USB hard drive on the router is not recognized - what to do?
Most DSL routers now have USB ports to which printers, USB sticks or external hard drives can be connected. However, it often happens that external hard drives do not work straight away on the router. There are multiple reasons for that. It can be due to the file system, the number of partitions, the size of the disk or an insufficient power supply.
USB hard drive on the router - you have to consider that
According to the specification, a USB 2.0 port provides 500 mA of current. Hard drives that draw their operating current from the USB port sometimes need more than 500 mA. In such a case, you should use an external power supply.
- To find out the supported file systems (FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3), the maximum number of partitions and the maximum supported partition size, a look at the manual or the specifications of the router is sufficient.
- In many cases there are firmware updates that increase the tolerance of the router.
- One problem that can occur with external disks is that they sometimes fail to go into standby mode. There are protocols and commands to ensure this, but sometimes the disk and router do not understand each other completely.
- Then you are well advised to use a large USB stick: It is absolutely silent, requires little power and is in fact constantly on standby.
If you want to protect your data on a USB stick with a password, we will show you how it's done here.
DSL comparison calculator
in cooperation with communicationAds.net