NTFS USB hard drives

I

IanM

New Member
I am using USB drives formatted with NTFS with NTFS-3G which work fine to read and write except that the Free Storage notification comes up as 'not available'. Is this a known limitation or is there a way round it? Also it will not read GPT discs. Is there a way round this?
 
The lack of a free space indication is a known issue with non-native file system drivers (e.g. ntfs-3g). It is not something which can be easily fixed. At the moment the only way round it is to use another format e.g. ext2 or ext3.

It is a while since I last looked at this but I think GPT drives should work on an HDR with the latest CF (v3.13).
 
Thanks for your reply. I realised that I was still running 3.12. However, I upgraded to 3.13 and can confirm that it still doesn't work on an GPT HDD formatted ext3. I converted the drive to MBR and it works fine. It's not a big deal, I just have a few things on GPT drives that it would be more convenient to plug in directly but I can easily copy them off. (I use the Western Digital Elements and My Passport 2Tb drives which are great). I was hoping to use NTFS drives routinely so I could plug them into my PC without having to bother with Ext2fsd but the lack of a Free Storage indicator is too much of a nuisance.

Incidentally, I tried two different USB sticks for the upgrade, 32Gb and 64Gb formatted to FAT32, but neither worked, so I took the advice in the instructions to try a smaller one. I rooted around and found an old 512Mb stick (!) and that worked first time.
Cheers, Ian.
 
Last edited:
IanM said:
Incidentally, I tried two different USB sticks for the upgrade, 32Gb and 64Gb formatted to FAT32, but neither worked
Click to expand...
You could always use the excellent cfupdater package instead, if on an old CF version.
 
IanM said:
Thanks for your reply. I realised that I was still running 3.12. However, I upgraded to 3.13 and can confirm that it still doesn't work on an GPT HDD formatted ext3. I converted the drive to MBR and it works fine. It's not a big deal, I just have a few things on GPT drives that it would be more convenient to plug in directly but I can easily copy them off. (I use the Western Digital Elements and My Passport 2Tb drives which are great). I was hoping to use NTFS drives routinely so I could plug them into my PC without having to bother with Ext2fsd but the lack of a Free Storage indicator is too much of a nuisance.
Click to expand...
Could you post rag.log from when it fails to mount a GPT drive?
 
I was going to say the same thing. I've just tried this (on an SSD attached via a USB-SATA converter) and it works for me. I'm not on CF 3.13, although the changes since then wouldn't appear to have any obvious influence.
Here's mine for reference:
Code: 
--------- Info for Modinit PID 7067 ---------
7067: Date:       Sat Dec 31 18:40:03 UTC 2022
7067: MDEV:       sdb1
7067: ACTION:     add
7067: Model:      HDR
7067: Device:     /dev/sdb1
7067: Disk:       sdb

7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: Waiting for disk to become ready...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000:   disk ready after 0 seconds
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: /dev/sdb1 is formatted as ext2/3
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: /dev/sdb1 is NOT removable.
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: /dev/sdb1 is connected via USB.
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: /dev/sdb1 partition type gpt
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:03 +0000: Waiting for the disk to mount...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:04 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:06 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:07 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:08 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:09 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:10 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:11 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:12 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:13 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:14 +0000:   still waiting...
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000:   mounting GPT drive on /media/gpt-drive1
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000:   mounted after 11 seconds.
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: >>> /mod/etc/mdev/exfat add /dev/sdb1
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000:     /media/gpt-drive1 /tmp/tmp.eoFZcM
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: <<< /mod/etc/mdev/exfat
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: >>> /mod/etc/mdev/z9samba add /dev/sdb1
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000:     /media/gpt-drive1 /tmp/tmp.4zuQXN
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: <<< /mod/etc/mdev/z9samba
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: Considering package scan on /media/gpt-drive1
7067:31/12/2022 18:40:16 +0000: sdb: Non-removable disk, skipping package scan.

humax# mount|grep sdb1
/dev/sdb1 on /media/gpt-drive1 type ext3 (rw,data=ordered)
 
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