How can I map an encrypted USB hard drive I have connected to an external router in macOS?

Question

I attached an external MyBook hard drive that is password protected and encrypted to my ASUS RT-68AC via USB.

How can I map it in macOS since I do not know its address except the router address of 192.168.1.1?

Answer 1

Many external USB hard drive products that feature built-in encryption do so using proprietary encryption technology from the hard drive vendor that requires you to install the vendor's special encryption software on your Windows PC or Mac in order to decrypt/unlock the drive.

Such disks cannot be decrypted/unlocked from other computing platforms for which the vendor does not supply their proprietary software.

Because there is no standard for "remote USB port sharing", home gateway router products that support USB disk sharing do so by mounting the disk themselves and sharing it via SMB (and maybe AFP). But since WD doesn't provide some kind of plug-in you could upload to your ASUS RT-68AC to allow it to deal with WD's proprietary encryption, your ASUS box can't decrypt the drive, so it can't mount it and share it.

Installing the WD proprietary decryption software on your Windows PCs and Macs doesn't help in this case, because your router doesn't share full access to its USB port, it only shares the files of whatever disk you attach to it. But your router can't read that disk because it's encrypted via WD proprietary software that your ASUS router can't run.

Answer 2

LOL, downvote all you want, THIS is the fix and answer, period.

Just hit command K and click browse (a network window opens and will populate of everything on your network and shared volumes etc..., then double click it to mount it on desktop (make sure uder finder preferences/general, (maybe advanced tab I forget off hand and not at my Mac) you've selected external hard drives, server volumes to show on desktop when mounted..

Hold Ctrl and drag to make an alias to it and you should be good to go. Just double click the alias and wait a minute or less for it to mount (you may have to login to it of course first so it'll mount on the desktop first if course).

This is what I do with 2 of my AC Router shared hard drive so I can just double click the alias and a few seconds it'll mount on desktop for drag and drop access and whatever else. Make sure in your router USB sharing you've set them to read and write etc first. (I have the same Tmobile branded router as you Asus (they're identical) I just got mine free from them.

T-Mobile for wifi calling as I don't have service in the boonies without it so they sent me a free one for 25.00 shipping and got to keep after a year of me staying with them. But also. Decrypt the disk. Your router won't know how to do so so it may mount it but you'll have read and write issues. You never want to encrypt a drive shared over a router USB share as the router won't know how to handle the encryption or decryption. But you can still set it up so only an admin can read and write too...that's easy. Just edit the permissions like you see in the screenshot you provided. Works like a charm. I also I stalled Tuxera NTFS and formatted my drive as NTFS so it can be read and written to on both Mac and Windows or you can install MacDrive on your windows box if it's already HFS formatted and you don't wanna back it up and reformat and then restore everything to but it's like 49.00 for MacDrive but VERY handy when you work with windows and Mac drives daily. I love it and it'll format and do anything a Mac will when you need to change up file formats or format it, run disk utility etc etc . mediafour.com is who provides this utility if you haven't heard if it. I love it albeit a but spendy but there's no decent free options. They're all limited....