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Airport Extreme and HD

S

sigoblin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi everyone, been trying to get this to work for a while without success so now starting from scratch.
Connecting 500GB Freeagent HD to AEBS to use for both time machine backups and general storage. However want to use general storage for both mac and pc. Plan to partition the hard drive - and can't find a definitive answer on which format to use for each partition. Does anyone have a solution that works?

Final question, has anyone got a Brother 2030 to work with AEBS, doesn't appear to be supported!

Thanks for all you help.
 
Use Mac OS Extended (HFS+) for both if the Macs and PCs will access the disk only over the network through the Extreme. Additionally, sme people claim a GUID partition table is what should be used.

Are your partitions not showing up at all, or are there other problems?
 
format as HFS+. when transferring over a network it uses a protocol that is universal to both macs and PC's (cant remember the name). you'll be fine if you do HFS+
 
Thanks guys, that sounds great, are there any big disadvantages of using this format?

Cheers
 
The only disadvantage is that you can't read the drive directly from a non-Mac computer without additional software.

Accessing a HFS+ partition from a PC when it is connected via the Extreme is fine, but accessing the drive when it is plugged directly into the PC with USB won't work.

FAT32 is the other option supported by the Extreme, but it has serious limitations regarding for example file sizes (maximum of four gig per file).
 
itickings said:
The only disadvantage is that you can't read the drive directly from a non-Mac computer without additional software.

Accessing a HFS+ partition from a PC when it is connected via the Extreme is fine, but accessing the drive when it is plugged directly into the PC with USB won't work.

FAT32 is the other option supported by the Extreme, but it has serious limitations regarding for example file sizes (maximum of four gig per file).
Click to expand...

SERIOUS limitations, as in he wont be able to backup, because the backup is an image. these images will reflect (roughly) the current HD usage.... so fat32 = no.

i wish there was another way around it, but im afraid there isnt. MacDrive would be a good investment for you maybe>?
 
DoFoT9 said:
i wish there was another way around it, but im afraid there isnt. MacDrive would be a good investment for you maybe>?
Click to expand...

As long as the drive is used with the Extreme, there should be no need at all for MacDrive. I see no problems with HFS+. MacDrive would be a terrible investment for me, and probably unnecessary for sigoblin as well.
 
itickings said:
As long as the drive is used with the Extreme, there should be no need at all for MacDrive. I see no problems with HFS+. MacDrive would be a terrible investment for me, and probably unnecessary for sigoblin as well.
Click to expand...

i was suggesting MacDrive just incase he wanted to be able to connect the drive directly to his computer (whatever the case). just being pre-cautious 😛
 
DoFoT9 said:
just being pre-cautious 😛
Click to expand...

Now this pre-cautious business can be very confusing and cause a lot of posts (my response was just to clarify that while MacDrive has its uses, it isn't needed for Extreme operation) 😛

In short
  • HFS+ good. Use it. Works with both Mac and PC via the Extreme.
  • FAT32 bad. Avoid.
  • MacDrive useful if the drive is to be connected via USB directly to a PC.
 
HFS+ it shall be, thanks for all your help it's no problem to route everything through the AEBS.
 
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