Linksys WRT1900AC not recommended for shared storage

[RoGaR]

A a few months ago I purchased the the WRT1900AC solely based on this sites recommendation on its hard drive storage performance and I have been terribly disappointed.

I tried two different hard drive enclosures with two different drives and a third dedicated USB drive -the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB 3.5" USB 3.0 .

All the results were the same - "Unsupporated format" error message leading to performance issues and weird access issues (i.e. no write access on files with less than a 3 character extension). And yes, they were all properly formatted NTFS drives

I researched the problem and found the answer but I never would have guessed it. The WRT1900AC s hard drive compatibility list is so short that it makes its performance results irrelevant.

If your considering this drive because of its storage performance results my advise would be to look elsewhere.

 

[Trip]

This is all well and good and I'm sure many novices will appreciate the heads-up. However, it's also known that if one is looking for even just acceptable performance out of shared network storage, an actual ethernet-connected endpoint should be used -- workstation, server, NAS, etc. Hanging a USB drive directly off a router might be OK in a pinch, but I wouldn't make it a routine occurrence if reliability and/or performance are required.

A prospective buyer is much better off purchasing a value-class all-in-one for its wifi and routing capabilities only, then buying a NAS enclosure and drive(s). Even budget class NAS's should perform better.

Thanks for the info, though; always good to get more feedback.

 

[htismaqe]

I've used a dozen different storage devices on my 1900AC, from PNY, Verbatim, and Danelec USB sticks to Rosewill and Masscool externally powered eSATA enclosures. NONE of them are on the 1900AC compatibility list and ALL of them work.

I don't want to be harsh but you're doing something wrong.

 

[htismaqe]

I should note that with the enclosures (I have 4 that I use for various purposes) I've used both 2.5" and 3.5" drives, both SATA and IDE, from WD, Seagate, HGST, and Hitachi.

I have yet to find a device/drive that won't work with the router.

 

[sfx2000]

A a few months ago I purchased the the WRT1900AC solely based on this sites recommendation on its hard drive storage performance and I have been terribly disappointed.

A router, at the end of the day, is not a NAS... it's primary function is routing, and providing some WiFi hotness...

Shared USB/eSATA - pretty much a marketing checkbox - all the router/AP's are pretty bad at it compared to a dedicated NAS box at the moment - they're getting better, but....

 

[L&LD]

A router, at the end of the day, is not a NAS... it's primary function is routing, and providing some WiFi hotness...

Shared USB/eSATA - pretty much a marketing checkbox - all the router/AP's are pretty bad at it compared to a dedicated NAS box at the moment - they're getting better, but....

Here's the opposite end of the scale (from USB attached drive to router).

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/qnap-tbs-453a,30943.html

 

[sfx2000]

Here's the opposite end of the scale (from USB attached drive to router).

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/qnap-tbs-453a,30943.html

Interesting device - but perhaps another thread... but I think you and I are of a common mindset there...

 

[htismaqe]

Back to the original topic...

The OP said he can't get the router to recognize any of his drives, so at this point it's not about functionality or performance. It's about getting it to work at all.

Thinking back all the way to the Netgear WNDR3700 days, I don't think I've ever had an issue with external USB drives being recognized.

 

[RoGaR]

I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to share their thoughts.

However, the fact that a NAS is a better, or preferred, solution is a non-sequitur. My WRT1900 is either defective or most of them do not work as advertised with regards to external storage. Now htismage point is relevant because he is directly referencing the WRT1900 external storage functionality which he has had no problem with.

Has anyone else had any problems with the WRT1900's external storage? Two is a very bad sample size

Thanks, again

 

[sfx2000]

I tried two different hard drive enclosures with two different drives and a third dedicated USB drive -the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB 3.5" USB 3.0 .

All the results were the same - "Unsupporated format" error message leading to performance issues and weird access issues (i.e. no write access on files with less than a 3 character extension). And yes, they were all properly formatted NTFS drives

Reading back thru this thread, it reminded me of a couple of things...

1) from the factory, the seagate backup plus (I have the 5TB version, but likely similar to the 4TB), and it had a funky partition table that caused all sorts of problems mounting on Ubuntu - I finally went in with GPartEd and nuked the partition table (nuking all the partitions as well) - repartitioned the drive in Windows 10, and formatted it NTFS, and things worked from there... The odd partition format on that drive was basically to support the value added Seagate Cloud Backup app and mounting the drive for Mac OS X, as well as Windows...

2) Is there a USB3 hub in the mix? If so, try without it, and connect the drive directly to the "blue" port (which is the USB 3.0 native port, direct to the Marvell SoC) - alternatively, one can try the USB/eSATA port, but if I recall that is USB2 there...

 

[RMerlin]

I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to share their thoughts.

However, the fact that a NAS is a better, or preferred, solution is a non-sequitur. My WRT1900 is either defective or most of them do not work as advertised with regards to external storage. Now htismage point is relevant because he is directly referencing the WRT1900 external storage functionality which he has had no problem with.

Has anyone else had any problems with the WRT1900's external storage? Two is a very bad sample size

Thanks, again

I never was able to get mine to detect either of my two USB disks (one was a 3 TB HDD - I know that Linksys' kernel was too old to work with that one, as a kernel patch is required). And since they don't provide access to the router's system log, there was no way for me to even try to troubleshoot it, so I quickly gave up.

The second disk was a simple 750 GB 2.5" in a mobile enclosure, there was no reason for this one not to work.

 

[htismaqe]

It kind of makes sense the Seagate Backup Plus wouldn't work. It's also entirely predictable it would contain a messed up semi-proprietary partition table. It's designed to be a standalone solution and a pull-through to sell cloud storage.

That's why I prefer cheap, barebones enclosures with poached or bare drives.

The second disk was a simple 750 GB 2.5" in a mobile enclosure, there was no reason for this one not to work.

This is the one that surprises me. I've used disks from 80GB up to 1TB with my Rosewill 2.5" enclosure.

 

[peyote98]

A a few months ago I purchased the the WRT1900AC solely based on this sites recommendation on its hard drive storage performance and I have been terribly disappointed.

I had the same problem with a Seagate Expansion Drive. Linksys customer service said that the "compatible" list is not all-inclusive. They suggested that I reformat the drive, which I really didn't want to do because I thought maybe I might want to use the software included by Seagate.

But as soon as I repartitioned the disk and did the reformat, the USB drive was recognized fine as external storage by the router. I'm not sure a simple reformat would have done the job.

Details:

This is a 4 Terabyte Seagate Expansion Desk SCSI drive (again, not on the "compatible" list)

Linksys router model: WRT1900AC
Router firmware version: Smart Wi-Fi 1.1.10.182461 (using Linksys software, NOT dd-wrt yet)
Linksys USB screen said "Unsupported partition or drive mapping detected"
Linksys USB "Learn More" screen says NTFS and GUID-GPT are OK (which is what the drive had)
Win 10 disk management showed the Seagate drive to have a healthy NTFS partition.
Win 10 Properties screen in disk management showed the partition type was GUID-GPT
Seagate drive was powered by a factory-provided 1.7 amp power supply.

All I did was use either Win 10 or EaseUS (can't remember which) to delete the original partition, then used Win 10 to create a new primary partition, at the full size of the disk, with a quick format as NTFS.

Worked fine after the repartition and reformat.

The drive is recognized by my Windows and linux workgroup just fine, as any other samba server. Throughput is very good.

LinksysCares@linksys.com

I'd suggest you contact Linksys. Took them a couple days to answer but they were nice.

Side notes: Their Linksys media server software (Twonky-DLNA) for running external storage is garbage. Management via linksyssmartwifi [dot] com was also garbage. Moreover, there's no SSH capability in the router, which is basically an insult to the customer. I'll probably switch to DD-WRT now that I know the USB drive works.

 

[peyote98]

Follow-up question "htismaqe"

Do you think I would have any kind of problem with the external drive if I switched from Linksys Smart Wifi software to DD-WRT?