topic Re: Connecting hard drive to my router in My Router

Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:02:07 GMT

I have a Goflex Home hard drive which has been made redundant after the manufacturer cancelled support.

I understand that I can remove the hard drive from the mounting and install it into a caddie. What I would like to do is connect it to my router, either via a USB or via Ethernet so I can use it as a NAS drive.

Will the plusnet router support either connections. Whilst I could connect to my laptop via a USB connection by using the router and running it as a NAS drive I hope to be able to connect to other systems in my home.

Any suggestions or comments would be most welcome, including recommendations as to software to run the NAS drive.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

outcast — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:26:26 GMT

You would need to enable SMB (v1) on all of your networked devices to be able to see the shared drive connected to the router's USB port. SMB (v1) has been disabled on most operating systems (as it is deemed a security risk).

However, if you search this forum for "SMB", there are a lot of previous topics that show how to do it.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Baldrick1 — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:52:13 GMT

In addition, not only does the hub only support the discredited SMB1 protocol, the USB output only offers a slow USB2 interface. Whist you can enable SMB1 on Windows PCs, I'm not certain whether Apple devices will allow it.

My advice: Don't bother.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

markhawkin — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:32:05 GMT

Personally I would recover all the data from the device and put the hard drive in something.

If you have a “large box” PC it may have a space for a spare drive.

Alternatively (and what I did in similar circumstances) buy a second hand Synology one drive NAS box (say a DS118) from CEX or similar and put the drive in that.

You will need to reformat the drive (it will be wiped) but you will then have reliable network attached storage for a good while.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

spile — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 06:03:19 GMT

It’s not possible to turn a drive with file on it into a NAS by putting it into a caddy. Use it as a slave usb drive or if you want a project look at PiNas.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Dan_the_Van — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 07:21:53 GMT

I connected my hard drive externally to a desktop PC using a SATA cable and power lead.

If you are interested pi NAS https://raspberrytips.com/nas-guide-raspberry-pi/

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:34:20 GMT

Thanks for your comments. I have looked up SMB on my Windows 11 machine and it looks like it is enabled. I need to research this further.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:35:45 GMT

OK thanks for your comments. The Goflex system was very good but support was via the manufacturers website and when this was withdrawn the whole system was made for scrap.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:39:54 GMT

Thanks. I can get at some of the data stored on the Goflex drive by connecting a Netac cable to the drive and my laptop. However all this will do is to allow me to look at old data which already exists on my laptop but not re-instate the Goflex drive as a NAS.drive. The original Goflex system was a lower cost semi-NAS system which gave a instantaneous backup to my main computer and also allowed me to use the same files on another computer.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:42:11 GMT

Thanks for your comments. I already have USB connected hard drives that run regular backups. What I was trying to do was to have a NAS drive that I could access via the ethernet connections in the house so I could use other products, e.g. television to view photographs stored in the drive.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

Bourneagain — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 15:46:19 GMT

Thanks for your suggestion however my limited knowledge will stop me from going your recommended route.

Re: Connecting hard drive to my router

markhawkin — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 21:38:17 GMT

@Bourneagain

The realistic way of doing what you want "neatly" is to buy a NAS box and put your liberated drive into it.

From my understanding of your use of it, it's essentially a "mirror" of material you have on another machine. The NAS is Ethernet connected to your router and then available to all devices on your local network.

Hence a one drive NAS (or a two bay NAS with only one drive in it) would do the job.

There are a number of manufacturers of NAS boxes but probably QNAP or Synology are the market leaders.