USB Hard Drive and 87U

[debart]

@Hale_JP

As I already had Entware installed on my router I thought I'd install ntfs-3g and give it a try. Much to my surprise it actually worked (in that I could mount an NTFS drive using the fuseblk driver)! I can't say whether it will work for you or solve your problem because I have no way of testing that and my hardware/firmware is completely different to yours. Good luck.

Could you (or someone) explain how to do this to a Windows user? I'm sufficiently tech savvy but not *nix savvy and couldn't follow the discussion above. I'm having the same problem as OP but OP's solution doesn't work for me, so I want to try installing the ntfs-3g driver (AC3100, 5TB drive)

 

[bbunge]

Could you (or someone) explain how to do this to a Windows user? I'm sufficiently tech savvy but not *nix savvy and couldn't follow the discussion above. I'm having the same problem as OP but OP's solution doesn't work for me, so I want to try installing the ntfs-3g driver (AC3100, 5TB drive)

You need to be running Merlin firmware. You need to install Entware then the ntfs-3g driver. Then you likely will discover it does not work as your hard drive is too big.

Plug-n-Share Disks Compatibility List

As I read it the max drive size for the AC3100 is 4 TB. You can get around this by partitioning the drive into smaller than 4 TB segments. Then it should work as long as it is in a case that is externally powered. Making sure your firmware is up to date might also help.
If you have a lot of data to store we strongly recommend using a NAS. A router does not make a good place to store a lot of data. Several companies make single drive NAS that work really well. You can also use a Raspberry Pi to make a NAS you can use with the USB drive.

 

[debart]

You need to be running Merlin firmware. You need to install Entware then the ntfs-3g driver. Then you likely will discover it does not work as your hard drive is too big.

Plug-n-Share Disks Compatibility List

As I read it the max drive size for the AC3100 is 4 TB. You can get around this by partitioning the drive into smaller than 4 TB segments. Then it should work as long as it is in a case that is externally powered. Making sure your firmware is up to date might also help.
If you have a lot of data to store we strongly recommend using a NAS. A router does not make a good place to store a lot of data. Several companies make single drive NAS that work really well. You can also use a Raspberry Pi to make a NAS you can use with the USB drive.

thank you. my drive has 2 strikes against it: it is 5tb and usb powered. it's a small portable drive. i have modest need that I thought I could get away with using a router. I had a AC tp-link router that worked fine for this purpose, but I wanted something meshable and heard good things about asus. This is a little disappointing. I'll try to split the partition and see how it goes

 

[ColinTaylor]

@debart You can avoid any potential problems caused by NTFS compatibility by using a native Linux filesystem type like ext4. If you want to do that just SSH into the router (running Merlin firmware), type amtm and chose fd (Format disk). Of course you would then loose the ability to plug it back into a PC and for Windows to be able to read it.

 

[debart]

@ColinTaylor yes I may go that route with a different drive. Or maybe get a rasp pi. Would it have the same issues with ntfs since it's linux too?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Or maybe get a rasp pi. Would it have the same issues with ntfs since it's linux too?

Impossible to say really. This thread is from years ago and apart from that single post nobody who reported the problem ever posted a follow up. The Pi is pretty popular with geeks so I suppose there's a good chance any NTFS problems would have been quickly fixed.

 

[debart]

Impossible to say really. This thread is from years ago and apart from that single post nobody who reported the problem ever posted a follow up. The Pi is pretty popular with geeks so I suppose there's a good chance any NTFS problems would have been quickly fixed.

I narrowed it down to 3 problem files then decided they could go. I don't think it's a matter of hitting some limits pertaining to # of files or total sizes, b/c I've added more files since. Maybe there were errors in those files this particular ntfs driver is less robust in handling.