Does Time Machine work with Airpoirt Extreme + USB drive?

[petestein1]

Folks-

Apologies for a question from a relative newbie (ok, technically I'm returning after a decade away) to the wonderful world of mac.

A question about Time Machine...

-- I just bought a Macbook Air
-- I need a data backup solution
-- I have a few spare USB drives lying around
-- Someone offered me a free Airport Extreme

Will an Airport Extreme + a USB drive plugged into it = a rigged up Time Capsule?

I've looked around and seen conflicting info -- I'm concerned Time Machine won't recognize the drive.

Am I better off just splurging for a Time Capsule for utterly effortless backup?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Eraserhead]

No, at least not yet. Apple may enable it in a firmware update.

 

[OllyW]

No.

Apple promised it would work until just before Leopard was released, then dropped it.

 

[flopticalcube]

Officially, no. The problem is that the AEBS is flaky in regard to the way it handles disks attached to it. If you get a non-gigabit one and you have version 7.1.1 of the firmware, then you could be OK with some of the workarounds. Otherwise, I find the underlying Airdisk technology too unstable.

 

[petestein1]

Thanks for all the quick replies. I love the interwebs.

I guess Apple is gonna land another $300 to $500 of my money for a Time Capsule.

Thanks again!

-Peter

 

[petestein1]

Does anyone know if the new firmware update for the airport fixes the problem described above?

Read more about the update here:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/11/apple_updates_airport_base_station_software.html

-Peter

 

[flopticalcube]

Does anyone know if the new firmware update for the airport fixes the problem described above?

Read more about the update here:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/11/apple_updates_airport_base_station_software.html

-Peter

Software has been pulled by Apple. Made no difference to my AEBS anyway. It wasn't firmware, only an update to some utility programs.

 

[McGiord]

Does anyone know if the new firmware update for the airport fixes the problem described above?

Read more about the update here:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/11/apple_updates_airport_base_station_software.html

-Peter

I am a unhappy AEBS (nonGigabit owner), because the AirDisk feature isn't working.
As I see it this AirPort Utility update maybe is related only with Time Capsule, and it doesn't fix the AirDisk issue so far.
________
vaporizer affiliate

 

[OllyW]

Software has been pulled by Apple. Made no difference to my AEBS anyway. It wasn't firmware, only an update to some utility programs.

I've just this minute downloaded it off Software Update, so I doubt Apple have pulled it.

 

[flopticalcube]

Its no longer on their download page http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

and the links from the MR page 2 story no longer work. May take some time for the Software Update servers to remove it.