I have a GL-MT6000 (Flint2) and successfully connected a usb stick to it. I'm considering expanding the storage, and was looking at the documentation. It reads:
Note: The power consumption of USB hard drive is quite high. You should use it with an external power supply. Otherwise, it may cause malfunction.
What is the right balance between usb stick / usb hard drive power consumption? Is there any SATA to USB cable that I could use to connect an old hard drive? Are there any return on connecting external hard-drive successfully and unsuccessfully?
Ok, thanks for your reply and suggestion. I agree with you, but my goal here was to repurpose an old hard drive instead of buying something new (in addition to curiosity).
Most external HDD/SSD listed as "portable" means that they can be powered from USB. These are usually 2.5" HDD. So an old mechanical 2.5 HDD could be converted with a USB to SATA Adapter, these usually go upwards to 2TB or you could use a SSD with the USB to SATA. A traditional desktop HDD (3.5") wouldn't probably work correctly as they are the ones that usually require the additional power supply.
If you are going to be connecting a drive I would personally use a SSD as they can be cheaper than a USB flash drive with the same size equivalent. Also some SSD drives comes with DRAM Cache which helps with prolonged read/writes where as a usb flash drive could drop off in speed (research the SSD to see if it has DRAM cache) . You shouldnt get a bottleneck as long as you use a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter because the max reads / writes are within spec for SSD SATA 3 speeds.
Another added benefit of a SSD is that there is no mechanical parts as long as you don't smash the drive then a slight knock shouldn't cause issues unlike a traditional HDD.
One last note. The "1TB USB flash drive" that you find on market places are usually fakes, especially off brands. Stick with a SSD and you should be fine, plus they are low power.
The cable you will require is: USB 3.0 to SATA adapter
Thanks a lot, that was super useful @j2zero . I'm using a 700GB 2.5'' HDD with an old converted SATA <-> USB (probably not even 3.0), it seems to be working fine so far. But I know what to buy if I'm considering upgrading, and know what signs to look for
Can anyone help me, I need a clear guide on how to use my MT300N router to access a SSD i have plugged in t the USB port, all the threads I go to say there should be an option to access it under applications but there is no option there
