ZipZap
okay so I reset the extreme using the reset button on the back. I tried to revert to an earlier version of the firmware and then I updated to the latest. I also repartitioned the drive and it still only shows up as a share. I do have a drive plugged directly into the mac mini for backups and that correctly shows up as a drive. Since I know that i can backup to the drive I tried to use that drive to test the extreme usb port and it still does not show the drive as a usb drive only as a sharepoint. are there any specific settings I should set in the disk settings in the airport utility?
thanks
john
John I guess I'm a little confused, re-thinking the issue you're seeing I think I gave bad advice earlier.
In the AirPort Extreme prior to the most current (tower/802.11ac) version disks attached to the Extreme are shared but they don't show up as disks in Disk Utility. You simply browse to them as share points. Apple didn't support using disks on AirPort Extreme for Time Machine until this most recent Extreme version.
There is a work-around for this, which basically involves creating a sparse bundle on the drive and then mounting that sparse bundle as a disk on your Mac, then you can select that for backups. But it doesn't happen automatically.
Is it possible that you'd gone through the steps like described in
this website to get it to work in Time Machine? If so you could re-do those steps - but it's not very reliable, and it's prone to simply quit working (which sounds like what may have happened to kick this whole issue off).
If you have an iMac or Mac Mini I'd plug the disk in directly to the computer for Time Machine. If it's a MacBook that may not be practical, in which case you might consider upgrading to the latest AirPort Extreme (which explicitly supports using disks for Time Machine backups) or even getting a Time Capsule (new or even a refurb previous generation). You could then use your current Extreme to extend wifi coverage with either of those solutions, or sell it.
