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Nighthawk r7300 doesn't recognize external hard drive
Hi all - (I searched for this in the community but didn't quite find the solution. If I've missed it please post a link & sorry for the trouble!)
I run a small home office and recently bought a Netgear router after a blackout toasted my Airport Time Capsule (we're all Mac here). I then purchased a WD My Book for Mac 3T external hard drive, but it wasn't recognized when I connected it to the router. Found out that it's the ONE drive that's listed as incompatible on the Netgear site (http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/18985/~/readyshare-usb-drives-compatibility-list?cid=w... I sucked it up and am just randomly connecting it to our computers and running time machine when I have the time.
However I just found a reason to purchase a second external hard drive. I figured this time I would go to the list & select one that would connect via the router, so we could back up everything regularly again. I bought the Seagate Backup Plus 5T Desktop, Model #STDT5000100. Again, it is not recognized. I went through the ReadyCLOUD process, registered the router, but it still doesn't "see" the drive.
What am I missing here? I really don't need a NAS - I don't think. And I can't believe that I just happened to buy another uncompatible device. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for your response. I ended up returning the drive - no amount of partitioning or driver-downloads made it readable. I'm going to go back to the list of recommended external hard drives and see if I can find an exact match. I must say it's incredibly frustrating that this Netgear router is so persnickity about it's compatability.
I appreciate you spending a bit of time with me on this.
Try to partition the HD and see if it will read it.
Also take note that the router will not be able to read the external hard drive if it requires software to be installed on the PC or if it's password protected.
Re: Nighthawk r7300 doesn't recognize external hard drive
Thank you for your response!
I had wondered whether it was just the size of the hard drive. I'd like to use this 5T drive - how many partitions should I do? How small do you think the partition should be in order to be recognized by the router? I've dug around the community for answers - looks like some say 3T but I haven't found any actual documentation.
I'm comfortable doing the partitioning - I'm expecting that I'll make them all OS extended journaled. But if I do the partition to 3T and it's still not recognized, can I go back and re-partition? (I'm guessing yes - I should be able to re-partition all day long if I'm not worried about losing any data, yes?)
I tried using a little USB stick and it reads just fine. This gives me hope of a solution today!
Thanks again - I appreciate that I don't have to wade into this alone 🙂
So I erased the drive and then Mac OS extended journaled the partitions off - 3T & 2T. Still nothing. I then split down to 1T, then split to 500GB and then, finally 16GB (the size of the USB stick i tried initially & which it was able to read) - all Mac OS extended journaled. Still nothing.
(for the record, when it's plugged directly into my computer it works fine. It's just the router that doesn't recognize the HDD in any of these formats)
Followed all the instructions & it still isn't recognized through ReadySHARE. I am absolutely at a loss. I would appreciate any thoughts you, or anyone else, might have before I return this! (oh for goodness sake, am I even going to be able to return it now that I've worked on it??)d
Thanks for your response. I ended up returning the drive - no amount of partitioning or driver-downloads made it readable. I'm going to go back to the list of recommended external hard drives and see if I can find an exact match. I must say it's incredibly frustrating that this Netgear router is so persnickity about it's compatability.
I appreciate you spending a bit of time with me on this.
