Accessing external hard disk attached to Plusnet router pnhub1

[#1]

On my Mac, when I try to access my hard drive (WD My Book) in Finder, I am asked for my username and password for the server "pnhub1"  I am not clear what username and password this is referring to, nor do I know where to find it.  Can anyone help please?

[#2]

Moderator's note(s):

Thread moved from General Chat to My Router.

[#3]

Assuming you have the W D "My Book" that (only) connects via USB and it's plugged directly into the Mac, this sounds like a slightly spurious "Mac thing"!

I would expect a USB device to come up and just appear as a dive on the Mac desktop.

If the "My Book" is plugged in to the Hub One then you might expect to be asked for credentials.

[#4]

Hi Mark, thanks for your reply.  I have formatted My Book (Mac OS Extended Jour.) because I want to use the hard disk for Time Machine backup.  I'm now thinking that a HD formatted in this way is not compatible with the USB port on the pnhub1 router.  Other USB devices (formatted MS-DOS FAT32) work fine on this connection, but not when formatted Mac OS Extended Jour apparently.

And that's a pity, because I wanted to dispense with my broken Airport Base Station, but now I think I will have to keep it just for the wifi and so that we can share the Time Machine facility with other computers on the wifi network.

[#5 · Accepted solution]

@vatnabrekk You're right about the disk format not being supported, so if you want to keep that format all you can do is use it when attached directly to your Mac. Otherwise you'll need to resort to FAT32. Also the password wanted is the same one you use when you log in to the router.

[#6]

@vatnabrekk 

I'm not convinced that a FAT formatted disk on a Hub One will be seen as a suitable drive for Time Machine. I certainly wouldn't reformat your drive (and lose your backups) before trying it, use a USB memory stick first to test the principle.

I've been down the road you are following.

I had (and have) a W D MyCloud which can act as a Time Machine backup drive and is OK in that role.

However, having tried a Synology NAS drive I would unreservedly suggest that approach over the W D MyCloud.

The whole Synology setup works much better and it has useful features like making a USB printer available to iOS devices via AirPrint.

It is more expensive but I feel the overall experience is worth the extra. 

[#7]

Thanks to Mark and Mook.  I won't re-format my My Book, I'll just leave it plugged in to my Apple Airport Base Station so that we can share the Time Machine function across the home wifi network.  That works perfectly well and doesn't really cause a problem except that it's just an extra piece of kit sitting on the desk that I'd rather do without!