A couple of years back I bought a hardware RAID 5 device and was wondering if there was a way to make it work with my new WD Net N900. The device that I bought is a Sans Digital TR4UTBPN. It contains 4 identical 2xTB WD Green Drives and is configured as a single RAID 5 GPT/NTFS volume (This is a hardware RAID 5 device). I have not had an issue connecting it to any device that supports GPT.
The N900 seems to detect the device and its size but does not mount the folder to be shared. It does share my smaller 1TB portable drive. I cannot seem to find any detailed information on how the N900 works or what its limitations are. If someone would be willing to assist me, I would be very grateful.
Thanks
Will do some further research to see if there are any limitations.
In the mean time you can try the following steps:
How to set up and configure a USB drive attached to a My Net router for the first time or after safely ejecting the drive
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9425
I followed these directions and have no trouble connecting other smaller USB devices to the N900, just this particular enclosure. The N900 seems to detect it correctly, however it never mounts folder.
I saw it recommended elsewhere on the forums to make sure if it is an NTFS device to allow the “everyone” the full control permission. Which I did but there was no change in accessibility.
I one thing that I noticed is it gave the device the name “5” on the routers control panel. If this is the only name it gave the device it may not be a valid name? How does the device choose a name? Can it be changed?
I have not had any progress with my RAID device, I was able to connect a 2TB external without an issue, but I do not have larger single disk devices to test with.
I am pretty supprised at the lack of documention on this device, its not like I bought a no-named device off of ebay.
John,
Were you able to find anymore information on this issue?
We recommend using single drive units for better performance and functionality.
Raid will never work. JBOD mode will. If you have to use raid, then your out of luck. There are documented examples on here of an external 5 disk system in JBOD mode. Also it could be a chipset issue on your external box. The successful solution used a simple chipset that presented the drive as a simple external usb drive. If you can plug it into windows and be detected as a simple, single hdd then it should work providing the box is externally powered. Also note that you will probably have to format the setup through the router config page so the special files are copied over for the dlna.
My suggestion is to start small and prove the external box with a sinlge drive will work, then build up to find the issue. If the router won’t see a single, no way it will see an array. Also it could be a limit on so many TB size. Not sure what the max linux TB size is as the router is a linux kernel.
John,
Thank you for the recomendation, but I need to know if there is there a size limitation for devices attached to the USB ports? Is there a specific format or block size that is required?
The WD router appears to detect it as a single volume, however it does not mount the folder. This points to an issue with it not recognising the format or that the device is to large.
If I run out an buy a single 4tb drive is that supported?
As stated before it might had something to do with the dual drive unit.
The router supports NTFS, HFS and FAT32.
What happens if you connect a single drive unit?
Check the article bellow for more information.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9425/
Well I decided to see what was going on with the router. After talking with a couple of people, looking at the kernel that is loaded on the device and testing it with a similar multi-drive device, it looks like this is an issue with the Samba part of the Linux kernel you guys are running on the router…
So my options are to:
- Repartition my drive to be several smaller partitions (<2TB)
- Modify the kernel myself and void the warranty
- Use a different device to share the enclosure
Because I am trying to resolve other issues with incompatibilities with this device, I am thinking option 3 is best.
Note: I am a Linux lightweight and did not feel comfortable making changes. But I did find some nice articles on telnet and SSH access to modify the routers kernel and loading a custom kernel onto it. I however would not recommend this unless you know what you are doing. aka, not me
Hey Weatherlight,
I had a similar issue with my 4TB Seagate Desktop Backup and a 2TB WD Green. They would both show in the gui, but not for samba or ftp.
The only way I finally got work, was by using EaseUS Partition Master to create a single GPT partition without the reserve partition.
It sucked to have to redo my 4TB, but it’s working great now on the n900.
