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macvirgin2013

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 4, 2012
13
0
Is it possible to use a USB portable hard Drive with Airport Extreme (i.e. will the airport power the HD) or does the Hard Drive have to have stand alone power source?

Thanks
 
Is it possible to use a USB portable hard Drive with Airport Extreme (i.e. will the airport power the HD) or does the Hard Drive have to have stand alone power source?

Thanks

Yes you can use a self powered external 2.5" HDD - it can get power from the Extreme fine.
If you use a larger desktop external drive, then it will need to be connected to a power source directly.

I think Ive created a video on the use of these HDDs on the Extreme if you want to check through my YouTube channel, but I have used portable drives via my Extreme in teh past perfectly fine, with no other power source required.
 
Yes you can use a self powered external 2.5" HDD - it can get power from the Extreme fine.
If you use a larger desktop external drive, then it will need to be connected to a power source directly.

I think Ive created a video on the use of these HDDs on the Extreme if you want to check through my YouTube channel, but I have used portable drives via my Extreme in teh past perfectly fine, with no other power source required.

I was using my Extreme to power my external hard drive, but over the past few months, it is not even recognized any longer. I tried it with a new external hard drive and the same thing...not recognized. Does this indicate a problem with the Extreme and perhaps replacement time? I've owned it about 4 years.
 
I've used a self powered external hard drive with my AEBS in the past for backup purposes. I was attempting to use it to backup an iMac and a MBP but never could get the backups to occur reliably so I gave up and went back to direct connection to my Macs. If anyone reading this has an answer to making it work correctly please share. Thanks in advance.
 
I've used a self powered external hard drive with my AEBS in the past for backup purposes. I was attempting to use it to backup an iMac and a MBP but never could get the backups to occur reliably so I gave up and went back to direct connection to my Macs. If anyone reading this has an answer to making it work correctly please share. Thanks in advance.

If you were using Time Machine do this, it is not supported and that us why you had trouble. See my posts in this thread.
 
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