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Backing up to a MAC OSX formatted drive

N

Norman Harper

New Member
My HDR-FOX T2 is filling up nicely, and I now have some stuff that I'd like to archive and/or move off to a hard drive to create more space on the Humax. My problem is that all of the online discussion and printed material seems to refer to Windows-formatted drives ... and I use an iMac.
1. Does anyone have any advice for a comparative newbie on suitable hard drives for an Apple set-up? Any minimum drive-speed issues, for instance, to maintain constant playback?
2. Will it be possible to unplug that hard drive from the Humax, plug it into the iMac and watch the back-up programming on the computer, if need be?
Windows (in fact, any non-Apple drive formatting) is out of the question at any stage of this process.
 
The Humax runs Linux, a Unix based system so it formats it's drives in EXT3 (not directly readable by Window or I guess iMac), however files FTPed from the Humax will be transferred to whatever file system the host computer is running, so all you need is FTP setup on your iMac and turned on in the Humax e.g. Menu >> Settings >> System >> internet settings >> FTP server = on
EDIT
The following is info. I found on the net for iMacs accessing an FTP server
To access someone else’s FTP site, from the 'Finder' Menu, choose Go→Connect to Server. Enter the server address in the box provided and click Connect. Depending on the server you’re attempting to connect to, you’ll likely have to enter a name and a password.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, Ezra. That's interesting. So would I be right in thinking that hard-drive formatting is not an issue and I can buy any WD or LaCie off the shelf, plug it into the Humax and crack on using it as an overspill drive? That would be the main use for it. But I'd use FTP if I wanted to watch any contents on the iMac? I doubt that I would want to watch on the computer often. I'm just trying to make sure that whatever I do leaves the set-up as flexible as possible. I don't want to make a newbie's error and find that half-a-dozen features are closed off to me because I bought the wrong thing.
 
Yes, If you plug in a USB Hard disk drive and get the Humax to format it, (it will use EXT3), You can FTP files off it onto your iMac (or P.C.). The EXT3 is only a way of phsically storing the files on the HDD, so when FTPing the files they will be written to the new HDD format e.g. FAT32 or what ever. If you try to unplug the HDD and plug it into a, iMac or P.C. you will need a program that can handle the EXT3 file system.
 
Norman Harper said:
But I'd use FTP if I wanted to watch any contents on the iMac?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this won't work. Files on the Humax are encrypted and anything ftp'ed off the Humax stays encrypted. FTP is strictly a backup solution - backed up files must be restored to the original Humax for playback.

If you want to play recorded video on your iMac, you can turn on content sharing on the Humax and play them on the iMac over DLNA. VLC has a built-in DLNA client. Alternatively, installing fuse-ext2 on the Mac will give it the ability to read ext3 formatted disks. If you are a bit more adventurous, then installing the Humax custom firmware will give you many more options such as accessing network drives.
 
Norman Harper said:
My problem is that all of the online discussion and printed material seems to refer to Windows-formatted drives ... and I use an iMac.
Click to expand...

You can easily format an external drive as Fat32 on an iMac - it's on the drop-down format options list in Disk Utility (it may just appear as "FAT"). In fact IIRC the default format for an external device is Fat32. You can then plug that drive in to the Humax and copy recordings to it. Only problem is that you may run in to the 4GB file size limit on Fat32. That's most likely to happen with HD recordings - but then they will still be encrypted on the USB device anyway, unless you use Foxy or something similar.

I'm sure there must be a tool out there somewhere which allows you to format/read/write ext3 on OS X but I've never yet needed to go looking.

EDIT: The very first hit on Google for "OS X ext3" explains how to use Fuse-ext2 and OSXFuse to mount and read an ext3 disc on a Mac!
 
Thanks, all. That's very instructive and interesting. I'll certainly add a hard drive to the Humax so it can overspill and/or store programmes I want to keep in archive. Do I need to worry about drive speed? For instance, should I be looking for a minimum 7200rpm so the drive can feed an HD picture to the Humax/TV without break-up or stalling? Or is that not how things work?

Setting things up to watch programmes on the iMac sounds a little bit beyond my technical capabilities, and it's not something I would want to do very often in any case, but I'll give it a try.
 
Norman Harper said:
Do I need to worry about drive speed? For instance, should I be looking for a minimum 7200rpm so the drive can feed an HD picture to the Humax/TV without break-up or stalling?
Click to expand...

No, I would say any USB HDD that you can buy will be fast enough to supply a Hi-Def stream, as long as it has aUSB 2 or higher interface (Not USB 1.0 or 1.1)
 
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