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BiigRich's avatar
BiigRich
Aspirant
Dec 17, 2019

RAX80, Looking for a USB drive that's more than just "reported to work"

This is my second Netgear router with a USB port that is supposed to support backups using ReadyShare. The first one, a R6250, worked for quite a while before simply no longer being able to see the attached drive. The drive was 100% functional, it just stopped working on the router's USB port. I believe the error was USB drive not found or words to that effect.

 

I just bought a new Netgear RAX80 router. I bought a 1TB WD Passport drive and connected it. It was configured and backed up immediately. I looked and the files appeared to be on the drive correctly.

 

I needed to reboot the router because of an Internet modem crash and the USB drive was no longer available. I tried the drive on all sorts of OS platforms but it could not be mounted. I don't know what scrambled the metadata but the drive was toast.

 

I tried another USB drive that I had and it was not recognised by the router even though it works fine on other PC's.

 

What is so peculiar about this USB port? Does it not need to comply with industry standards? I look at the support site and it lists "drives that are reported to work". Considering the drive I had that worked for a number of months, one that didn't work after one backup and another that won't mount or be accessed at all I'm hesitant to buy any drive even if it is on the "reported to have worked" list.

 

What is wrong with this port (or in the case of the RAX80, 2 ports).

 

I should not have to jump through hoops to get a simple industry standard drive to function, right? 

 

14 Replies

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  • michaelkenward's avatar
    michaelkenward
    Guru
    Dec 18, 2019
    BiigRich wrote:

    I tried another USB drive that I had and it was not recognised by the router even though it works fine on other PC's.

     

    How are you approaching this USB device?

     

    In Windows on a network? With ReadySHARE? Something else?

     

    Does it show up in the browser graphical user interface?

     

     

    • BiigRich's avatar
      BiigRich
      Aspirant
      Dec 18, 2019

      Hi michaelkenward,

       

      I connect the USB drive to the router's USB port and attempt to connect and use it with ReadyShare software. The results are varied as I described. I have used a number of drives and this is my second Netgear router.

       

      I have repurposed several of the drives and I returned the brand new WD drive so I could get a refund. I don't want to buy another drive just to have it fail or get trashed if that is what happened to my most recent attempt.

       

      I gave up on this out of frustration and uninstalled ReadyShare from my Win10 PC.

       

      I have a 55GB USB drive that I can troubleshoot with and I can reinstall ReadySHARE Vault but I need to feel confident that I can buy any decent 1TB USB drive and have it work.

       

      It's not rocket science, it's a USB port and drive ('U' stands for Universal) and the software is ReadySHARE. I also have a "ReadySHARE" command on the RAX80 router under both Basic and Advanced which I should be able to use for the ReadySHARE Vault if I reinstall that software on one of my PC's to test I prefer to start with my main PC which is connected to the RAX80 port directly via RJ45.

       

      I attached a screenshot of the ReadySHARE command from my RAX80 just for information purposes at this point.

       

      I cannot be the only person having these issues. Your thoughts?