Airport Extreme...what does this number mean?

I just bought an Airport Extreme to replace a router that died. Works great. Have a couple of questions. First, how do I save something to the USB hard drive I've attached to the Airport Extreme? I've attached it and it shows in Airport Utility but can't seem to save anything to it.

Second, there is a number that appears by the Airport Extreme symbol in the Airport Utility. I can't find what it represents. I'm going to try to attach a screen capture of it.

Click on the number and it will either show it has new firmware or an issue that needs addressing.
What and how are you trying to send to the USB drive?

Give this a read Link

Once the drive is on the desktop you can have it mount automatically at each login by adding it to your login items.

osxx said:

Click on the number and it will either show it has new firmware or an issue that needs addressing.
What and how are you trying to send to the USB drive?

Click to expand...

I tried clicking on the number. Nothing happened.

I tried doing a time machine back up to the USB drive attached to the router. No go. From reading further it seems that it won't work for time machine back ups. Tried accessing some files on the USB drive and couldn't.

Slydude said:

Give this a read Link

Once the drive is on the desktop you can have it mount automatically at each login by adding it to your login items.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. Still doing something wrong. Now I can see the drive but still can't see the files on it or save anything on it.

Is the drive formatted for Mac?

ScubaDachshund said:

I tried clicking on the number. Nothing happened.

Click to expand...

Because this number denotes the errors that you have with whatever Airport device you have connected.
My advice is to start from scratch which is to remove the power cord, hold in the reset button and attach the cord while still holding in the rest button for about 20-30 secs, and let Airport Utility find it and reconfigure it.
Works every time with me.

I think it is best if you have the newest version of Airport as well. I think I remember that some older versions will not work with the usb.

V6Pony said:

I think it is best if you have the newest version of Airport as well. I think I remember that some older versions will not work with the usb.

Click to expand...

It's worth checking out but I don't think that is an issue. I have an older Time Capsule that works fine with drives. If ScubaDachshund's machine can see the drive but not write to it I think something else is going on.

Finally figured out what the number was about. It wanted me to update Airport Utility. Never did get the USB drive to work so I disconnected it. I'll just have to use a cable to make my time machine back ups. Thanks to all for taking the time to answer.