Apple this week told some of its AirPort Extreme customers that they will not receive official support for using external USB hard drives with Leopard’s Time Machine. With users up in arms, Apple is not moving from its decision, saying that it is not responsible for 3rd party devices connected to its hardware.

Apple released an update for its AirPort Extreme WiFi base station several weeks ago that allowed users to attach external USB drives. Previously, Apple’s Time Machine backup utility in Leopard only worked with a directly attached drive or if you purchased a Time Capsule. Apple released Time Capsule just recently, which is essentially an AirPort Extreme with a built in hard drive.

Despite the lack of support from Apple, it does make sense. Attaching a USB hard drive to an AirPort Extreme WiFi base station is analogous to attaching one to a Mac Pro or iMac — Apple is not expected to give support to the hard drive, only the computer that the drive is attached to. This appears like what Apple is thinking with the AirPort Extreme.

Many users were upset when news broke that the final release version of Leopard dropped support for Time Machine backups over WiFi. When Apple released Time Capsule, even more were upset, believing the drop was simply part of a ploy to create Time Capsule and sell the feature for a price.