External HD advice please

Hi, I want to transfer some HD recordings to disc and I'll be using Foxy
Which I have done before. However these recordings are rather large so they
Are too big for my USB stick. I've seen a good price on a Seagate external HD 1TB usb 3.0
Will this be compatible and will I need to format it please?
 
Many thanks Black hole!
A couple more if I may?

The HD I'm looking at powers by the usb cable and not a power supply at the wall, is this ok or does it need it's own power supply?

Also on my menu when I select settings-system, data storage is greyed out, even tho my usb stick is plugged in? Is this correct?
 
Some USB hard disk drives can be powered from the Humax, BUT, it is very hit and miss especially with bigger drives and drives intended for USB 3.0 (which supplies more power), it is bests to avoid this as it is unlikely to work. Get a drive that has it's own power supply
 
Some options including Data Storage are 'Greyed out' when the Humax is recording, was it recording at the time?
 
I have a 1TB portable USB 3.0 Seagate drive which is fine powered from a USB port, as is my 1TB portable USB 3.0 WD. My Seagate could be a different model to the one you are looking at: mine is about 6 months old. No guarantees, of course, but I have never had a problem with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 portable drive powered by a USB port on the HDR-FOX. I would not recommend powering anything else from the same port. I only issue I had in the past was trying to power both an Edimax WiFi dongle and a 500 GB USB 3.0 Touro from the USB port on a HD-FOX using a passive USB hub.

Edit: I have no experience with portable drives larger than 1TB.
 
The HD I'm looking at powers by the usb cable and not a power supply at the wall, is this ok or does it need it's own power supply?

If it is USB 3.0 that should not be an issue. The USB 3.0 specification specifically states that when operating via USB 2.0 it must comply with the USB 2.0 specification power limits.
For spec and some quotes see http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/exter...hdr-fox-t2-can-you-help.396/page-4#post-68302

I've been using 1TB seagates and a 1TB WD USB 3.0 without an issue. One of the seagates was previously attached to a HD-FOX T2 for a year to use it as a recorder and there were no issues.
 
With the HDR-FOX T2 with the custom firmware and ntfs-3g installed, I have successfully used the following:

1TB mains powered drives from WD and Seagate,
1TB USB-powered drives from WD, Seagate, Hitachi (labelled Touro) and Samsung (labelled Samsung but actually manufactured by Seagate)
and
2TB mains powered drives from WD and Seagate,
2TB USB-powered drive from Toshiba (Stor-E)

Never had a problem with any of them, whether mains or USB powered, USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.
No formatting needed, straight out of the box, plugged in and working.

The only external drive that wouldn't work with the HDR was a 3TB (Seagate GoFlex)

If buying a drive specifically to use with a PVR, I would advise choosing a basic storage model, and avoiding the ones that come with back-up or encryption programmes pre-installed. The added software adds to the price charged, but isn't needed ... and sometimes tries to automatically install itself onto your equipment at first connection which is annoying on computer but useless on a PVR.
 
The USB 3.0 specification specifically states that when operating via USB 2.0 it must comply with the USB 2.0 specification power limits.
Thanks for telling me about this, I must work it into the reference texts. It is nonetheless the case that problems with some drives have been reported, and if some HDR-FOXes have difficulty supplying the full 500mA or start-up transitions cause mis-operation, it seems to me that a high-speed USB3 drive is most likely to stress it. A clever design might throttle down the whole drive to USB2 speed, with a corresponding reduction in supply current demand.
 
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