New Airport extreme with USB disk

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Just installed my new "n" airport and it is working well except for my Buffalo 500G USB drive. It does not show up in the Airport Utility menu. When I power up the drive I get a red light indication, if I move it back to a direct connect USB port all works fine. Seems like the airport and the drive are not connecting properly. Any one else have success with a USB drive on the n airport??
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  • Reply 1 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aquia33 View Post


    Just installed my new "n" airport and it is working well except for my Buffalo 500G USB drive. It does not show up in the Airport Utility menu. When I power up the drive I get a red light indication, if I move it back to a direct connect USB port all works fine. Seems like the airport and the drive are not connecting properly. Any one else have success with a USB drive on the n airport??



    I had the same problem with a 500GB Lacie drive. I returned my AE(n), as Apple could not give me any indication when they would be issuing a fix.
  • Reply 2 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    I had the same problem with a 500GB Lacie drive. I returned my AE(n), as Apple could not give me any indication when they would be issuing a fix.



    After all the renaming suggested on apple site and other forum. I was getting a little frustrated so I tried reseating the USB connection very firmly and it came up after a few highly technical "jiggles".



    Perhaps all the plugging and replugging fixed the problem and the renaming as suggested was secondary to a poor USB connection from the ABS n
  • Reply 3 of 37
    gdoggdog Posts: 224member
    i am awaiting shipment of new base station and was planning on getting a usb drive also. now i am worried about which one to get. i was planning on a lacie but you seem to have had problems. did you resolve it. also what is speed of accessing usb on wireless network. any help would be appreciated.
  • Reply 4 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gdog View Post


    i was planning on a lacie but you seem to have had problems. did you resolve it.



    Yes, I resolved it by returing the base station, using the drive directly connected to my MBP, and plugging the Linksys router back in.
  • Reply 5 of 37
    gdoggdog Posts: 224member
    thats not the resolving i was hoping for
  • Reply 6 of 37
    dpopedpope Posts: 21member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gdog View Post


    thats not the resolving i was hoping for



    Suggestion... I would seriously wait on buying the NEW Apple Airport Extreme N router. They are having compatibility issues with "devices." I spoked to a an Apple engineer and he acknowledged some issues they were having.



    Look... it's a new product using a specification that hasn't been released yet. I am confident that all vendors including Apple will get it right once the dust settles. There is no reason to blame other vendor "devices" because they don't play well with Apple.
  • Reply 7 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gdog View Post


    thats not the resolving i was hoping for



    I've been having problems with my USB drives over the new AXn router also. Both are Seagate drives (one is 500GB, one is 400GB) installed in generic FireWire/USB 2.0 enclosures - they show up on the desktop, and then they vanish. After they vanish, the Airport Disk Utility still sees them, but gives a nonsensical error message when you try to remount. Restarting everything sometimes fixes the problem, and sometimes doesn't, and sometimes it just fixes itself. All very irksome.



    I saw a thing on the Apple support site about what I thought was an unrelated problem: iTunes sees my Airport Express routers that are connected to speakers, but won't connect to them. (another problem that just suddenly started manifesting out of the blue). Apple recommends setting IPv6 to "off" in the Network Preferences on the computer (the default setting for IPv6 is "Automatic.")



    I did that and it solved the iTunes issue - currently the Airport Disk's are showing on the desktop - too soon to tell if the IPv6 change might've fixed that problem too. I'll report back. One way or another, someone (i.e. Apple) had better come up with a fix for the disk problem, because the Airport Disk feature is the only reason I bought the router!
  • Reply 8 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aquia33 View Post


    Just installed my new "n" airport and it is working well except for my Buffalo 500G USB drive. It does not show up in the Airport Utility menu. When I power up the drive I get a red light indication, if I move it back to a direct connect USB port all works fine. Seems like the airport and the drive are not connecting properly. Any one else have success with a USB drive on the n airport??



    Make sure the drive has a one-word name with no spaces, symbols, or letters with umlauts or tildas. God knows why that should matter, but it does.
  • Reply 9 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by alphadork View Post


    Make sure the drive has a one-word name with no spaces, symbols, or letters with umlauts or tildas. God knows why that should matter, but it does.



    While I was trying to solve my issues with the AE(n) I did the following:



    1) Used multiple USB cables.

    2) Turned off journaling.

    3) Renamed the drive to 'Music' from 'Music Archive'.

    4) Rebuilt the directories using DiskWarrior 4.

    5) Screamed a lot.



    None of the above worked. From my phone calls to Apple, they were aware of the issue but had no timeline for a firmware update for the router.
  • Reply 10 of 37
    cubitcubit Posts: 846member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    While I was trying to solve my issues with the AE(n) I did the following:



    1) Used multiple USB cables.

    2) Turned off journaling.

    3) Renamed the drive to 'Music' from 'Music Archive'.

    4) Rebuilt the directories using DiskWarrior 4.

    5) Screamed a lot.



    None of the above worked. From my phone calls to Apple, they were aware of the issue but had no timeline for a firmware update for the router.



    I guess I'm still a little dim, here, but I am still not sure I understand what problem this thread is seeking to solve.



    I just got my new extreme bs today but am awaiting the arrival of an n-empowered mac to fire it up. I certainly hope I can use my LaCie drive with it, but am delghted by the footprint.



    Anyone yet set up a working network?
  • Reply 11 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cubit View Post


    I guess I'm still a little dim, here, but I am still not sure I understand what problem this thread is seeking to solve.



    I just got my new extreme bs today but am awaiting the arrival of an n-empowered mac to fire it up. I certainly hope I can use my LaCie drive with it, but am delghted by the footprint.



    Anyone yet set up a working network?



    I've got it working great now - my problem seems to have been a faulty USB hub. I bought a new hub, and everything's been hunky dorry every since - I have the n router with three shared disks attached, 2 airport expresses attached to speakers in other parts of the house, and another attached to a printer in a closet. Everything works on every computer in the house. Yay!
  • Reply 12 of 37
    kishankishan Posts: 732member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by alphadork View Post


    I've got it working great now - my problem seems to have been a faulty USB hub. I bought a new hub, and everything's been hunky dorry every since - I have the n router with three shared disks attached, 2 airport expresses attached to speakers in other parts of the house, and another attached to a printer in a closet. Everything works on every computer in the house. Yay!



    Can you comment on whether the network operates at full speed with the two airport expresses connected? I also have two and am hesitant to get an extreme if having the two 802.11g devices will slow everything down.
  • Reply 13 of 37
    To those with those Buffalo 500 Gig external drives, try this:



    1) Connect to the Airport Extreme router. Wait until you see the red activity light (which will stay there for a while).

    2) Run the Airport Utility. Choose manual setup.

    3) Using the Airport Utility, reboot the router.



    I did this as a last resort and that got the drive online. It seems that the Airport router have some difficulties detecting and adding it when you connect it initially.
  • Reply 14 of 37
    Update:



    AE router lost the signal, so I had to reboot. For some reason, the buffalo drive hung.



    Since I have other drives, I plugged in my 80 Gig and my flash drives and AE is able to see them. I also plugged the Buffalo drive to my Macbook and it is able to see the drive.



    So I shutdown the Buffalo drive for a half hour, then power it back up. Worked now.



    Something goofy with the drive, so I probably get a external drive for the router. Needless to say, I won't recommend the Buffalo drive for use with the new AE.
  • Reply 15 of 37
    lfe2211lfe2211 Posts: 507member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rilindo View Post


    Update:



    AE router lost the signal, so I had to reboot. For some reason, the buffalo drive hung.



    Since I have other drives, I plugged in my 80 Gig and my flash drives and AE is able to see them. I also plugged the Buffalo drive to my Macbook and it is able to see the drive.



    So I shutdown the Buffalo drive for a half hour, then power it back up. Worked now.



    Something goofy with the drive, so I probably get a external drive for the router. Needless to say, I won't recommend the Buffalo drive for use with the new AE.



    FWIW, been using AEBS with a 250 gig Wetern Digital HD attached to it for about 6 weeks. The drive and system have worked flawlessly from day 1.
  • Reply 16 of 37
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    I'm sorry to hear all you guys are having problems as well.



    Even when you do get the USB drive 'working', you'll find that when you go back to the data on the drive it's hosed. I had originally thought that this was only when you saved files directly to the drive ? but it turns out that it also happens when you save a local copy and then drag the file to the Airport Disk.



    And for some reason, the Airport Disks don't show up in Disk Utility, so you can't keep an eye on them and make sure that they're working properly. For all I know, I could have almost 1TB of screwed data sitting on my Airport Disks ? I only find the true extent of the damage as I attempt to open each file.



    All in all, the Airport Disk feature is TOTALLY useless.
  • Reply 17 of 37
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Oh, and you can't 'Spotlight' or 'Command-F' Airport Disks properly, either.
  • Reply 18 of 37
    lfe2211lfe2211 Posts: 507member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Messiah View Post


    I'm sorry to hear all you guys are having problems as well.



    Even when you do get the USB drive 'working', you'll find that when you go back to the data on the drive it's hosed. I had originally thought that this was only when you saved files directly to the drive ? but it turns out that it also happens when you save a local copy and then drag the file to the Airport Disk.



    And for some reason, the Airport Disks don't show up in Disk Utility, so you can't keep an eye on them and make sure that they're working properly. For all I know, I could have almost 1TB of screwed data sitting on my Airport Disks ? I only find the true extent of the damage as I attempt to open each file.



    All in all, the Airport Disk feature is TOTALLY useless.



    You scared the shite out of me. I did some random checks on my files stored on the AEBS HD and they all work fine.
  • Reply 19 of 37
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Messiah View Post


    And for some reason, the Airport Disks don't show up in Disk Utility,



    Why would they show up? They're not locally connected. What genius protocol do you know of where you can repair a disk across the network?
  • Reply 20 of 37
    mikefmikef Posts: 698member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chucker


    What genius protocol do you know of where you can repair a disk across the network?



    iSCSI
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