Question Western Digital Networked drive renamed folders and files

[bvon]

I have a Nighthawk R6700 firmware V1.0.2.26_10.0.61. I'm trying to connect a WD elements 2TB network hard drive to it and access via local network using my MacBook pro or Samsung Smart TV or Sonos music system. When I access plugged into the USB on my MacBook pro everything is fine. But when I look at it through the network, I have 2 drives like Q_Drive and R_Driveinstead of one. I didn't create these and not sure where they came from or why there are two when I formatted the hard drive to just have one drive. Also, several folders and files are renamed. It will change the name from something like African Playground - Putumayo to something like AN40E0~9. This happens for several folders. It will also change some files from something like Mudali Thuma - The Balladeers / Anura Jayasingha.flac to an unix executable file called MGU1DJ~B.

I'm not sure why this is happening nor how to resolve them.

Any ideas would be great.
Thanks

 

[Ralston18]

Note sure about "When I access plugged into the USB on my MacBook pro everything is fine" what connections are being used?

Meaning Nighthawk R6700, MacBook, and the WD Elements 2TB network hard drive. The physical connections being used between them all.

Explain: " But when I look at it through the network" - what, how are you doing that?

Do you have a mixed environment of Windows, MacBook (Apple) and Unix devices?

How, where are you plugging in the WD Elements 2 TB drive into the network?

How did you format the drive?

Are you able to provide a more detailed diagram of your network devices and how all are connected? Just some simple sketch that you can scan or otherwise produce and then post that image here using imgur (www.imgur.com).

If there is a Windows system involved open Disk Management and expand the Window so all drives can be seen. Take a screenshot and likewise post the image using imgur.

Need, at least for me, a sense of the bigger picture.

 

[bvon]

I plug the drive directly into the MacBook via usb and all files are fine accessed via networked drive on my LAN. Although it shows two drive letters for some reason. One drive has nothing on it, the other has my files but I didn't create any virtual drives. There's just one hard drive with no partitions.
Image of two drive letters via my mac

https://imgur.com/6QSoinI

View: https://imgur.com/6QSoinI


Image of one drive with nothing

https://imgur.com/XVmmQsW

View: https://imgur.com/XVmmQsW


Image of drive with files on it that are renamed

https://imgur.com/bfNlJKk

View: https://imgur.com/bfNlJKk


Image of how same folder looks when accessed on hard drive plugged into mac via usb, not plugged into router and accessed over the network.

https://imgur.com/YWDF5Qr

View: https://imgur.com/YWDF5Qr


The problem is when it's over the lan. That's when the files are renamed. I've accessed it as a shared network drive, on smart TV, and via sonos and all of them have the renamed folders and files. I'm accessing it using the network. The hard drive is connected to the Nighthawk router that has a usb port on it.

The environment is MacBook pro, Samsung smart TV, and Sonos application running on MacBook or iPhone.

I formatted using Mac extended journal.

Here's a diagram of the system.

https://imgur.com/ZzG7sC7

View: https://imgur.com/ZzG7sC7


Thanks for any help

 

[USAFRet]

I'm thinking this is file name vs metadata.

"African Playground - Putumayo " = metadata. Possibly created by some labeling or library organizing tool.
"AN40E0~9 " = actual file name.

 

[fzabkar]

Is the file system NTFS?

Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?

https://dmde.com/

The short file names look like DOS 8.3 file names. You can examine the metadata for each file with DMDE. I expect that you will see both a long filename and a short filename for every file, not just a few problematic ones.

 

[bvon]

I noticed when run through the netgear router, many folders that were renamed had space after the name. When I deleted the space at the end many of the files returned to their normal names when viewed through the network for example on my MacBook but connected to the router.

The files that were renamed to unix exe files either had a ?, ", or / in the name and the router renamed them to some weird construct .exe and listed as a unix type file. So I changed all files with those characters and it's resolved that part of the problem. I still don't know why it's happening. I never had this problem before and haven't changed anything on the system.

A few folders still have their names changed despite eliminating the final space at the ned of the name. I've done a get info. on MacBook's finder and don't see a file name different than the name of the folder.

I downloaded DMDE but I'm not familiar how to view the metadata. I did notice I have 3 portions, one in FAT32 and the other HFS+. I didn't want nor need any partitions. All I wanted was a music folder on the the drive and able to access it directly with the shortest path possible, not virtual drives like Q and R and I didn't want nor need any partitions on it. Here's an image from DMDE.

https://imgur.com/yOwTypi

View: https://imgur.com/yOwTypi


I also didn't see how to access metadata for the files and folders that would give me a long and short filename.

 

[fzabkar]

I'm not familiar with HFS, but it would appear that certain characters in the filename are invalid when processed by the router. From an MS perspective, ?, ", or / are not permitted in filenames. Also, I don't think MS allows file extensions consisting only of spaces. I think the same applies to Linux file systems.

ISTM that if you want your filenames to be consistent across the different platforms, you need to be mindful of invalid characters.

As for drive letters, it would appear that the Q and R drives are the EFI and Music partitions.


Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...orbidden-in-windows-and-linux-directory-names