5GB USB External Drive

[TGG]

Hi,

I'm trying to utilise a 5GB external drive which my U4 cannot access.

1. I did a disk check with the U4 amd am seeing:
"Error:
fsck.ext4: Bad magic number is super-block while trying to open /dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb1 contains a vfat file system labelled 'EFI'"

2. Windows say the disk format is exFAT. Do I need to reformat it to FAT32? Which Windows disk management is only giving me the options of NTFS or exFAT.

3. What is the largest disk size a U4 can see and read from?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Cheers,
Paul.

[TGG]

D'oh. No need to reply. I copied eveything off it and reformatted as NTFS. All good.

[TGG]

and yes I meant a 5TB drive...

[MrQuade]

D'oh. No need to reply. I copied eveything off it and reformatted as NTFS. All good.

The V2's native format is ext4, but that would render it unreadable to a Windows PC if you plugged it in to the Windows PC directly using USB (Though you can install 3rd party drivers to overcome that).

When you get the V2 to format the drive, it will do so using ext4.

NTFS should also work fine on the V2, though it may be a bit slower. The benefit being, that you can move the drive to a WIndows PC is you want to, though in practice, using the network to transfer files is often way more convenient.

The V2 can't read exFAT formatted disks without first installing and exFAT driver from the plugins menu.

FAT32 is inappropriate for a recording drive, as it limits the maximum filesize to 4GB, which can easily be exceeded by a modestly sized recording.
FYI, Windows purposely prevents you from formatting drives as FAT32 once they exceed 32GB. This is presumably done to discourage people from trying to format bulk storage drives in FAT32, and then being dissapointed by the file size limit. Third party tools will let you format larger drives if you are determined to do so though.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

The V2 can't read exFAT formatted disks without first installing and exFAT driver from the plugins menu.

I think exFAT support is already present in 20191106 -

Code: Select all

root@beyonwizt4:~# opkg status enigma2-plugin-drivers-exfat
Package: enigma2-plugin-drivers-exfat
Version: 1.0-r0.0
Depends: fuse-exfat
Status: install ok installed
Architecture: mips32el
Installed-Time: 1569058844

root@beyonwizt4:~# opkg status fuse-exfat
Package: fuse-exfat
Version: 1.2.3-r0.0
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.28), libfuse2 (>= 2.9.8)
Recommends: util-linux-mount
Status: install ok installed
Architecture: mips32el
Installed-Size: 55172
Installed-Time: 1569058844

Translate 'Installed-Time: 1569058844' ==>

Code: Select all

root@beyonwizt4:~# date --date=@1569058844
Sat Sep 21 17:40:44 AWST 2019
root@beyonwizt4:~#

[prl]

I think exFAT support is already present in 20191106 -

Which raises the question: what version is TGG running?

[MrQuade]

I think exFAT support is already present in 20191106 -

Cool, I'd forgotten that!

Which raises the question: what version is TGG running?

Ahh whoops, I had in my head it was a V2 so was wondering how the driver wouldn't be present, but TGG has a U4. Likely not on 19.3 series then.


Considering that this is a U4 now, exFAT or NTFS should be ok to use for an external drive (assuming 19.3 series firmware will be installed), as it is probably not the primary recording/timeshift drive.

[prl]

3. What is the largest disk size a U4 can see and read from?

Formatted as ext4: 1 EiB (for 4 KiB block size) or about 1.15 million TB.

Formatted as NTFS: worst case (depending on the NTFS implementation) 16TB. Best case: astronomically large. The actual maximum achievable depends on the NTFS version and actually varies between Windows implementations. I have no idea what the limit is for the Linux implementation.

Formatted as exFAT: 512 TB recommended, 128000 TB absolute max. Again, not sure what the Linux driver limits are.

tl;dr: current largest single drives are all under any of the file system limits, for some file systems, way under.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I think exFAT support is already present in 20191106 -

Which raises the question: what version is TGG running?

17.5's 20180417 would be my guess (or worse still, the original factory 20171130 firmware, and a bad config due to a factory testing cockup).

TGG -
From live TV, what does it show in the 'Revision' field from MENU>>Information>>About?
If it's not 20191106, then the newer firmware is here - https://beyonwiz.com.au/downloads/

[TGG]

I think exFAT support is already present in 20191106 -

Which raises the question: what version is TGG running?

17.5's 20180417 would be my guess (or worse still, the original factory 20171130 firmware, and a bad config due to a factory testing cockup).

TGG -
From live TV, what does it show in the 'Revision' field from MENU>>Information>>About?
If it's not 20191106, then the newer firmware is here - https://beyonwiz.com.au/downloads/

Version: 17.5
Revision: 20190207

It's working OK as NTFS (as above) but will update to newer firmware via sub stick in any case. I tried doing an update through the wiz earlier but it said it didn't need it.

[MrQuade]

It's working OK as NTFS (as above) but will update to newer firmware via sub stick in any case. I tried doing an update through the wiz earlier but it said it didn't need it.

You can't update between major revision series via the online update feature.

Online update is really only for updates to individual packages and occasional smaller system updates.

[gibster]

and yes I meant a 5TB drive...

Not really relevant to the conversation, but my first hard drive was a Seagate 20 MB 5 1/4" drive. Got it from work when it was replaced because it had given up the ghost. I called Seagate in Florida and had it repaired for $100.00 including shipping both ways from San Diego in 1986. Just a little trivia LOL

Gib

BeyonWiz T4, V2
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Sony KD-65X9000E
Apple TV 4K x 2
Sony UBP X800 4k/UHD BluRay Player (Moded for all regions)
Harmony Ultimate Remote
QNAP TS-451+ NAS

[prl]

and yes I meant a 5TB drive...

Not really relevant to the conversation, but my first hard drive was a Seagate 20 MB 5 1/4" drive. Got it from work when it was replaced because it had given up the ghost. I called Seagate in Florida and had it repaired for $100.00 including shipping both ways from San Diego in 1986. Just a little trivia LOL

In my first job, we had 20 MB removable pack drives (the drives were about the size of a washing machine!). One disk pack went "bad" and couldn't even be reformatted. The manufacturer sent out a tech, and he washed the platters in the disk pack using solvent and very long cotton buds. After that the disk pack worked perfectly. Circa 1978.

[gibster]

and yes I meant a 5TB drive...

Not really relevant to the conversation, but my first hard drive was a Seagate 20 MB 5 1/4" drive. Got it from work when it was replaced because it had given up the ghost. I called Seagate in Florida and had it repaired for $100.00 including shipping both ways from San Diego in 1986. Just a little trivia LOL

In my first job, we had 20 MB removable pack drives (the drives were about the size of a washing machine!). One disk pack went "bad" and couldn't even be reformatted. The manufacturer sent out a tech, and he washed the platters in the disk pack using solvent and very long cotton buds. After that the disk pack worked perfectly. Circa 1978.

I worked for Ampex Corp in Redwood City, CA in about 1968. One of the departments I worked in developed a disk drive that had a platter about 3 feet in diameter and stored 60 seconds of video. They were made for mobile studios used for the first time by the NFL in the U.S. for instant replay. They made these along with their professional magnetic tape machines for recording video back in the day. Mobile studios in 40 foot trailers that were shuffled around the country for events like sport, concert, etc.