Connect USB 3 external hard drive to R7000P

[abhiroopb]

I have a Nighthawk R7000P (firmware: V1.3.2.124_10.1.640) and I am attempting to connect my 4TB Seagate hard drive (with its own power source) to it and it doesn't appear to be reading it.

I have tried formatting it to exFat and NTFS, I have tried both the USB 3 and the USB 2 ports. I have also tried a different cable. I also tried downgrading the firmware.

Once (briefly) the hard drive was recognized (it was formatted as exFat and it was on the USB 2 port).

The light comes on on the external hard drive and I have no problem reading it on my laptop.

I've read through all the different forum posts on this topic and nothing works. Would appreciate any help on this!

[michaelkenward]

Any partitions on the drive?

[abhiroopb]

No partitions. In fact since I just reformatted there is just one folder and one file on it.

[abhiroopb]

I recently tried resetting the router and still no luck.

[JonnyJ3]

Try downgrading the firmware to 1.3.1.64. I have a speculation that this new firmware update is not kind to USB drives connected to the router.

[abhiroopb]

Yes there anything special I need to do to downgrade or can I just download and hit "update".

[JonnyJ3]

Just download and hit update.

[michaelkenward]

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@abhiroopb wrote:
Yes there anything special I need to do to downgrade or can I just download and hit "update".

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The recommended way of updating firmware is as described here:

How do I manually upgrade firmware to my NETGEAR router? | Answer | NETGEAR Support

It says "upgrade" but it also applies to downgrades.

[abhiroopb]

Thanks!

Just downgraded my firmware and still no luck. 

I tried both USB ports and I reformatted the drive to NTFS (from exFat) to try that as well.

[JonnyJ3]

I ended up having to do a factory reset and now it seems like my device is working well with my portable hard drive. Not sure if you have the same issue as I do though.

[abhiroopb]

Tried a factory reset and still no luck.