I have a Nighthawk R6400 router and have a HDD connected to it via its USB port. I want to set up Readycloud but cannot seem to do it. Advice please?

Hello, Mph3842, What seems to be the error when setting it up? https://www.netgear.com/support/product/r6400.aspx#docs Check the link out there should be a manual for the readycloud setup. Regards, Rhys Community Team

Thanks for your reply. When I look at the Netgear Router page, under Readyshare, the Readycloud button does not appear (see photo). The USB drive I have connected is an 8TB Seagate Hub Plus.

Mph3842 wrote: Thanks for your reply. When I look at the Netgear Router page, under Readyshare, the Readycloud button does not appear (see photo). The USB drive I have connected is an 8TB Seagate Hub Plus. Readyshare is very picky about the USB drives it will accept. 8TB is too big for most devices. The limit seems to be about 4TB. This list will give you some clues, although it is far from comprehensive: ReadySHARE USB Drives Compatibility List | Answer | NETGEAR Support Your subject says "want to connect a HDD via USB as a NAS drive". By convention NAS usually means Ethernet. That's not USB.

> I have a Nighthawk R6400 router [...] R6400[v1] or R6400v2? Look for "Model" on the product label.Firmware version? > [...] When I look at the Netgear Router page, under Readyshare, the> Readycloud button does not appear (see photo). [...] I don't trust Netgear router firmware with my stored data, so I don'tuse this stuff, so I don't pay close attention, but I got the impressionfrom my readings here that Netgear was dropping (had dropped?)ReadyCLOUD support from recent firmware versions on some (all?) itsrouters. This could be an artifact of my usual false-memory syndrome,but, if you loaded an older firmware version and the feature reappeared,then that would be suggestive. I'm too lazy to scan all the firmwarerelease notes to see if anything relevant could be found that way. > [...] By convention NAS usually means Ethernet. That's not USB. Sigh. "By convention", in this context, NAS means Network-AttachedStorage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage A purpose-built NAS server typically uses a high-speed interface(Fibre Channel, SCSI, SAS, SATA, ...) to communicate with its storagedevices (disks, et al.), and an Ethernet or other network interface tocommunicate with its client devices. Some router models offer some NAS capability using a USB interface toa storage device, and the usual Ethernet interface for communicationwith a client. That is what's being discussed here. Some of the participants in these forums seem to believe (and enjoytelling others) that "NAS" means a box whose label says "NAS", ratherthan a gizmo which attaches a storage device to a network. Others believe that any gizmo which attaches a storage device, even aUSB-connected storage device, to a network, like, say, a NetgearR6400[vX], constitutes network-attached storage (NAS). I have notrouble with this functional definition (because I can read), but somepeople seem to, which leads to "help" like: > [...] By convention NAS usually means Ethernet. That's not USB. A USB-connected disk, by itself, is not (normally) NAS. AUSB-connected disk, when connected to a computer with the rightprogramming (and a network interface), can be, literally, exactly,network-attached storage. But I don't expect to persuade the local "experts". It's true that a purpose-built NAS server which does not use USB asits storage interface will typically have faster hardware, andsoftware/firmware which is more reliable and has more features (likeRAID, for example) than a consumer-grade Netgear router-as-NAS. But,network-attached storage is still network-attached storage. For some ofus, at least.

Thank you for your response. I agree with you that a USB attached drive is NOT the same as an NAS drive. All I want to do is to be able to upload my photos from my phone to the USB drive since Gogle Photos is now limiting space. If you can suggest a way for me to do that I would be appreciative. The upload need not be automatic as I do not mind uploading them once a week by myself but what I do want to do it to be able to uload them (or view them) from anywhere. Thanks in advance. M

I have an R6400 and want to connect a HDD via USB as a NAS drive

14 Replies

RVALENZ
NETGEAR Moderator
Jun 01, 2021
Hello, Mph3842,

What seems to be the error when setting it up?

https://www.netgear.com/support/product/r6400.aspx#docs

Check the link out there should be a manual for the readycloud setup.

Regards,
Rhys
Community Team
- Mph3842
  Aspirant
  Jun 01, 2021
  Thanks for your reply. When I look at the Netgear Router page, under Readyshare, the Readycloud button does not appear (see photo). The USB drive I have connected is an 8TB Seagate Hub Plus.
  - michaelkenward
    Guru
    Jun 01, 2021
    Mph3842 wrote:
    
    Thanks for your reply. When I look at the Netgear Router page, under Readyshare, the Readycloud button does not appear (see photo). The USB drive I have connected is an 8TB Seagate Hub Plus.
    
    Readyshare is very picky about the USB drives it will accept. 8TB is too big for most devices. The limit seems to be about 4TB.
    
    This list will give you some clues, although it is far from comprehensive:
    
    ReadySHARE USB Drives Compatibility List | Answer | NETGEAR Support
    
    Your subject says "want to connect a HDD via USB as a NAS drive". By convention NAS usually means Ethernet. That's not USB.

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I have an R6400 and want to connect a HDD via USB as a NAS drive