Accessing external drive through network via Time Capsule

[Connoisseur]

hey all. So we're using my wife's time capsule as our primary router and as her backup drive. It's all good and well for her since she's an OS X user but I'm a Windows user and I have my own external HD. I'd like to hook up my HD to the Time Capsule via the USB port and use it as a purely network HD for my Windows laptop to access so I can set up backups and whatnot on my own. I tried this and my laptop doesn't seem to detect the external hard drive on the network.

Now I know Time Capsule doesn't support NTFS but I assumed it was more because of the backup utility. Can't I just pass through the external hard drive so I can use it as a network drive for my Windows machine? I already have a bunch of data on it so i'd rather not reformat into FAT or HFS.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Install the airport utility and it should handle adding the shared drive to Windows for you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1391

 

[Connoisseur]

Install the airport utility and it should handle adding the shared drive to Windows for you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1391

doh. no luck. Just installed it. It basically just created a mapped drive to the Time Capsule drive. I think that's something I could've done through windows. There's nowhere in the airport utility or the network settings which indicate there's an external NTFS HD connected to the Time Capsule.

 

[Connoisseur]

Correction, the utility detects the drive but it doesn't allow sharing.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Correction, the utility detects the drive but it doesn't allow sharing.

Did you log in to the utility with your apple account and the password you have on the time capsule? It isn't an NTFS share, it should just be a network share. Look up instructions on how to manually add the share...I can look when I'm home tonight if you want.

 

[Mixolydian]

You can't use NTFS.

 

[Connoisseur]

Yeah I did. I can see and access the time capsule drive and subfolders. I can see the external in the airport tool but it doesn't show any sort of sharing options or a separate drive letter or network path or anything.

 

[Connoisseur]

You can't use NTFS.

Well if that's the case I'm kinda screwed then. Just gotta keep it locally I guess. Such a stupid option that you can't even pass through an external as a network drive. I don't even want to use airport.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Yeah I did. I can see and access the time capsule drive and subfolders. I can see the external in the airport tool but it doesn't show any sort of sharing options or a separate drive letter or network path or anything.

If you saw it in Windows, what was the address in explorer? Right click "This PC" and click map network drive. You can assign a letter there.

Well if that's the case I'm kinda screwed then. Just gotta keep it locally I guess. Such a stupid option that you can't even pass through an external as a network drive. I don't even want to use airport.

The time capsule just shows it as a drive. The partition format is irrelevant.

 

[Connoisseur]

If you saw it in Windows, what was the address in explorer? Right click "This PC" and click map network drive. You can assign a letter there.

The time capsule just shows it as a drive. The partition format is irrelevant.

That's the thing. I can see it in the airport tool but not in Windows. Here's some screenshots of the tool and File explorer (with personal data cleared out). The Z drive is the mapped internal drive for the time capsule:

Airport App:

File Explorer:

 

[Connoisseur]

Also, when I try Map Network Drive, it shows me the Time Capsule folders but not the external connected HD. Seems that airport is detecting a drive, but maybe it's not mapping it since it doesn't detect the format:

 

[Connoisseur]

Any thoughts? I'm not trying to use the Time Machine backup. I basically just want to convert my External USB drive into a NAS for my Windows machine but I'm using the Time Capsule as the router.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The Time Capsule's "Operating System" doesn't do NTFS, so you will need to reformat the drive as FAT32 or HFS+. Then you can create the share in Airport Utility.

Windows doesn't magically see the drive without the Airport Utility installed and scanning, because the Time Capsule doesn't use the same discovery protocols as Windows does.

Apple Products "Just Work" - but not if you're running Windows.

Unless your wife needs access to the files on the HD, you're better off just leaving it directly attached to the Windows PC.

 

[Connoisseur]

Thanks for the response. What I was afraid of. Now I'm assuming if I actually purchase a NAS enclosure (Synology for ex.), I can still attach it to the Time Capsule via ethernet and set it up separately right?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks for the response. What I was afraid of. Now I'm assuming if I actually purchase a NAS enclosure (Synology for ex.), I can still attach it to the Time Capsule via ethernet and set it up separately right?

Absolutely. Although you'll still need to format the drive. (Synology uses Linux, so no NTFS support either.) And Synology would recommend you install their utility software on your workstation, just like Apple recommends.

But you don't need to do that - just format the drive from the Time Capsule using the airport utility. You can use the AP Utility on your wife's Mac to do that if you want.

Then use the directions here:

http://techsupport.foreverwarm.com/time-capsule-windows#harddisk

To connect to the timecapsule from your Windows PC without installing the AP Utility. It's just a pain in the kiester without autodiscovery.

(Although I'm not sure why you're averse to installing it.)

The Synology would be faster than the USB drive on the TC, but you have to jump through similar hoops either way.

 

[RampantAndroid]

Any thoughts? I'm not trying to use the Time Machine backup. I basically just want to convert my External USB drive into a NAS for my Windows machine but I'm using the Time Capsule as the router.

Oh, I get it....format it. It'll work - it's what I did. But realize, the airport makes a TERRIBLE NAS IMO - I've got a nice 2TB USB3 drive. Nice and fast connected directly over USB to a machine, but over gigabit WIRED ethernet, it's slow as hell. The airport base is USB2, because Apple (as usual) has their head up their butt and wants you to buy a time capsule with a built in overpriced hard drive. Make a real NAS and be happier.


Else, format it and map it in Windows. It'll map fine in Windows even if it's not NTFS.

 

[Connoisseur]

Yeah right now the external drive is my only mass storage since I replaced my desktop with a laptop. I'm thinking of getting a proper RAID1 NAS for redundancy. For now, I backed up the REALLY important stuff (i.e. photos) onto the Time Capsule and will see what else I can back up.