H1 external USB HDD - seeing it in Windows

[Ade]

Hello - sorry if this is the wrong thread - I've been trawling through and can't seem to find an answer to my query.
I have a H1 and connected to it is an NTFS external HDD and a HDD formatted by the H1.
I understand this is a variant of FAT32, but for Linux - possibly the EXT2 file system? Is that so?
Is it possible to use a program like EXT2IFS so that the Beyonwiz formatted HDD could be seen and written to by a windows PC running XP?
Also, if that is possible what is the maximum file size I would put on it? With NTFS I can have very large files say 9GB plus ISO files.
Most grateful for advice - and apologies if this is the wrong place or already answered.
Regards
A.

[tonymy01]

A normal HDD to be used as an external drive on the Wiz is formatted as bog stock FAT32.
A HDD registered as a recording drive is formatted as FAT32 with cluster sizes bigger than windows can read.
FAT32 != EXT2. (!= is "not equals").
Dunno if you can make windows read FAT32 disks with non-windows standard cluster sizes. Linux will read it (you can get linux running on a windows computer using various different techniques, including booting off a live CD, running free VMWARE and running Linux within VMWARE, possibly cygwin will read it etc). Just because Linux can read something and windows can't, doesn't mean that it is a EXT2 filesystem. It just means Linux is more flexible than Bill Gates' dream . It is FAT32, that is why we write FAT32 .
I would not recommend unplugging a registered recording drive from a H1. I don't have a H1 myself, but would think that if the Wiz booted up for, say, a timer, and couldn't find the registered recording drive, it would have some problems.
Regards

[prl]

It's been said many times and in many places. If you format a USB HDD on the H1 (or any other Beyonwiz model), it formats the drive as a single volume, and the volume contains a completely normal FAT32 file system. However, a DP-H1 can't record to a volume formatted this way.

If you register a USB drive for recording on a H1, it formats the drive as a single volume, and the volume contains a FAT32 file system whose cluster size (512kiB) is much larger than the maximum legal cluster size for FAT32 (32kiB). This disk can be used to record on a DP-H1. It can be accessed for both reading and writing on other Beyonwiz models, on Linux PCs and on Mac OS X. It can't be accessed on a Windows PC, which adheres strictly to the 32kiB cluster size limit.

As Tony has indicated, if you have active timers, it's not a good idea, for obvious resons, to have the recording drive disconnected when the timer fires. But apart from warning messages when you create a timer, as far as I know, nothing else bad happens if you have timers set, but no recording drive.

[Ade]

Tony, Prl - many thanks for your prompt answers which explain all. I'm now inspired to run Linux on that old PC.
BTW - will the HDD formatted on the H1 cope with a 5 BG file? Eg - an ISO file?

[prl]

Tony, Prl - many thanks for your prompt answers which explain all. I'm now inspired to run Linux on that old PC.
BTW - will the HDD formatted on the H1 cope with a 5 BG file? Eg - an ISO file?

No, the increase in cluster size doesn't affect the 4GB file size limit on FAT32. As far as I know, the 4GB file size limit comes about because the file size metadata in a FAT32 directory entry is 32 bits long. That is unchanged in a Beyonwiz recording drive.

Recordings made on the Beyonwiz aren't limited by this because the recording format splits the recording into smaller files, each no bigger than 32MB. If you copy a media file to a HDD on the Beyonwiz, using the Beyonwiz for the copy, the 4GB limit doesn't apply either, because the copying process splits the media file into files no bigger than 1GB.