Using NTFS/EXT2 dual partition portable hard drive to transfer mpg to PC

Started by yorickk, January 01, 2015, 10:07:01 PM

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yorickk

I have been using a portable USB3 hard drive to transfer the mpeg files to my pc for further processing.  I recently purhased a larger USB3 drive (1TB=931GB)) and want to have two partitions on it - one for NTFS files and the other for the EXT2 mpeg files from the PVR.  I used EaseUS Partition Manager to create the two equally sized partitions of 465GB .  I set the EXT2 partition to primary (which sets the NTFS to inactive).  When I try to copy files to the portable hard drive I get the message that the external disc has been found but then I get a message that there is not enough space on it to do the copy.   For the time being I have reformatted the portable hard drive using the PVR but this reformats the whole disc to EXT2.  Has anyone tried doing this or is it that the PVR software does not support the use of a dual partitioned portable drive?

IanL-S

Have you looked at the section of the oztoppy wiki dealing with using an external HDD with a Toppy? There may be some help there. If I recall correctly the 7100HDPVRt is discussed towards the end of the page. Is the external HDD selfpowered. if not that may be a contributing factor.

You should also try posting this issue on the Topfiel Australia Forum in the archived PVR section.

While TMS Toppys support multiple partitions on external HDD I have a feeling that the 7100HDPVRt dooes not. Have you tried putting the ext2 partition first? Also. I suspect that the setting of the active partition may not be recognised by the Toppy.

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

yorickk

Hi Ian

Thanks for your reply/

I had not looked at the oztoppy wiki until a few moments ago - I  could not sight anything dealing with dual partitions.

The EHD (its a USB 3.0 one) is portable so can only powered through the USB port on the PVR - I am using the front port as it worked ok with my older USB 3.0 750GB one.   However a previous portable USB 2.0 EHD would only work through the rear port on the PVR and the rear port on my PC.   I have just given my son, who lives abroad, the 750GB one hence the purchase of the new 1TB one.

There are a myriad of topfield foum sites when I do a search so I am not sure which one you are refering to.

I had the ext 2 partition as the second one so will give it a try as the first one.

Thanks again
yorickk


IanL-S

I am almost certain that Toppys will not recognise partitions greater than 2TB, in particular they will not recognise HDDs that use GPT rather than MBR. HDDs larger than 2TB use GPT. I assume that this is the case with external HDD - it is a long time ago that I last tested it. When you created the two partitions, did you revert to MBR from GPT?

On the oztoppy wiki there is a statement that TMS Toppys (TRF-2400/60/70, 7160, 7260 and 7170 and the TF7100HDPVRt Plus support multiple partitions. The absence of a mention of the TF7100HDPVRt suggests that I understood at the time of writing that only one partition is recognise (the first).

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help

yorickk

I am please to advise everyone that I have been able to get the dual partitions working as desired.   

Firstly I took Ians advice and reformatted the first partition as the EXT one and set it to primary and active.  The second partition I initially set unallocated.  This worked ok with the PVR - The partition was found and copying worked.  On the PC the copied file was there (I am using ext2mgr to view the ext2 files on the pc).   

I then reformatted the second partition as NTFS and set it to primary but did not set it to active as this will deactivate the ext2 partition.  This worked ok with the PVR - the partition was found and copying worked.  On the PC the copied file was there. 

I then copied files to the NTFS partition and transferred the EHD to my laptop where the NTFS partition was recognised and auto opened and I was able to open it and see the copied files.    In my Computer I was also able to see the EXT partition and open it.   

So it appears that as Ian said the EXT partition needs to be the first one and needs to be set as primary and active.     As only one partition can be set to active the NTFS partition should not be set active.

Another point is that I got into the habit of reformating the older EHD in the PVR every time I connected it as I recalled having the repair message a few times after deleting files.  The problem with this is that it removes the disc info added by ext2fs and requires ext2mgr to be run again.  However so far I have found with the new EHD I can delete the old files without getting the repair message and the ext2 partition appears in My Computer without the need to rerun ext2mgr.

Many thanks again Ian for your help on this issue.

Best wishes from yorickk

IanL-S

Thanks this detailed description of how you got it to work. Just one thing I would like to know; did you use GPT or MBR?

Ian
IceTV: IceBox + BYOB IceBox + 2xTRF-2400 + 2xTF7100HDPVRtPlus + SKIPPA [RIP] + T2 + U4 + V2
No IceTV: a few Toppys and T2
Synology NAS
Check out the oztoppy wiki and oztoppy Forum for Toppy help