External drive connected to Airport Extreme for backup

[Wirenut]

I have an Airport Extreme and in the utility it says that it is version 7.7.9.

Can I plug a USB thumbdrive into this model router and then use it for Time Machine to backup to?

If so, what file system should I make the thumbdrive use?

 

[cobracnvt]

Here is an article on it. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202784 Is your thumb drive large enough to make it worthwhile? Usually time machine drives should be way larger than the computer you are backing up so that you have the file history available.

 

[Juicy Box]

I have an Airport Extreme and in the utility it says that it is version 7.7.9.

I think that number is the software version, not the model number of the Airport. But, that is a recent firmware update, so your router probably is not too old. Do you know how old your AirPort Extreme is?

Can I plug a USB thumbdrive into this model router and then use it for Time Machine to backup to?

Yes

If so, what file system should I make the thumbdrive use?

I don't really know anything about AFS, I have always done HFS on all of mine.

 

[Wirenut]

Thanks for the replies. My AE is less than 2 years old.

As for the size of the drive, I only have about 2 gigs of data on the computer. I don’t have any movies or music, and all my pictures are in the iCloud. I have a 500 gig Western Digital USB external HDD but it made noise at various times (even when not backing up) and it got annoying (I like my quiet lol).

 

[cobracnvt]

Time machine is fantastic. You may want to consider a low cost USB hard drive for AE as they are pretty cheap. Email and other hidden items take more space than one would expect.

 

[techwarrior]

If the Drive will be used for Time machine, it must be HFS, not APFS. there are documented issues with APFS drives and TM, so for now, use HFS, even if your Mac boot drive is APFS. APFS might be support on TM drives sometime in the future???

Generally, you want the drive to be at least 2x the amount of space the OS and user files consumes as a minimum, but cheap USB drives can be found with 500GB to 1TB. if you go with a larger drive, you can create multiple partitions, with one for TM, and one for dat. If you need the drive to be readable by Linux or Windows machines, format the data partition FAT as HFS probably won't be readable with either of these OS.

Your AP Extreme should have no issues with hosting the drive on your network.

 

[Wirenut]

Thanks for the info.

I have never backed up the OS or few apps that I use since they are freely available for download. I have always just backed up my user files which (I just checked) are 1.4 gigs. I figure my 32 gig USB thumb drive should be enough space.

If not then I will use the 500 gig external spinner.