I need to format a new internal HDD for my HTPC which runs in openelec 3.2.4. There are some difficulties with this which I am exploring but would a HDD formatted under Windows 7 work in my set-up? The new HDD would be for storage only, a separate SSD holds the operating system
Thanks, Phil
not as /storage partition but as your stored media, they can be accessed.
Thanks, can do that with a SATA / USB caddy from flea bay. Can I then import further media with the HDD installed in the HTPC using file manager and an external USB HDD?
Reading from a NTFS formatted disk causes high CPU load. If you want to access the disk for playback I would format in ext4.
Is ext4 a windows formatting option? At the moment it all works fine from a USB2 disk so not really concerned about CPU load
No of course not. Windows only supports proprietary filesystems, it is not interested in any compatibility. So - if it works for you - stay with what you have.
Yes, if all is fine, keep it. Just remember this if anything strange happens in the future which you can't explain. Some time ago I had an USB2 disk on my Linux box which was NTFS formatted. Playback of HD videos while another HD stream was recording did not work very well.
Why not format it from openelec?
Current plan is to use ssh from the laptop as the command prompt won't accept any input on the HTPC. Have downloaded PuTTY and will have a go later but the fallback is to format the HDD in windows using a caddy and then physically move the HDD into the HTPC. Formatting from openelec would be good if I could ........ If you have any ideas I would be grateful !
Formatting a drive in OpenElec is indeed not very easy. I had the pleasure of doing it when I added a 2 TB drive to my mom's HTPC. I got the drive from work so it was wiped, meaning no partition table at all. Turns out OpenElec doesn't ship with the tools sane people use (cfdisk or even fdisk), you have to use parted. While it's not a big deal, it's most definitely not something for a newbie.
To save yourself some trouble I suggest you download a GParted Live ISO and use it to format the drive. You can choose XFS or ext4 as filesystems.
(2014-04-26, 09:19)negge Wrote: [ -> ]Formatting a drive in OpenElec is indeed not very easy. I had the pleasure of doing it when I added a 2 TB drive to my mom's HTPC. I got the drive from work so it was wiped, meaning no partition table at all. Turns out OpenElec doesn't ship with the tools sane people use (cfdisk or even fdisk), you have to use parted. While it's not a big deal, it's most definitely not something for a newbie.
To save yourself some trouble I suggest you download a GParted Live ISO and use it to format the drive. You can choose XFS or ext4 as filesystems.
Yes also a good idea. Actually any live Linux CD would do.