Disks

Summary

The RouterOS Disks menu (/disk) lists all attached storage devices that are supported and in working condition. This feature is particularly useful for RouterBOARD devices with SD/CF/USB/SATA/NVMe slots and x86 systems with additional dedicated storage drives. External storage enables advanced features like User Manager databases, proxy caching, SMB shares, container storage, and logging.

You can attach multiple external or secondary drives and select any number of them for various feature usages. For example, User Manager could use 3 disks—one active database and two backups. You can migrate data by copying to a fourth disk, unmounting it, and moving it to another server.

Always use /disk eject before physically removing any disks from your RouterOS device to prevent data loss!

The ROSE-storage package adds additional enterprise data center functionality to RouterOS.

Supported Storage Types

RouterOS supports various storage interfaces and types:

Interface	Description	Use Cases
USB	USB flash drives and USB hard drives	General storage, backups
SD Card	SD and microSD cards	Low-cost storage, logs
SATA	Internal SATA drives (x86)	High-capacity storage
NVMe	NVMe SSDs via PCIe	High-performance storage
SAS	SAS drives via expanders	Enterprise storage

Disk Properties

View Attached Disks

[admin@MikroTik] > /disk print
Flags: B - BLOCK-DEVICE; M - MOUNTED; F - FORMATTING
Columns: SLOT, MODEL, SERIAL, INTERFACE, SIZE, FREE, FS
#    SLOT  MODEL           SERIAL            INTERFACE                  SIZE           FREE  FS
0 BM usb1  USB Flash Disk  FBA0911260071572  USB 2.00 480Mbps  2.0GB    1.9GB  ext4

Available Properties

Property	Description
`eject`	Safely unmounts (ejects) the selected drive by slot name
`format`	Formats the disk with specified file system
`trim`	Discards unused data blocks (NVMe)
`reset-counters`	Resets disk statistics
`monitor-traffic`	Shows real-time disk performance and health
`test`	Performs disk performance tests (RouterOS 7.16+)
`mount-read-only`	Sets mounted disk to read-only mode
`mount-point-template`	Sets the mounting point using variables

Mount Point Templates

You can customize mount points using variables:

/disk set nvme1 mount-point-template="[model]"
/disk set usb1 mount-point-template="[model]-[fs]"

Available variables:

[slot] - slot name (default)
[model] - device model name
[serial] - device serial number
[fw-version] - firmware version
[fs-label] - file system label
[fs-uuid] - file system UUID
[fs] - file system type

Disk Flags

Flag	Description
`B`	BLOCK-DEVICE - can be formatted or used for storage
`M`	Mounted partition
`F`	Currently formatting
`p`	Has partition
`r`	RAID member
`f`	RAID member failed
`c`	Encrypted
`g`	GUID partition table
`t`	NVMe TCP export
`i`	iSCSI export
`s`	SMB export
`n`	NFS export

The B flag is particularly important as it indicates whether a device can be formatted or used for storage/RAID purposes.

Settings

Global disk settings under /disk settings:

Setting	Description	Default
`auto-smb-sharing`	Enables dynamic SMB shares when disk is added	disabled
`auto-smb-user`	Default SMB user for auto-shares	-
`auto-media-share`	Enables DLNA when disk is added	disabled
`auto-media-interface`	Interface for dynamic DLNA	-
`default-mount-point-template`	Default mount point template	-

Note: With auto-smb-sharing=yes and /ip smb share enabled=auto, SMB server automatically enables when storage is plugged in.

Formatting Storage

Simple Format (ext4 or FAT32)

[admin@MikroTik] > /disk format usb1 file-system=ext4
  formatted: 100%

Format with Label and MBR Partition Table

[admin@MikroTik] > /disk format usb1 file-system=ext4 label=usb-flash mbr-partition-table=yes
  formatted: 100%

Supported File Systems

File System	Description	Use Case
`ext4`	Linux ext4	General use, best compatibility
`fat32`	FAT32	Cross-platform compatibility
`exfat`	exFAT	Large files, cross-platform
`xfs`	XFS	High-performance Linux
`btrfs`	Btrfs	Advanced features, snapshots
`discard`	Discard blocks	Trim unused blocks
`wipe`	Secure wipe	Securely erase all data

Creating Multiple Partitions

/disk format usb1 file-system=ext4 label=usb-flash mbr-partition-table=no
/disk add type=partition parent=usb1 partition-size=200M
/disk add type=partition parent=usb1 partition-size=500M
/disk add type=partition parent=usb1 slot=usb1-last-partition

Notes:

If partition size is not specified, all available space is used
Use partition-offset to offset partition start

RAM Disk (tmpfs)

Create RAM-backed folders for temporary storage:

[admin@MikroTik] > /disk add type=tmpfs tmpfs-max-size=100M
[admin@MikroTik] > file print
Columns: NAME, TYPE, SIZE, CREATION-TIME
#  NAME            TYPE       SIZE             CREATION-TIME
0  tmp1             disk     100 003 840        dec/12/2022 11:01:48

Warning: RAM disks are emptied on reboot or power loss. Data is stored in RAM and is volatile.

Disk Performance Testing

Available from RouterOS 7.16:

/disk disable usb1
/disk test disk=usb2 pattern=sequential type=device thread-count=4 block-size=4K direction=write

Warnings:

Disk performance tests may slowly degrade disk health
On write tests, all files and file systems on disks will be destroyed
Disks must be disabled or unformatted before testing

Example output:

Columns: SEQ, RATE, IOPS, DISK, TYPE, PATTERN, DIR, BSIZE, THREADS
SEQ  RATE          IOPS  DISK  TYPE    PATTERN     DIR    BSIZE  THREADS
0    1622.5Mbps  49 516  usb2  device  sequential  write   4096        4
TOT  255.7Mbps    7 806  usb2  device  sequential  write   4096        4

Swap Space

Configure swap for containers requiring more RAM than available:

Swap Partition

/disk set disk1 swap=yes

Note: The entire disk or partition will be used as swap and cannot be used for other purposes. Use a high-speed disk for better performance.

Swap File

/disk add type=file file-path=disk1/swapfile file-size=1G swap=yes

Note: The disk must be formatted with a file system (e.g., Btrfs). Swap file has lower performance than swap partition.

Safe Disk Removal

Always eject before physical removal:

/disk eject usb1

This safely unmounts the drive to prevent data loss.

Common Use Cases

Web Proxy Cache

/ip proxy set cache-path=usb1/cache-n-db/proxy/

The web proxy store is automatically created in the files menu.

Logging to Disk

/system logging action set disk disk-file-name=/disk1/log

Create log directories manually—unlike proxy, they are not auto-created.

Mount ISO Images

/disk add type=file file-path=disk1/mycopy.iso

RouterOS can mount .iso and .squashfs images directly.

Troubleshooting

Disk Not Detected

Check physical connection
Verify the device is supported
Try a different USB port or cable
Check /disk print output

Disk Won’t Format

Ensure disk is not mounted or disable it first
Try different file system
Check for hardware issues

Performance Issues

Use /disk monitor-traffic to check real-time stats
Run disk tests to verify health
Consider faster storage (NVMe over USB 2.0)
Check for filesystem corruption

Data Loss Prevention

Always run /disk eject before removing
Use UPS to prevent corruption from power loss
Regular backups of important data
Consider RAID for critical storage