Airport Extreme: Daisy chaining plus backup

[JES]

Hi All,

With the 802.11n airport extreme, can I daisy chain devices? For instance, can I plug in a printer AND a hard drive to the USB port and have them both available? Does the order matter?

Also, I'd like to use that hard drive as a network drive for music, videos and photos for the house. Is there a way to set up a time machine drive on ANOTHER drive to back up the network drive?

Thanks!

 

[robbieduncan]

USB does not support daisy chaining. It does support the concept of hubs. You can use a hub to connect multiple USB devices to an Airport Extreme.

 

[blevins321]

USB does not support daisy chaining. It does support the concept of hubs. You can use a hub to connect multiple USB devices to an Airport Extreme.

+1. You can find a good powered hub for about $20 on Amazon. Be sure to get one with an AC adapter if you'll be plugging multiple devices into it. (It'll say powered on the description).

 

[JES]

Thanks for the superfast replies on the hub issue. That sounds like the way to go.

But what about the backup issue? I love the idea of a network drive for music, pictures and videos, but I hate the idea that it wouldn't have a backup. I've had lots of hard drive failures over the last 18 years. . . .

 

[blevins321]

Thanks for the superfast replies on the hub issue. That sounds like the way to go.

But what about the backup issue? I love the idea of a network drive for music, pictures and videos, but I hate the idea that it wouldn't have a backup. I've had lots of hard drive failures over the last 18 years. . . .

Take a look at the Synology DS211j. It's a 2-bay network hard drive that supports 1-disk redundancy. It's about the same price for the unit and a hard drive that it is to buy a low-end Time Capsule. Plus it has USB ports for device sharing (printer, hard drive). There's also a 1-bay version that has the port for a USB external backup device with no internal redundancy.

 

[JES]

Take a look at the Synology DS211j. It's a 2-bay network hard drive that supports 1-disk redundancy. It's about the same price for the unit and a hard drive that it is to buy a low-end Time Capsule. Plus it has USB ports for device sharing (printer, hard drive). There's also a 1-bay version that has the port for a USB external backup device with no internal redundancy.

Hi All,

I'm resurrecting this thread as I've finally had time to read up on NAS storage and I'm thinking of taking the plunge.

Here's the question: let's say we have a RAID 1 setup in one of these Synology devices, so it's just two drives in there mirroring each other. Can we have it up to another hard drive from time to time for redundancy? Would Carbon Copy Cloner work? Would we have to take it off the network to back it up or could that be done with it plugged in?

 

[blevins321]

Hi All,

I'm resurrecting this thread as I've finally had time to read up on NAS storage and I'm thinking of taking the plunge.

Here's the question: let's say we have a RAID 1 setup in one of these Synology devices, so it's just two drives in there mirroring each other. Can we have it up to another hard drive from time to time for redundancy? Would Carbon Copy Cloner work? Would we have to take it off the network to back it up or could that be done with it plugged in?

Hey, yeah you can back it up. Synology (as well as others, Im sure) can do this automatically for you. I have a USB drive plugged into mine 24x7 and it'll power it up nightly and backup my non-Media files for me.

 

[JES]

Hey, yeah you can back it up. Synology (as well as others, Im sure) can do this automatically for you. I have a USB drive plugged into mine 24x7 and it'll power it up nightly and backup my non-Media files for me.

Outstanding -- thanks for the fast reply. A couple more questions:

-- you do recommend this over just attaching an external drive to the airport extreme base station, right? What are the main advantages? I'm looking for more speed, I guess, across the network.

--do you see any major advantage in a RAID 1 setup if I'm also regularly backing it up?

 

[Enigmafan420]

Multiple Hard Drives with APE

Okay so now I am going to keep the thread going

I have a 3.0 TB My Book hooked up to my Air Port Extreme. The Hard Drive itself has 2 additional USB ports on the back of it.

Can I hook a second HD to the back of the USB hard drive? I mean, are these connections the equivalent of a USB hub or do I need an actual hub plugged into the back of the extreme?