Turn a NAS drive into a regular USB one

[benbo1]

I have an old LaCie NAS which ran out of space, so I got a new WD. Both work great, but have 2 different web interfaces, different ways to remotely access, different schemes to administer userids, etc.
It's easy to plug a dumb USB drive into the back of a NAS to expand its storage; now that my old LACie has all of its data copied onto the new WD, I have extra drive space. There has to be a way to reconfigure the LaCie to make it a regular external drive, and I have a 2-sided USB cord to connect it to the back of the WD. Millions of articles how to go the other way, make a dumb USB drive -----> NAS; I'm looking to do exactly the reverse, so I can have the WD treat the former LaCie as just another external drive, and expand the WD drivespace.
Alternately, I wouldn't mind leaving the old LaCie plugged into the Ethernet hub, but I want 1 firmware, 1 remote access system, to use WD's network assistant app, etc. - de facto, as if the LaCie drive is simply another partition on the WD.
Thanks for the upcoming advice.

 

[jsmithepa]

If I understand what you are asking, this could be as simple as....

Remove old drive from NAS, mount it on your new external USB enclosure, plug into MAC and format it, remove from MAC and plug back into NAS as external.

 

[benbo1]

There are no MACs involved, this is all Windows. Are you saying take the harddrive out of the old LaCie, put in harddrive enclosure, format, then attach to the new WD as a regular harddrive?

 

[jsmithepa]

Ha, I just assume LaCie$$ customers are Mac people, but no matter Mac, Windows, same deal for the purpose of this conversation.

 

[benbo1]

So simply take the LaCie drive out, cage it, attach, format - and it acts like any other dumb drive? If so, thanks. Alternately, is there any way to leave the LaCie intact, and simply plug in a 2-sided USB cord? Obviously I'd need to do something else to zap the LaCie, when I tried this before, the new WD didn't recognize the LaCie plugged into it. Is there freeware I can run on a NAS to format, and make it appear as JADD (Just Another Dumb Drive), to the new NAS when the old one is plugged in?