External Ethernet Hard Drive as Airport Disk on Airport Extreme?

[norrasemaj]

Does anyone know if I can connect an Ethernet hard drive on my Airport Extreme and configure it as an Airport disk? I know I can put a USB hard drive on it, and that works fine, but USB 2.0 is very slow compared to Firewire or Ethernet and I'd like to be able to transfer files much faster. All I've been able to find is LaCie Network drives which work, but there interface is a bit like dealing with Windows; doesn't function properly (time is always off by hours) a lot of unnecessary lingo added (it calls folders "shares"), requires multiple users (the master user/password is admin/admin and the ID cannot be changed), internet browser configuration (yuck), multiple drives popping up on my sidebar even though there's only one drive, etc. It's just a mess, which is standard for anything other than a Mac.

Frankly, I don't mind paying extra for a Mac because setting up and maintaining everything is so simple and it seems like I have to do a lot of maintenance to get this LaCie drive functioning the way I want it.

I understand the added complexity of an Ethernet drive technically speaking, but all I need is a basic hard drive that's password protectable on an ethernet port so the transfer rate is faster.

Any thoughts?

 

[tappy89]

I would really like to know this as well. But can you also access the drive via MobileMe when your Airport is registered with MobileMe?

 

[RMo]

I haven't tried, but I'm guessing you won't be able to use it as an "AirPort Disk" per se (with all of Apple's utilities). I was going to say that you should still be able to use it for lots of things, but then I read your horror stories about setting it up. I might suggest a different drive... (There's a difference between "folders" and "shares," by the way, although it might be stolen from the NTFS world, but the rest sounds like it could be problematic.)

 

[tappy89]

I like the idea of the Drobo, where you can swap out different sized hard drives when needed

 

[nunes013]

i know the WD My Book World Edition apparently can be reformatted. Stock it is set up as a network server but online it says people have found a way to reformat it as a regular disk. I dont know how though, sorry. i dont know if any other network drives allow this either.