- Nov 9, 2007
- 9
- 0
- 18,510
In short, I would like to do 2 things:
1. Format the external drive so it resembles a normal, removable USB/thumb drive (if possible)
2. Connect to it via network the router and computers share (right now, my networked computers can't see it, but could before I formatted it)
Explanation:
So I made 2 recent upgrades: one was to an SSD drive on my laptop; the other was my wireless router to one with a USB port that allows storage. All's fine with the laptop and I wanted to repurpose the old drive I removed (500GB 2.5 SATA) into network storage, so I bought an enclosure for it that came with a USB cable (3.0). I tested the router's USB feature by connecting another portable external drive I had and I was able to see it and its contents from the networked PC and laptop by going to it's address \\192.168.1.1 (the router) in the Explorer window. Once I had the old hard drive set up in the enclosure, to test it, I plugged it directly into the laptop and it showed the old contents. The only problem was, it did not present any option to remove it safely, like normal USB drives (my external Seagate 3TB drive is like this also). I then did the same test on the router USB with the old hard drive (which was in the USB enclosure now) and that also showed up in Explorer (before formatting it). The router has its own "remove safely" feature, but the "remove safely" doesn't show up in Windows.
I then formatted the old drive using the diskpart utility and removed all the Win8 partitions and data successfully. When I plugged it back in to the laptop, I partitioned the drive using the Windows Disk Manager to give it a primary partition using all available space (~465GB or so), and then the drive was usable and showed up in Explorer. Still no 'remove safely' option, but I was able to use it and created a file & folder, etc. When I plugged it into the router, however, I went to the address the same way (\\192.168.1.1) but now it does not show anything and I get the "network diagnostics" message since it could not connect. The router's GUI sees it and it shows the correct space available, but the computers in Explorer cannot connect. What did I do wrong and how do I set this up properly?
1. Format the external drive so it resembles a normal, removable USB/thumb drive (if possible)
2. Connect to it via network the router and computers share (right now, my networked computers can't see it, but could before I formatted it)
Explanation:
So I made 2 recent upgrades: one was to an SSD drive on my laptop; the other was my wireless router to one with a USB port that allows storage. All's fine with the laptop and I wanted to repurpose the old drive I removed (500GB 2.5 SATA) into network storage, so I bought an enclosure for it that came with a USB cable (3.0). I tested the router's USB feature by connecting another portable external drive I had and I was able to see it and its contents from the networked PC and laptop by going to it's address \\192.168.1.1 (the router) in the Explorer window. Once I had the old hard drive set up in the enclosure, to test it, I plugged it directly into the laptop and it showed the old contents. The only problem was, it did not present any option to remove it safely, like normal USB drives (my external Seagate 3TB drive is like this also). I then did the same test on the router USB with the old hard drive (which was in the USB enclosure now) and that also showed up in Explorer (before formatting it). The router has its own "remove safely" feature, but the "remove safely" doesn't show up in Windows.
I then formatted the old drive using the diskpart utility and removed all the Win8 partitions and data successfully. When I plugged it back in to the laptop, I partitioned the drive using the Windows Disk Manager to give it a primary partition using all available space (~465GB or so), and then the drive was usable and showed up in Explorer. Still no 'remove safely' option, but I was able to use it and created a file & folder, etc. When I plugged it into the router, however, I went to the address the same way (\\192.168.1.1) but now it does not show anything and I get the "network diagnostics" message since it could not connect. The router's GUI sees it and it shows the correct space available, but the computers in Explorer cannot connect. What did I do wrong and how do I set this up properly?
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