Couple issues with Asus RT-N66R router

[Muse]

1. Things seemed OK for a few weeks having my WD Elements 2TB USB data storage plugged into this router, which I've had almost 6 weeks. But a week ago I got a memo file missing or invalid error on one of my Visual Foxpro data tables. The file wasn't missing, it had an error, and I'm told that these errors are usually due to hardware issues on the network. I scrambled and looked at my backups and managed to get a working version of the table back on the 2TB network HD.

This morning I went to see the contents of another Visual Foxpro table and got a similar error, memo file missing or invalid. Some of the data in the memo file had errors in it and Visual Foxpro chokes on the table. I have backups of the table, but they are missing around 5 recent records. I've managed to figure out what most of the missing records had, but one record seems irretrievable. I can create a similar record, it's not a crisis or anything, but this bodes ill. Something's causing the table to not get saved correctly on the HD or get corrupted later somehow, likely the former. I never had this data corruption problem when I had the USB HD hanging off one of my laptops, which was running 24/7 as my network server before I got the Asus router.
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2. The other issue is this: I make recordings of FM broadcasts at midnight, every day of the week. One of these is screwing up, the one that starts at midnight Sunday going into Monday. The machine isn't able to save the data and go into suspend the way it usually does the other days of the week. I come back to the machine and it's running, not suspended, and the recording appears to be still in progress (a ~1 hour recording, but this is ~12 hours later), and the recording cannot be saved. I figured that maybe the router reboots automatically at midnight Sunday, like my Buffalo router used to do, and the temporary file of the recording gets destroyed. I don't see an automatic reboot offhand in the configuration, but it might be there. Thoughts?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

what firmware are you using?

I have the N66U, but I flashed it to Tomato 1.28 by shibby immediately after opening, haven't had any problems other than getting the unit flashed, which was a tricky PITA but well worth it once I figured out the quirks.

not sure how much help I can be

 

[Muse]

what firmware are you using?

I have the N66U, but I flashed it to Tomato 1.28 by shibby immediately after opening, haven't had any problems other than getting the unit flashed, which was a tricky PITA but well worth it once I figured out the quirks.

not sure how much help I can be

I am using the Asus firmware. When I first fired it up it prompted me to update firmware and I went right along... because I'd heard that the new firmware fixed some security issues. Maybe I'll have better luck with Tomato. I was using a Tomato FW on my former router, the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 802.11b/g.

I really don't need the corrupted data thing happening anymore. It means, generally, that I lose any data that was subsequent to former backups. Worse, I might be backing up data that's already corrupted. I have no way of knowing if a table is corrupted unless I try to access it. And even then, I might not get an error message unless I try to access the particular data in the table that's bad. This seems to be what's happening. It's vexing and potentially a total nightmare.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

other than that, are you sure its likely the router causing the problem? does the drive work as intended when connected directly to a computer? I know you said it worked before you started using it on the router, but what about now? It's always possible the drive might have started to go bad after moving it to the router, and that the failure is coincidence

 

[s44]

I would never trust a spinning drive to remain stable running 24/7 without active cooling.

 

[RLGL]

I have had a WD MY Book , a Caviar drive and a Samsung SSD fail in the last
6 months . Run the WD diagnostics program to check out the drive.

 

[JackMDS]

If you here and there need to get simple stuff from Home Depot you might be able to use your Fiat 500.

However the fact that the Fiat has 4 wheels and an Engine does not make it a truck and it can be used for moving large cement bags.

The Good Wireless Routers are Routers to Route the Internet, plus an AP to provide Wireless, they loaded with few additional capacities that are nice to have for casual use, but they are Not a substitute for a File Server Computer (which is what the OP needs to put on his Network).

 

[Elixer]

Well, not sure if you want to keep using that router as a poor mans file server, but, you could run a script that checks said tables (or anything else), but, you really should be saving these things at multiple places to be on the safe side.
(*edit, now that I think about it, I am not sure that the default Asus firmware lets you run custom scripts or not...)

I also use tomato, and haven't had any corruption.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I've had file corruption on network'd HDDs before, and it was almost always a network connection issue. But I wouldn't rule out a bad HDD until I'd plugged it into a computer and done a full surface scan of the drive.

But a USB HD connected to a router is intended for backup purposes, not as primary online storage. Running them full tilt is asking for trouble.

If you want a poor man's database server, get a real NAS box at least.

Heck, the really good ones even have self-healing file systems.

 

[Muse]

I have had a WD MY Book , a Caviar drive and a Samsung SSD fail in the last
6 months . Run the WD diagnostics program to check out the drive.

Yeah, I have HD woes up the yin yang, actually. Am midway through an advanced replacement of a WD Elements 3TB HD, received the My Book replacement a couple of days ago, haven't plugged it in yet. The HD I'm sending back to them has less than 1000 hours of plug-in time!!! The Win7 laptop it was plugged into said one day that the drive wasn't formatted and offered to format it for me, WTF! The My Book replacement they sent me appears to have some kind of active cooling going on, haven't researched it yet. Of course, the Elements drives are passive cooled, if you can call it that. I've been tempted (very seriously thinking about), drilling ~1/2 inch holes all over their cases, I still have 2-3 of them.

Also have a ~2.5 year old WD 2TB Elements HD that has "too many bad sectors") and I can't read the data. My intention is to try to recover at least some of the data from that. :|

I'll run WD data life diagnostics and crystaldiskinfo on the 2TB Elements drive that has been throwing the errors. Thanks everyone for the help! :thumbsup:

 

[Muse]

If you here and there need to get simple stuff from Home Depot you might be able to use your Fiat 500.

However the fact that the Fiat has 4 wheels and an Engine does not make it a truck and it can be used for moving large cement bags.

The Good Wireless Routers are Routers to Route the Internet, plus an AP to provide Wireless, they loaded with few additional capacities that are nice to have for casual use, but they are Not a substitute for a File Server Computer (which is what the OP needs to put on his Network).

Oh, why not? Well, you are suggesting I buy or assemble a server machine, maybe a Windows Home Server machine or such. I was researching that sort of thing around 3-4 years ago but couldn't determine or decide exactly what made sense for me, so I opted for a simple solution that kind of fell in my lap, being an extra laptop to which I attached a WD 2TB Elements HD, left it running 24/7. Was pretty OK for a couple of years, but I'm finding that the Elements HDs are less than reliable. It's not viable.

Don't know what the bit is about the Fiat...

 

[Muse]

I've had file corruption on network'd HDDs before, and it was almost always a network connection issue. But I wouldn't rule out a bad HDD until I'd plugged it into a computer and done a full surface scan of the drive.

But a USB HD connected to a router is intended for backup purposes, not as primary online storage. Running them full tilt is asking for trouble.

If you want a poor man's database server, get a real NAS box at least.

Heck, the really good ones even have self-healing file systems.

OK, I'll be going that route, obviously. Gotta do some homework now and figure out what will work for me. I was going to get an Atom based box or mobo and assemble something but didn't pull the trigger because of some uncertainties. I'd like to have some redundancy, tired of losing data!!! Also, I'd like quick access of networked data by my machines, don't want the server to be power hungry or wear out HDs!

Edit: Just starting, but I think this one looks like it could work for me (first one I've looked at):

Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage (DS213j)

... or there's the Synology DiskStation 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS212j, and there are several other Synology NAS boxes. I don't know the ins/outs, whys and wherefores...

 

[JackMDS]

Fiat 500

Has Wheels & engine and thus qualified to be called a Car.

However (as seen above) Not big enough even for two tall Blond Models (like the one in the pic).

Wireless Routers have CPU and memory, but Not strong enough to act as a 24/7 active server.

 

[Muse]

Fiat 500

Has Wheels & engine and thus qualified to be called a Car.

However (as seen above) Not big enough even for two tall Blond Models (like the one in the pic).

Wireless Routers have CPU and memory, but Not strong enough to act as a 24/7 active server.

My requirements for a server are generally very modest. I suppose that could change. I was happy until I got the data corruption, don't know what that was about.

I ran WD Lifeguard Diagnostics on the 2TB USB Elements HD that was plugged into the Asus router. I connected the HD to a WinXP laptop. Crystaldiskinfo didn't report a problem. WD Lifeguard diag passed the HD in the quick and extended tests. Do I need to do something else to guaranty the health of the HD? Run WinXP's HD recovery on it?

Not sure what to do. How are those Synology NAS's? Would an actual server machine be the smarter option?

 

[Elixer]

A NAS is pretty much a very low end server, and some of them are crap.
An actual server, you have complete control, and thus, more options open to you.

I guess the question is, just how serious are you looking to be ?
Are we talking about a fault tolerant system, self healing, or what exactly ?
If you don't trust that HD, then, the logical option is to either use it as part of a RAID 3 array (that uses parity drives, so, if that HD does have issues, it can be corrected), or just keep using it, and have a hourly/daily/weekly backup depending on how important the data is.

 

[JackMDS]

Synology or real server (or just a computer with Win 7 or even better 8) are connected to the Router via Ethernet.

The USBs connections are problematic because of restriction that has to do with the USB of the Routers. Some issues of Routers not being full computers to fully support USB Master, and the manufacturers avoiding paying for Patented aspects of USB formats to whoever owns the patents, instead they are using other formatting "Tricks".

 

[Muse]

[Synology or real server (or just a computer with Win 7 or even better 8) are connected to the Router via Ethernet.

The USBs connections are problematic because of restriction that has to do with the USB of the Routers. Some issues of Routers not being full computers to fully support USB Master, and the manufacturers avoiding paying for Patented aspects of USB formats to whoever owns the patents, instead they are using other formatting "Tricks".

Is Windows Home Server out of the picture now? People used to be very positive about it.

 

[JackMDS]

Is Windows Home Server out of the picture now? People used to be very positive about it.

WHS is a discontinued product ( http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/31...012-editions-windows-home-server-discontinued ).

The current entry level Windows Server is very good but significantly more expensive than WHS.

http://winsupersite.com/article/win...012-essentials-home-server-replacement-144275

You can see a write up here (courtesy of Moderator ViRGE).

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2295609&highlight=essentials

Windows 8 has some of the important capacities that WHS use to have.

It can be set as a Good Home Server too.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/windows/windows_8_home_server_guide