2TB mybook essential and apple airport?

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

I bought the 2TB essential (with smartware) from costco to use as a network drive with my apple airport extreme.  I reformated to apple extended journaled, and it mounted and functioned normally when hooked up to the macbook.  It is also seen by all other computers on the network, and is useable as a shared device, when connected to the macbook.

When I plug it into the airport extreme USB, I can see it with airport utility, but no file sharing configuration seems to make it accessable to computers on the network.  The USB on the airport was working fine not long ago, with a USB printer, so I think that is fine.  It also will not mount to the dual G4 MDD, but I suspect that is due to the USB1.0 on the G4.  Has anyone hooked one of these up to the airport extreme and made it work?

Lastly, is there anyway to reclaim the lost space being used by WDsmartware?

Thanks,

John

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got a reply from “Otto”…sounds like I’m SOL…thanks WD…

Response (Otto) 03/15/2010 04:24 PM

Dear j,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is Otto

I truly apologize for the inconvenience you are currently experiencing. The My Book essential, does not have network capabilities, it can work, however in conjunction with your Airport Extreme, however, it is not a feature that WD supports. I suggest that you plug your hard drive directly into a computer. 


For further assistance, I suggest for your to contact apple's support personnel.

I hope that we have met your expectations today and that you are satisfied with our service. If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
Otto
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com