hard drives 3 and 4tb

[muffin1962]

hi i bought 2 wd drives 1 at 3tb and 1 at 4tb to put some movies on they have both been formatted to fat32 useing this program

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

the movies have been encoded to mp4 useing ImTOO DVD Ripper Ultimate and wondershare Video Converter Ultimate when it worked , when i play the movies on the tv from 4tb drive some will work and other will say file not supported , but if i play the same movies from the 3tb drive the ones that did not work on the 4tb drive would work but other ones on the 3tb drive would not in which i dont understand why ? i am so confused , if i put movies on the 3tb drive they dont show up through the tv media player allthough ll movies have been done the same way , our the hard drives to big? or am i doing some thing wrong ? which is the best way to format these size of hard drive to fat32 into 1 partition thanks for your advice

 

[TVeblen]

Fat32??? No - no - no. That is an ancient file system. Horrible for video.

Use Windows 7 to format the drives NTFS. (Backup your data first)
Or you could try a conversion:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11106-convert-fat-fat32-volume-ntfs.html

For video, particularly using the newer larger hard drives I would also use the Advanced Format (4k sectors). Much better for large video files.
Advanced Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/advanced-format-4k-sector-hard-drives-master-ti/

Hope that helps.

 

[muffin1962]

many thanks for your reply this is the tv we have got

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/panasonic-viera-tx-l37e5b-full-hd-37-led-tv-12311762-pdt.html

we did try and format the drives to ntfs and when we attached the drive to the tv it came up with no device found
this is why we formatted the drive to fat32

 

[TVeblen]

Ah - missing information.

You are connecting external hard drives directly to the TV. Correct?

Yes, the TV may only be able to recognize Fat32 devices, like USB thumb drives. It is unusual to be connecting external hard drives directly to the TV. And with very large drives, over 2.2TB, you will have problems with Fat32.

Most people connect the TV to the LAN (Home network) and then either use a Network storage device (this could be the external hard drive if it has network connections - or a network enclosure - NAS), or HDDs that are installed in a network connected PC(s), or a networked Media Player.

You should describe your setup (all equipment) and what you are trying to do.
It might also be a good idea to ask a question in the Media Center forum here. "What is the best way to use new external 4TB hard drive with DLNA TV?"

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply with the 3tb drive the movies are categorised eg: action , horror etc and yet some work and some dont , when i try and do the same with the 4tb drive it says no valid media is found but if i dont put the movies into categorised sections they work fine which is weird would this issue be down to the size of drive as well if it is i will need alot of drives as we have around 4.000 movies

 

[TVeblen]

You might have some success by creating partitions on the hard disks, with partition sizes no larger than 2TB. You could format each partition Fat32.

But as I said earlier - FAT32 is not a good file system to use for such large files, and particularly for movies. That could be the reason they don't play.
You really should look into a better way to do this job than connecting direct to the TV.

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply the file size of each movie is between 500 mb and 1.6 gb 95% of the movies do work 100% but not all movies shown up on the hard drive allthough they are there in windows explorer

 

[TVeblen]

Is there a question in there muffin1962?

Plus, I can't really comment any further until you answer some of my questions.

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply would this help my problem

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
For 3 and 4TB drives you need to CONVERT them to GPT (not MBR) drives if you want to use the full size partitions. (You could SPLIT the drives into smaller partitions but that IMO goes against the whole purpose of larger drives for multi media folders etc).

Max size of an MBR partition is around 2 - 2.2 TB. If you format them as old MBR drives (classical method) you won't be able to use the whole drives.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/4127-73-convert

(Method shown is for W8 but is the same for W7).

BTW you can create very large partitions by SPANNING disks -- create DYNAMIC volume from Disk management and then click against the disks you want to be "Spanned".

Windows will then treat those multiple volumes as "SINGLE disks" -- useful if you have several small drives but want to create say a 6TB multi media folder -- a lot of the music / video cataloguing type stuff only works normally with a folder up to the available space on the disk -- using spanning gets round this restriction -- but if you DO use spanning adjust you backup strategy to backup by FOLDERS as windows controls where the data is physically located on the spanned volume set.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TVeblen]

thank you for your reply would this help my problem

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

A Western Digital Live media player would be one piece to the puzzle. It would work provided you set up your system to use it. I use a WD Live in my entertainment system.

The WD Live works by accessing your media over your home network (LAN), it can connect to your router wirelessly, but for video files it is better to use a wired Ethernet connection. But it will work either way.

Once connected to the network the WD Live will be able to access and play any file on any device that is also connected to the network. This includes PCs, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and any hard drives connected to the router (some routers, but not all, have USB ports). The WD Live has USB ports also. This is why I asked if these hard drives are external drives.

None of this changes any of the advice given to you regarding the hard drive formatting. Jimbo45 has given some excellent options also. Formatting the drives GPT is an excellent choice. That will give you the Advanced Format which is best for video files.

Whether the WD LIve will recognize a GPT disk if it were plugged into it's USB port is not known to me. That piece of the puzzle will require some research (if that is what you want to do).

But if the GPT external drives are plugged into a PC that is on the same network as the WD Live then it will work fine.

 

[muffin1962]

Hi there
For 3 and 4TB drives you need to CONVERT them to GPT (not MBR) drives if you want to use the full size partitions. (You could SPLIT the drives into smaller partitions but that IMO goes against the whole purpose of larger drives for multi media folders etc).

Max size of an MBR partition is around 2 - 2.2 TB. If you format them as old MBR drives (classical method) you won't be able to use the whole drives.

Convert GPT to MBR - Windows 8 - Windows 8

(Method shown is for W8 but is the same for W7).

BTW you can create very large partitions by SPANNING disks -- create DYNAMIC volume from Disk management and then click against the disks you want to be "Spanned".

Windows will then treat those multiple volumes as "SINGLE disks" -- useful if you have several small drives but want to create say a 6TB multi media folder -- a lot of the music / video cataloguing type stuff only works normally with a folder up to the available space on the disk -- using spanning gets round this restriction -- but if you DO use spanning adjust you backup strategy to backup by FOLDERS as windows controls where the data is physically located on the spanned volume set.

Cheers
jimbo

thank you for your reply i have no idea how to do any of this what you have advised our there any tuts about for me to check out thanks

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply would this help my problem

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

A Western Digital Live media player would be one piece to the puzzle. It would work provided you set up your system to use it. I use a WD Live in my entertainment system.

The WD Live works by accessing your media over your home network (LAN), it can connect to your router wirelessly, but for video files it is better to use a wired Ethernet connection. But it will work either way.

Once connected to the network the WD Live will be able to access and play any file on any device that is also connected to the network. This includes PCs, Network Attached Storage (NAS), and any hard drives connected to the router (some routers, but not all, have USB ports). The WD Live has USB ports also. This is why I asked if these hard drives are external drives.

None of this changes any of the advice given to you regarding the hard drive formatting. Jimbo45 has given some excellent options also. Formatting the drives GPT is an excellent choice. That will give you the Advanced Format which is best for video files.

Whether the WD LIve will recognize a GPT disk if it were plugged into it's USB port is not known to me. That piece of the puzzle will require some research (if that is what you want to do).

But if the GPT external drives are plugged into a PC that is on the same network as the WD Live then it will work fine.

thank you for your reply the hard drives are external and not with network , as for gpt etc i dont really know what this is or about what jimbo has advised thanks

 

[TVeblen]

That's understandable. Let's try and walk through it one thing at a time.

Please answer these questions:

1. Do you have a Router?
2. Do you have a separate router and modem? (Or is it a combo router/modem)
3. Do you connect to the internet wirelessly, or through a network cable?
4. How many computers and other devices do you have connected through the router?
5. Does your TV stand alone, or is it connected to a Home Theater Receiver and speakers?
6. Does your TV and/or Receiver have a wired or wireless network connection?

 

[muffin1962]

That's understandable. Let's try and walk through it one thing at a time.

Please answer these questions:

1. Do you have a Router?
2. Do you have a separate router and modem? (Or is it a combo router/modem)
3. Do you connect to the internet wirelessly, or through a network cable?
4. How many computers and other devices do you have connected through the router?
5. Does your TV stand alone, or is it connected to a Home Theater Receiver and speakers?
6. Does your TV and/or Receiver have a wired or wireless network connection?

thank you for your reply and trying to help me i will try and answer your questions
1. we have a router , orange brightbox
3. we connect to the internet by network cable , but can go wireless through laptop
4. we have 2 computers through the router , but we have a laptop and will console that are used wireless
5. the tv is stand alone
6. the tv has a wireless connection
7. broad band speed is around 3 to 4 mbs is this fast enough for Western Digital Live media player

thanks

 

[TVeblen]

Thanks for the info! I've got a good picture now.

So here is what you could do immediately to start:

Backup your data that is on the external hard drives - it will probably all be deleted in the transition.
Then, Format the large drives GPT and NTFS (see instructions below)
Connect the drives to one of the wired PCs.
Copy back your data.
Now, see if you can access the files through the TVs DLNA feature (Viera Tools). Check the Viera manual for instructions on how to set this up.
See if that works for you.

Or
You can use the WD TV Live. It's a bit easier to set up than DLNA, but it is an extra piece of equipment you have to buy.
You will still use the same setup as above, the WD TV Live will connect wirelessly (once you set it up) to the files and folders you tell it to. You just direct it to the external drives on the network.

A wireless G router (54 Mbits per second) may be too slow for video. A wireless N router (300 Mbits per second or faster) will do fine, I think. You will need to test to see.

To change the external drives from MBR drives with FAT32 - to GPT drives with NTFS lets try this first:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26193-convert-mbr-disk-gpt-disk.html
Let's see if that works first. If you have problems, post back. We might have to try something more complicated. (Or easier - your choice)

Don't do anything with your drives until you have backed up your files!

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply and all your help , what we done was to buy a WD TV Live we set this box up , plug in the hard drive with all movies on all though the drive is formatted to fat32 it worked it even saw the movies that did not work before, but we do have some problem with the WD TV Live box , we cannot seem to find where to change the time and there seems to be a update for the firnware should we update the WD TV Live box thank you

 

[TVeblen]

Yes, keep the firmware up to date. It takes about 20 minutes. Do not do anything else while this is going on, especially when the screen goes black.

I've found the WD TV Live to be sometimes quirky in setup and functions, but amazing in playing just about anything you throw at it. Glad to hear it is working out for you and your system.

You normally set the time in the "First Time Setup" process, but you can also do it in the Settings (Setup?) Section, > System > Time & Country.

 

[muffin1962]

thank you for your reply would it still be advisable to change the drive to gpt ntfs as it is working now thanks

 

[TVeblen]

I always say "it ain't broke, don't fix it"!

If you find you are having a problem then just post back here. This thread will revive anytime down the line. Be glad to help!