Quote:
Originally Posted by
FormerNavalPerson 
I'm having the same problem audiopollution had in the original post a long time ago - did anyone ever have success with solving it?
To wit: I have a 2009 AEBS 802.11n router ("AirPort Extreme (Simultaneously Dual-Band)," running firmware 7.4.2). I have two USB hard drives, both made by Iomega. "Disk A" is a 500 GB drive used by TimeMachine. "Disk B" is a 1.5 TB drive on which I keep my iTunes media. I also have a USB printer; the printer and Disk A are plugged into a powered USB hub, which is, in turn, connected to the AEBS. Both operate perfectly and as expected in this configuration.
When Disk B is plugged into my computer (15" MBP) directly via USB, it operates perfectly. When I try to connect Disk B to the powered USB hub attached to the AEBS (which already has disk A and the printer attached), the AEBS's status light changes from solid green to flashing amber. The AirPort Utility program opens automatically to report that the "Disk needs repair. There is a problem with the disk connected to your Apple wireless device. Connect the disk to your computer to repair the disk." However, when I connect the disk to my computer, it connects, mounts, and operates just fine. DiskUtility reports no problems of any kind.
I've concluded that the problem is not the cables (because they work fine in other configurations), not the USB hub (I had an unpowered model and replaced it with a powered model, and both have the same issue), not the AEBS hardware (since the plugged in devices function fine when I use only drive A and the printer, or just drive A), and not the drives themselves (since one works fine now and both work fine when directly connected). This would seem to leave software issues, and I know little enough about UNIX, permissions files, preference files, etc. that I am not sure what to try. (Turning off IPv6, as someone suggested above, did not seem to make a difference, although that may have been suggested in response to another issue.)
I've been unable to find a solution for this problem on Apple's forums, although it seems to be the same problem that audiopollution originally posted here in Feb '07 before the topic got slightly changed. Has anyone else had this problem and successfully solved it? Any help, links to helpful discussions, insight, or other advice would be very welcome. Thanks!
- FNP
I've spent the weekend struggling with this and think I might have cracked it - at least it solved it for me.
Basic scenario - Macbook, Airport Extreme, USB splitter, two external hard drives.
One hard drive has been around for ages, working fine (through the AE and the splitter). Format the second drive using Disk Utility as HFS+, works fine when connected direct to the MacBook via USB, attach it to the AE (either directly to the AE USB port or using the hub) at the light goes orange and the "Disk Needs Repair" message appears.
Connect it to the MacBook again and verify it using Disk Utility and it's fine, connect it back to the AE and it still doesn't work.
The problem seems to be that the Disk and the Partition are formatted differently.
When you buy a disk it was almost certainly formatted as FAT32. Like me you probably went in to Disk Utility and reformatted it as HFS+ but did you format the Partition (like me) or both the Disk and the Partition?
Turns out it's possible to have a disk formatted as FAT32 and the partition formatted as HFS+. When this is the case it seems that the AE gets confused and throw the "Disk Needs Repair" message.
(Note: this applies even if there is only one partition on the disk - they're still separate things as far as Disk Utility is concerned.)
The solution is to format both the disk and the partition to HFS+. Connect the drive directly to the Mac, fire up Disk Utility, select the disk in the left hand pane (that's the top level one, not the indented thing which is the partition), select Erase, pick Mac OS Extended Journaled and start it up.
When it's done, select the partition in Disk Utility's left hand pane (immediately below the disk, slightly indented) and repeat the erase activity with the same settings.
Connect to the AE and you should be good to go.
You can easily check to see whether the partition and disk are formatted differently by just selecting them in Disk Utility and looking at the details in the section at the bottom which gives details of the disk or partition including the format.
Blog post on this here:
http://youhaventreadthis.tumblr.com/...k-needs-repair
I hope this helps a few people.