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RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

RaviChopra
Aspirant

RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

I think the title says it all. Using an RAX45 (AX4300). I'm trying to share a USB 3 WD My Passport Ultra 2 TB drive formatted in HFS+, which should be supported. It is powered by USB and this thing worked just fine with a Synology RT2600. It sounds like it's spinning up and the USB 3 light turns on on the front of the router when connected but doesn't appear in ReadySHARE when I log into the router.

 

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

Message 1 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Additional detail - apparently it IS seeing the drive, but it's only seeing it as a 200 MB drive where it's really 2 TB.

Message 2 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Sorted out the router is seeing the EFI partition, but not the HFS partition. Anyone have any idea how to address this? Extremely frustrating.

 

Message 3 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Deleted the EFI partition, now it doesn't see the drive at all.

Is the claimed HFS+ compatibility pure bs?

Message 4 of 12
Christian_R
NETGEAR Employee Retired

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Hello RaviChopra,

 

If you recently purchased the device I would recommend contacting our support team as newly purchased devices are provided with 90 days of complimentary support. You may open a ticket by registering your device using the link below. 

 

https://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx

 

Christian 

Message 5 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

I tried that. The advice they gave me was not helpful as it did not address the problem I described to them.

 

I'm returning the router. As far as I can tell the claim that it supports HFS+ drives is untrue.

Message 6 of 12
antinode
Guru

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

> Deleted the EFI partition, now it doesn't see the drive at all.

 

   "Deleted" _how_, exactly?  I know nothing, but I recall seeing
reports here that these routers can detect/use only the first partition
on a device.  If you only wrecked the file system, but left the little
partition in place, then that might explain the observed behavior.  In
which case, I'd try creating a single, whole-device partition and file
system.

 

> Is the claimed HFS+ compatibility pure bs?

 

   My brief experience on a different/older model convince me that it
was, at best, dancing-bear software, so I quit trying to use it.  To me,
unreliable storage is worse than none.

Message 7 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Mac OSX, by default with no option to do anything else, creates an EFI partition on any drive formatted in HFS+, meaning that you end up with a "small" EFI partition which doesn't get seen by the computer and a large HFS+ partition. Again, this is default, non-defeatable functionality on a Mac. If the Netgear router only sees the first partition, ANY HFS+ formatted drive which was formatted on a Mac wil only see that EFI partition (which is FAT32 formatted). This is the behavior with the router I tried. On a Synology RT2600, both partitions were seen and were accessible.

 

To test if the issue was the Netgear only seeing the first partition, I deleted the EFI partition. It's not magic. It doesn't "wreck" anything. You can do it through Terminal through command-line instructions. Please feel free to google them. Having deleted the EFI partiiton, now the entire 2 TB drive is HFS+, works fine on all computers I've connected it to, as well as being visible, accessible, and read/writeable by the Synology router.

 

With it now having only 1 HFS+ partition, confirmed to work just fine on a host of other devices, if the Netgear is in fact compatible with HFS+ formatted drives and reads the "first" partition on them, it should read this drive just fine as well. It does not. While the drive spins up, the USB light does not turn on and it does not appear as an attached drive as it did when the EFI partition (formatted FAT32) was there.

 

When entirely formatted in FAT32 (which does not support the file sizes I'm putting on the drive, and therefore not useful to me), the drive is recognized and works just fine with the Netgear router.

 

How do I know all this? I wasted an entire day trying to get this stupid router to work with this drive. I'm done with it.

 

I also understand NTFS is supported. Sadly it's not supported by Apple, and thus is as sub-optimal option if I ever want to move the drive back to a computer.

Message 8 of 12
antinode
Guru

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

> [...] command-line instructions. Please feel free to google them.
> [...]

 

   If I had wanted to guess what you did, then I wouldn't have asked
what you did.  But, apparently, neither of us cares much.

Message 9 of 12
RaviChopra
Aspirant

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

Aren't you a charmer!

This post contains a guide on how to delete the EFI partition using a Mac.

https://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php?topic=14019.0

Message 10 of 12
nickm3
Initiate

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

God you are incredibly snotty. I created this account just to let you know how miserable you sound with your condescending comments. Not everyone is a tech whiz, and you can’t expect them to be. Your tone and attitude isn’t helping anyone. No wonder you spend so much time on these forums — you’re probably a nightmare to deal with in person!
Message 11 of 12
nickm3
Initiate

Re: RAX45 ReadySHARE not recognizing WD My Passport Ultra - USB 3 2 TB drive - HFS+ formatted

This was directed at antinode FYI. Get a life, pal. Stop trolling people on help forums.
Message 12 of 12
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