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I have a 1 TB seagate SATA hdd, i want to connect it to my linksys wireless router using ethernet... *I dont want to buy a new Drive, but use an existing one, maybe with some kind of external casing.

  1. Is it possibe?
  2. If yes, then how

5 Answers 5

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Yes, this is possible.

NewEgg sells a product that would fit your need - the IOCell Networks 352ND Ethernet 2 Bay NDAS Network Enclosure - Retail (long name!)

Ethernet drive bay

This product is "okay", according to the reviews - it looks like it has some limitations.

You may want to look into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, but they're kind of expensive. http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=124&Tpk=NAS

If you have an old computer lying around, you may be able to create your own, using FreeNAS software.

For something cheaper, NewEgg also has a SYBA SD-U2NAS-35 Aluminum 3.5" Silver USB 2.0 & RJ45 External Enclosure w/Big fan (another long name - but, with a big fan!). It's significantly cheaper than the first one I mentioned (this one's $39.99 as of this writing) and includes a USB interface.

Drive

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  • Very good explanation, beat me to it.
    – chills42
    Sep 8, 2009 at 18:39
  • thats gettin expensive :P.. some cheaper thing
    – dhasu
    Sep 8, 2009 at 19:06
  • You're right, they are kind of pricey. I added the last one as a cheaper option, and it's rated pretty good at newegg. If you're looking for free and have a spare, old computer laying around, check out the FreeNAS project I linked - I've only ever heard good things about it. Sep 8, 2009 at 19:25
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Well, you'd need to wrap the drive in some sort of external enclosure. If perhaps your router has a USB port, you'd just need to put the drive in a SATA-USB enclosure, and plug it in. If not (and I suspect it doesn't have a port from the way your question is phrased), you need to either add one, or attach the drive to some sort of NAS device.

I personally use a Linksys NSLU2 with a 500GB HDD attached via USB. I have the NSLU2 connected to my Linksys WRT54G router (running DD-WRT) via Ethernet. I then export a filesystem on the drive using SMB and mount it on the router.

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  • Ah, that's the thing I was thinking of. If I remember correctly they kept updating the firmware and swapping supported filesystems. It would be FAT32/NTFS, then NTFS/EXT2, then EXT2/FAT16 - it was crazy. You find it reliable now?
    – Tim Lytle
    Sep 8, 2009 at 18:39
  • That's why I threw out the included firmware and installed SlugOS on it: nslu2-linux.org Actually, I was crazy enough to install Gentoo on it. That was really difficult, and totally unsupported. Next time I need Linux on an ARM device, I'm going with Debian. Sep 8, 2009 at 18:57
  • i read it works on the SMB protocol... any chance that it will work for mac
    – dhasu
    Sep 8, 2009 at 19:05
  • Looks like Mac OSX speaks SMB: support.apple.com/kb/HT1568 Sep 8, 2009 at 19:09
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another alternative (maybe not so 'green' :) ... if you have some old clunker with a SATA controller, you can turn it into a powerful NAS and media streaming server with FreeNAS

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  • Or even add a SATA controller card to an old clunker (since an old machine will be unlikely to have SATA) Sep 9, 2009 at 4:27
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If you're just looking to share the drive on the network, then there are plenty of hard drive enclosures with an ethernet interface. At one time Linksys made an ethernet to USB product, allowing you to attach a USB drive (or flash drive) to your network.

If you want to attach it to the router as router storage (using a 3rd party firmware), it might be possible, but I think it would be quite the hack.

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  • Ah, you say through ethernet and as @nighthawk states, you can mount a SMB share on the router.
    – Tim Lytle
    Sep 8, 2009 at 18:40
  • Downvote? Really?
    – Tim Lytle
    Sep 23, 2009 at 16:35
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It looks like you just want a external drive enclosure with ethernet.

These are two examples: Single Drive or Dual Drive

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