Airport Extreme reporting "Disk Needs Repair"; it doesn't!

[ggabriele3]

I have an Airport Extreme that is a few years old.
For years now, I have had a 500GB USB drive (2 partitions) connected to the Airport Extreme for Time Machine backup, and it has worked.

Recently, the Airport Extreme has been reporting that the "Disk Needs Repair", and Time Machine backups have been failing.

I have erased and reformatted the disk (always as a Mac OSX Extended file system), and verified/repaired. Disk Utility never finds any errors.
I have tried a new disk (same formatting).
I have tried a new SATA-USB connector.

Same "Disk Needs Repair" error from the Airport Extreme in all cases.

I have googled, but found no specific answer. Some say to reset the router (done, no help), some say to update firmware (it's been updated), some say

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Donfor39]

I've had previous 'disk needs repair' via western digi 500gb externall hdd/3rd gen airport extreme

The only solution I found was to connect the hdd direct to aes

(I was hoping to run my wirlreles printer AND external hdd via sb hub)

 

[ggabriele3]

I've had previous 'disk needs repair' via western digi 500gb externall hdd/3rd gen airport extreme

The only solution I found was to connect the hdd direct to aes

(I was hoping to run my wirlreles printer AND external hdd via sb hub)

Mine is connected directly to the AE, and it always has been.

 

[ColdCase]

Not sure about the AE, but the TimeCapsule checks the drive smart status and will notify you when the status indicates a pending failure. (smart status provided a number of parameters, like unrecoverable blocks, run time, temperature, errors). So in other words, the drive is telling the AE its about to fail, and the AE is telling you the disk needs repaired.

Perhaps its your issue, but why would the second drive fail? I dunno.

Otherwise it may be time for a new AE. I forget, can the AE erase and format a drive? If so, you may want to try that.

 

[Altemose]

I have an Airport Extreme that is a few years old.
For years now, I have had a 500GB USB drive (2 partitions) connected to the Airport Extreme for Time Machine backup, and it has worked.

Recently, the Airport Extreme has been reporting that the "Disk Needs Repair", and Time Machine backups have been failing.

I have erased and reformatted the disk (always as a Mac OSX Extended file system), and verified/repaired. Disk Utility never finds any errors.
I have tried a new disk (same formatting).
I have tried a new SATA-USB connector.

Same "Disk Needs Repair" error from the Airport Extreme in all cases.

I have googled, but found no specific answer. Some say to reset the router (done, no help), some say to update firmware (it's been updated), some say

Does anyone have any ideas?

Try directly connecting the drive to your Mac and run Drive Dx. It is a great piece of software and will detail your drive's life. There is a free copy of a trial available here:

http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support