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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-505 => Topic started by: holmes4 on July 23, 2012, 05:47:30 PM

Title: Using USB hard drive with DIR-505
Post by: holmes4 on July 23, 2012, 05:47:30 PM

I have been doing some experimenting with the DIR-505 and its ability to "serve" a USB storage device to clients on its network.  I have found the following:

USB flash drives are not a problem, as long as they are formatted for FAT32 (most are)

The DIR-505 does not supply enough power from its USB port to power most USB hard drives, and especially CD/DVD/BD drives.  However, if your drive can accept external power, either through a dedicated jack or by use of a USB Y cable (for example, this one from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003HHK576/ref=cm_cr_asin_lnk)), then it will work if the drive uses the MBR partition table type and has a FAT32 partition.  My experiments show that a drive with a GPT table type (common on Macs and also supported by Windows 7) will not be recognized by the DIR-505.  I have not yet done the experiment to see if the DIR-505 will recognize an NTFS partition on an MBR drive.

Title: Re: Using USB hard drive with DIR-505
Post by: draggos on August 04, 2012, 02:36:03 AM

NTFS partitions are usable with DIR-505.
FYP: I had my unit replaced because of USB connection issues.
Now is working fine.

Title: Re: Using USB hard drive with DIR-505
Post by: draggos on August 14, 2012, 10:39:12 AM

I noted that the USB sharing (SharePort access) is only active in Router and Wi-Fi Hotspot modes.
Access Point mode doesn't get any USB loving.

While you're in a hotel room, connected to the Internet via Ethernet cable in A/P mode you won't be able to access your USB storage. You will have to switch to Router or Hotspot mode to enable USB drive (losing the www in the process).

Bummer !