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Forum Discussion
Time Machine with USB drive on RAX40
Recieved my RAX40 today and after having an initial debacle where it wouldn't detect my internet connection (resolved by updating the firmware with one I had 'downloaded earlier') I configured the rest of the settings for wireless, LAN, etc and moved onto ReadyShare.
I have used a WD My Book 4TB drive for the past 4 years with an Apple Time Capsule router, which several Macs in the house will happily back up to. After spending upwards of two hours researching and grappling with the RAX40, it is my understanding that whilst I can make the Macs access the shared drive, and read/write to them, I am now unable to use this drive with the Apple Time Machine software.
I believe that this is to do with the router not presenting itself to the Mac as a Time Machine compatible SMB share, and therefore it is ignored by Time Machine. This feature is a real deal breaker for me so I hope somebody on this forum has one wise words of support to guide me as this router is very close to being sent back.
In the interests of clarity, I followed the instruction manual for the RAX 40 (downloaded from Netgear) to the letter, not once, but twice. Not only do the instructions not work, but they are hideously unclear when describing the process on a Mac which makes me think that it's a botch job.
Crossing my fingers - thanks in advance.
J
3 Replies
The top issues that crop up when people land here with USB problems are SMB and partitions.
This sums up the SMB thing:
Solved: ALL Netgear USB Drive Mapping Issues ReadyShareCo... - NETGEAR Communities
On partitions, ReadySHARE hates them. It will look at a partitioned drive and see the first bit that takes its fancy, which may be the smallest partition reserved for something irrelevant.
This might be instructive, if you haven't been there already:
Search - NETGEAR Communities – Apple Time
The bottom line is that ReadySHARE is a poor substitute for grown up NAS technology with an Ethernet connection.
- Thanks for your reply.
In all honesty, this is not an issue with my drive (i.e. partitions) because I can access the one partition perfectly well.
I believe the primary issue why I am having this issues is because NETGEAR have not followed Apple’s spec for Time Machine and the use of Bonjour with SMB. The router should appear automatically on the Mac, and I should be able to select the mount points, assuming Bonjour is configured correctly.
Ultimately it’s a half baked implementation of a NAS (which is, to some extent to be expected). What I don’t appreciate is that the manual provides a step by step to configure the router/HD with Time Machine and despite Time Machine not changing IN ANY WAY between the issue of the manual and present day, the instructions don’t work.
tpx_jm wrote:
Ultimately it’s a half baked implementation of a NAS (which is, to some extent to be expected).See above.
