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Ok, I have an Airport extreme that I'm using as my wireless router. So far it has worked great. I have a PC and Mac and the wirelessly share files between the two without problems.

I can't however get the Airport to work with my external HD. I wiped the drive clean of all the proprietary stuff and reformatted it using windows as NTFS. I want to be able to share it over the network so both my Mac and PC can read/write. The problem is when I hook it up to the Airport I get an error. It says the the disk I connected contains errors. Hook the disk up to your computer to fix errors. If I hook it straight into my PC it works just fine. I've checked it for errors and there are none. I have sharing enabled on it. I can't think of any other settings to change. There is nothing I can do through the Airport utility.

Any suggestions would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks so much,

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As reported a working fix, here is why that happens and practical next steps to avoid surprises.

The AirPort must be able to mount the USB volume itself before it can share it on the network. Many consumer routers (including AirPort models of that era) only mount Mac OS Extended (HFS+) and DOS/FAT filesystems. If the router cannot mount the partition (NTFS, ext, encrypted volumes, or unusual partition maps), it reports a disk error even though the drive is fine on a PC. The router then presents the disk to Macs and PCs over the network (AFP/SMB) once it can mount it.

Quick checklist and actionable steps:

  • Back up the drive first. Reformatting erases data.
  • On a Mac use Disk Utility: erase as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" and choose GUID partitioning if you plan to use Time Machine.
  • Connect to the AirPort, open AirPort Utility -> Disks -> enable file sharing and set access (disk password or user accounts).
  • From Windows map the share (\AirPortName\ShareName) or from Mac use Finder -> Connect to Server (smb:// or afp://).
  • If you must keep NTFS, either leave the drive attached to a PC and share it from that PC, or install an NTFS driver on the Mac (Paragon/Tuxera) or use a true NAS that supports NTFS/exFAT.

Troubleshooting tips: update AirPort firmware; use a powered USB hub for bus-powered drives; try a different USB cable; verify partitions with Disk Utility.

Member Avatar for grgreen

For anyone who reads this...

I was able to fix the problem. I plugged the drive straight into my Mac and reformatted it as a Mac file system. After doing this the Airport extreme read it just fine and I am able to share the drive between the Mac and PC. If this is really the only way. Mac didn't do a very good job of informing people of this when they advertised this router for PC and Mac.

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