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Srikanthl's avatar
Srikanthl
Initiate
Nov 06, 2017
Solved

Does Orbi RBK50 support USB3 Connected hard drives?

Hi,

Does Orbi RBK50 support USB3 Connected hard disks? My router just can't recognise USB3 hard disks. However it is able to recognise my 8gb uab2 pen drive. Is this a limitation in current firmware. It is very disappointing. Except this I like everything else in this router.
  • Hi All, 


    I have checked this with the team. Orbi has not been updated to use Readyshare features as of right now it only officially supports Readyshare print for printers via the USB.

     

    Regards, 
    Blanca 
    Community Team

27 Replies

  • Based on what can currently be found on Netgear's support site for this product, the USB port is for connecting a USB Printer to enable ReadyShare network printing. There does not appear to be any mention in this device's features to indicate support of USB hard drives at this time. While some users have reported very selective compatibility with USB hard drives or USB thumb drives, there does not appear to be a device compatibility list, nor have I found instructions for attaching USB hard drives, USB thumb drives, or other USB storage media to the RBK50 (RBR50 or RBS50). To my knowledge, there has also not been any official information given to indicate supported formats. For the time being, I would say that if this is a feature you need, you could try adding a device to your network that is designed to support this capability. For example, some NAS units have USB ports for adding external hard drives or thumb drives. As an alternative, most computers will allow network sharing of external hard drives or thumb drives. Suggestions for adding USB drives to your home network can be found by searching online. Hope this helps!

    • mdgm-ntgr's avatar
      mdgm-ntgr
      NETGEAR Employee Retired

      All our current ReadyNAS units have USB3 ports. We even have one/more eSATA ports on a number of models if you prefer that interface.

       

      A NAS does need at least one disk installed internally. Performance for internal disks in network storage is likely to be be a lot better than USB disks. If you were thinking of permanently connecting a USB disk, a NAS connected to an ethernet port on your Orbi would be a much better way to go.

       

      With a NAS you can use redundant RAID levels with multiple disks to make needing to do a full restore from backup less likely. Whereas with a USB disk if the disk fails you’ll need to restore a copy of the data elsewhere.

       

      A NAS is a headless PC with its own CPU and can be used to do lots of different things.

      • Srikanthl's avatar
        Srikanthl
        Initiate
        Thanks but NAS is generally expensive. My USB3 device is backward compatible with usb2 port. Orbi has an usb2 port and so I thought it would support my USB drive.

        Is it something that will be supported in future firmware updates ?
  • I also have the latest firmware that ends with "210" and cannont get any drive to be seen. Currently, there is a 32GB flash drive attached formatted to FAT32 and I don't see it anywhere in Router page nor on my Network. Where is this supposed to appear (for those that said they got their FAT32 drive to work with their Orbi)?