WD external drive

[dedndave]

My point here is: always tell Windows to eject a flash drive before physically unplugging it.

that is the way i have always used it, anyways
although, i had it set for quick-removal in the event it was accidently pulled out or something
but that is a great piece of info
thanks Queue   :U

[GregL]

One BIG problem, my WD TV HD doesn't recognize exFAT.  So, it's back to NTFS on the flash drives I use with it.

At least I'm less ignorant about exFAT now, and I'll keep using it on the 64 GB flash drive I use for backing up my laptop.  The backup goes faster BTW.

[hutch--]

There are probably a couple of things involved with a restriction like this, FAT32 works on disks up to 28 or so meg, then with standard MS tools you must use NTFS for larger but from memory a USB stick is constructed to LOOK like a disk to a computer but it does not mean it acts like a disk. Many USB stick/pen drives etc .... will only format as FAT32. perhaps the larger ones may support NTFS.

[dedndave]

with the exFAT hotfix applied, that option is available in format
it is wonderful, so long as all the computers that are to use it have the support hotfix (easy enough to install)

i have seen discussions about SSD's performance suffering if the partition does not start on a memory-aligned sector
which i find rather interesting - you'd think it would be more of a mechanical issue - not an electronic issue

[GregL]

Hutch,

To enable NTFS on your drive, open the Device Manager and find your USB drive under the Disk Drives heading. Right click the drive and select Properties, then go to the Policies tab and select the "Optimize for performance" option and Click OK.
Once you do that, open up My Computer and right click on the flash drive and select Format. There you will see that you now have the option to format to NTFS in the File System dropdown box.

Like Dave said there is a hotfix to enable exFAT on Windows XP.  exFAT is not supported on Windows 2000.

The problem I have with FAT32 is the maximum file size is 4GB.

exFAT is the best file system for flash drives, I just wish more devices, like my video player, supported it.

[dedndave]

yes - a shame they don't provide updates for win2000, as well as win95/98 for that matter
i extracted the hotfix to see what was involved
one would think it is a simple driver, but they update shell32.dll   :'(

EDIT - ahhhhhhhhh
i tried my flash drive with my TV and it did not recognize it
i was thinking it was a speed issue, but now that you mention it, i bet it wants to see NTFS

[GregL]

Yes, I think Microsoft should at least release a hotfix for exFAT for Windows 2000.   But I'm not holdin' my breath.

[GregL]

Dave,

Looks like you're going to have to use NTFS too, unless you can get by with < 4GB files.

[dedndave]

file size is not an issue, really
not sure i want to use NTFS on it, though
i may just get a drive
a much cooler solution would be to write a driver that makes my USB port appear to be a drive to the TV   :8)

[GregL]

I have decided to use my external HDDs for the video files and leave the thumb drives formatted exFAT or FAT32. Use the right tool for the right job. The thumb drives are just so handy.

[Rshullic]

Yes, I think Microsoft should at least release a hotfix for exFAT for Windows 2000.   But I'm not holdin' my breath.

Microsoft would only release for supported systems. For example, windows xp rtm is not supported, you needed sp2 or sp3 to put the hot fix on.
Exfat is currently only supported on Microsoft systems, tuxera will oem drivers for Linux soon but Linux and Mac are currently out of luck. This also means no current support for most TVs, blurry, ps2 and I guess even xbox right now.

There are some rouge driver projects out there to produce exfat drivers, many are read only.

Some exfat blogging at rshullic.wordpress.com and a detailed technical paper on exfat internals at the forensics section in the sans reading room.

Note that fat32 will support up to 2 tb but has to be formatted using non-Microsoft utilities if larger than 32gb.

[hutch--]

t has been the case where Microsoft prefer to have their later OS versions use their preferred disk formatting options and this has been from Win2000 upwards which is a pest in that FAT32 was always faster than NTFS when it was maintained properly. Its a control/compatibility issue where if you end up locked into some weird option of dynamic striped spanned disks it cannot be transported to anything else. I long ago learnt to format most disks to the basic level with no wierd options so I can rescue the disk and its contents if a computer fails.

Depending on the board and its built in support I occasionally stripe 2 disks as RAID0 for IO speed gains but don't put anything important on them.

[shankle]

Got my Thermaltake dock today.
Put in the wd disk from the MY Book and ran "Partd Magic" on it:
Formated the drive and here are the results:

     298.09 total size
       73.76 MB  used
     298.02 Gb  unused

Seems that WD has put the junk on the drive with super glue.
Once but NEVER twice.
GOOOOOODBY WD.

[dedndave]

no Jack - that looks perfectly normal for an empty NTFS formatted drive
it takes some space for the index tables etc