NOOB Question - NTFS Drives

[David Reynolds]

Hi, Sorry if this question has been covered many times before but i have tried searching for the answer and i am still unsure.

I have just bought a D-Link 323. I have 2x 2tb drives currently formatted in NTFS.  They are both over 3/4 full with data.  If i flash the firmware with Alt-F will i just be able to plug these drives in and be up and running or will they still need reformatting?

Just trying to avoid finding a drive to back them up to and then then transferring back again.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

David

[Filip Goc]

I am no expert, but I don't think you can run NTFS formatted drives in this NAS since it's Linux based (filesystem ext... for one).

I would be very very surprised if that was possible. 

Beware, without some to me unknown voodoo, the installation procedure will reformat your drives, with your permission, and delete all the data. 

There is a package that allows NTFS read and write, but I think it's limited to connecting external NTFS drives to the NAS and copy/write files to them. 

Good luck. 

[João Cardoso]

On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 8:45:36 AM UTC, Filip Goc wrote:

I am no expert, but I don't think you can run NTFS formatted drives in this NAS since it's Linux based (filesystem ext... for one).

I would be very very surprised if that was possible. 

Beware, without some to me unknown voodoo, the installation procedure will reformat your drives, with your permission, and delete all the data. 

There is a package that allows NTFS read and write, but I think it's limited to connecting external NTFS drives to the NAS and copy/write files to them. 

Actually NTFS read and write is built in the base firmware, and NTFS filesystems will be mounted and used whenever they will be found, either internally or through USB.

The ntfs-3g-ntfsprogs package allows in addition NTFS creation and maintenance.

The issue with NTFS is that, as you pointed out, it is alien to linux, and there will probably be issues with file permissions and ownership.

Everything should be OK if those filesystems are merely used to serve files, as Alt-F does not runs from disk but from flash memory, using a linux filesystem, but I think that you will have issues if installing Alt-F packages on them.

[David Reynolds]

Many thanks all for your help.  I have decided to borrow my friends external drive which is big enough to back up all my files, so i will proceed with formatting and then loading back on all my files.

This external drive is formatted in FAT32 (He uses it for his PS3), would i be able to plug this directly into the NAS via the USB? Or would i have transfer these files over via the network?

Sorry for these probably stupid questions. The NAS has yet to be delivered, so i have not had a chance to play with it yet (been bought second hand).  It is mainly going to be used as a media drive, is there anything i should do or be aware off.  As said previously i am new too all of this.  The drives that i have going into it are both identical.

[João Cardoso]

On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 7:20:42 PM UTC, David Reynolds wrote:

Many thanks all for your help.  I have decided to borrow my friends external drive which is big enough to back up all my files, so i will proceed with formatting and then loading back on all my files.

This external drive is formatted in FAT32 (He uses it for his PS3), would i be able to plug this directly into the NAS via the USB?

Yes.

Beaware that FAT32 has file size limits, 4GB theoretical, but some implementations can make it 2GB.

Don't know what the linux kernel under Alt-F will do in that case, but I'm confident that should be no problems.