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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 b...
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?
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?
You're right, it sounds like we have similar situations. I hadn't considered using multiple 4TB HDs. That seems rather obvious now, so thank you for that!
I will go that route and see how it goes. Like you said, HDs are fairly cheap. Likewise, if I go with a NAS in the future it doesn't hurt to have some extra backup HDs available. Thanks again!!
LRBob wrote:You're right, it sounds like we have similar situations. I hadn't considered using multiple 4TB HDs. That seems rather obvious now, so thank you for that!
I will go that route and see how it goes. Like you said, HDs are fairly cheap. Likewise, if I go with a NAS in the future it doesn't hurt to have some extra backup HDs available. Thanks again!!
OK, good, but there are some caveat's due with this. Might also apply to a NAS though.
Basically it is a W10 'thing'. Would be the same for any LAN sharing if you are doing that. W10 as the last Fall Creator V1703 edition has depricated SMB1. It is OFF unless you specifically enable it, and in cases, W10 will turn it off again.
Netgear uses NETBIOS for sharing and share discovery, and as it seems most other residential routers. Some may not and use what MS enables one to use, WSD, in its place. NG on the R8000 and other routers still use NETBIOS and will not change to WSD (at this time). If not using ANY W10 PC's, no problems, but if you are ALL must have the SMB 1 Client manually enabled. This was done as SMB 1 can be a security hazard. The WannaCry Ransomware used this 'hole' for instance. If you have up to date Security though this is not a problem now.
If you do not enable this on W10 you can't see the shares on PC's or possible other devices. I do have it enabled. So I have no problems seeing everything from my W10 PC.
===============================
C:\>net view
Server Name Remark------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\\IRV8700 Irv's 8700
\\READYSHARE readyshare
The command completed successfully.
C:\>net view \\readyshare
Shared resources at \\readysharereadyshare
Share name Type Used as Comment
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Movies Disk read:all-no password;write:all-no password
USB_2.0_Storage Disk read:admin;write:admin
The command completed successfully.
C:\>dir \\readyshare\usb_2.0_storage
Volume in drive \\readyshare\usb_2.0_storage is USB_2.0_Storage
Volume Serial Number is 6F06-9E72Directory of \\readyshare\usb_2.0_storage
03/16/2018 02:25 PM <DIR> $RECYCLE.BIN
05/22/2019 02:49 PM <DIR> .
01/01/2015 01:00 AM <DIR> ..
12/25/2017 12:10 PM <DIR> Acronis Backup
11/10/2016 08:23 AM 5,453,003 ATI2016_userguide_en-US.pdf
08/16/2016 05:14 PM 50,449,456 dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
05/12/2018 01:39 PM <DIR> netgear_downloader
09/13/2018 02:55 PM 48 New Text Document.txt
06/13/2018 07:59 PM <DIR> Pictures
05/26/2018 07:28 PM 19 qc
03/05/2012 06:44 PM 1,644,118 SeagateExpansion.ico
01/13/2016 10:00 PM 611,096 seatools-for-windows-en-us.pdf
05/12/2018 11:25 AM <DIR> share
05/12/2018 01:37 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
01/14/2016 11:47 AM <DIR> VProRecovery
6 File(s) 58,157,740 bytes
9 Dir(s) 1,208,284,282,880 bytes free==================
See screen capture on left of how I set it up...
Thanks for the heads up. I've enabled the SMB1 now before I forget!
Looks like I'll be trying out a WD 4TB Elements Desktop HD (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ODEGWN8/ref=twister_B07HGRPHSK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) to see if that works. I searched the comments for "readyshare" and one customer stated it worked for another NetGear model, so I'm hoping it will work for mine as well.
Thank you for your help!
