D7800 - attached hard drive

[MACH100]

Hi.
I have activated Readyshare on my D7800 but am having problems accessing a new WD USB hard drive connected to USB1. I tried connecting a USB memory stick into USB2 and this now appears clearly under the available network folders. Please can anyone advise why I am unable to 'see' the WD drive in the same way, and how I may resolve the problem to create a NAS resource.  Many thanks.

[michaelkenward]

A couple of issues, what is this WD USB hard drive? Did you check it here for compatibility?

ReadySHARE USB Drives Compatibility List | Answer | NETGEAR Support

Then there is the SMB angle:

Solved: ALL Netgear USB Drive Mapping Issues ReadyShareCo... - NETGEAR Communities

Remember, Readyshare is crude technology that is not well suited to some NAS applications. A genuine Ethernet device is usually better, albeit more expensive.

[MACH100]

Mmm, I hadn't realised that the D7800 might be 'picky' about USB3 drives. I had assumed that any good quality drive should be OK - so it is just possible that this is indeed at the route of my problem.  I have an old (and small) USB drive somewhere, I'll look it out and see if that works, and if so, it suggests you may be right.

I bought a Buffalo automatic NAS (500Gb) a few years ago when I was writing up a dissertation and was getting paranoid about losing anything. The Buffalo did the job, but unfortunately the disk was constantly spinning which I thought undesirable in anything that would be left switched on 24/7 to provide NAS.  Obviously a dedicated NAS would be better - but beyond my budget for what will essentially be a backup device.

If the WD drive turns out to be incompatible, I only got it a couple of weeks ago, so potentially I could return it and exchange for a different model;   A shame Netgear don't mention anything about HDD compatibility in their bumf!

[michaelkenward]

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@MACH100 wrote:

Mmm, I hadn't realised that the D7800 might be 'picky' about USB3 drives.

Readyshare in general, not just the D7800.