Is Merlin incompatible with 4GB WD USB 3.0 drives?

[Thomas Bihn]

I've had this attached to the router for months without issue. Yesterday, I decided to try Merlin out and after it rebooted from flashing everything worked except the hard drive. I ran a scan and it reported there were file errors.

"Errors have been detected on your hard drive. Remove any damaged files or use a PC to correct system issues."

OK, I thought, maybe I should've unmounted it and unplugged it before the firmware update. I scanned it on my Win 10 PC and it found and corrected a file error. Subsequent scan showed no errors.

I then tried to reconnect it and it won't mount. It has a red circle. I tried rescanning and it showed the same error message. I took it back to my laptop and ran WD Drive Utilities on it. It passed the SMART test and the Quick Drive Test, but I'm running a complete drive test right now.

Maybe the Merlin firmware doesn't support this drive for one reason or another. My question is really:

Will it work if I go back to stock?

 

[RMerlin]

USB disk support is identical in stock and in my firmware (and for a while mine was more compatible, as I had an additional kernel patch to handle large disks - Asus also has the same kernel patch now, at least for some of their models).

Large disk support will always be quirky due to the router lacking sufficient RAM to run filesystem checks.

 

[Thomas Bihn]

USB disk support is identical in stock and in my firmware (and for a while mine was more compatible, as I had an additional kernel patch to handle large disks - Asus also has the same kernel patch now, at least for some of their models).

Large disk support will always be quirky due to the router lacking sufficient RAM to run filesystem checks.

Is there a way I can get it back to operational? I can use it on my Windows PC, but since upgrading to the custom firmware, the circle just remains red when I connect it. Any links would be most appreciated.

And thanks for the quick reply. I think it was tied to upgrading, but not the fault of the Merlin firmware - just my stupidity for not disconnecting the drive first.

 

[hggomes]

You probably mean 4TB and not 4GB, yes it works fine, i have 2x4TB (WD and Hitachi) drives attached and working perfectly.

You should always upgrade your router FW without any USB device connected, also unmount it correctly so you can avoid errors, on a big drive such as yours the verification can take some time.

 

[RMerlin]

Is there a way I can get it back to operational? I can use it on my Windows PC, but since upgrading to the custom firmware, the circle just remains red when I connect it. Any links would be most appreciated.

And thanks for the quick reply. I think it was tied to upgrading, but not the fault of the Merlin firmware - just my stupidity for not disconnecting the drive first.

Do a filesystem check on your PC, eject it safely, then plug it back to your router.

 

[Thomas Bihn]

You probably mean 4TB and not 4GB, yes it works fine, i have 2x4TB (WD and Hitachi) drives attached and working perfectly.

You should always upgrade your router FW without any USB device connected, also unmount it correctly so you can avoid errors, on a big drive such as yours the verification can take some time.

Woops! I was watching a video talking about Half-Life and I guess I was transported back to 1998!

 

[Thomas Bihn]

Do a filesystem check on your PC, eject it safely, then plug it back to your router.

I ran the disk check utility on the Windows 10 PC with the setting to automatically fix errors. It took about 20 hrs or so to run through, then still got the error on the router. I am now running the WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics on it. 14:45 in and estimated 12:31:32 remaining. I found a post somewhere advising to delete all the router-added files before attempting a remount. I'll try that if simply reconnecting it after it's done doesn't work.

 

[Thomas Bihn]

Update: The Data LifeGuard diagnostics completed and it passed, so the drive is OK (according to this tool). I unmounted, took over to the router and it still shows up with an error. I rescanned and it got through 100% of allocation checking and followed with this text:

Failed to calloc 122093248 bytes: Cannot allocate memory
Checking cluster allocation ...
ERROR(12): Failed to setup allocation bitmap: Cannot allocate memory
Syncing device ...

I unmounted, took back to my PC, scanned the drive with no issue detected using the utility in the right-click menu, deleted all the files from the root. It still throws the error on the router.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Thomas Bihn]

Interesting...

I reflashed with the stock firmware and the drive worked. I then rescanned and got the same error. I reflashed with the stock firmware again and the drive worked. I then flashed with Merlin and it worked.

So there you have it - if you have a WD 4TB MyBook, don't scan your drive with the router.

One other note: The stock firmware didn't rename my files, but with the Merlin, my share that I use, the h folder was previously mapped as \\routerserver\h\ and now is \\routerserver\h (at My Book)\ under Merlin. All the folders show "(at My Book)" after that.

 

[sfx2000]

Do a filesystem check on your PC, eject it safely, then plug it back to your router.

I was thinking the same thing - that the filesystem was marked dirty, and fsck ran out of memory...

Wondering if this is an NTFS/FAT32/exFAT (OP doesn't say, except that he can mount it on the Windows machine, which suggests one of those)... either that or GPT vs. MBR for partition info that the filesystem is built upon...

If the drive is formatted out as EXT4, shouldn't be a problem...

 

[Thomas Bihn]

I was thinking the same thing - that the filesystem was marked dirty, and fsck ran out of memory...

Wondering if this is an NTFS/FAT32/exFAT (OP doesn't say, except that he can mount it on the Windows machine, which suggests one of those)... either that or GPT vs. MBR for partition info that the filesystem is built upon...

If the drive is formatted out as EXT4, shouldn't be a problem...

It's NTFS. I got it to work by reflashing the firmware in the router. It seems like once you scan this drive with the router's utility, it marks the drive as bad and despite scanning clean on a Windows PC, it maintains that status. Once flashing with any firmware (Merlin or ASUS) it clears this setting and the drive operates fine. Hopefully this thread helps someone else down the road.

This issue has me looking at possibly just spending some money on a NAS and drives, which would have the added benefit of allowing me to stop running my laptop into the ground by having it on constantly with torrenting.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I think the error message explains the problem. The router simply doesn't have enough free memory to create the bitmap for a drive so large.

The change in name - (at My Book) - is because the option "Simpler share naming (without the disk name)" is set to No.

 

[Thomas Bihn]

I think the error message explains the problem. The router simply doesn't have enough free memory to create the bitmap for a drive so large.

The change in name - (at My Book) - is because the option "Simpler share naming (without the disk name)" is set to No.

That is awesome! Thanks for the tip!