2x 2TB 3.5" Hitachi Drives Over Netgear R6400 Router

[MrOddlyFox]

Hello. It's been a while.
I have 2x 2TB 3.5" Hitachi Hard Drives that I want to attach to my router for use by all Windows PCs connected to the network. I am not really worried about Macs or smartphones.
The router I am using is a Netgear R6400.

This is IMPORTANT.
I would rather the device NOT format the disks if possible. They each contain unique data that is rather massive.

I have seen devices that can connect drives to a router via ethernet, but I was reading the manual and it seems that it may or may not format them to another file system. That's not too awesome for the situation.

BUDGET is preferable under $120.

 

[kanewolf]

You may be able to use a USB hub and USB enclosures. Most routers will read NTFS disks. Your performance will be poor with this implementation but it will work.

 

[MrOddlyFox]

Is there anything better?

 

[kanewolf]

The best performing implementations will have you formatting those disks. Most network storage is Linux based and NTFS isn't really a native format. You could find an old desktop PC and use it with Windows. Not much CPU or RAM is required to server a few files.

 

[MrOddlyFox]

What a coincidence 😀
I've been looking at mini PCs all morning. I somewhat came to the conclusion that the best way to effectively share the amount of data I have it to put more computer power behind the disks.

 

[MrOddlyFox]

I decided to go with an Asus vm42-s075v. This should handle what I need with no issue.