NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
R7800 Hard Drive Options
I have been using a Netgear R7800 router for about a year and have had no issues with it. I haven't dug into the additional features or this equipment but would like to start using it to help with backing up folders as well as using it to share pictures and videos across wifi. That being said, here's what we have in the house:
My wife and I each have an iPhone
My wife has an Mac Book Pro
I occasionally bring a PC laptop home from work
We have an Roku set up in the house
My kids have an XBox they play games and stream movies/shows from.
From everything I've read, the ReadyShare feature is not compatable with Apple products. Is that correct? If It is possible to back up Apple products automatically, how does one go about doing that?
Netgear offers a list of compatable hard drives. Since this model is older, so are the HDs listed on their site (https://kb.netgear.com/18985/Will-my-USB-drive-work-with-ReadySHARE). I'd like a 4TB or more HD to connect, and the few that are listed there are either not available, expensive, or of lesser quality than I'd prefer. Is there a way to verify any other option before purchasing a "better" HD?
Thank you for your help!
Good question, but I'm afraid there is no right answer or one-size-fits-all answer.
This is a personal choice and monetary questions actually, as well as how do you intend to use it?
In my case, first I already had the drives, both USB 2.0 and 3.0. They were attached to our PC's. 2 and 4TB WD's self-powered. Neither was really being used fully. That drove me to putting one on the router was I had some DVD's I ripped and put them on the drive and was sharing them from my PC to the iPad's and SmartTV. Only problem, PC had to be on all the time, so I moved that drive to the Router, made it easier for me. I also backed up from the PC's our pictures. We do make local backups on our 2 main PC's and occasionally I'll move one to the USB router drive as well. Basically the drive is used access only, and not being written to it most of the time, only rarely. It works for me at a minimum cost.
Many people actively use the drive it seems. As far as I can tell, if you are going to 'actively' use the drive, a NAS is the way to go, mostly because of access write speed. Sure storage space is larger, but so is the cost.
I suspect on a NAS you can get better control of access as well. We do have guests and family that connect to the LAN and I've password protected the main drive and created a share for the video's anyone can use. I'd have liked to password protected them too, but many DLNA clients can't handle that.
Don't forget, you've got 2 USB ports on most routers, and at least in my case I can have 2 4TB's on-line.
Right now, only a 2TB on the router (USB 2.0, speed is not a write concern to me), I've got about 800GB's of files, 6600 of them. Movies all ripped to other formats, 172 of them in various sizes (some small home stuff from camcorder), about 300GB's. Pictures, 6400 of them for 39GB's. The Acronis backup copies take up most of the space.
Right now I've got a USB 3.0 4TB drive not in use I can add if I need more space.
As I said, your situation might be different. If nothing else, and either you have a drive or want to spend a minimal amount, 4TB External Desktop drives are really cheap these days, might be worth a try. From your description of what you intend to do, it does sort of match mine?
20 Replies
I can't address the Apple question if Readyshare works or not. It should work using the Router USB device for sharing without the Readyshare program as well, and I have seen other people stating they have used it if that matters.
As for the USB drive... that list is almost useless IMHO. First, it is only a LIST that NG Support has TESTED and known to work. Want to be sure, get one of those, but really many many more do work. There are some simple rules though, and in some cases of drives, those really do not matter. The filesystem on the routers is not a full blown filesystem, and may not be the same 'feature rich' on all routers.
So, basically if you stay within these constraints you should be OK...
- Single Partition on drive ONLY.
- NTFS is the best filesystem to use, although there are reports of others working, but it could be hit or miss depending on router.
- 4TB's or smaller, but recently there have been some reports of 5TB drives working, but larger are probably not going to work.
- Drive should be self-powered, although some portable (draws power from the USB port) do work, but to be safe use a power drive.
- Some may only work in one port, either USB 2.0 or 3.0, but not both.
Thank you for the response, IrvSp.
Do you have any thoughts on going with a NAS instead of a configuration like I originally posted? I've been contemplating that route for awhile now. The advantages for me would be for more storage space, which could also allow redundancy. We will be storing mostly family pictures and videos on whichever route we go as a means to backup those files as well as share them on the home network.
Good question, but I'm afraid there is no right answer or one-size-fits-all answer.
This is a personal choice and monetary questions actually, as well as how do you intend to use it?
In my case, first I already had the drives, both USB 2.0 and 3.0. They were attached to our PC's. 2 and 4TB WD's self-powered. Neither was really being used fully. That drove me to putting one on the router was I had some DVD's I ripped and put them on the drive and was sharing them from my PC to the iPad's and SmartTV. Only problem, PC had to be on all the time, so I moved that drive to the Router, made it easier for me. I also backed up from the PC's our pictures. We do make local backups on our 2 main PC's and occasionally I'll move one to the USB router drive as well. Basically the drive is used access only, and not being written to it most of the time, only rarely. It works for me at a minimum cost.
Many people actively use the drive it seems. As far as I can tell, if you are going to 'actively' use the drive, a NAS is the way to go, mostly because of access write speed. Sure storage space is larger, but so is the cost.
I suspect on a NAS you can get better control of access as well. We do have guests and family that connect to the LAN and I've password protected the main drive and created a share for the video's anyone can use. I'd have liked to password protected them too, but many DLNA clients can't handle that.
Don't forget, you've got 2 USB ports on most routers, and at least in my case I can have 2 4TB's on-line.
Right now, only a 2TB on the router (USB 2.0, speed is not a write concern to me), I've got about 800GB's of files, 6600 of them. Movies all ripped to other formats, 172 of them in various sizes (some small home stuff from camcorder), about 300GB's. Pictures, 6400 of them for 39GB's. The Acronis backup copies take up most of the space.
Right now I've got a USB 3.0 4TB drive not in use I can add if I need more space.
As I said, your situation might be different. If nothing else, and either you have a drive or want to spend a minimal amount, 4TB External Desktop drives are really cheap these days, might be worth a try. From your description of what you intend to do, it does sort of match mine?
Posted a question elsewhere, but found this post/reply. Took your device and reformatted to NTFS. The good news . . . the R7000 'found' the HD connected to the front of the unit. The bad news . . . after about 10 seconds it disappeared.
Within the R7000 web page, ADVANCED>USB FUNTIONS>ReadySHARE Storage I HAD a line under "Available Network Storage" for, I think, 'T-drive.' That's the drive that disappeard.
If I select "Create Network Folder" I get "No Disk." What now?
