Upgrade Win7 H.P. to Pro

[Dave]

When using a networked storage for saving your backups, it will do an
incremental backup of your user files, but will only keep the most
recent full system image file. It's because of this limitation that I
don't use the built in backup software and use Acronis instead.


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Professional
Thunderbird 3.1.2
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 5:31:56 AM

Thanks Roy for the tips. I messed with the drive again last night and today
and remembered what the problem was/is. The drive works fine through USB
port, but I can't see it when I connect it to the router. I installed the
Storage Manager software again, messed with Windows Firewall and even turned
firewall off, but still can't see it. I have Win 7 Professional on my laptop
so I installed Storage Manager on it and got the same results. I scoured the
support on MS and Belkin's web sites and finally emailed Belkin's tech
support, I either have a bad router or something isn't set right, hopefully
they can find a solution.
Dave

 

[Char Jackson]

Thanks Roy for the tips. I messed with the drive again last night and today
and remembered what the problem was/is. The drive works fine through USB
port, but I can't see it when I connect it to the router. I installed the
Storage Manager software again, messed with Windows Firewall and even turned
firewall off, but still can't see it. I have Win 7 Professional on my laptop
so I installed Storage Manager on it and got the same results. I scoured the
support on MS and Belkin's web sites and finally emailed Belkin's tech
support, I either have a bad router or something isn't set right, hopefully
they can find a solution.
Dave

Storage Manager seems to be optional. Are you trying to 'see' the
drive by simply typing its address into the Windows Explorer location
bar?

From the manual, page 21:
Alternatively, you do not need to install the Storage Manager in order
to access your storage device. Open a file explorer window and type in
the address field: \\192.168.2.1\DeviceName
where “DeviceName” is the name that was assigned to the storage
device.

Also, is the hard drive powered by the USB bus or does it have a
dedicated power supply? If it's powered by the USB bus perhaps it's
drawing more power than the router can supply.

 

[Char Jackson]

Thanks Roy for the tips. I messed with the drive again last night and today
and remembered what the problem was/is. The drive works fine through USB
port, but I can't see it when I connect it to the router. I installed the
Storage Manager software again, messed with Windows Firewall and even turned
firewall off, but still can't see it. I have Win 7 Professional on my laptop
so I installed Storage Manager on it and got the same results. I scoured the
support on MS and Belkin's web sites and finally emailed Belkin's tech
support, I either have a bad router or something isn't set right, hopefully
they can find a solution.
Dave

By the way, what is the USB status indicator showing?

USB Port Status
Off No device is plugged into the USB port
Flashing Blue Data is being read/written to the storage device
Flashing Amber Unsupported device is plugged into the USB port
Solid Blue Storage device is plugged in and ready to be accessed

It looks like you'd want to see either solid blue or flashing blue.
Off or flashing amber would indicate issues.

 

[Dave]

By the way, what is the USB status indicator showing?

USB Port Status
Off No device is plugged into the USB port
Flashing Blue Data is being read/written to the storage device
Flashing Amber Unsupported device is plugged into the USB port
Solid Blue Storage device is plugged in and ready to be accessed

It looks like you'd want to see either solid blue or flashing blue.
Off or flashing amber would indicate issues.

Char,
Thanks for the tips. I had tried some of those and no results. Here's what I
found this morning. I plugged in a thumb drive to router and no light on
front of router. During moving router I managed to unplug power plug so I
plugged it back in and router rebooted and found thumb drive. Tried the same
with the external drive I've been trying to use, a Seagate 1.5 TB drive and
no go. Got my WD 500 GB drive out of the box and the router will see it.
Called Belkin's tech support, went through an extensive debugging and router
won't see the Seagate. Agent thinks it might be an incompatibility issue, so
he escalated it and they are supposed to call me within 24 hours.
As an aside, Belkin's tech support is great. I've had the need to contact
other router support--Linksys, Netgear and D-Link and their tech support is
great also. Wish all manufacturers were this good.
Dave

 

[Dave]

Conversation changed from the original question to my router accessing my
external backup drive via it's "storage" feature. I have been unsuccessfully
trying to use a 1.5 TB drive and when I had time to work with it I was
advised it was a Windows issue so I upgraded to Win 7 Home Prem. and no go.
Then from same adviser I upgraded laptop to Win 7 Pro and no help. Then the
same adviser said I needed Win 7 Pro on my desktop, that's when I started
this thread.
It turns out my Belkin F5D8235-4 router is not compatible with any drive
over 1 TB. I can access my old WD My Book 500 GB drive and different thumb
drives fine. (Can't say why I didn't think to check one of them before to
see if they would work.) Turns out Belkin doesn't have any router that is
capable of using a drive over 1 TB so I'm waiting to see what, if anything,
they will do for me as this was not in the specifications or product
literature when I bought it or even now.
Thanks to all for good advice and patiently trying to help me with this
problem. I posted this update as an FYI because several of you commented you
were going to look into this feature on routers you currently own or
possibly purchase.
HTH,
Dave

 

[Char Jackson]

Conversation changed from the original question to my router accessing my
external backup drive via it's "storage" feature. I have been unsuccessfully
trying to use a 1.5 TB drive and when I had time to work with it I was
advised it was a Windows issue so I upgraded to Win 7 Home Prem. and no go.
Then from same adviser I upgraded laptop to Win 7 Pro and no help. Then the
same adviser said I needed Win 7 Pro on my desktop, that's when I started
this thread.

You need to fire your advisor! ;-)

It turns out my Belkin F5D8235-4 router is not compatible with any drive
over 1 TB. I can access my old WD My Book 500 GB drive and different thumb
drives fine. (Can't say why I didn't think to check one of them before to
see if they would work.) Turns out Belkin doesn't have any router that is
capable of using a drive over 1 TB so I'm waiting to see what, if anything,
they will do for me as this was not in the specifications or product
literature when I bought it or even now.
Thanks to all for good advice and patiently trying to help me with this
problem. I posted this update as an FYI because several of you commented you
were going to look into this feature on routers you currently own or
possibly purchase.

Thanks for the update. Good info for the rest of us who have been
following along.

 

[Dave]

snip
You need to fire your advisor! ;-)

snip

:-D I fired him right after I was told in this thread I didn't have to
upgrade to Pro. That's not the only thing he's steered me wrong on, but the
most expensive--I did get a better OS though so all is good on that.