Question WTF Netgear routers and USB drives becoming unavailable?

[KublaiKhan]

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 stopped," and "I no longer see my USB drive on the network."

Netgear automatically points the finger at antivirus software, suggests a firmware update, or advises a hard reset of the router. It's akin to telling drivers whose Firestone tires exploded that they needed to turn their radio volume down.

To be fair, I've suspected routers respond poorly to power failures, and that these may cause this issue, but I am unqualified to say with any sort of authority.

Over the years, this problem has happened to me a number of times, and always randomly. It works one day, but not the next. Right now, no one in the house can access our network drive, which I've connected directly to a computer and verified is, in fact, operational. Accessing ReadyDLNA: WNDR4500 from Windows Explorer (my machine runs Windows 7) only causes the Windows Media Player installer to launch (ReadyDLNA: WNDR4500 is listed under Media Devices under Network in Windows Explorer).

If I access the router via my handy link in Firefox, Readyshare displays the USB drive correctly. Regardless, no one can access it from their computers.

I've read people with new routers are still having the same problem. Is this a Netgear thing, a Windows thing, or simply some sort of network gremlin that no one can own?

If this is a Netgear problem, how in the hell have they been unable to resolve it after so many years?

I have updated to the latest firmware and did a hard reset of the modem. I shouldn't have to reinstall Windows entirely to access a USB drive.

You're a saint if you have time to help or advise.

 

[kanewolf]

It is quite possible that it is because Windows had depreciated older versions of SMB because of security issues. There are LOTS of problems with network storage from other vendors and from Windows 7 hosts. The typical workaround is using the ip address rather than a name. \\ip address\folder

 

[bill001g]

That is pretty much the main difference between routers now days. They all more or less perform the same since they use the same radio and cpu chips. The only difference is the firmware and the company behind it. Be happy you don't have something like belkin or one of the many other "value" models.

You could try one of the many third party firmwares that will run on that router. Many of these are actually better supported than what you get from some manufactures.

 

[KublaiKhan]

It is quite possible that it is because Windows had depreciated older versions of SMB because of security issues. There are LOTS of problems with network storage from other vendors and from Windows 7 hosts. The typical workaround is using the ip address rather than a name. \\ip address\folder

Hate to be a bother, but could you explain this a little further? This is something I'd put into the directory field atop Windows Explorer? The IP address is that of the router? With \Readyshare at the end? Is "\\xxx.xxx.x.x\Readyshare" correct? I do apologize if my ignorance is frustrating.

Could it be that the drive is no longer "mapped" and I have to manually "map" it from each connected computer? Alas, I tried to follow these steps from Microsoft, but cannot locate the drive via the Browse function, which only reveals the network and the computer I'm working from this moment. Perhaps this would be where I place the IP information, above?

It's not just my Windows 7 machine that is affected, but also the other Windows 10 and 7 machines in the house.

OK, I just entered "\\xxx.xxx.x.x" in the directory field at the top of the Windows Explorer window, and after a moment, "USB_Storage" appeared. I opened this and saw the contents of our network's USB drive. Following these directions, I subsequently mapped this as a network drive, and it is currently listed under my other assorted physical hard drives.

This process seems to replicate something I used to do with an application specific to this router; I used to run a small Netgear Readyshare application that caused the USB drive connected to the router to list at the bottom of drives connected to my computer. But this ability stopped working so often that I gave up and instead began accessing the drive through the Network folder. Now that, too, has stopped working and led me here. 😡

Do the wireless hard drives avoid these problems, or are they also prone to being "disappeared?"

 

[jsmithepa]

if \\ip address\folder works, just use that dude, else u will be cracking your head try to figure out what vendors do and don't. Can assign a shortcut to \\ip address\folder if u don't feel like typing the whole thing out every single time.

ip address, the router's IP needs to be static, needless to say.

 

[KublaiKhan]

I thought this was the result of a power outage from the other day—and it may have been. I also wonder if a recent Windows update changed things, as described, above. I know that I updated my Windows 7 machine between the time I last accessed the network drive and the time when I discovered the issue. The Windows 10 machine has the Home version of the OS, and would have updated automatically when an update went live. Both machines reported that network sharing had been turned off.

Turning network sharing on in Windows 7 did not remedy the problem; the drive can no longer be reached via the network icon, but using the router's IP address has made it available once again. The Windows 10 machine already had a similar link listed beneath the other physical drives, a link which began working after network sharing was restored.