Air port extreme & hard drive

[bearcatrp]

Will the hard drive spin down when attached to an airport extreme? Considering this setup for iTunes on my mini. Need a 2TB drive for my movie collection to serve 3 ATV's.

 

[Macman45]

I think that will depend on the drive and the enclosure you are using. I had a Startech caddy attached to my TC a while back, and the drive always spun down when not in use. I can't see any reason why the AE wouldn't behave the same way.

 

[Intell]

If the drive supports spinning down, it will after a few minutes of non-use when it is connected to an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule.

 

[bearcatrp]

Using a OWC single disk external drive with a 2TB hitachi hard disk. Was hoping it would spin down thinking OSX would control the spin down. Thanks.

 

[Ben01010]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have another question regarding attaching an external HD to an airport extreme.

Does an Airport Extreme need an external HD that has its own power source? Right now I am using a LaCie Porsche 9221 that uses the USB port for power and its really buggy.

My ultimate goal is to use the external HD to share my movie collection to a few Macbook Airs and an Apple TV. If there are any existing guides on this setup, could you refer me to them?

Thanks for any guidance.
Ben

 

[Intell]

The Airport Extreme may need a self powered USB hub or drive when using the USB port. It cannot provide anything more than 500 milliamps, which is sometimes not enough for some external USB powered hard drives.