hdd

[spurskev]

hi there i am trying to set up w d 500gb hard drive but when i try to record it says hdd nearly full have reformated drive fat 32 cheers.

[echelon]

did you reformat the hdd on the spiderbox or on your pc ?

if on your pc, what windows is it running ?

what size is the hdd reported as on your pc ? (explorer - properties)

and what is its actual manufactured size ?

[spurskev]

when i first got hdd i did format on spider box and it did record bot when i tryed to record again later date it keeps saying hdd not ready manufactured size is 500gb computer says it has 465gb free space.running windows 7.cheers

[spurskev]

sorry missed out tryed both box and computer to format.

[echelon]

as you are running windows, so depending on the size of this hdd you will find that windows wont fully format it in fat32 due to microsoft restrictions

I think windows may restrict it to 129 gig or thereabouts if you tried to format using windows explorer

you could try using easeUS to format it in fat32, or try the spiderbox , but ensure its over 460 gig and fat32 by checking it in explorer - properties after formatting

if windows has formatted it using ntfs like it would normally, the hdd wont work in the spiderbox

[spurskev]

what is or were can i find easeUS thanks.

[echelon]

what is or were can i find easeUS thanks.

google ;)

[spurskev]

cheers will do that and try many thanks.

[echelon]

also read this

_http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-2111219.html

especially this answer by Mark R




FAT32 is obsolete, and has performance which isn't really adequate for drives larger than 32 GB - although it does work up to 2 TB.

Windows Vista and 7 will not format partitions in FAT 32 if they are larger than 32 GB.

You could use a tool like gparted to format 1 or 2 TB partition as FAT32.
However, you would be limited to 4 GB files - which as you mentioned movies, may be a problem.



or try easeUS instead (use the free tool) which I use for various tasks (but not the one you are attempting)

I tend to use easeUS for formatting drives, as you are trying, but I tend to do them as partitions and in NTFS , not fat32

I dont use drives on the spiderboxes which is why I havent tried it in fat32

[spurskev]

cheers for the info will look later going to watch spurs beat man utd :respect-050:.

[echelon]

cheers for the info will look later going to watch spurs beat man utd :respect-050:.

in your dreams !!

lol

as mentioned in another thread, its your lack of pc skills causing troubles here, microsoft have these limitations on various aspects, which you are or were unaware of, but in formatting the external usb hdd in win7 I suspect it has been formatted in ntfs and not fat32 (standard), and explorer - properties will tell you this

the spiderbox requires fat32, but if you have it in ntfs I suspect your spiderbox cannot overrule it, hence the use of gparted, or easeUS as its easier to use when partitioning or formatting drives

just ensure you select the usb hdd and nothing else or your pc may be ruined

[spurskev]

what a dream lol.hi there i notice you said you dont use deives on spiderbox so how do you record? cheers

[echelon]

what a dream lol.hi there i notice you said you dont use deives on spiderbox so how do you record? cheers

true, but utd should have had a first half penalty for the blatant foul on nani, and the game should have ended 3-3 in all fairness to both teams

if I wish to record a channel, I use a sony hxd 870 (or 770 or 970) hdd/dvd recorder scarted from my boxes (even from my dreambox)

I can also record to my dreambox or icecrypt if I so wish as they have a hdd fitted internally, formatted as ext2 or probably ext3
I am also looking into lan recording to my NAS too (also ext2 or 3)

and in any case I have sly plus so unless its sports or movies I dont need to record to a hdd as sly plus does it for me (I fitted a 2 tB hdd in my plus box)

so I dont need to record to any usb hdd at alll, but what YOU have to take into account is the fact that when using windows to format drives, there are limits set by microsoft that YOU are not taking into account, you are probably just clicking and telling windows explorer tools to format the drive, without taking any notice of how it is being done

therefore, if you format in win7 it will format your usb hdd in NTFS and not the required fat32 that the spiderbox requires

so unless you use bespoke tools for this, or prepare the drive to be formatted by the spiderbox, you will find it will fail for one or more reasons

it will either format it to 32 gig as fat32, leaving the rest unformatted, or it may hit the 128 gig ceiling, leaving the other three quarters going begging, or it will format it as a logical or primary drive in NTFS format and will be less than 500 gig, so say 465 to 485 gig , but as NTFS and not what the spiderbox needs which is fat32

you may well find it has a 32 gig partition in fat32 for the spiderbox, and say 460 gig in ntfs for the pc

I appreciate its all techy stuff, but you did ask, and lack of knowledge is what always trips people up

none of this is actually anything to do with the spiderbox, its true on all none-linux boxes as they tend to follow the fat32 standard and so all suffer the same issues

linux boxes tend to use ext2 or ext3 and so are unaffected anyway

formatting drives is generally a pc issue, not a box issue

[spurskev]

cheers so not worth using fat 32 hdd because can not record hd football or movie file to big.

[echelon]

generally speaking, recordings tend to be split into say 1 gig chunks to overcome the 4 gig restrictions of fat32 (like vobs on dvd`s)

if it was one continuous file then the 4 gig restriction would happen, which is why its better to use ntfs or ext3 if you can (not on a spider though)

afaik you can format a 500 gig hdd into fat32 using bespoke tools like easeUS or swissarmyknife or gparted, or possibly the box itself ?

but not using microsoft windows which is what you tried to do

and HD files take up a lot of space (hence the 2000 gig drive I fitted to my sly plus box) so the spiderbox would have to split those recordings up into chunks that are smaller than 4 gig

so yes I believe you can use the 500 gig hdd

but until you sort out your partitioning and formatting issues in order to make it work, you may be limited to 32 gig, hence your error message

[echelon]

https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthread.php?130612-Setting-up-your-SpiderBox-Setup-amp-Installation-Guide

the above link goes to our tutorial guide where its clearly explained in post #6 (posted 12 months ago)

(you have read this havent you ?)

it also clearly states the file sizes you can choose when recordings are made

Here you can set the recording file size (selectable between 256,512,1024,2048,and 4096MB)

as can be seen above, this gets around the 4 gig maximum file size issue

formatting the usb hdd in the spiderbox is designed to get around the windows limitations on fat32 partitions

this is why you DO NOT USE WINDOWS for formatting drives for use on satellite boxes, unless its usb pen drives of 32 gig or less