Are extenal drves compatible with AmigaOS?

[Hypex]

Hello.

A friend recently bought an external harddisk. But when he tried to connect it on the USB port he just got one of those icons where it was trying to mount but couldn't. I suspect it was using NTFS. Would this be the case? It was a 1TGB drive.

After speaking with fellow Amgans they suggest to reformat it as FAT32. Personally I think that would make it less robust. But currently is this the only way it can be used? It worked fine with Windows 7, Linux but fails on a Sony PS3. I don't know what a PS3 supports but I suspect only FAT.

I also wonder with different filesystems how the MSD driver knows what to mount it as and can this be extended? For example an NTFS FUSE based filesystem has been made open source and we could possbily guve us a native NTFS driver which would be great.

I also ask as I'm intersted in purchasing an external harddisk but would like something OS4 compatible as always.

[abalaban]

I also ask as I'm intersted in purchasing an external harddisk but would like something OS4 compatible as always.

Then I would suggest you to go for a NAS. Using smbfs you'll be able to use it but depending on your network it could be really slower than on local hard disk (but you won't have any problem about filesystem ).

[mechanic]

Hello.

A friend recently bought an external harddisk. But when he tried to connect it on the USB port he just got one of those icons where it was trying to mount but couldn't. I suspect it was using NTFS. Would this be the case? It was a 1TGB drive.

I have been using one of these
http://www.vantecusa.com/gl/product/view_detail/266

with either FAT32 or SFS/00 on either SATA or IDE drives on OS4 up3 and it works just fine.
SFS is faster but no problems with FAT32. The USB 2 really made a difference.
Oh, if you leave big drives plugged in it may cause slower time to Workbench.

[tonyw]

OS4 does not support NTFS yet. It's one of those big jobs that no one wants to take on.

It would probably take a year or more to get something going, and, being Microsoft, it's a moving feast, the API is continually changing and never fully documented.

[Slayer]

Why don't we just write a JXFS implementation for windows? not that I'd use it but you never know LOL

I have 3 external USB drives a 500MB a 1TB and a 1.5TB (1 western, 2 seagate - The seagate are great for just sliding out of there housings the western wasn't so accomodating)

They all run JXFS and are all out of there housings and plugged directly into the SATA ports... The idea was to fill them up via SATA direct then slip them back into there USB housing which shouldn't be so bad for just access of data etc

[Spektro]

You can also use FastFileSystem (DOS\07) on external USB drives, if you like. I've been experiencing random lockups while copying large files to my FFS formatted USB drive. I don't know if it's because of the file system or USB stack or both.

[ChrisH]

OS4 does not support NTFS yet. It's one of those big jobs that no one wants to take on.

It would probably take a year or more to get something going, and, being Microsoft, it's a moving feast, the API is continually changing and never fully documented.

The job has mostly already been done, and is now open-sourced:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/arti ... oryid=6047

[Hypex]

I have an update to this. I checked and the XHD my friend has is using NTFS.

However the reaction from the MSD is promising. It noticed the filesystem type and tried it mount it. However it had worked it out, I don't know, but it tried to load L:NTFileSystem!

This is good news! By the looks of this behavour all we have to do is drop an NTFileSystem in place and we are ready to go!

I thought I had already mentioned the recently open sourced FUSE based NTFileSystem (from MOS) but somehow it was missed. Given it's by the author of ECX (and I presume written in E though I need to check that) and I have spent time making sure ECX works bug free on OS4 (by bugging him with emails) we now have greater chance of this being supported.

[cha05e90]

However the reaction from the MSD is promising. It noticed the filesystem type and tried it mount it. However it had worked it out, I don't know, but it tried to load L:NTFileSystem!

In theory it should work out of the box. Here i.e I have a 250GB external USB-2.0-hardrive, which I prepped with FFS/2 (I never were able to use SFS/2 with usbdisk.device, bug?). Since then I used it for backup of files with my Peg2 and SAM - but seldom, 'cos USB1 was to slow for this job. In just *this* moment it is attached to my SAM440ep with full USB2.0 speed and is doing some backup work (i.e. some DVD images... ).

[mechanic]

Here i.e I have a 250GB external USB-2.0-hardrive, which I prepped with FFS/2 (I never were able to use SFS/2 with usbdisk.device, bug?).

I just gave this a try with SFS/2 and have had no problem moving either large or many small files.
It is set for SFS02, 1024 Blocksize, 600 Buffers. It is a PATA drive on a USB adaptor.