[markw10]

I had a Airport Base Station Extreme that I've used since this spring. I have a USB 2.0 Hub attached to it that has both a printer and a WD 500GB MyBook Hard Drive plugged into it. I've used it since March without any problems.
Now with the Gigabit update out for the Base Station I just upgraded. The base station itself works fine with the internet and network. Also, the printer works fine but the problem I'm having is with the Airport Disk. For no reason I simply lose it. It happens once about every 24 hours. I will go to the Mac to find a msg. stating it can't find the drive which I called Server. I try to reconnect but when I type in the password and press okay I just get the beachball. It does nothing and times out after about a minute. I continually have that problem. Even when this happens the networkig and internet part of the base station work and the printer works also so I know it's not the USB hub or connection.
My question. I hope this isn't a hardware issue with the new base station I have. Is it possible I have something set up wrong in settings? The only way I get the airdisk back after this happens is to unplug and replug in the base station to reset it.

[ursus]

No help from me, unfortunately, but I do have the same problem. I leave Azureus on while at work and when I come home all torrents are stopped because the AirDisk unmounted sometime during the day.

Actually, the problem carried some other consequences as well. Azureus still tried to download, it seems, and created an alias to the original AirDisk (god knows where the files actually where located) and continued. When I revived the AirDisk there was suddenly two of them with the same name. Confusion ensued. So I tried to unmount, etc, and eventually the incorrect alias disappeared. But now I have two Airport Extreme basestations listed under Network.

Also, it seems like this unmounting/mounting damages the AirDisk's file system. Had to plug it in on USB and repair with Disk Utility.

I'm not sure if the unmounting is due to total loss of network connection or if it's something else.

[ghporter]

It sounds more like an issue with the WD external drive-it either goes to sleep or something similar and just doesn't wake up. Many, if not most USB drives spin down the disk during periods of inactivity, and some (not many) offer a setting to let you select the time to wait before going to sleep. I'd check the WD site for help on the drive itself.

[gsxrboy]

Same issue for me, same drive as well. I added a gBe AE to my older one in bridge mode to have a mini (media machine) ethernetted into the network in .n mode. Before all that it worked fine, it possibly started to happen recently from about the last firmware update. perviously airdisking to the drive worked perfect every time, no disconnects with the mini using .g mode.

p.s. Previously the drive would go to sleep, as it is supposed to, and then wake up fine, so the drive spin down wasn't an issue before.

Edit - Looks like the culprit is the 7.2.1 firmware, rolling back to 7.1.1 (avail to pre gigabit versions only) fixes the problem until Apple fix the known problem. Turning off journalling on the airdisk helps with speed throughput as well.

[mintcake]

I upgraded from my old flying saucer Extreme base station to the new N one yesterday precisely with a view to using it as a server hub. I've also found that my Airport Disk keeps dropping out on me. It's not going to sleep - it drops out while I'm in the middle of using it.

So is this a known issue then? Can someone give me a hand downgrading my firmware? Not sure how to go about doing that. Thanks.

edit - OK scratch that last bit, seems I can't downgrade, my AEBS is too new. And this AirDisk problem has been a known issue for over a month, and still Apple haven't fixed it??

[ghporter]

I think it would be useful, if not terribly practical, to see if other USB-connected drives produced the same symptoms on the new Extreme. That would at least demonstrate that it's one device or the other. As far as I know, (and my inside knowledge is precisely zip), this is a known issue but not one that's been attributed to any part in particular. If I had the new AEBS, I'd look into that through borrowing a USB drive from a friend (which would be pretty easy for me to do), and then I'd have a way to determine what's the real issue.

I can't say whether gsxrboy is completely accurate about the firmware being the issue or not, but if it happens to people who can't use the 7.1.1 version, we could at least try to figure out what it is about what drives that gets screwy.

[mintcake]

I'm wondering if it might be an issue with the drive format (problems were with FAT32), I'm trying again with an HFS+ formatted drive and so far it hasn't dropped out on me.

[krove]

This is a known problem in the Apple Support forums.

The answer relates to losing Airport Disk after you sleep your computer. The only known solution is to restart the base station and not put any computers to sleep that connect to the disk.

PITA.

[cavedog]

Originally Posted by krove 

This is a known problem in the Apple Support forums.

The answer relates to losing Airport Disk after you sleep your computer. The only known solution is to restart the base station and not put any computers to sleep that connect to the disk.

PITA.

It's more than simply a sleep issue. Multiple USB drives connected through a powered hub, plus printer - works for a time, then quits... Single new USB drive added to hub kills everything... I had hoped to use AEBS as a replacement for my CAT5 network, but it's set me back many, many frustrating hours.

If Apple is not already aware of this, they should be. All signs indicate this is a screw up with the 7.2.x firmware update. I've seen recommendations to revert to 7.1, but haven't yet determined how to find that (I purchased the AEBS with 7.2 already onboard).

Various temporary fixes like directly connecting the USB drive to a host machine, then ejecting it and reconnecting to AEBS works, but it's a royal pain in the arse. And it really only works until the next time AEBS decides to take a powder and drop the connection.

Bottom line: Firmware bug that Apple should be aware of and should fix ASAP.

[xtremelyyellow]

I'm having a similar problem after I forwarded a few ports. Works fine until I put my main computer to sleep. I then have to restart my Airport for any computers to even see it. I ended up deleting to forwarding ports and it's worked fine so far. What is up with Apple lately? Seems like they are having a lot of "bugs" in their updates all of a sudden. I don't remember there being so many problems in the past

[ikcizokm]

Just a quick /bump to this thread, since I have been having the exact same problem with my 802.11n version of the Airport Extreme for MONTHS now, with no word from Apple about a fix. Has anyone come across a solution?

With the release of Time Crap--err--Capsule, it seems to be the way to go. I might end up just selling off my 500GB MyBook and Airport Extreme (which, ironically, I collectively paid $80 more for than the TC @ $299). PITA, considering Apple purposefully removed features from Leopard (Time Machine backups over Airdisk), and then gimped Airport with firmware 7.2.1 knowing full well they'd be releasing this product later. I hate this bait-n-switch crap.

[ursus]

I lose my AirDisk every few days and it won't come back until after multiple attempts to restart AEBS, unplug USB disk, relaunching Finder etc.

Then the other day I set up WAN disk sharing. And now, when I lose the AirDisk and get the "The server may not exist or it is not operational at this time. Check the server name or IP address and your network connection and try again." error I can mount it through WAN (DynDNS hostname). Isn't that something?

This is quite frustrating. I never know if I'll be able to successfully access my AirDisk, or having to get out of bed and do the five-minute routine of restarting etc... The WAN mounting is a workaround, does anyone know the technical difference between it and mounting it "normally"?