How to format an external USB drive from OS 6.1.1 ??

If ssh is enabled on a new ReadyNAS 3xx will that void the technical support warranty from Netgear Support like it did on the older ReadyNAS models?
If so, then enabling ssh is not an option on our customer units.
Physically moving the disk to a computer is not an option as it cannot be done remotely.

The other problem in general with moving the disks which is very tedious is that to remove the USB from the ReadyNAS requires it to be unmounted first in the web based GUI. Otherwise the ReadyNAS marks it as read only next time it is connected. This is different to the behaviour of the previous ReadyNAS models and much more problematic for backing up the new ReadyNAS models to offsite USB disks.
While formatting seems to solve this read only status of OS 6, it also causes the USB_HDD_x counter to increment and that causes scripts to be more complex than they ought to be.

Support should not be denied if you don't mess things up using SSH. If you enable SSH and do a

# rm -rf /

Then you can't expect support to help you. Simply doing stuff like formatting a USB disk shouldn't be an issue (provided of course you realise that formatting the USB disk wipes all the data on it).

rm -rf / is a bit problematic yeah since it will erase everything on the NAS ;) kernel recompilation too and I believe some kind of config editing (raid config for example).
Officially it will void the warranty. But for the last ticket I filled the first thing done by the tech was to enable SSH, this can't void my warranty since he did, I didn't. I believe they will support unless they prove you've done some harm. But of course if it isn't enabled, let's keep it that way.
For you read only problem, an option is to remount via SSH with RW flag. You can also specify a fixed mount point with device UID. But once again this requires SSH with all that implicates for the warranty.

PS : I always advise to file a ticket to let them know the problem. Ask for an official solution, then you got yourself covered. If they can't provide anything for you to achieve a simple goal, then I can't see how they would deny support since they were unable to support in the first place.

xeltros wrote:

Doing it via SSH is of course possible. Look at fdisk ans mkfs commands. Another way is to format it with another computer. Gparted will do perfectly, windows will do Exfat/NTFS. I believe there is an old EXT3 driver hanging around to read linux formatted drive with windows. HFS is another option with paragon software. Exfat should work if you install exfat-fuse and exfat-utils packages. by default OS6 supports EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+. I believe you can add BTRFS to the list (linux doesn't differentiate internal and external drives) and exfat with the good packets installed via SSH (note that Netgear may deny support if SSH is activated).

Nope, NTFS doesn't work.

I just told what's on the spec sheet.
http://www.netgear.fr/images/ReadyNAS_1 ... -73099.pdf

I don't think I have an NTFS formatted drive but I'll check. If I have I'll give it a try.

xeltros wrote:
I just told what's on the spec sheet. http://www.netgear.fr/images/ReadyNAS_1 ... -73099.pdf I don't think I have an NTFS formatted drive but I'll check. If I have I'll give it a try.

Here is what was in my logs when I tried:
System: External storage device 'Seagate ST3000DM003-1F216N' connected, but could not find a known filesystem on it.

Did you try to plug it under windows then do a scandisk and plug it back ?

PS : there may be some fix with updates. But I guess that if you are in 6.1.1 you have a reason for this.
For example :
viewtopic.php?f=154&t=72282
It's stated that it fixes USB detection. I don't know if that's only what they broke with 6.1.5 or if it will affect you.

xeltros wrote:
Did you try to plug it under windows then do a scandisk and plug it back ? PS : there may be some fix with updates. But I guess that if you are in 6.1.1 you have a reason for this. For example : viewtopic.php?f=154&t=72282 It's stated that it fixes USB detection. I don't know if that's only what they broke with 6.1.5 or if it will affect you.

It was a brand new drive just formatted on windows. I am running 6.1.5, Drive is just fine on windows.

xeltros wrote:
Did you try to plug it under windows then do a scandisk and plug it back ? PS : there may be some fix with updates. But I guess that if you are in 6.1.1 you have a reason for this. For example : viewtopic.php?f=154&t=72282 It's stated that it fixes USB detection. I don't know if that's only what they broke with 6.1.5 or if it will affect you.

Any luck with an NTFS drive? That would be my preference so that I can connect it to my windows machine to share stuff...

Found an old drive.
NTFS drive works great on my NAS, 23Mbyte/s with rsync.
RN104 with 6.1.6 RC9