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Author Topic: DIR 857 support for NTFS  (Read 28843 times)

kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #15 on: July 18, 2012, 11:59:51 AM »

Thanks ember and FurryNutz.

The two main problems for which I was here are now resolved.

1. Shareport not able to detect the WD HDD.

Ans: WD HDD had a locking password. which was easily realized when I connected the drive directly to the computer to verify if USB 3.0 was a problem. It turns out, no it is not a problem. For this I connected another USB 2.0 drive to the router and it was picked up like a charm. Then I removed it and connected the USB3.0 but it was not recognized. Brought it to the computer and it asked password to unlock and I am like Eureka....Removed the password lock and reconnected the drive to the router, worked like a charm...Problem resolved.

Lesssons Learnt : Check to see if the HDD is locked or unlocked. Because a router is not a computer, it cannot detect locked HDD. It treats it as nothing is connected to the port.

No formatting issues, nothing related to NTFS. Now I think, it would have even worked with Airport Extreme.....the main culprit is the LOCK. Simple solution but assumptions led to believe that there is something wrong with DLink's product or WD's product. With Apple, there is a mixed info. on NTFS support. One support person said it does support another said NO and the website literature is quite old but it says NO too. So I think NTFS would still be an issue with Apple's Airport Extreme.

2. Throughput Issues : The router still shows only 2 bars but then the speed is good so will have to live with it till such time, 802.11ac does not become stable . Right now it is in infantsy.

3. About SD Cards or USB sticks  :
The router is able to detect both he file formats NTFS and FAT32. So no need to worry about formatting, if your file format is already NTFS or FAT 32. I checked both SDHC and USB 2.0 sticks with NTFS and FAT 32 and they were both picked up by Shareport and DLNA as well.

All in all, the router works as advertised except for the through put issue and that is current limitation of 802.11a 5GHz freq. as I explained in my previous. thread with  the pipe analogy., however, I am still confused that the SD cards were not picked up day before yesterday and I did not do anything yesterday but they were working fine.

So with some mysteries unsolved, I would like to thank all of you who supported me on this thread. Bye for now.
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ember

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #16 on: July 18, 2012, 09:50:04 PM »

Formating the original partition wont solve the problem, because the disc header has been changed by WD and D-link did not provide a mechanism to recognize it. Just formating the partition will not change the structure of the disc header.

Infact, such a recognition driver usually build by WD, and they make the drives only for main-stream platform/product. D-link may build its router system on a lite linux kernal, like openwrt/ddwrt.

"Get rid of it" means delete the partition and re-create one. Or the best way I always use: delete all partitions on the disk and re-partition it, which could make a plain disk. I always do this when I get a new disk or computer——it will be a big problem to backup files after the disk has been full filled. So consider which one do you need: WD's functions or the router attaching function.

BTW, if you use WD disks in a NAS box, you have to re-partition the HDD too.

Good luck.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2012, 09:55:19 PM by ember »
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FurryNutz

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #17 on: July 18, 2012, 10:32:12 PM »

Glad you found the problem and was able to correct it. Seems like if the drive was Locked or some reason I guess that would cause SP not to be able to use it.

I know that my WD My Mirror editiion has 2x 1 TB drives in RAID using WD software initailly at installation time years ago. I wonder if WD is doing something to there newer drives, seems like we seen a few WD users having some issues with them.

Glad it's working now. Will keep this thread around for future use and knowledge. Thanks for your feed back.

Enjoy.

Thanks ember and FurryNutz.

The two main problems for which I was here are now resolved.

1. Shareport not able to detect the WD HDD.

Ans: WD HDD had a locking password. which was easily realized when I connected the drive directly to the computer to verify if USB 3.0 was a problem. It turns out, no it is not a problem. For this I connected another USB 2.0 drive to the router and it was picked up like a charm. Then I removed it and connected the USB3.0 but it was not recognized. Brought it to the computer and it asked password to unlock and I am like Eureka....Removed the password lock and reconnected the drive to the router, worked like a charm...Problem resolved.

Lesssons Learnt : Check to see if the HDD is locked or unlocked. Because a router is not a computer, it cannot detect locked HDD. It treats it as nothing is connected to the port.

No formatting issues, nothing related to NTFS. Now I think, it would have even worked with Airport Extreme.....the main culprit is the LOCK. Simple solution but assumptions led to believe that there is something wrong with DLink's product or WD's product. With Apple, there is a mixed info. on NTFS support. One support person said it does support another said NO and the website literature is quite old but it says NO too. So I think NTFS would still be an issue with Apple's Airport Extreme.

2. Throughput Issues : The router still shows only 2 bars but then the speed is good so will have to live with it till such time, 802.11ac does not become stable . Right now it is in infantsy.

3. About SD Cards or USB sticks  :
The router is able to detect both he file formats NTFS and FAT32. So no need to worry about formatting, if your file format is already NTFS or FAT 32. I checked both SDHC and USB 2.0 sticks with NTFS and FAT 32 and they were both picked up by Shareport and DLNA as well.

All in all, the router works as advertised except for the through put issue and that is current limitation of 802.11a 5GHz freq. as I explained in my previous. thread with  the pipe analogy., however, I am still confused that the SD cards were not picked up day before yesterday and I did not do anything yesterday but they were working fine.

So with some mysteries unsolved, I would like to thank all of you who supported me on this thread. Bye for now.
Logged
Cable: 1Gb/50Mb>NetGear CM1200>DIR-882>HP 24pt Gb Switch. COVR-1202/2202/3902,DIR-2660/80,3xDGL-4500s,DIR-LX1870,857,835,827,815,890L,880L,868L,836L,810L,685,657,3x655s,645,628,601,DNR-202L,DNS-345,DCS-933L,936L,960L and 8000LH.

wesmac75

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #18 on: July 19, 2012, 02:36:03 PM »

Formatting this way might help me?  I wonder of that was the problem all along, with my 3TB drive not being seen.
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kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #19 on: July 19, 2012, 03:47:57 PM »

Check to see if there is any Password locking the HDD. If the password is removed then it might work if there are no other issues.
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HS-1971

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #20 on: July 19, 2012, 08:22:38 PM »

How to remove the PW? I have a USB 3.0 1TB WD drive and still not able to connect it to the router. When I connect the drive to my laptop, I am able to unlock the drive but that does not solve the problem when connected to the router USB. I had a second WD drive (My Passport)USB 2.0 500GB that I removed the partition and created a new one and formatted to NTFS, only then the SP utility was able to see it and works great. But I don't feel I want to do that with the ITB drive as I use the backup software that is installed with the drive.
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kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #21 on: July 19, 2012, 10:06:30 PM »

Your HDD comes with a software called Smartware. Install that software on your PC, if it is not done already. Under the Settings tab or Management tab or Administration tab, you will see the option to give the password and you will see the hint for your current password. Use that hint and input your password. Once you input the password you will see a small tick box to disable the lock/ password. Click on that and you will be disable the password. Once disabled, safely remove the HDD in the regular way and connect it to the router's shareport. Now access your HDD from your laptop. I am confident that it will be there for you to access.
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kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #22 on: July 20, 2012, 08:30:35 AM »


Formating the original partition wont solve the problem, because the disc header has been changed by WD and D-link did not provide a mechanism to recognize it. Just formating the partition will not change the structure of the disc header.

You are right Ember. My disk started getting recognized only after I performed two actions.

1. Completely reformatted the drive using Windows Disk Management Tool
2. Removed the password that I put to lock the drive during the initial configuration and then I also reloaded the WD files that I saved before formatting. So the software files are intact and are in the disk and so the functionality is also not affected.


Infact, such a recognition driver usually build by WD, and they make the drives only for main-stream platform/product. D-link may build its router system on a lite linux kernal, like openwrt/ddwrt.

Sorry I am not in IT, so I will have to understand how technology works. I also wonder, why WD is formatting the drive to install its proprietary stuff on the drive. I ask for a storage drive, give me a drive and give me a software CD or software on the drive and build it on simple platforms that will work with Windows.....Is that too difficult to do? But manufacturers.....OMG, they want to sell their products the way they want.

"Get rid of it" means delete the partition and re-create one. Or the best way I always use: delete all partitions on the disk and re-partition it, which could make a plain disk. I always do this when I get a new disk or computer——it will be a big problem to backup files after the disk has been full filled. So consider which one do you need: WD's functions or the router attaching function.

I did the exact same thing and it worked. Carefully I chose the NTFS formatting,. Previously I did not do anything because, the drive ws sold by WD as NTFS formatted drive and so I thought wow, this is great. but then realized that there are issues, I reformatted the complete drive and now there are no issues.

BTW, if you use WD disks in a NAS box, you have to re-partition the HDD too.

I am looking to buy a Synology NAS box and will stuff it with 2 3TB RAID  capable drives....Mostly WD Caviar Green or Black.

Good luck.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2012, 08:37:14 AM by FurryNutz »
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HS-1971

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #23 on: July 21, 2012, 11:17:51 PM »

Your HDD comes with a software called Smartware. Install that software on your PC, if it is not done already. Under the Settings tab or Management tab or Administration tab, you will see the option to give the password and you will see the hint for your current password. Use that hint and input your password. Once you input the password you will see a small tick box to disable the lock/ password. Click on that and you will be disable the password. Once disabled, safely remove the HDD in the regular way and connect it to the router's shareport. Now access your HDD from your laptop. I am confident that it will be there for you to access.

Thanks Kamshah for the detail explanation. I tried it and it works now, although I am unable to use the Smartware backup software when the drive is connected to the router, I also lost the drive mapping couple of times without any reason and had to reconnect it through the SP utility. I don't have an issue now but I feel the whole process was not as smooth as I had expected and definitely not for someone not technical enough. I think D-Link should make a better job by including more details about USB drives connection to their router and supply a list of supported drives and how to use them. I also had experienced some connectivity performance degradation when the HDD is connected to the router, I am not sure if it was just a coincidence or it does affect the router internet connection speed.
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FurryNutz

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #24 on: July 23, 2012, 07:24:37 AM »

The Shareport is a proprietary SW that allows sharing of the connected device between PCs and devices on the routers USB port. This sharing can only be accomplished by putting the SP software on each PC or smart device to use the connected drive. This will render most other OEM drive software that came with the original drive packaging from the OEM usless. There software is designed to work directly connected to a PC, not a router. SP software is designed to work between the PC and router only.

Having extra devices connected to the router possibly can effect performance. The more you have going, it's possible that all the processing and management these things have to do, will and can effect performance.

If you needing a more open share and access to external drives, it might be a better option to get your self a dedicated PC and turn it into a file server. I've had one for years. Connect up all my external drives, backup and media files there. I don't need or use SP unless I'm testing somethign. Media files can be accessed from any device and backups are programmed from the client side and sent to the server at any time needed. This will also ensure that good performance is maintained and not bottlenecked when it comes to USB. USB will always be a bottleneck in performance and realistically isn't preferred when dealing with media files. Keep the small stuff and printing to USB. Use LAN for the big stuff. It works well.

My 2 cents.
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Cable: 1Gb/50Mb>NetGear CM1200>DIR-882>HP 24pt Gb Switch. COVR-1202/2202/3902,DIR-2660/80,3xDGL-4500s,DIR-LX1870,857,835,827,815,890L,880L,868L,836L,810L,685,657,3x655s,645,628,601,DNR-202L,DNS-345,DCS-933L,936L,960L and 8000LH.

kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #25 on: July 23, 2012, 10:47:04 AM »

Thanks Kamshah for the detail explanation. I tried it and it works now, although I am unable to use the Smartware backup software when the drive is connected to the router, I also lost the drive mapping couple of times without any reason and had to reconnect it through the SP utility. I don't have an issue now but I feel the whole process was not as smooth as I had expected and definitely not for someone not technical enough. I think D-Link should make a better job by including more details about USB drives connection to their router and supply a list of supported drives and how to use them. I also had experienced some connectivity performance degradation when the HDD is connected to the router, I am not sure if it was just a coincidence or it does affect the router internet connection speed.

See reply # 4 by ember for details about HDD performance.
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kamshah

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #26 on: July 23, 2012, 10:51:50 AM »


The Shareport is a proprietary SW that allows sharing of the connected device between PCs and devices on the routers USB port. This sharing can only be accomplished by putting the SP software on each PC or smart device to use the connected drive. This will render most other OEM drive software that came with the original drive packaging from the OEM usless. There software is designed to work directly connected to a PC, not a router. SP software is designed to work between the PC and router only.

Having extra devices connected to the router possibly can effect performance. The more you have going, it's possible that all the processing and management these things have to do, will and can effect performance.

If you needing a more open share and access to external drives, it might be a better option to get your self a dedicated PC and turn it into a file server. I've had one for years. Connect up all my external drives, backup and media files there. I don't need or use SP unless I'm testing somethign. Media files can be accessed from any device and backups are programmed from the client side and sent to the server at any time needed. This will also ensure that good performance is maintained and not bottlenecked when it comes to USB. USB will always be a bottleneck in performance and realistically isn't preferred when dealing with media files. Keep the small stuff and printing to USB. Use LAN for the big stuff. It works well.

My 2 cents.
very Informative. Thanks for sharing.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2012, 10:56:47 AM by FurryNutz »
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FurryNutz

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Re: DIR 857 support for NTFS
« Reply #27 on: October 30, 2012, 07:27:55 PM »

So I was on the phone to D-Link support for a DIR-645 Shareport not working correctly with a USB drive. The 3rd person I talked to about this mentioned and seemed surprised that a 2TB drive was working, at least on a DIR-657 and 857 routers it works. He did say that they only support and test with 1Tb drives. I guess 2Tb is just a bonus. So I presume 3Tb and beyond may not be supported at this timel. However as drive sizes do grow, maybe they will reconsider or make considerations in the future.  :-\  Wanted to pass this on.

Router USB HDD Max Size FAQ
« Last Edit: August 10, 2016, 10:38:49 AM by FurryNutz »
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Cable: 1Gb/50Mb>NetGear CM1200>DIR-882>HP 24pt Gb Switch. COVR-1202/2202/3902,DIR-2660/80,3xDGL-4500s,DIR-LX1870,857,835,827,815,890L,880L,868L,836L,810L,685,657,3x655s,645,628,601,DNR-202L,DNS-345,DCS-933L,936L,960L and 8000LH.
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