Question How to Restore Networked Hard Drive?

[KublaiKhan]

Netgear WNDR4500 router.

I outgrew a 3TB hard drive connected to my router, and transferred everything to a new 6TB drive. Naturally, I'm not able to simply connect the new drive to the router and have it work. While I'm sure the IP address is the same, if I try to open the new drive via Windows Explorer, I get an error stating that "This connection has not been restored."

I could use a hand getting this up and running, again.

Someone here helped me set up the 3TB drive a while back, telling me how to use DOS to get the drive's IP address , and then have Windows 7 map the drive by its IP address. Previously, I struggled with Netgear's Readyshare software, which would spontaneously stop working. Access via IP address provided the only reliable functionality I've ever had. Apparently, I cannot find my local copy of those instructions, and all my posts here appear to be missing.

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[ss202sl]

Delete the connection(mapping), and create a new mapping to the new drive

 

[KublaiKhan]

Not sure how to delete the original mapping.

Hope I'm not mucking it all up by disconnecting and connecting the USB cord from the router.

After several minutes, the old drive will work when reconnected. The new drive will not.

I right-clicked on the drive's original link in Windows Explorer and selected Disconnect. Restarted Windows Explorer, and that link no longer appears in the left pane. It remains visible under Start Menu\Computer, however.

With the command prompt, I use ipconfig to find the Default Gateway address, which I thought I was supposed to enter into the address bar of Windows Explorer, but that's not working.

I wonder if I have to run Netgear's ReadyShareConnect application before Windows 7 will recognize the new drive connected to the router's USB port?

Also, the old drive was designated as U:, going back to my original use of Netgear's ReadyShareConnect application. Open Start Menu\Computer, and that U: appears under Network location, following the familiar IP address. Would I need to Map network drive under Start Menu\Computer and select the same U: to get the new drive working?

I have to suspect Windows 10 makes this easier.

 

[KublaiKhan]

Netgear WNDR4500 router.

This is frustrating.

I deleted the mapped connection. It does not appear anywhere, now.

The new drive is connected, but I keep getting an error when I attempt to Map network drive:

Windows cannot access\\xxx.xxx.x.x\USB_Storage

Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.

The new drive works. I spent a couple days transferring my data to it. It does not matter which unused letter I assign the drive. My default gateway is the same IP address. Was I supposed to Disconnect while the original drive was still hooked up? Is this a problem with the volume name of the new drive (same as the old one, by the way)? Is this some weird USB 2 vs USB 3 thing? Is this because of the size of the new hard drive?

Beneath the Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: section, I am seeing this:

Tunnel adapter isatap.{XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}:

Media State......................: Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

That appears all the time, whether or not I have the old network drive operational.

I finally found these old posts and instructions:

Question - WTF Netgear routers and USB drives becoming unavailable?

I would have assumed Netgear had ironed this out since I bought my old WNDR4500. I'm seeing thousands of reports of users spontaneously losing access to functional USB drives connected to even recent Netgear routers. The typical narrative is, "Hey, this was working yesterday and just suddenly...

forums.tomshardware.com

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-router/1cf9f36f-536c-420e-817a-dd750fd36ac2

It may be that I mapped the new drive incorrectly. I did not follow the steps, above. Most instructions I've found online have been less accurate, by far.

I'll try again in the morning.

 

[KublaiKhan]

The WNDR4500 will not work with many hard drives at all. The largest one it seems to work with is the 3TB drive I already had, which I have been forced to reconnect.

I'm confused as to why a router needs to be paired with specific hard drives, and so few of them at that. Why isn't the firmware written to provide more universal support for USB drives? Are they all that different? If so, why can any external USB hard drive be connected directly to a computer with nearly absolute certainty of success?

Unless I'm missing something, I assume this limited functionality supports overall planned obsolescence, in case the hardware itself does not fail. Eventually, customers will need a larger hard drive, right?

I have gotten many years of good service with this router. The only headache has been USB support, some of which is due to Microsoft, and not Netgear. While the router continues to meet our basic needs, I am reminded that we suffer some buffer bloat, which would be resolve with a new router.