Hooking up an external HD to my router

[Syt]

My router (TP-Link WDR3600) can hook up two USB drives.

Now, the way I want to set this up is as external hard drives and file storage, so that I can use them like any other drive (e.g. download stuff there).

However, whenever I hook up an HD to the router, it's set up as a media server.

The router config utility lets me setup the USB drives as:
- Shared Storage (which, I presume, is what I want)
- FTP Server
- Media Server
- Print Server

By default, all options are enabled, and Windows 7 picks up connected hard drives as media servers. On my Android tablet (using Astro File Manager) it doesn't show up at all.

I've tried disabling all Server options except shared storage, but that leads to Windows 7 not finding the HD at all, though it's set up to be shared. (And, obviously, neither does AFM on Android.)

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[DontSayBanana]

My router (TP-Link WDR3600) can hook up two USB drives.

Now, the way I want to set this up is as external hard drives and file storage, so that I can use them like any other drive (e.g. download stuff there).

However, whenever I hook up an HD to the router, it's set up as a media server.

The router config utility lets me setup the USB drives as:
- Shared Storage (which, I presume, is what I want)
- FTP Server
- Media Server
- Print Server

By default, all options are enabled, and Windows 7 picks up connected hard drives as media servers. On my Android tablet (using Astro File Manager) it doesn't show up at all.

I've tried disabling all Server options except shared storage, but that leads to Windows 7 not finding the HD at all, though it's set up to be shared. (And, obviously, neither does AFM on Android.)

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

Looking at this (I could be wrong), I don't think it's possible to set up to work exactly like an external HD.  It looks like the router's OS is always going to treat it as NAS, which the computer is going to pick up as a media server.  To just get files off and on, I would actually recommend switching it to FTP and locking it down so that it's only accessible to devices within your LAN.

[Vricklund]

Googling the router it seems to support SMB, so one should be able to map the external drive like any other. Windows is/has always been fussy about "workgroup". Make sure the router and computer has the same workgroup.

[Syt]

Thanks, I will try those tips out.