Wireless Time Machine Through Airport Extreme?

[Z400Racer37]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anybody knew how to set up the AirPort Extreme that I just got to be able to hook up to the new hard drive that I just got, to be able to do Time Machine wirelessly? When I plug the hard drive in, I can access it wirelessly, but if I click the Time Machine icon and click back up now, it gives me an error and says it cannot find the disk. Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Blue Velvet]

It should be very easy to set up, did it the other day for a friend.

How is the drive formatted? Also, do the first backup by connecting your Mac to the Airport Extreme by ethernet and turning wireless off. Also, check this thread.

 

[Z400Racer37]

hey there, sorry i have beenextremely busy lately. it is a 2tb elements and i reformatted to mac os extended journaled.

i looked at that thread, and you said to hook up to the router through ethernet with wireless turned off to do the first backup... am i supposed to enter that command into terminal then? because i tried entering that command and the drive was still not recognized by time machine in preferences..

thanks for the help!

 

[Doug Young]

...said to hook up to the router through ethernet with wireless turned off to do the first backup...

This means physically connect an ethernet cable between the airport and your Mac, this is faster and more stable than wifi and since the first backup will be quite large it improves the speed of that first backup. If you don't do it your first backup will take longer

Note: Older versions of the airport extreme don't support time machine without a firmware upgrade

Anyway
Make sure your airport drive is mounted (English translation:Make sure the 2TB drive is visible to your Mac)

1. Make sure you are in the finder (click the very first item in the dock OR click on the desktop and it should now say 'finder' way up at the top left of the screen)
2. Click on the 'Go' menu
3. Go down and click 'Connect to Server' (last item)
4. Click the 'Browse' at the bottom
5. You should see your airport* - then if you double click the airport you should be able to see and double click the drive to connect (there should be a blue drive icon on your desktop or in your finder window)
6. Try to setup time machine again

(also consider getting a second drive and swapping every week keeping the disconnected drive offsite)

 

[Z400Racer37]

incredible. thanks a lot man i cant believe it finally worked lol. i was beginning to think apple put an update out to stop this workaround so they could move their time capsules.
thanks again, much appreciated