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Share USB Hard Drive over AirPort Extreme Network?

John Doe 57

John Doe 57

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
1,333
3
Los Angeles, CA
I have a USB External Hard Drive that I would like to share over my network by directly plugging the USB cable into the USB slot, in the back of the AirPort Extreme device. So far, no luck. This method worked fine with 10.5 but I haven't been able to solve the problem in 10.6 yet. I've done numerous searches but haven't found the solution that works for me. Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
I am in a Mac-less office right now, but I have just recently upgraded my Airport extreme and my OS to the latest versions (did this 3 days ago) and my 2 UBS-connected drives are still available on the network. :/

I seem to recall having to go through the network to find the drives originally? And that they didn't automatically show up in Devices?? But since you had these drives show up there previously, that must not be the case.

I will double-check when I get home.
 
mstrze said:
I am in a Mac-less office right now, but I have just recently upgraded my Airport extreme and my OS to the latest versions (did this 3 days ago) and my 2 UBS-connected drives are still available on the network. :/

I seem to recall having to go through the network to find the drives originally? And that they didn't automatically show up in Devices?? But since you had these drives show up there previously, that must not be the case.

I will double-check when I get home.
Click to expand...

Any word on it? I've read some forums talking about the HD having to be formatted a certain way but that shouldn't matter since this is the same HD (and same network) I was sharing a year ago with no problems.

I've gone through everything in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2298828?start=0&tstart=0
 
Sorry I didn't get back sooner...I have a Mac Mini with system 10.7.3, Airport Utility version 6.00 and Airport Firmware is updated to 7.6.1.

The USB drives are where they had always been for me, NOT under Devices, but under Shared within the Finder panes. Click on the name of your AEBS and then click into the drive after it connects.

I just updated the firmware too, so I guess I don't have the same issue you are having.
 
This is so weird. I'm not getting a "Shared" option in the Finder.
 

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I don't know what to say, I have always been accessing it this way. I have two externals hooked up to my Mac and they are listed under devices but the AEBS drives have always been under Shared. :/

Did you follow this from that other thread? you seem to have 'Connected Servers' chosen, so that should work:

"Also you might have to connect to the Router. Sometimes my disks don't automatically show up, especially in Time Machine until I connect to the server.

Go to Finder
Choose "Go -> Connect to a Server"

Either use the browse btton to find the router or type "afp://10.0.1.1" (Thats the default router address)

It should then connect to the router. Should ask your for a password of one type or other depending on how you have the router configured. Then you should see your disk on the desktop or in Finder by clicking on the router name in the Left column."
 
Last edited:
hafr said:
Also, a fairly stupid question but still: you're sure that you've enabled Sharing in Disk Utility? :)
Click to expand...

Also, go into the Airport Utility and assure yourself that the drive is setup properly and that its info didn't somehow get lost when the update occurred.

Best thing to do is just start from scratch.

(Aside: are you sure your drive originally showed up in Devices and not Sharing when connected to the Airport Extreme? That's an odd red flag to me.)
 
mstrze said:
(Aside: are you sure your drive originally showed up in Devices and not Sharing when connected to the Airport Extreme? That's an odd red flag to me.)
Click to expand...

When I was running Leopard it showed up in Devices but it doesn't show up in Snow Leopard.

Here is what the Airport Utility is showing me:
 

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John Doe 57 said:
When I was running Leopard it showed up in Devices but it doesn't show up in Snow Leopard.
Click to expand...

Well I am at a loss, perhaps someone else has some advice. Like I said I really don't think it should have ever shown up in Devices since it was connected through the AEBS. :confused:
 
mstrze said:
Well I am at a loss, perhaps someone else has some advice. Like I said I really don't think it should have ever shown up in Devices since it was connected through the AEBS. :confused:
Click to expand...

Well you never know, maybe I'm wrong in thinking that it was under Devices. It was over a year ago. Let's say it was under Sharing, where would I go from there?
 
If you want the drive shared by the AEBS, I believe it must be formatted HFS+. Is there data on the drive you want to keep? If not, reformat the drive with the proper filesystem. The AEBS definitely won't be able to read the drive if it is formatted NTFS.
 
mfram said:
If you want the drive shared by the AEBS, I believe it must be formatted HFS+. Is there data on the drive you want to keep? If not, reformat the drive with the proper filesystem. The AEBS definitely won't be able to read the drive if it is formatted NTFS.
Click to expand...

As I mentioned before:
John Doe 57 said:
I've read some forums talking about the HD having to be formatted a certain way but that shouldn't matter since this is the same HD (and same network) I was sharing a year ago with no problems.
Click to expand...


sltyler1 said:
John have your tried it with the update to the Airport Utility?
Click to expand...
I have updated but haven't tried hooking the HD up. I'll give it a shot later today.
 
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