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USB drive not detecting although others do
Hi, I have a R6700(v3) and Im trying to use a 3.5" WD RED Plus 6TB HDD in a powered Sabrent USB enclosure (model number EC-DFFN) as a network/readyshare drive. It isnt detected by the router when formated to NTFS and I need it to so I can use my full 6TB drive.
I am using the most recent router firmware acording to the router settings page: V1.0.4.122_10.0.95
I also updated the firmware of the Sabrent enclosure.
Here's what works and what doesnt:
- Other USB drives and flashdrives can be detected by the router.
- A 500GB NTFS 2.5" drive in the same Sabrent enclosure can be detected by the router.
- The 6tb WD red Plus that I wish to use only works when its formated to FAT32, i tired it twice with a single 30GB partition and a single 40TB partition.
- If I format the 6TB drive to NFTS it isnt detected by the router - even with a single 20GB partition. This is the problem.
The enclosure is driverless so that's not the issue.
The router manual states that NTFS is supported and it does wok with other, smaller NTFS drives (I have tested a couple up to 1TB).
I have since seen the knowledge base webpage of tested, known compatible USB drives for R6700 V2 (mine is a V3) but that webpage is old and far from comprehensive. It's also not refferenced in the manual. The manual only states that the USB drive needs to be in a supported format (including NTFS) and that it needs to be driverless.
Any help or insights greatly appreciated.
Chris
An update to this, it was the enclosure that was the issue (Sabrent model number EC-DFFN). I purchased another cheap adapter (Alxum model number Y-1039) to test and it worked with the 6TB WD Red Plus (noting that I needed to clean, reinitializing and reformat the drive since, with the new adapter, disk manager was stating that the drive had a 'GPT Protective Partition').
The Alxum goes to sleep after 30 minutes without use but the Netgear r6700(v3) wakes it up just fine when i access the drive from my PC.
Hopefully that helps others trying this stuff! - it was very frusrating to figure out.
Cheers
Chris
9 Replies
Support for USB drives is a bit hit and miss. Anything slightly out of the ordinary can be a pig.
The only reliable strategy seems to be to buy something that is known to work rather than trying to find ways of getting reluctant drives to work.
Thanks, I appreciate the advice. Its a shame that there is no consistency and that somthing like your advice isn't in the manual.
Is there a more complete / current source for figuring out which larger (>4TB) drives will be compatible?
Is there any chance that the problem is the enclosure? - I am considering buying another one to try with my 6TB drive.
Cheers
Chris
Sandaz wrote:
Is there a more complete / current source for figuring out which larger (>4TB) drives will be compatible?
I use an 8 TB Seagate Backup Plus Hub. It has two USB ports that ReadySHARE can also get at. I have it on an R7800, even though it does not claim compatibility.
Is there any chance that the problem is the enclosure? - I am considering buying another one to try with my 6TB drive.
Yes. This came up recently. But I fear that I can't remember the details.
