Jump to content

Best file system for external HDD


Recommended Posts

Guest Marshy84
Posted

Now that we have support for external HDD I'm looking @ getting a 1Tb portable HDD to store a few movies.

What file system should I format my drive bearing in mind the following criteria: -

  • It needs to work on Windows and Android
  • I have files greater than 4Gb (FAT32 doesn't support this)
  • Android doesn't recognise NTFS

Can anybody make any recommendations?

Cheers!

Guest carl rose
Posted
Now that we have support for external HDD I'm looking @ getting a 1Tb portable HDD to store a few movies.

What file system should I format my drive bearing in mind the following criteria: -

  • It needs to work on Windows and Android
  • I have files greater than 4Gb (FAT32 doesn't support this)
  • Android doesn't recognise NTFS

Can anybody make any recommendations?

Cheers!

FAT32 as far as I know android does not support another file system that in turn supports files over 4gb. I might be wrong though but I think fat32 is your only option for now

Guest isurecan
Posted
FAT32 as far as I know android does not support another file system that in turn supports files over 4gb. I might be wrong though but I think fat32 is your only option for now

Why not just partiton drive some NTFS amd some fat32 this should work ok.

Guest trevor432990
Posted

We do face a daft situation with NTFS not being recognized on Android as it is an MS proprietary format.

I have the same problem with my PS3 trying to play large HD films > 4gb but at least with the PS3 I can 'download' big files direct to the built-in HDD (which is neither FAT32 or NTFS) and play them from there.

The Android community definitely needs a forward path on this because it will become a big limitation in the near future. Maybe Sony will make their file formatting OpenSource so we can all use it (doctor please put away that straight jacket) :D

Guest unholyimp
Posted

The biggest problem with this is Microsoft and their narrow minded OS. Could you not dual boot main PC with ubuntu (instructional movies on Utube) the partition the drive into ext3 I'm sure Android can read that. In fact I going to give it a go with a men stick later

Guest thedicemaster
Posted

ext3 support is quite bad in android as far as i know.

actually, i do believe exactly the parts of ext3 that make it better than ext2 won't work in android meaning you're better off with ext2.

the vega won't play nice with either of those 2 though, but i got that covered.

http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...unting-scripts/

script 4 and 5 should allow you to use an ext2 formatted USB stick or HDD(single partition! format the entire drive in ext2!)

ext2 supports files up to 2TB and drives up to 32TB depending on the block sizes used.

note: smallest block size setting allows for 16GB files on 2TB drives.

Posted

You can add ext2 support for windows using this: http://www.fs-driver.org/

I have a Windows XP/Ubuntu dual boot netbook and it works really well. It allows me to have a 3rd data partition formatted Ext2 which can be shared between the two operating systems.

It supports Ext2 formatted SD cards as well, not tried a USB stick but I don't see why it would not work for then and external HDDs.

HTH

Guest warriorscot
Posted

Once we get the kernal source hopefully the file system support will improve.

Guest thedicemaster
Posted

ptbw: http://www.ext2fsd.com/

that one is better, the one you linked to doesn't work if the drive is formatted with default settings in newer linux distro's

Guest Marshy84
Posted

I've received my hdd and decided to go with isurecan's suggestion.

I used gparted to partition 500gb as ntfs and 100gb as fat32.

I tried to partition 500gb as fat32 but everytime I went into ifilemanager android would reboot.

Its fine for now, and hopefully Honeycomb or a custom kernel will add support for more file systems in future.

Guest Schooleydoo
Posted

Mine also occasionally reboots or the screen switches off when accessing my 50gb FAT32 partition on my WD passport. I assumed it was pulling too much power.

Did you only change the partition size the second time?

Guest Marshy84
Posted

Here's what I did: -

  1. Deleted the 1Tb NTFS partition and created a 2Gb NTFS and a 2Gb FAT32 partition - This was to test the Vega was OK with multiple partitions
  2. Deleted both partitions and created a 500Gb NTFS and 500Gb FAT32 partitions - The Vega did not like this. Rebooted everytime I opened iFileManager
  3. Deleted both partitions and created a 500Gb NTFS and a 100Gb FAT32 - This seems to be working with no problems

100Gb should keep me going until someone can hopefully compile a kernel with NTFS support (and USB host/slave with the reboot).

Posted

As a quick test, try formatting with 32k cluster size (64k is default). Aeseus partition tool can do this if you need a hand.

Guest thedicemaster
Posted

or just install the driver i mentioned earlier, and use ext2.

it works practically the same on windows as ntfs, but it can be mounted in android as well(using a script i linked to earlier as well i think)

Guest wobblydoggy
Posted

Big Dream Mod allows for NTFS and CIFS support, maybe Paul could rip this element out of the rom. This is another mod out for the vega available at XDA i believe its made by some Korean lad

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.