Formatting External Drives for PVR use

[applematt]

The Vantage 7100 HD supports External eSata/USB Drives, but only in FAT32 formatt.

Reading on the German boards this has caused a lot of confusion due to the fact that FAT32 can be formatted no bigger than 32GB on a Windows machine (Ubuntu/Linux does not have this, thanks TNT!).

Im using a 320GB Seagate Freeagent eSata/USB drive. You can format most drives using FAT 32 Formatter from 40GB to 2TB. Runs best on XP, instructions are on the site below. Update -- I have now found the Seagate drive to be faulty in recordings. I purchased a integral Case and installed a Drive in there and now works 100%. SO I would advise against the Seagate.

Link gone dead for now, I have pasted the Application below

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Once formatted with the program - the Vantage saw the drive after about 30 seconds. Was able to record any SD program and HD program very nicely.Attachment 22005

[carolina]

Does this link really work?

[applematt]

Does this link really work?

Yes it was, now its not.
DOWNLOAD FROM HERE:Attachment 22004

have Attached the program now. Pasted some instructions I found.

I found this handy tool that formats large hard drives to FAT32.

Micrsoft says you "cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system".

This tool can format 40GB to 500GB hard drives in FAT32. Abit extreme though.

This might come in handy for those who want to format their MPx players. I will be testing this format tool with some of my MPx player shortly to see how well this works. But might solve problems people are having when trying to format their player, especially if they are believed to be 'hacked'.

Instructions:

1. Save the fat32format.exe to the root of C:\drive.

2. Click [Start] --> [Run] and type in cmd.

3. Type C:

4. Type in CD \

5. Type fat32format f:

-- So he is using format f drive as a example ok -- whatever your drives comes up as use that.

[Gone_Fishing]

Think your find its only windows that cant format FAT 32 larger than 32GB but most other formating software can

So you could probably use something like Gparted liveCD or liveUSB although not sure how it would perform with a USB hard drive


TNT

[applematt]

Think your find its only windows that cant format FAT 32 larger than 32GB but most other formating software can

So you could probably use something like Gparted liveCD or liveUSB although not sure how it would perform with a USB hard drive


TNT

Yes thats correct! I didnt think Linux but of course there is no restriction using it on. But using the above software only took me 30 secs.

Once ive recorded SD channels you can use DVR-Studio PRO its a very good application to edit then save as MPG or DVD. But does not do HD files.

Anyone know a application that does? The files are in a .TRP format.

[Fabrice1973]

There's a tool called Swissknife which will format to FAT32 any USB drive.
Google it. It's freeware.

[rahimi29]

hi applematt
i have one of these freeagent hdd 320gb ,i managed to to format it to fat32 but but it works okay through usb cable but when i try to use through sata cable it just shows initializing HDD and it freeze ,just wondering if you had the same problem or do you think it is not fully formated but you mentioned you purchased a integral Case and installed a Drive ,what do you mean by that or do you think that could solve my problem?
thanks

[applematt]

integral is a company that sells hard drive cases - I then put a hard drive inside it. ie made my own. I think most HD now work with Vantage.

[bjalle]

Akasa Integral P2 for 3.5" IDE/SATA, aluminium, USB 2.0/eSATA

This case is perfect for all hard disks on vantage.

[firemonkey]

Thought you might be interested to read the post i made a while ago in the Humax iCord thread containing info received from a guy on the German iCord forum about formatting and recording onto an external hard drive:

" Formatting and recording onto an external hard drive
Cheers little devil. I got an interesting answer from a guy on the German icord forum explaing about using an external hard drive to record onto. Here is his helpful text:

To get back to your question:

I use the mentioned Trekstor datastation with 500GB and a Fujitsu Siemens external HD with 250 GB.
For this, I use a USB port duplicator, so I have 4 ports at the rear iCord USB port.
All three items have an external power supply. Specially the hard discs should have a external supply, as some members in this forum report problems while using the small 2.5" HD without. Looks like the USB port of the iCord doesn't supply enough power to run these.

The important point for copying files larger than 4 GB onto the external drive is to setup a EXT2 or EXT3 partition on the external HD. As the iCord is based on a Linux filesystem, it is def. needed.
Files smaller than 4 GB can be copied to a FAT32 partition as well. But all HD movies normally are bigger than 4 GB, so I recommend the EXT2/EXT3 partition.

I don't know if a Mac user can directly format the harddisc to this kind of partition, as I use a Windows PC.
In my case I downloaded the Ubuntu software from the internet, which is freeware. It comes as an *iso* file, so you can easily burn it as an image file on a bootable CD. This CD you load while booting the PC the next time, and it starts kind of an virtual Linux environment. Within this environment there is a program called Gparted, which allows to create and organize the existing partitions.

Before using Ubuntu I tried several other programs, which did not work in the way I wanted them to work. For example Partition Magic created a read-only partition...

I hope this helps,
if you have further questions don't hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Lars"

[bjalle]

Many thanks for your info,using geparted live cd http://www.tuxdistro.com/browse.php?cat=148

(49mb)to format the disk to ext2 was a little bit easyer for me.

[bjalle]

After a week test using ext2 back to fat32 more stable filesystem on vantage.will try again in later firmwares.

[panoslvd]

what about subtitles?can vantage read subs on divx files?

[webvan]

That's the thread I was looking for as I'm having a hard time formatting an external 500Gb eSata drive using the Dreambox DM800, endless ! I was going to try Partition Manager but if it only creates a read only partition I'll pass, I'll try one of these Linux Live distribs!