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Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network

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Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
2021-04-01 20:30:01
Model: Deco M5  
Hardware Version: V20
Firmware Version:

How exactly can I mount an external hard drive on my home Deco M5 Mesh network? I am also open to any suggestions that achieves my desired functionality of a file-sharing system on my local network, preferably with backup/redundancy.

 

I have done my homework, and most of the solutions that I have found are not suitable for the following reasons:

 

1. This solution: https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/3956/connecting-external-hard-drive-to-wireless-network says that the external drive can be connected to the Deco device via a "NAS adaptor", but I cannot find out precisley what a "NAS adaptor" is or where I can purchase one. I did not see anyone on Amazon.com.

 

2. This solution https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/hqotyt/connecting_external_hard_drive_to_tplink_deco_m5/ suggests building your own NAS device (!!). I am not interested in building my own NAS device. 

 

 

Note: most NAS systems out there appear hard to set up, very expensive, or are not secure (i.e. are not just local to the network, and allow general internet access). I am theoretically open to NAS systems, but I would need a specific recommendation of what type of NAS system with a cost of less than $300.

 

 

Other relevant sources I looked at:

https://community.tp-link.com/us/home/forum/topic/166176?replyId=342262

https://www.howtogeek.com/190835/how-to-turn-an-old-pc-into-a-home-file-server/

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4 Reply
Re:Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
2021-04-02 15:54:40

@jy364398 

There are lots of solutions available. Search Amazon or MicroCenter for "Network Attached Storage" and you will find devices from under $100 to several hundreds. They use names like LinkStation and Personal Cloud. You can buy single drive or multiple drive versions, and some have RAID built-in and some do not. Most (all?) need ethernet connections, but you could add a wifi client if your mesh does not have any ethernet jacks.

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#2
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Re:Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
2021-04-02 16:04:56
If you want simple then go and look at "Synology DiskStation DS120j NAS Server". Amazon sells them bundled with the necessary drives and memory. Yes you will need to install the memory and drives, but that is relatively easy. The Synology NAS setup is an easy walk through process, there are many How To videos on YouTube. Synology has no "Cloud" or Internet based component, it is all in your network.
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#3
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Re:Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
2021-04-04 05:46:38

@DAServices 

 

Grab a raspberry pi 4, connect the drive(s) you want to share.

 

Raspbian is basically linux. You could also install any number of OSs to use as a base.

 

You could even install FreeBSD and create a full-blown NAS system if you had the know-how, or the patience to learn it.

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#4
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Re:Mount an External Hard Drive on a Mesh Network
2021-04-06 03:11:14

@jy364398 I went the synology option with my M9.  Had to give it a fixed IP for it to work properly.  

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