Multiple external hard drives on an Airport Extreme

[wgscott]

I probably just discovered the obvious, but in case anyone else is as clueless as me:

 

Using a powered USB hub, I can connect multiple USB-powered portable external drives to my Airport Extreme simultaneously. I can also mount these networked drives individually on (for example) my laptop, and play music from them (which is useful for subsidiary systems even if your main one has a hard-wired hard-drive; this allows me to put my backup to use and check its integrity).

[iamimdoc]

Will NTFS drives work?

[Boris75]

One word of advice: I have learned from various hiccups that my Airport Extreme recognizes a new drive more efficiently if the other drives have been removed before and the new drive is connected alone. After that, the old drives can be reconnected to the hub and, in my experience, they worked as nicely as before inserting the new drive.