AirPort Extreme External HD for NAS and Backups

[cybertek]

I have last years model of the AirPort Extreme and would like to connect an external USB hard drive to it for Macbook backups and to use as a file server for PC and Mac.

Any tips on setting this up?
What format do I format the drive in NTFS, Fat32 etc...
Drive partitions?

Thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

Format it to Mac OS Extended in Disk Utility (although Fat32 will work also). Since it is a networked drive either Mac or Windows will be able to read/write to the drive. You can partition however you like for organizational purposes, but you don't have to.

Give this a look.

OS X Time Machine is not supported to a USB drive attached to that model Airport Extreme. It is supported on the newer, tower shaped model though.

 

[lexvo]

OS X Time Machine is not supported to a USB drive attached to that model Airport Extreme. It is supported on the newer, tower shaped model though.

Thanks for sharing this. Time Machine backup was never supported on the older Extreme models and I saw that it is even mentioned in the manual of the latest model. That's good news.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks for sharing this. Time Machine backup was never supported on the older Extreme models and I saw that it is even mentioned in the manual of the latest model. That's good news.

Yes it is. I never understood why they did not support it on the old model. It seemed like something that would have been easy to implement in a firmware upgrade. Maybe they just wanted to sell more Time Capsules.

 

[priitv8]

It seemed like something that would have been easy to implement in a firmware upgrade.

Unless there were some resources (CPU power, RAM, Flash ROM) missing.