Struggling to prepare USB flash drive for WebIf on HD-FOX

[TonyC]

I've got an HD-FOX that has been working well for several months but has suddenly lost its WebIf. It threw an error when attempting to re-download the WebIf and an ext2 utility on my PC claimed the USB drive had no files on it. Presuming that the drive might have got corrupted, I tried running the "convert USB drive" option from the maintenance menu and was told it was "not suitable for conversion". Assuming the drive itself was faulty, I broke it in half and disposed of it.
I then found another drive, formatted it to FAT on my PC and plugged it in. Agh! Again "not suitable for conversion"! I ran the ext2ready diagnostic and got
Removable: 1
Mount: /dev/sda on /media/drive1 type msdos (rw,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437)
Size: 499
Is the drive just too small? (500 Mb.) Or is something wrong with either the drive, or the 'Fox?
I'm not looking to record onto it, just install the WebIf
Help, please!

 

[prpr]

Assuming the drive itself was faulty, I broke it in half and disposed of it.

That's a bit rash.

I then found another drive, formatted it to FAT on my PC and plugged it in. Agh! Again "not suitable for conversion"! I ran the ext2ready diagnostic and got
Removable: 1
Mount: /dev/sda on /media/drive1 type msdos (rw,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437)
Size: 499
Is the drive just too small? (500 Mb.) Or is something wrong with either the drive, or the 'Fox?

It's just complete stupidity (IMHO) in that part of the custom firmware. I think it has to be FAT32 and possibly some other condition(s) that I've forgotten about.
Just format the damned thing manually with mkfs.ext3 using the Command line option on the menu.
You might need to add a partition first with fdisk (type 83).

 

[Black Hole]

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/hd-fox-cf-host-upd.4511/

 

[TonyC]

Update: now working
Bought a new 16 Gb USB flash drive and plugged it in; rebooted into maintenance mode; converted drive to ext2; installed WebIf; all sorted.
So I assume that 500 MB is too small for this purpose, even just for installing the WebIf
I still don't know if the original 4 Gb drive was actually faulty, or just corrupted and could have been restored with some formatting - but it was old and mechanically falling apart anyway so it's probably no bad thing that I have disposed of it
Edit: 500 MB not 500 Mb, thanks dandnsmith

 

[dandnsmith]

I don't think 500MB is too small (I assume you mean that, not 500Mb, really), since I was using one that size until the case broke - so then changed, for convenience of handling only.

 

[Trev]

I have my 'pet' 512MB that I use as I know that it 'just works'.

 

[Black Hole]

They do fail.