[Marius]

Hi James,

I can not find the right topic  anymore hence my question (that might be answered on another forum-topic already, sorry for that) but which recommendation do you have for a USB drive to use, other than it being a 500 mb drive? Any brand or other consideration? I'd like it to work with my MAc setup. but I understand that it has to be formatted Fat32, and not Mac-formatted.
The duo BDP-BDA arrives this weekend so I'd like to be ready to roll... and have a filled USB drive ready.

Greetings,
Marius

[James Tanner]

Hi James,

I can not find the right topic  anymore hence my question (that might be answered on another forum-topic already, sorry for that) but which recommendation do you have for a USB drive to use, other than it being a 500 mb drive? Any brand or other consideration? I'd like it to work with my MAc setup. but I understand that it has to be formatted Fat32, and not Mac-formatted.
The duo BDP-BDA arrives this weekend so I'd like to be ready to roll... and have a filled USB drive ready.

Greetings,
Marius

Hi Marius,

If they are unpowered drives (using the USB in the BDP-1 for power) then I have had really good results with Seagate 2.5 inch Drives.  If it is a large powered drive then I have found Seagate, Western Digital and Laci work well.

Hope this helps.

james

PS - we are planning on the the next software update to allow for HFS (MAC) formatted drives.

[Marius]

Hi James,

thanks. No advantages soundwise between the powered/unpowered drives?

And the update for Mac formatted drives is a great one! When will this be?

Grts,
Marius

Hi Marius,

If they are unpowered drives (using the USB in the BDP-1 for power) then I have had really good results with Seagate 2.5 inch Drives.  If it is a large powered drive then I have found Seagate, Western Digital and Laci work well.

Hope this helps.

james

PS - we are planning on the the next software update to allow for HFS (MAC) formatted drives.

[James Tanner]

Hi Marius,

No difference in sound that I can detect.

Hopefully in a couple of months.  We are doing some fine tuning on the Bryston MINI and MAX interfaces as well.

james

[Marius]

Thanks.
Keep up the great work.

Marius

Hi Marius,

No difference in sound that I can detect.

Hopefully in a couple of months.  We are doing some fine tuning on the Bryston MINI and MAX interfaces as well.

james

[skunark]

PS - we are planning on the the next software update to allow for HFS (MAC) formatted drives.

Will bug with EXT3 be fixed as well?  Also is HFS read-only like NTFS or read-write like FAT32?

[James Tanner]

Will bug with EXT3 be fixed as well?  Also is HFS read-only like NTFS or read-write like FAT32?

HFS will be read only. NTSF will be read/write

Not sure what bug you mean?

James

[skunark]

HFS will be read only. NTSF will be read/write

Not sure what bug you mean?

James

I've sent a PM on this topic in the past, here it is again:

Hello James,

I was unable to get the EXT3 disk to mount automatically.   From what I could tell the "mount" command has the wrong options for EXT3 and the usbmount.pl was running in an endless loop.   A simple command of mount -o rw /dev/sda1 /media/Music did the trick.  Rebooting the BDP resets the image so my attempt to mount the ext3 drive is short lived.     

I honestly I have little preference if the filesystem is FAT32, NTFS or EXT3 but it would be nice to have broader support for the special characters.   

I might suggest for EXT3 support to have a carefully designed BDP webpage to format a USB drive that is blank so folks can copy files over. 

BTW: This is by far the best source I've owned or heard for 44.1/16 and hi-rez audio. mPad/mPod just completes to package too.

Jim

As long as HFS or EXT3 are RW, i'm fine with either.   Biggest gain for me would be proper support for certain directory and file names.   This will help with syncing between my various music libraries if the names don't get modified because of file system limitations.

[terrycym]

HFS will be read only. NTSF will be read/write

Not sure what bug you mean?

James

What about RAID James, specifically Drobo? (http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo.php)
Will that be R/W?
May be a question for your techies?

Terry

[James Tanner]

What about RAID James, specifically Drobo? (http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo.php)
Will that be R/W?
May be a question for your techies?

Terry

Hi Terry

There have not been any discussions on that.

james

[terrycym]

Hi Terry

There have not been any discussions on that.

james

I should have said as well James, the mentioned Drobo and using the USB interface on it.

Terry

[skunark]

I should have said as well James, the mentioned Drobo and using the USB interface on it.

Terry

BDP won't know the difference between a RAID and normal USB drives.  ... Fat32, NTFS, EXT3, HFS are all filesystems, RAID is hardware architecture that blends multiple drives together to improve reliability and/or speed, depending on the level.  The filsystem will set on top of the RAID.  BTW, Dropo isn't RAID, just raid-like.

[terrycym]

BDP won't know the difference between a RAID and normal USB drives.  ... Fat32, NTFS, EXT3, HFS are all filesystems, RAID is hardware architecture that blends multiple drives together to improve reliability and/or speed, depending on the level.  The filsystem will set on top of the RAID.  BTW, Dropo isn't RAID, just raid-like.

Thanks skunark I knew the bit about it being not RAID, it's their own implementation.
Will it work then?
My understanding is that Drobo itself does the format so I don't know if its FAT or NTFS or what

[skunark]

Well fat32 is limited to 2TB, all you need to do is connect it up to your PC and format it either to fat32 or NTFS using either the drobo software or windows/mac disk utility.  Since NTFS is currently read-only, it's not a good choice if you plan to copy files to the BDP over the network.

I do consider the drobo a bit loud for usage within my house and can't even image having it next to my stereo.  I do have the first or second generation drobo, so not sure how loud the current lineup is.    My drobo now is just used to archive files that don't necessary need to be backed up.  (Raid/Drobo should never be considered as both active storage and a backup solution, select one or the other and keep in mind that they do eventually fail).

I would recommend one or two fanless, bus-powered USB drives over the drobo.  Also watch the current draw on the buspowered drives.  If you collection is large then snag one or two 6TB drives from G-tech or WDC.

[James Tanner]

Well fat32 is limited to 2TB, all you need to do is connect it up to your PC and format it either to fat32 or NTFS using either the drobo software or windows/mac disk utility.  Since NTFS is currently read-only, it's not a good choice if you plan to copy files to the BDP over the network.

I do consider the drobo a bit loud for usage within my house and can't even image having it next to my stereo.  I do have the first or second generation drobo, so not sure how loud the current lineup is.    My drobo now is just used to archive files that don't necessary need to be backed up.  (Raid/Drobo should never be considered as both active storage and a backup solution, select one or the other and keep in mind that they do eventually fail).

I would recommend one or two fanless, bus-powered USB drives over the drobo.  Also watch the current draw on the buspowered drives.  If you collection is large then snag one or two 6TB drives from G-tech or WDC.

Hi 2TB per file correct?  Which is no issue at all with music files.

james

[skunark]

For fat32, file size limit is 4GB

[James Tanner]

For fat32, file size limit is 4GB

Thanks

James

[terrycym]

I do consider the drobo a bit loud for usage within my house and can't even image having it next to my stereo.  I do have the first or second generation drobo, so not sure how loud the current lineup is.    My drobo now is just used to archive files that don't necessary need to be backed up.  (Raid/Drobo should never be considered as both active storage and a backup solution, select one or the other and keep in mind that they do eventually fail).

I would recommend one or two fanless, bus-powered USB drives over the drobo.  Also watch the current draw on the buspowered drives.  If you collection is large then snag one or two 6TB drives from G-tech or WDC.

Thanks for the info concerning Drobo noise. I have a Lacie RAID and that's really loud too.
Don't think I'll bother with RAID then and get another 32GByte memory stick when the 1st fills up. Music is currently backed up to the Lacie and a Samsung USB drive, so I have two copies plus what ever is connected to the BDP-1.
Damn, don't have this problem with CDs & SACDs!!
When that fills up maybe prices of decent size SSDs will have dropped to a reasonable level.

Music is currently backed up to the Lacie and a Samsung USB drive, so I have two copies plus whatever is connected to the BDP-1.
Damn, don't have this problem with CDs & SACDs!!

[James Tanner]

Thanks for the info concerning Drobo noise. I have a Lacie RAID and that's really loud too.
Don't think I'll bother with RAID then and get another 32GByte memory stick when the 1st fills up. Music is currently backed up to the Lacie and a Samsung USB drive, so I have two copies plus what ever is connected to the BDP-1.
Damn, don't have this problem with CDs & SACDs!!
When that fills up maybe prices of decent size SSDs will have dropped to a reasonable level.

Music is currently backed up to the Lacie and a Samsung USB drive, so I have two copies plus whatever is connected to the BDP-1.
Damn, don't have this problem with CDs & SACDs!!

Hi Terry,

Get a 320G or so 2.5 USB Seagate HD - they are dead quiet and store tons of music. Plus we have a new feature in the coming software where a dedicated attached drive will be a plus.

james


james

[terrycym]

Hi Terry,

Get a 320G or so 2.5 USB Seagate HD - they are dead quiet and store tons of music. Plus we have a new feature in the coming software where a dedicated attached drive will be a plus.

james

Sorted then!