» Contact HP


hp.com home


Understanding file systems for formatting hard disks

 

How do I?

Expand all | Collapse all
 
» Product specifications  
» Regulatory statements
» Software license agreement
» Warranty
Print this page
Content starts here

Reiser

The HP Media Vault comes with a primary hard disk called SYSTEM. The SYSTEM disk is formatted into a proprietary Linux file system (a modified form of ReiserFS).

Formatting a second internal hard disk into the proprietary Linux file system gives you the best read/write performance. However, a Linux-formatted hard disk on the media vault cannot be disconnected and used in a different computer—even a Linux computer. You can only read and write data to the media vault’s hard drive when its connected to the media vault. 

FAT32

The FAT32 file system allows you to read and write to the hard disk. Microsoft used this file system for Windows versions 95, 98, 98SE and ME.  Files on FAT32 disks cannot be larger than 4 GB. If you format a media vault hard disk in FAT32, you can disconnect the disk and use it on Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers. However, you cannot store files larger than 4GB on FAT32 file systems.

NTFS

You cannot format a media vault hard disk in the New Technology File System (NTFS) format. Microsoft replaced the FAT32 file system with NTFS for Windows NT, 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. If you import a hard drive formatted in NTFS to the media vault, you will only be able to read content from the disk, not write to it.

» Back to top
Feedback about this guide