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Any issues with using 4Tb usb drive with a T2?

geordie

Member
I am thinking about getting a 4Tb USB drive to store my recordings. Does the T2 have any issues reading or writing to that capacity of an external drive? I have the latest firmware. I won't be doing anything with the drive before I use it on the Humax so there won't be issues with me formatting it incorrectly.
 
I am thinking about getting a 4Tb USB drive to store my recordings. Does the T2 have any issues reading or writing to that capacity of an external drive? I have the latest firmware. I won't be doing anything with the drive before I use it on the Humax so there won't be issues with me formatting it incorrectly.
I would be surprised if the Humax with standard firmware will recognise a 4TB hard drive because I assume it will have GPT style partition table that the Humax won't understand and probably use NTFS file system. I am not sure if the custom firmware support for GPT style drives extends to USB attached storage; hopefully somebody more knowledgeable can confirm.
 
I switched from using an external USB drive to a Synology NAS about 2 years ago so the recollection is a bit hazy now.

Prior to the NAS I did have a 4TB USB drive and don't recall a problem; I installed what was then the beta version of ntfs-3g .
I used the drive only for storage, although the T2 does write to it to store HMI files when programs are viewed.

Edit: Sorry - hadn't spotted this was not in the custom firmware section. I think you will need to install that for the drive to work.
 
I am thinking about getting a 4Tb USB drive to store my recordings. Does the T2 have any issues reading or writing to that capacity of an external drive? I have the latest firmware. I won't be doing anything with the drive before I use it on the Humax so there won't be issues with me formatting it incorrectly.
See Things Every... (click) section 12:
Drives Larger than 2TiB

Standard firmware for HDR-FOX is limited to MBR drives (which are limited to 2TiB), and cannot write to NTFS. Custom firmware has added the ability to use GPT drives and write to NTFS, but I have no idea whether GPT will work for a USB-connected drive or whether it will be possible to format the drive using the HDR-FOX (if so, that would be Ext3). If it were me, I would be formatting the drive using a (Linux preferably) PC with GPT and either NTFS (only if you want Windows compatibility) or Ext3 (Linux - which is what the HDR-FOX uses, and preferable).

If you are buying this as a ready-to-go USB drive (with power supply?), chances are it is already prepared as GPT/NTFS. If it is a "portable" drive (ie USB-powered), I doubt the HDR-FOX will be happy with it, but if it is a "desktop" drive (ie with a wall-wart PSU and possibly an on-off switch) you have the inconvenience of switching it on and off separately from the HDR-FOX.

To make NTFS read/write on the HDR-FOX you will need to install the CF ntfs-3g package.

I think you are trailblazing; let us know how you get on.

NB: The above presumes you mean 4TB (4x10^12 Bytes) not 4Tb (4x10^12 bits, or 500GB).
 
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Is it irrelevant for something posted in the standard firmware section for the HDR-FOX T2?
A 4TB drive will be GPT and incompatible with standard firmware, therefore what file system it uses is technically irrelevant - but it is another fly in the ointment so I declare this a no score draw.
 
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