Airport Extreme USB attached HD

Officially, no.

People do it but with varying levels of success. I wouldn't trust it myself.

AE can handle bus-powered or self-powered drives.

 

Actually, I saw on a post on the official apple discussion board that the new ac AirPort Extreme can do time machine backups, even with the airport express rather than the time capsule. It is in the manual PDF you can download from apple's web site. I will try to find the link once I get done posting here.

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http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/airport_extreme_80211ac_setup.pdf

It is shows how to set it up on page 13.

One thing to consider is that the new time capsule (with internal drive) is $100 more (2tb I think). Once you factor in what a USB drive costs, it may be worth it to buy the time capsule vs the extreme.

I am glad apple finally officially allows this.

 

I went with the Airport Extreme over the Time Capsule just because I already had an old 2TB USB drive that I've been using for Time Machine. The Time Capsule is a good option for people who don't have a drive already, but I'm glad Apple "officially" supports using the Airport Extreme to do backups for people who already have a drive.

 

I'd like to add that you have to connect to the drive first by going to the menu bar GO, then CONNECT TO SERVER. Time machine didn't recognize the drive until I did that. I guess it was common sense but its been awhile since I have done that.