Turning RN104 into an external enclosure

"NAS enclosure"?
There is no way I know of to just use the box as a simple enclosure - for one, the device is connected via Ethernet and has to function as a NAS device.
Just use it as a nas without RAID,turn Xraid off and set up one volume on each disk, the disks won't use the ntfs file system though, but you'll achieve the sharing element.

Thanks for the response - I am afraid this is not what I wanted - another proprietary filesystem to deal with. I just wanted to share my existing NTFS drives/content over network. I got fooled into thinking I could do it with this device. I guess I will be returning my R104.

Thanks again!

No ReadyNAS uses a proprietary filesystem.

The RN104 uses BTRFS for the data volume and EXT4 on the OS partition.

As NAS units tend to install the OS onto the drives and tend to run a form of Linux, the NTFS filesystem is not suitable for internal drives in the NAS. The NAS needs to partition the disks etc.

BTRFS and EXT4 are not proprietary filesystems (NTFS is proprietary though...), any linux can read it given the right configuration. I personally advise to use fedora live CD as they are one of the most updated distribution regarding BTRFS filesystem.
I think ReadyNAS uses mdadm for the raid and not a hardware raid, so that you could have your disks back and running using the fedora if you were to have a NAS failure.

When you are sharing over the network, the filesystem doesn't count, it is about the protocol. For Windows probably CIFS or SMB depending on how you want to call it.
What you want to do is not totally impossible but it is not advised. It would require having a first disk with ReadyNAS OS to boot from. Then it would imply rebuilding manually all the configuration file and maybe modifying the SQLite DB. You would have no way to use most of the function of the NAS because the web interface would be broken (it would erase your configuration and crash if you call a function that can't be done, like snapshot or defrag). No snapshots, no Netgear packaged applications, no Netgear support. Moreover, performance may be impacted as NTFS is not a native linux filesystem. Basically it would imply disabling anything that is not Debian stock (another way to do it would be to replace the ReadyNAS OS with a plain old debian, just keeping the Netgear kernel, but this is even harder to do).
Just mounting the disk and sharing it directly is not possible as the configuration would be erased quite often.

You always can buy enclosures and plug them in USB, this would work.

No NAS will do what you want as they need an operating system to work, exactly like your computer needs windows. There is actually only one way to do it : have your own OS. Plug the disks into a computer and share them from it. That's the only way I know to do it. On a NAS this would mean fight the NAS OS and struggle to keep your manual configuration over their configuration that is often rebuilt entirely at each update.

If you could tell us what you exactly want, we may be able to help. I'm not really seing your point as BTRFS doesn't prevent the recovery (Actually it adds mechanism that keep the data safe like snapshots and data checksum) and you won't notice it is BTRFS underneath. Once you have setup your users and shares you are done with the ReadyNAS interface, you use the plain old windows explorer.

I am sorry If I am not clear - but I am going to give it another try since I really want a NAS device to share existing content on NTFS drives

I am not looking/willing to write/create/copy fresh data - I am just looking to share/serve existing data on NTFS drives - I would like to pop in my drives and turn on sharing - I hope I am not asking for too much?

The only way that will work is if you put the disks in USB enclosures and connect them that way. You will need at least one disk that can be put in the NAS and wiped by the NAS to put the OS on.

I am already doing the USB enclosures connected to a PC - I am looking to get rid of the clutter [multiple enclosures attached to PC] by putting all the drives in single NAS device and forget it! no more enclosures or PC. I guess I am barking up the wrong tree with most mainstream NAS solutions :(

Well you would need to buy at least one new disk and copy the data to disk(s) in the NAS then wipe the disk that is formatted with NTFS and add that.

To use a separate volume for each disk you would need to disable X-RAID.

You could:

1. Do a factory default (wipes all data, settings, everything) with one disk in place
2. Go to Volumes in the Dashboard and disable X-RAID
3. Copy data from a disk onto the NAS
4. Add that disk while the NAS is on and destroy the partitions off the disk just added
5. Create a new volume on the disk just added
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for another disk you have formatted with NTFS.

Just pop the drive in won't work. As said the NAS will only mount BTRFS drives automatically.
Now what you can do is to mount the drive manually via SSH and edit the samba configuration file. This would allow you to share the disk, in theory at least since I haven't test it. That said this would also brick the web interface because some functions are tied to BTRFS and the web interface tends to edit configuration files too. To make them permanent you would have to edit the fstab SQLite database I think and this is not recommended at all.

Anyway, to boot the NAS you need a spare disk first. This drive would be formatted and then the OS will boot from it. No matter what you want to do you have to get this first drive to boot (if it contains data, just do a factory default, this will erase the drive). After that the normal way would be to copy data to that disk, then erase the source disk and plug it (after disabling x-raid if you want to), then copy the second set of data to it, erase the second source disk, copy the third set of data, erase the third source disk. This is the best way for many reasons like preserving Netgear support, using BTRFS built in safeties, allowing to use raid, keeping a functional web interface, keeping additional services like ReadyCloud or dropbox sync... I know this is long but this is the best way and by far.

The other way around is to mess with SSH and you may get an unstable system, you will miss function and run in degraded mode. This would be true for any NAS as they are nothing more than automated linux, and when you send something unexpected to a computer program, it usually crashes. So you have to understand those automations and avoid to send something disturbing in those mechanisms. That said, if you do that you are dealing with a standard linux configuration, so classic samba configurations should work (provided they are not erased regularly) and since NTFS is supported by the ReadyNAS for USB, it should also be supported internally by linux (though the automations instruct to specifically not mount NTFS drives automatically for security reasons). So your job is to log in with SSH, mount the NTFS disk to a custom location, edit the samba file and reload samba. This should work until reboot or a samba reload with another configuration. The fact is I don't really know how to prevent configuration rewriting, I think this has to do with the SQLite database but that's all I know. As for the disk remount at boot, I would normally use /etc/fstab to do it, but I'm not sure that this would work on the NAS, alternatively, a script set to run at boot could mount the drives (use their unique identifiers or you will have a surprise). That's all I can tell you, you have the basic steps, but this is really not advised. I haven't tested it so, if you decide to go with that, you will take your responsibilities.
Maybe using a sharing protocol that is not handled by the NAS, this would be easier, like using vsftpd on a non-standard port. That way the configuration won't be rewritten.
Anyway, no matter what you do, SSH is the only way for it to work on the NAS unit and this requires some skills, will break the web interface and will void the warranty until a factory default.

The last way is to use USB disks but though this would let you share your disks right away with no real drawbacks, you will quickly run out of outlets, space and USB ports.

The no NAS solution would involve some kind of desktop computer (tower or rack), you put the drives in, resize one to free some space to install a windows using Gparted for example, then install windows and use windows (or linux or any OS) to share the disks. That way you have no automated process to deal with. If NAS are so automated that just to make them simpler (and enhance security by automatically monitoring and sending alerts), but if you don't want that, just use a plain old computer, this would work.

The OS partition is on all the disks. To do what xeltros is suggesting is not something we'd support and I don't think it would work.