[myview]

I just bought a new Buffalo Ministation Extreme 1 TB Hard Drive to be used on the BDP-1.  Being something of a technical idiot, I did not know that it's default formatting was in NTFS.  I went on to load almost 800GB of music files in there.  I read that BDP-1 works nest with a Hard Drive formatted in FAT32.

Do I have to reformat the Hard Drive to FAT32 and re-copy all the music files onto it before using it on the BDP-1?

[fado]

Bryston always says use FAT32. I have two SSDs connected to my BDP-1 - one formatted in FAT32 and one in NFTS. They both work but I generally like to follow the manufacturer's recommendations.  My problem is in a PC environment you have to use downloaded applications to format to FAT32. I believe I got a virus from one; some simply do not work; and, one time I pushed the wrong button and formatted the OS hard drive which immediately crashed everything.

My NFTS SSD is that way because FAT32 was no longer worth the risk. Bryson should should supply a tested, safe and fool proof app - not just post third party URLs of unknown provenance. 

I would like to know if a new unformatted drive could be connected to a MAC which I understand natively supports FAT32, formatted, and then be moved back into a PC environment.

Good Luck - there are many older posts on this topic.

[James Tanner]

Hi

Yes we do recommend Fat32 over NTSF because it is compatable on both MAC and PC and if you want to copy files over the network. NTFS works as well but is more proprietary to PC's.

The best format tool is the HP one. 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/HP-USB-Disk-Storage-Format-Tool.shtml

As for creating A format tool not sure I want to go down that path.

I use both FAT32 and NTSF so unless you need the network copy feature I would not be concerned.

James

[Ned F. Kuehn]

I just bought a new Buffalo Ministation Extreme 1 TB Hard Drive to be used on the BDP-1.  Being something of a technical idiot, I did not know that it's default formatting was in NTFS.  I went on to load almost 800GB of music files in there.  I read that BDP-1 works nest with a Hard Drive formatted in FAT32.

Do I have to reformat the Hard Drive to FAT32 and re-copy all the music files onto it before using it on the BDP-1?

I use a 2TB NTFS formatted drive with BDP-1 and have no problems. New music files are accepted via my LAN to this drive connected to the BDP-1. The current BDP-1 firmware (prior not upcoming release) supports NTFS formatted drives. Security and reliability (NTFS volume can recover from disk errors more readily than FAT32) are the primary reasons I chose to stay with NTFS for this large drive.
Happy listening! Ned

[ronman]

I have always just connected whatever hard drive - or flash drive - to the pc (windows), right mouse click on the drive and select format. You have various format options  (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc) You can select quick or full format. "Quick" doesn't delete or format every sector on the hard drive - it merely erases the headers on whatever info is on the drive so it appears empty, making it a very quick and easy process as whatever info there was is now "lost" (with the right data recovery software you can recover the formatted information). After that I just copy and paste whatever music (or movie) files to the drive and plug that into the av system or bdp-1 on the stereo. I prefer NTFS as that format reads a single file of 4 gigs or more - perfect for storing and watching huge mkv / bluray movies off a drive.

[unincognito]

Hi ronmon,

I regular format is the same as a quick format, except it also performs a scan looking for bad sectors.  Thus leaving just as much info behind as the quick format.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686

Cheers,
Chris

[ronman]

Hi Chris
I forgot about the bad sectors bit.
Oh. Would've thought that a full format would delete (destroy) all info on the drive. No wonder Big Brother and their secret agents can retrieve what ever we may hide from them. LOL
Ronald