Need help please. I have a 1TB external hard drive manufactured by Western Digital. I'm trying to connect it to my router so that I can use NAS. But the router keeps rejecting it because it doesn't like the file system. It's supposed to have NTFS, which it does, so I've checked this and the only other thing that could be wrong is that the drive might have a "manufacturer's hidden system partition" that has the wrong file system, or some other problem. So the question is, how can I access the hidden partition, with a view to either removing it or fixing whatever the problem with it is.
Inspect your disk connected directly to a windows PC using Disk Management to see what partitions it may have. (type "disk management" from the windows search box or find it under administrative tools). You could download western digital's utilities software from their website and perform a "low level" format. This would right zeros to the whole disk or alternatively just the beginning or end. It may prevent doing this if it needs that data to operate. You'll need to reformat it in NTFS afterward I think. I'd suspect a problem with the router. What type is it? Must have some facility for running a NAS if you're connecting directly to it. How is it connected? I don't have experience in this area, but if the router doesn't have the smarts to run it, you'll need a NAS device that can talk to your machines over the network. Something like this. My solution has been to connect a cheap USB HDD to a computer on my LAN and share it through Windows. Of course this requires that computer to always be powered up.
Thanks, I'll try some of that later. I'm using a Fritzbox 7360 connected via a USB cable. The router definitely supports NAS as I've had it working with USB sticks and the like. But I want to hook up the drive with all my movies (okay, all my porn) so that I can access it from several devices. (I don't want to leave the PC powered up all the time.)
This discussion may be relevant. I just skimmed it. I've not tried any router that has NAS capability so I don't have any experience. When I've visited product pages for NAS devices and routers that support connected USB drives I felt they were more trouble and costly than just using a PC on the LAN with extra internal or external storage.
Does the router support that large a drive? If it's an older router, it may not. The way around this is to create a couple of partitions on the drive and then it should be capable of being seen by the router.
Yeah, there's no limit on the size of drive. The router isn't the problem - I have direct contacts with the manufacturer who diagnosed the problem as I stated in the OP as being with the file system on the hard disk.
I doubt WD put a hidden partition on the HDD but disk management should reveal this. I would suspect an incompatibility between the external drive's firmware (the chip that interfaces SATA to USB) and the router. edit: Here's the link to WD's utility (one of them) that should do the low level format if you wish. Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (for windows). Since you've already talked to the manufacturer I think you've exhausted all router configuration possibilities. That's the first place I would have looked too. Have you toured the router's setup pages with a drive attached that works, and then the WD drive? Could you see any difference in how it recognizes it? If you haven't, hit the router with a browser and rummage around.
