugged into the same splitter. Am I not right?

No, you are not right. You need to attach the hard drive to a computer on your network and share it, as was advised in your other thread on this topic. The AE sees the network via the Ethernet connection. There's no way for it to "see" a hard drive.

 

[Claybe]

The hard drive is specifically an ethernet network hard drive, not a USB hard drive. I don't want to attach the hard drive to a computer and leave the computer on all the time, etc. I want a network hard drive that all computers can access. The mybook world edition claims to have mac and pc capabilities and says you just need to connect it to the network and it should be "seen".

 

[Claybe]

As long as they are part of the same network, yes, you should be able to see it. Just to clarify, the MyBook is interfacing via an ethernet port. Correct?

Yes, it is interfacing via an ethernet port on the ethernet router/splitter as is the Airport Express, as is a cable modem.

 

[GGJstudios]

As long as they are part of the same network, yes, you should be able to see it. Just to clarify, the MyBook is interfacing via an ethernet port. Correct?

Yes, it is interfacing via an ethernet port on the ethernet router/splitter as is the Airport Express, as is a cable modem.

Your hard drive is not visible to your AirPort Express at all. The only thing the AE "sees" is the internet connection via the Ethernet connection. The hard drive is not shared through the same Ethernet connection and no data to and from the hard drive travels through that connection.

If the MyBook is one with wireless capabilities, it would be visible to computers on the wireless network created by the AE, but data transfers are via the wireless connection, not the Ethernet connection to the AE. All the AE can do is create a wireless connection, share a printer connected via USB to the AE, share an internet connection that it receives via Ethernet, and deliver iTunes music to stereo speakers.