USB attached storage with WNDR4500

I have a Netgear WNDR4500 that has two USB ports on the back for USB attached storage or printers. I have a new Seagate Expansion external USB hard drive I'd like to use with it to create network attached storage. I've formatted the drive (I'm on MacOS Sierra) but when I plug it in the USB light on the front doesn't turn on and I can't see the drive from the computer. Is there some trick to this I need to know? The documentation on this seems rather thin.

Features

Readyshare

Troubleshooting

USB attached storage

WNDR4500

Retired_Member
Nov 16, 2016
Drive's require resources, Router USB resources are limited, compared to a USB port on a PC when the 4500 was designed YEARS ago the hard drives were 250Gb or less....now drives average 4tb and a router designed years ago Doesn't have the resources required to support larger drives.

6 Replies

Retired_Member
Nov 16, 2016
Use this guide to see which drives are compatible, I checked and your Seagate Expansion isn't listed.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/18985/~/readyshare-usb-drives-compatibility-list?cid=wmt_netgear_organic
- autigers1970
  Aspirant
  Nov 16, 2016
  Wow, that is a short list of hard drives that will work. Don't understand why any USB hard drive, properly formatted, won't connect.
  - Retired_Member
    Nov 16, 2016
    Drive's require resources, Router USB resources are limited, compared to a USB port on a PC when the 4500 was designed YEARS ago the hard drives were 250Gb or less....now drives average 4tb and a router designed years ago Doesn't have the resources required to support larger drives.

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USB attached storage with WNDR4500