Ok, first off, thanks for the help!
I've got a linksys E3000 running the base version of tomatoUSB. I've also got a 2TB seagate USB hard disk connected to the router. This hard disk is where I store all of my Movies, Shows, etc..
The hard disk was NTFS formatted on a windows 7 machine, then I created several directories in the root of the hard disk. i.e. "Shows", "Movies", etc.
I then copied over all my media to this drive and proceed to connect it to the router. The router sees it fine, and, I have it set to auto-share all USB partitions with no password. This has made it possible for my AppleTV2 and other machines to stream the content from that drive.
Here are a few questions I have:
The volume of the hard disk is "NAS1" - using the default settings in tomato for the USB hard drive (it creates a default share named 'share' mounted at '/mnt') when I choose a location to add to an AppleTV media library and the ATV scans the network, it finds the media drive but gives me two paths:
1) NAS1 -> <one of my dirs like 'shows'>
and
2) share -> NAS1 -> <one of my dirs like 'shows'>
both of these paths take me to the same location but I don't understand why I've got my hard disk volume name NAS1 showing up as a share AND I've got NAS1 wrapped up inside another share called 'share' (which is the default share setting like I mentioned.)
normal or data redundancy?
second question: On my AppleTV software, in order to add video to the library, I have to select which shares I want to add to the library. Well, when I go to select them, it just wants to add "tomato" as the one and only share. I named my router "E3K" (clever right? no?) so I assume the AppleTV is just finding the hostname "tomato" but it adds this as one single share, so the effect is that it scans EVERY FILE into its library. even binary files! stupid right? I want to create separate shares called "Shows" and "Movies" for example so that in the AppleTV I can add just these shares. Sort of like telling the AppleTV "I only want to scan the following folders for the library, 'Shows', 'Movies'".
Make sense? If that makes sense then tell me this, how do I create the separate shares? I tried creating a share in tomato called "Shows" and attempted to point it at the "Shows" folder by using the path "/mnt/Shows" but that doesn't work. why?
LAST question:
If I create a share in tomato called "test" and give it a path of "/mnt/test" will that create a new directory in the root of my drive? I mean, if I browse the hard disk, will there be a new folder called "test" there along with all my other folders?
Hopefully I've clearly outlined my goal. How do I achieve it?
Thanks! - sorry for the huge post.