What is best way to format external HDD to Ext3? + Feature request.

[4ndy]

I am trying to add another HDD to one of my HDRs. Previously I have previously used EaseUS to format in Ext3. The main reason being that the native Humax firmware recognises and shows the usage etc as a pie chart. In addition the Humax shows the partition name (Films, Comedy, Drama etc.) when using move /copy on the media button and the blue button when navigating media. This makes life much easier.

I am having problems with EaseUS while trying to format a 2 tb external drive. This may be an issue with the drive itself as it keeps stopping at 84%. However, it formats to FAT32 and NTFS ok. What I would really like to be able to do is to to format and rename external partitions via the Humax. I have access to telnet, but would need very clear instruction if CLI is the solution, as I have no previous knowledge

Could formatting and renaming external portions be build into webif please? I suggest a simple safeguard of only being available if a single external drive is plugged in. This would prevent possible blunders with populated disks.

Also, could webif show the ext3 partition name (where present) in place of Drive 1, Drive 2 etc?

In the mean time any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Black Hole]

It can be done via Telnet, but one has to be very careful to identify the correct drive to format. Linux does not make it very obvious, and the external drive can even displace the internal drive in the OS references. I recommend sticking to PC utilities, where you have a fully operational GUI environment to (hopefully) be able to see and control what is happening.

I use a GParted live boot CD, so the PC is booted into a Linux environment and runs the Linux tools natively (using RAM but not the internal HDD). I'm not sure, but I think it has been mentioned that setting a drive label allows it to be identified as such in the media list.