Hi, Can anyone remind me what format the HDR-2000T uses for an external USB connected HDD? I think I've used an NTFS formatted drive before, 3Tb, it was a long time ago, but I wondered if that's what it'd format the drive to if I do so via the 2000T's own menus? Can't remember if it was ext3 by choice/default?
My other question was size limit. Is a 4Tb external HDD likely to cause any issues?
Roy22 - 5 hours ago »
Hi, Can anyone remind me what format the HDR-2000T uses for an external USB connected HDD?
It can be NTFS, FAT32 or ext2/3.
I think I've used an NTFS formatted drive before, 3Tb, it was a long time ago, but I wondered if that's what it'd format the drive to if I do so via the 2000T's own menus?
If you format it via the Humax I suspect it will be ext3. Was the drive 3Tb (bits) or 3TB (bytes)?
My other question was size limit. Is a 4Tb external HDD likely to cause any issues?
I would have thought a drive larger than 2TB would have to use a GPT style partition table and I don't think the HDR-2000T will support GPT partitioned drives NB I haven't tried so could be wrong.
It was 3TB. I'm glad you always correct these small slips, you may be one of the very few left to do so...!
Would it be better to let the Humax format it to ext3? I've read somewhere that NTFS is more 'write intensive', if that equates to shortening the HDD's life?
Roy22 - 1 hour ago »
It was 3TB. I'm glad you always correct these small slips, you may be one of the very few left to do so...!
3TB formatted as a single partition?
Would it be better to let the Humax format it to ext3? I've read somewhere that NTFS is more 'write intensive', if that equates to shortening the HDD's life?
I don't know if NTFS is more write intensive; if it is and the drive is an SSD then it might be worth reformatting but otherwise I wouldn't bother. It is possible that ext3 would be faster than NTFS as the ext3 driver will be in the kernel but I think the NTFS driver on a Humax is a FUS (file system in userspace) driver.
Yes, it was a single 3TB partition. That drive recently died (mechanically I suspect) after many years of use. The new 4TB will be again just one partition and likewise not an SSD either.
Roy22 - 2 hours ago »
Yes, it was a single 3TB partition.
Interesting; I wonder if anybody knows what trick the makers of USB hard drives are using to allow the Humax to access a volume large than 2TB?
That drive recently died (mechanically I suspect) after many years of use. The new 4TB will be again just one partition and likewise not an SSD either.
OK, please let us know how it performs.
OK, well you were right that 4TB was seemingly too large. The preformatted NTFS drive was ignored by the 2000T when connected. Eventually I tried letting the Humax format it. All went silent for a worrying minute of two before it reported 3.03TB (or something similar), but not 4TB. Using Media to browse into that new drive showed confusingly 3 folders. USB-1 (the new drive); drive2 (with folders My Music; My Photos; My videos containing all my internal HDD content; and TSR with a single zero length recording) and an empty drive3.
Why was the internal HDD's content showing in a subfolder of a newly formatted external HDD? My guess is that the size has indeed confused the filing system.
I can put the 4TB to other use if this is risky to use. What size external drive do you understand to be the maximum?
OK, well you were right that 4TB was seemingly too large. The preformatted NTFS drive was ignored by the 2000T when connected. Eventually I tried letting the Humax format it. All went silent for a worrying minute of two before it reported 3.03TB (or something similar), but not 4TB. Using Media to browse into that new drive showed confusingly 3 folders. USB-1 (the new drive); drive2 (with folders My Music; My Photos; My videos containing all my internal HDD content; and TSR with a single zero length recording) and an empty drive3.
Why was the internal HDD's content showing in a subfolder of a newly formatted external HDD? My guess is that the size has indeed confused the filing system.
I can put the 4TB to other use if this is risky to use. What size external drive do you understand to be the maximum?
Roy22 - 9 mins ago »
Why was the internal HDD's content showing in a subfolder of a newly formatted
external HDD? My guess is that the size has indeed confused the filing system.
Clearly something is very wrong but I don't know what.
What size external drive do you understand to be the maximum?
I have always thought that 2TB was the limit (it is certainly the limit for drives with MBR style partitions) but maybe someone else can recollect a drive bigger than 2TB being used?
In case it means anything, I looked at the 4Tb drive with a Win10 PC under Disk Management. The Humax had split it into 3 partitions: 1678.02 GB (Primary, now unrecognised by Windows so likely ext3); 369.98 GB Unallocated; 1678.02 GB Unallocated. The drive (3726.02 GB) was now MBR, I'm guessing it must have come as GPT to offer 4TB in one partition.
But the previous failed external HDD was definitely 3TB, which would suggest GPT too. It just connected and worked with no fuss.
You must log in to post.
