RT-N66U not recognizing 3TB USB HDD

[biznatch]

I made a first post describing my problems getting a 3TB drive to work with my N66U router. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15445

Basically, the problem seems to be that if the drive is formatted as GPUID Partition Table (GPT) then it doesn't mount, but you have to use GPT for drives >2TB.

Now I just installed Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.39 to see if that would help, but it still just says "Unmounted". Any advice?

 

[RMerlin]

I made a first post describing my problems getting a 3TB drive to work with my N66U router. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15445

Basically, the problem seems to be that if the drive is formatted as GPUID Partition Table (GPT) then it doesn't mount, but you have to use GPT for drives >2TB.

Now I just installed Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.39 to see if that would help, but it still just says "Unmounted". Any advice?

I was able to get a 3 TB Caviar Green to come up on my router. It won't work with the stock firmware however, I had to apply a few patches to the kernel for that Nextar CX enclosure to be properly recognized.

Check the System Log, it might give you some hints as to what is going on.

 

[RMerlin]

Also, make sure you use ext3. Paragon's driver doesn't seem to work too well with those large NTFS HDDs.

 

[mtrains]

This may be something specific to N66U. On my AC68R running 374.39 I am using GPT partitioned NTFS drives without any issues. I am using two partitions, 2TB and 1TB in size. It is a WD Mybook 3TB drive.

 

[connorm]

Also, make sure you use ext3. Paragon's driver doesn't seem to work too well with those large NTFS HDDs.

but does ext3 even work on windows as like a standard NTFS drive would?, personally i have been considering dropping around $200 on a 2 bay nas so i can run dual 3TB drive in raid 1. lol i think i seen 3TB barracuda for like $110 or $115

 

[RMerlin]

but does ext3 even work on windows as like a standard NTFS drive would?, personally i have been considering dropping around $200 on a 2 bay nas so i can run dual 3TB drive in raid 1. lol i think i seen 3TB barracuda for like $110 or $115

It wont work when directly plugged to a Windows box, but it will be fine if accessed over the network.

If you get a NAS, do yourself a favour and put a pair of WD Caviar Red disks in it. They are specifically designed for NAS use, and are far more reliable than Barracuda driver.

 

[biznatch]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I discovered something else about the drive I'm trying to use: while it can connect directly to my computer by USB and work properly (as I said in my original post), this only works if I've first connected by eSATA and created the 3TB NTFS partition. If I connect the unformatted raw drive by USB it only detects 746 GB (ie. the portion over the 2TB limit).

I contacted Vantec about this and was told that I have an older version of this particular enclosure that doesn't support >2TB drives by USB (though I found that it kind of does (if you use eSATA first), but not well), and there are no firmware updates available for it.

RMerlin you mentioned your Vantec drive (and a problem with 4K sectors in another post), is there an inherent problem with all Vantec enclosures, or if I get a newer one that supports >2TB drives by USB should that work? For example, Vantec assured me that this enclosure will support bigger drives by USB (in Windows anyways).

 

[RMerlin]

RMerlin you mentioned your Vantec drive (and a problem with 4K sectors in another post), is there an inherent problem with all Vantec enclosures, or if I get a newer one that supports >2TB drives by USB should that work? For example, Vantec assured me that this enclosure will support bigger drives by USB (in Windows anyways).

Part of the problem is Vantec doesn't seem to validate their products under Linux. A 4KB-sized HDD in my NexStar CX 3.0 would incorrectly report having 512-bytes sectors to Linux, preventing it from properly handling the drive. Windows seems to be having some kind of workarounds that would work fine with the same enclosure.

There was a kernel patch pushed maybe 2-3 years ago that helped Linux handle these. After I applied that patch it was fine on my router (and my HTPC was also fine once I had updated Ubuntu to a newer kernel).

I still prefer Vantec's enclosures both for myself and my customers, having had way too many bad experiences with other manufacturers that I tested over the years. For example, we sold two Seagate external drives to two separate customers back in December. First one came back as the disk kept disappearing and reappearing on his server (it was used there for backups), and the other one called me the same week to report he was having trouble with it as well on the PC where he was plugging it. We didn't get a single problem out of the dozens of NexStar we sold over the years.

If your specific enclosure model is too old, it's possible that it might have trouble with 4KB sector sizes, or 3+ TB HDDs. The CX I use has been available for maybe 2 or 3 years now.

 

[frriction]

I have 3TB mybook WD HDD which attached to my router from very first day I bought the router (almost year back) , I do not remember that I had to do anything special to work with router. It is formatted as NTFS thats all I know about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[connorm]

I have 3TB mybook WD HDD which attached to my router from very first day I bought the router (almost year back) , I do not remember that I had to do anything special to work with router. It is formatted as NTFS thats all I know about it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RT-N66U? or RT-AC66U? if so cool!

It wont work when directly plugged to a Windows box, but it will be fine if accessed over the network.

If you get a NAS, do yourself a favour and put a pair of WD Caviar Red disks in it. They are specifically designed for NAS use, and are far more reliable than Barracuda driver.

i would but those drives are 20% more. and i will most likely see no performance gain. aswell as the drives will most likely never fail. and if they do thats the point why im running raid 1. i will consider getting 1 of the WD drives though.

WD and Seagate are my HD suppliers of choice. i started out a WD fanboy cause my old mybook 500GB lasted 5+ years and my seagate 1TB drive is just about to cross that mark. and now that i think about it. the 320GB WD black i got with my laptop october 09 is still running good aswell i havnt had 1 single HD failure ever. lets hope i didnt just jinx myself. hopefully i get RAID 1 before it can happen.

alot of people i trust say seagate. but i have specifically heard of using WD reds for NAS's, seen it in a tekzilla video or somethin like that about making your own home nas.

thanks for the recommendation Merlin!

 

[frriction]

RT-N66U

hdd is- WD MY BOOK (1140)

 

[elorimer]

If it helps, I have a 4T Seagate Backup Plus (NTFS) plugged into my RT-N66U with 39.0-em. Seems to be working fine, right out of the box.

 

[biznatch]

I got a new enclosure and it seems to be working now.

Connected to my computer by USB, formatted as NTFS with default settings using Windows Disk Management, verified it worked on my computer, then ejected it and plugged it into my router. Just to reiterate I have the N66U with Asuswrt-Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.39. I don't know if it would also work with the standard firmware but I don't have any reason to switch back for now so I'm not going to bother to try.

The router system log has a bunch of extra junk in it as it was trying to mount the drive. For example:

Feb 13 19:50:21 hotplug[5284]: USB /dev/sdb1(ntfs) failed to mount at the first try!
Feb 13 19:50:21 kernel: ufsd: use builtin utf8 instead of kernel utf8
Feb 13 19:50:21 kernel: attempt to access beyond end of device
Feb 13 19:50:21 kernel: sdb1: rw=0, want=2930266560, limit=262144
Feb 13 19:50:21 kernel: attempt to access beyond end of device
Feb 13 19:50:21 kernel: sdb1: rw=0, want=2930266568, limit=262144

but it was able to mount after a few seconds.

When I click on the drive in the router settings it says "Available space: 0.125 GB" and "Total space: 0.125 GB" which clearly is incorrect so it's not perfect. I'm going to try using it like this for a few days and see if it's stable, if not I'll try ext3 but I'd prefer NTFS. Has anyone tried this (or anything similar) for accessing ext3 drives under Windows?

 

[RMerlin]

Incorrectly reported disk size is a known issue in the version of Asus's code I'm currently using.

 

[Klyken]

I thought I'd add this for reference as a setup I haven't had any issues with so far (and it's been a few months) WD Red 3TB on NTFS via a Plugable USB 3.0 Lay-Flat Docking Station (ASMedia ASM1053E Chipset).

 

[ChatmanR]

Has anyone tried the new Seagate 5TB drives? I'm using the RT-AC66U with Asuswrt-Merlin 376.49_4