Could not mount the
WD 8TB Elements Desktop USB Hard Drive (formatted as EXT4) onto the
ASUS RT-AC3100 router. The WD Elements USB HD would mount when formatted to NTFS. Since I did not want to use NTFS, the drive has been returned. So the issue is "
solved" in a sense.
The main reason for posting is to make others aware of this issue and to vent concerning the lack of support for Linux EXT4. Both the ASUS and WD websites simply focus on Windows and the MAC operating systems.
My speculation as to why the WD Elements hard drive failed to mount on the router, is that the router's firmware can't recognize the WD Elements when formatted as EXT4. The hard drive (When formatted as EXT4) was successfully mounted onto a LINUX desktop computer's USB port. So it does work as expected when connected directly to a LINUX PC.
Also disturbing, attempting to mount the WD Elements actually "
broke" the Asus router. I don't know why. Anyway, to get the Asus router working again, had perform a factory reset.