You can connect USB disk and flash drives to your ReadyNAS system and use FrontView to manage them.
USB storage devices can be divided into partitions. Partitions on the storage devices must be formatted in one of the following file system formats:
- FAT32
- NTFS
- EXT2
- EXT3
- EXT4
USB volume name and share access settings are persistent across mounts. Your ReadyNAS system attempts to remember the name as long as a unique ID is associated with the USB device so that the next time the device is connected, the same share name or names are available. Share access restrictions are saved even after the unit is disconnected.
Even when access authorization is based on user login, files on a USB device are saved with User ID 0, regardless of the user account. This allows easy sharing of the USB device with other network storage and PC systems.
Use FrontView to manage USB storage devices that are attached to your ReadyNAS system.
To manage USB storage devices, follow these steps:
- Choose Volumes > USB Storage from the FrontView main menu.
The USB Storage screen displays, showing information about any USB storage devices that are currently connected to your ReadyNAS system.
If you currently do not have a USB storage device connected, a "No USB storage devices detected" message displays.
A flash device displays as USB_FLASH_1, and a disk device displays as USB_HDD_1. When you attach multiple devices, the device names use a higher device number, for example, USB_HDD_2.
When a device contains multiple partitions, the partitions are listed beneath the main device entry.
- (Optional) To rename the USB storage device, enter a new name for the device in the field in the Device column to rename the USB storage device.
The next time the same device is connected, FrontView uses the new name rather than the default USB_FLASH_<number> or USB_HDD_<number> naming scheme.
- (Optional) Select an option from the drop-down list, as follows.
- Disconnect. This option prepares the USB partition for disconnection by correctly unmounting the file system. In most cases, you can safely disconnect the device without first unmounting; however, the Disconnect option ensures that any data still in the write cache is written to the disks and that the file system is correctly closed. The Disconnect option unmounts all partitions on the device.
- Locate. If you attach multiple storage devices and want to determine which device corresponds to the device listing, the Locate option causes the device LED to blink, if the device is present.
- Format FAT32. This option formats the device as a FAT32 file system. FAT32 format is easily recognizable by most newer Windows, Linux, and Unix operating systems. FAT32's file size limitation is between 2-4 GB.
- Format EXT3. This option formats the device as an EXT3 file system. Select this option if you will be accessing the USB device mainly from Linux systems or network storage devices. The advantage of EXT3 over FAT32 is that file ownership and mode information can be retained using this format, which FAT32 does not support. You can add support for EXT3 to the Windows and OS X operating systems. EXT3's file size limitation is between 16 GiB - 2 TiB.
- Format EXT4. This option formats the device as an EXT4 file system. Select this option if you will be accessing the USB device mainly from Linux systems or network storage devices. The advantage of EXT4 over FAT32 is that file ownership and mode information can be retained using this format, which FAT32 does not support. You can add support for EXT4 to the Windows and OS X operating systems. EXT4's file size limitation is 16 TiB..
- Click the Go button.