Arch Linux

DePingus

Member

From: Miami, Fl

Registered: 2008-09-07

Posts: 44

[SOLVED] drive_type() removable vs basic

Hello there!
Back again with another off the wall question for the bestest, brightest, braniacs on the internet...

Is there any way to designate an external drive_type() as "removable" instead of "basic" while formatting or making the file system? Or is that set in the hardware?

Why...
I'm trying to hook up an external USB HDD to my Xbox360. My current enclosure doesn't work. I THINK it's because (when I connect my external HDD encolsure to Windows XP) its detected as a "basic" drive (just like my internal drives). On the other hand, when I connect a USB flash drive (which works ok in my 360) its detected as "removable". Something inside the 360 doesn't let "basic" drives show up.

So how can I turn this "basic" drive into a "removable" one?

Extra info...
I fdisk'd and mkdosfs'd the external USB HDD on my archlinux laptop because its 120gb; XP limits FAT32 drives sizes.

Thanks for the info!   

Last edited by DePingus (2008-09-25 19:52:12)

Onwards

Member

From: Pakistan

Registered: 2007-04-18

Posts: 108

Re: [SOLVED] drive_type() removable vs basic

mke2fs, for example, is a tool that formats your partition as ext2/ext3, doesn't have any option to setup your storage media as basic or removable. In Linux, IMHO, we call something that could be hotplugged as removable media. It's something that's decided by your OS (specifically ur kernel). This thing couldn't be done even by passing any arguments to the kernel-module that handles your USB HDD.

P.S. In my opinion, you can't make ur HDD look like 'removable' in WinXP by formatting it a certain way.

Last edited by Onwards (2008-09-18 06:31:49)

DePingus

Member

From: Miami, Fl

Registered: 2008-09-07

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED] drive_type() removable vs basic

Dang! Thats what I suspected...
Thanks for the info. Looks like its back to the drawing board for me.

DePingus

Member

From: Miami, Fl

Registered: 2008-09-07

Posts: 44

Re: [SOLVED] drive_type() removable vs basic

Long overdue update...
Turns out I was way off base. For some reason my Xbox360 didn't like the FAT32 format job I did to the external drive using Arch and mkdosfs. I found a free, little command line utility for Windows called h2format (google it) that formatted it FAT32 from Windows and now my 360 plays nice. Strange that it didn't the first time.

As an added informational bonus...
I also tried using Macdrive for Windows to format the drive as HFS+ and that worked on my 360 too. But having to have Macdrive installed on the Windows box to use the drive there kinda sucked.

Solution:
In Windows
delete current partition(s)
create a new partition using all the space
choose to leave it unformatted when asked by the wizard
drop to command line and
h2format it!

Now I can watch divx/xvid on my 360! I wish I could find a drive that has both network access and a USB interface. I would leave it connected via USB to my 360 permanently and manage the files via the network!