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MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 9:33 pm
by Peti86429
Hello!
I have a RB433UAH Router with an external usb drive. I attached it to the router with a power injector, so the power supply is ok. The HDD works fine, and I see the external drives in the router.
I would like to share the files on the external HDD with smb on the internal network, but i can't figured it out how to do it, because i can only share the internal memory drive of the router.
The smb config is ok, it works fine, but i could'nt choose the external drive to share......
I would like to use it as a NAS, but with this limitation it doesn't work.
I think it would be a nice and useful feature.
Please help me if you can.
Thank you for your answers.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:10 pm
by payday
In Winbox go to: system -> stores -> disks. You should see there the name of your usb drive, i.e: usb1
Select it and click "Format Drive". Obviously all data on this drive will be deleted.
Then go to files. There should be your usb mounted in root folder under the name: /usb1
Now, click: IP -> SMB -> Shares -> Add, and type the name of the share you want to create and the path where usb drive is mounted: /usb1
In 'SMB Settings' window check 'Allow Guests' and verify that everything works fine. Later you can uncheck this option and add allowed users.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:49 pm
by Peti86429
Thank you!
It works fine.
Thanks for the help!
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 6:15 pm
by maheshmat
In Winbox go to: system -> stores -> disks. You should see there the name of your usb drive, i.e: usb1
Select it and click "Format Drive". Obviously all data on this drive will be deleted.
Then go to files. There should be your usb mounted in root folder under the name: /usb1
Now, click: IP -> SMB -> Shares -> Add, and type the name of the share you want to create and the path where usb drive is mounted: /usb1
In 'SMB Settings' window check 'Allow Guests' and verify that everything works fine. Later you can uncheck this option and add allowed users.
hi
can I mount an external storage without format?
I use RB951U running routerOS 6.35.4
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:40 am
by BobcatGuy
I tried this once.... pegs the CPU at 100 % while accessing the SMB share. So essentially this was a waste of effort. For small files its ok, but as a NAS, I don't think you will like how slow it is. Unless there was a miracle and this was improved?
Note, I am talking about running this on RouterBoards, not x86.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:44 am
by jarda
Ros was not built to host a file share server. File access is for management purpose, nothing more. It is not regularly usable for common file sharing tasks.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:48 am
by BobcatGuy
Jarda,
Yeah, that's kinda what the guy who posted above you... not really good to use as a NAS.....
Oh wait... that was me that posted that!

Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:51 am
by jarda
And I wrote it as reply to you...
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:53 am
by BobcatGuy
do you do this just to get your post count higher?
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:21 am
by jarda
No. Just to tell you how the things are,because I had the same experience in the past.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:25 am
by BobcatGuy
You too, weird, I did as well, so the OP was asking on how to fix this where the share was not visible, someone helped him. But no one mentioned that the speeds are pretty slow with this SMB share for the intended purpose as a NAS, as the OP mentioned they wanted to do..... SO.... I posted that it will probably not be what would be expected. Hence, I already knew this, so why is it again that you are letting me know this?
YAY! 1 more post for my count!
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 11:30 am
by jarda
Never mind. I can suggest only to use real file sharing system for this purpose.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 10:30 am
by agnostic
i use an old RB951-2n with usb mod for my file server (1TB disk) for almost 2 years. it doesnt have much speed (about 4megs/sec) but its ok. i had posted the mod
http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=84684
if you want a fast and reliable file server buy a nas. mikrotik routers is for routing and smb feature is for few and small files.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:56 am
by Rietrot
In Winbox go to: system -> stores -> disks. You should see there the name of your usb drive, i.e: usb1
Select it and click "Format Drive". Obviously all data on this drive will be deleted.
Then go to files. There should be your usb mounted in root folder under the name: /usb1
Now, click: IP -> SMB -> Shares -> Add, and type the name of the share you want to create and the path where usb drive is mounted: /usb1
In 'SMB Settings' window check 'Allow Guests' and verify that everything works fine. Later you can uncheck this option and add allowed users.
hi
can I mount an external storage without format?
I use RB951U running routerOS 6.35.4
I have done this BUT how do I access my shared drive now ?
Please help ?
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 11:16 am
by gutekpl
This is a pretty old topic so maybe something changed in this case. I currently don't have money for synology 918 so I thought about buying single wd red 4tb, putting it into usb enclosure and connecting to mikrotik hap ac2 as smb storage. Will it handle? I don't need nothig fancy like for monitoring recording or files encrypting, just storage for some movies played via lan on Kodi.
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Sun May 30, 2021 12:24 am
by MoT
Remember that with at least some USB3.0 ports like in RB3011UiAS a USB 3.0 drive will not be detected! Even rebooting with it inserted desn't help. It seems to have to be USB 2.0 drive for Mikrotik to work.
I solved this (or worked around) by connecting my USB 3.0 pendrive through USB 2.0 hub to RB3011UiAS, and it worked immediately :)
But for hAP ac2 this is no problem at all, as it detects same USB 3.0 pendrive directly.
Some guy had similar issue:
viewtopic.php?t=113882
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 10:44 pm
by miker3000
these steps also show how to do it using the cmd line through the browser, also known as terminal.
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:I ... e_settings
Re: MIKROTIK SMB with external HDD or USB drive
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2021 2:36 pm
by jarda
This is a pretty old topic so maybe something changed in this case. I currently don't have money for synology 918 so I thought about buying single wd red 4tb, putting it into usb enclosure and connecting to mikrotik hap ac2 as smb storage. Will it handle? I don't need nothig fancy like for monitoring recording or files encrypting, just storage for some movies played via lan on Kodi.
Have you succeeded somehow? Does still the 2TB limit apply?
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:S ... ks#Summary
(see the second note in summary)
I just tried the 4TB HDD and it even does not see the real size (showing some 1,6TB, formattin 1,3TB or so). Formatting ended with some general error and the share was accessible over SMB from Windows until I tried to create a folder. At that point it stopped to work (version 6.47.10 on RB750Gr3).
Maybe someone has better luck?