Author Topic: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive  (Read 9327 times)

dotsi

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I am experiencing some weird problems with the WZR-HP-G300NH and a WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive.

 

Sometimes the router just can't recognize the drive at all, displaying just the notorious "No recognizable devices connected" message on the NAS page of the router admin interface. When the drive is shown, though, it can be accessed from my Windows box just fine - and here's the catch - for a while. Then, after some time, the drive just becomes inaccessible and has disappeared from the router.

 

When connected to the computer directly, the drive works just fine.

 

I have formatted the drive as XFS using the router's own format tool.

 

Are there any known incompatibility issues between these two devices? Wich external hard drive would work better, if any? Do I have a faulty router?


Jotin

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2010, 09:41:46 AM »

Have you tried mapping a network drive to the hard drive?


dotsi

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2010, 09:50:08 AM »

Yes I have, when the drive is accessible. Naturally when the drive is not recognized by the router, it can't be mapped in the Windows box.


Jotin

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2010, 10:23:02 AM »

It could be that the drive is a 1tb drive. It only supports up to 500gb. Have you tried any other drives? I havnt heard of any incompatiblity between drives unless their raid drives. You may want to try updating the firmware or if your already on the latest version, reflashing the current firmware and the resetting the unit.


dotsi

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2010, 12:13:55 PM »

Yes, the drive is 1TB. Is 500GB really the max supported size of the external USB drive? The router has the latest firmware (1.74). Would reflashing and/or resetting help to the max size issue?


Jotin

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2010, 12:22:12 PM »

Unfortunately not but it may fix the connectivity issues. The unit may have just created a 500 gb partition and left the rest unallocated.


dotsi

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2010, 01:27:53 PM »

OK. Any idea whether the size limitation issue will be fixed with the DD-WRT firmware?


NickR

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #7 on: August 11, 2010, 10:46:58 PM »

I am having the same issue with my 1TB Seagate Free Agent drive. I partitioned and formatted the drive several different ways;  XFS, FAT32, both with single and multiple partitions. The router will recognize the drive when the router is first booted, but loses it shortly after. 

 

 I have an 8GB flashdrive that has two FAT32 partitions. The router has no problem recognizing and maintaining the flashdrive.

 

Can anyone tell me why there is no NTFS support, and why the 500GB limitation?


NickR

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2010, 08:52:45 AM »

UPDATE

 

I spent another couple hours last night trying to get the Seagate drive to work. I noticed that the drive has a power saving feature where it will spin down and go to sleep when not in use. When I ask the router to connect to the drive the drive does not wake up. When I change an advanced setting under disk management the drive will wake up momentarily. When this happens the USB disk information will list a drive that needs a disk assignment but it will not let me complete the task. My guess here is that the router has to capability to communicate to the drive to wake up but it is not doing so. After a little research

 

So far I have been able to get the router to see the drive periodicaly only with FAT32 format and not at all with XFS. I am in no way an expert in drive formats but both choices seem pretty limiting.


Jotin

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2010, 09:28:15 AM »

Sir, that seagate is definitely not supproted by this unit because of the sleep function. And NTFS is a windows format, so I dont see why you would expect it to work on anything but windows. The nas feature is coded in linux hence the support of the linux format xfs.


Jotin

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2010, 09:31:17 AM »

dotsi, Im unaware of when the DD WRT firmware will come out for this unit and we have not recieved any information on what the firmware can do yet.


NickR

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #11 on: August 12, 2010, 10:21:03 AM »

 


Jotin wrote:

Sir, that seagate is definitely not supproted by this unit because of the sleep function. And NTFS is a windows format, so I dont see why you would expect it to work on anything but windows. The nas feature is coded in linux hence the support of the linux format xfs.


Jotin,

 

   I really want help getting my drive to work, and I don't appreciate the snide comment. I would expect NTFS support since many external drives come with NTFS. I would suspect that many drives come with NTFS because Windows has something like a 90% market share. As for the sleep function this is very common on newer drives.  I find it odd that in the planning for this device none of this was considered.


NickR

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #12 on: August 12, 2010, 11:48:50 AM »

   SO! I called Buffalo tech support for a couple issues including this one. After an hour and a half we came to a few conclusions. They did not think the sleep function had anything to do with the router not recognizing the drive. They did tell me that they have a drive that they actually know will work. It is a Western Digital My Book 500GB drive (wdbaaf5000ebk-nesn) which BTW has a sleep function.

 

    I packaged up the 1TB drive that I paid $99 for and brought it back to Best Buy only to pay $89 for the WD that is half the size. I hooked up the new drive and the router did not recognize it, so I plugged it into my laptop, low and behold its formatted NTFS!!!! Who woulda thought!?!?!?!


NickR

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #13 on: August 12, 2010, 12:18:19 PM »

So I reformatted this drive to Fat32. It still doesn't work. Thanks Gary at Buffalo Tech support!!!!!  

 

I made my second call to Buffalo tech support and learned that you can not attach any drive that comes with software pre installed. Also you cannot use drive docks or generic drive enclosures as they do not work either. Lastly that Gary has worked there about a month.

 

I already regret my purchase, and I have been a long time buffalo fan.


kalven

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Re: Problems with WZR-HP-G300NH & WD Elements Desktop 1TB USB hard drive
« Reply #14 on: August 12, 2010, 12:32:34 PM »

I had a drive in FAT 32, when connected to the router it picked it up fine then I formatted it to XFS via the router, and works good ever since.  I never tried it in NTFS, I am not sure about the sleep function.  I would test the same drive in a different format