Vodafone Router (HG556a) doesn't recognise WD My Book Essential

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didoushkaya

20 posts

Geek

#154682 4-Nov-2014 12:24

Hello all!

I am currently using a Vodafone Complete Broadband router (Huawei HG556a).
Trying to put my external hard drive so it can be used over the network for backup purposes (Western Digital My Book Essential 1140).

The HD is connected to the (side panel) USB port of the router. It's on but does not show as 'connected equipment' on the router's admin interface.

However when I go to the 'troubleshooting section', under USB port 2 the equipment is listed, with serial number and all:

Manufacturer: Western Digital
Product: My Book 1140
Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (removed by OP)
Device Type: USB Mass Storage Device

When I connect the HD to the back panel USB, I get the same result, except details of the hardware show under port 1, as expected.
But still nothing under connected equipment.

Does anyone have an idea of what the problem may be?

didoushkaya

20 posts

Geek

#1168497 4-Nov-2014 14:08

P.S. The Vodafone support team is as baffled as I am by the problem and can't offer a solution. They said: 'This is a know problem, and not just with this brand of external hard drive.'

I have tried mapping the drive to my MacBook Pro but the drive's name is not recognized and without an IP address assigned by the router, there's no more I can do.

If anyone has another idea or suggestion, it will be greatly appreciated.

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1168501 4-Nov-2014 14:10

The NAS features on routers has always been a waste of time. Your time is better spent getting a small dedicated NAS box if you need one.

tommywd

15 posts

Geek

#1168512 4-Nov-2014 14:23

Hi didoushkaya, sorry to hear about the problems with the HDD there.

Q1) Have you updated the drive firmware to the latest?
Q2) Have you tried reformatting to various formats?

Try to change the setting for Enable any "USB Device connected to the USB port" under Advanced > Advanced Setup > USB Settings to Yes. It could connect the drive to USB port and the drive is recognized.

However, the My Book Essential has not been design to be use as a network drive.

wellygary

8339 posts

Uber Geek

#1168519 4-Nov-2014 14:24

How big is the Drive?

I have had issues mounting large drives on VF Hauwei routers before, basically they refuse to mount large drives, I could plug in a 300GB bus powered drive no probs, but it simply refused to mount a 2TB WD powered drive,

The HGs run busybox and only have 64 MB RAM, so I suspect they may simply not have enought RAM to load large Directory Tables.

I Gave up and went and got a WD Mycloud

didoushkaya

20 posts

Geek

#1168530 4-Nov-2014 14:42

tommywd: Hi didoushkaya, sorry to hear about the problems with the HDD there.

Q1) Have you updated the drive firmware to the latest?
Q2) Have you tried reformatting to various formats?

Try to change the setting for Enable any "USB Device connected to the USB port" under Advanced > Advanced Setup > USB Settings to Yes. It could connect the drive to USB port and the drive is recognized.

However, the My Book Essential has not been design to be use as a network drive.

Thanks for all that.

Yes, the driver firmware was updated just this morning.

No, I haven't tried reformatting yet but I understand that it is a possibility as different format will allow to to different things. Will have a look... If I can find somewhere to backup the data on the drive first! ;)

I can't find the advanced settings for USB port anywhere on the router admin panel. Are we talking about the advanced login or the standard login?
Here is what I have in advanced login for the router:

didoushkaya

20 posts

Geek

#1168532 4-Nov-2014 14:43

wellygary: How big is the Drive?

I have had issues mounting large drives on VF Hauwei routers before, basically they refuse to mount large drives, I could plug in a 300GB bus powered drive no probs, but it simply refused to mount a 2TB WD powered drive,

The HGs run busybox and only have 64 MB RAM, so I suspect they may simply not have enought RAM to load large Directory Tables.

I Gave up and went and got a WD Mycloud

Ouch, bad news: it's a 2Tb...
Thanks for the alternate solution. Will have a look into it if nothing else works.

tommywd

15 posts

Geek

#1168614 4-Nov-2014 16:25

Hi didoushkaya, if you can't find such setting on both standard and advanced login for the router, the router might only support USB printers in your firmware, or might only support certain filesystems.

Since the Vodafone support team has reported it as a known issue, there is nothing much you can do on the router.

About the drive is not recognized on Mac, have you tried the latest version of SmartWare to see if it recognizes the drive when it's connected to the computer?

You may check out the related downloads for WD My Book Essential (for Windows and Mac) via URL here - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=125

Hope it helps.

Cheers mate!

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

didoushkaya

20 posts

Geek

#1168641 4-Nov-2014 16:49

tommywd: Hi didoushkaya, if you can't find such setting on both standard and advanced login for the router, the router might only support USB printers in your firmware, or might only support certain filesystems.

Since the Vodafone support team has reported it as a known issue, there is nothing much you can do on the router.

About the drive is not recognized on Mac, have you tried the latest version of SmartWare to see if it recognizes the drive when it's connected to the computer?

You may check out the related downloads for WD My Book Essential (for Windows and Mac) via URL here - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=125

Hope it helps.

Cheers mate!

The hard drive mounts perfectly on the Mac, no problem.
It's only when plugged to the router that it becomes impossible to find, mainly (I think) because the router is not recognising it as connected and therefore not assigning it an IP address.

I was hoping to be able to back up our several computers wirelessly, but we may just have to physically connect them to the external HDR every time...

sbiddle

30853 posts

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#1168645 4-Nov-2014 16:58

didoushkaya:

I was hoping to be able to back up our several computers wirelessly, but we may just have to physically connect them to the external HDR every time...

The very poor and slow throughput on this router would have made this a near impossible thing. It's not designed for that sort of feature (and neither is any other router out there with USB).

If you want to do that you really need to buy appropriate hardware such as a proper NAS or HDD with network functionality.

richms

28198 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1168674 4-Nov-2014 17:30

Router NAS functionality is a waste of time since most are still incapable of dealing with GPT drives and things over 2TB. They hide that behind a list of "supported" harddrives buried somewhere deep in the website which probably lists models 2-3 years old that are small and not available anymore.

Great if you want to plug in a small portable drive for access, but to make a place where you can store movies etc its not going to happen. There are plenty of working NAS drives available from WD and others, or there are standalone NAS adapters that will make a USB drive into a network share, and its their prime purpose not an afterthought tacked into whatever remaining space in the firmware was left so they have a reason to make it work.

Richard rich.ms