USB SSD Power Supply with thru data

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
The likes of Youview boxes won't work with NTFS OR FAT32 formatted drives (unless more up to date boxes are different) but will with FAT16.
Also blank totally unformatted discs "may" work but is less likely, try all options discounting FAT16 or unformatted out of hand could be a mistake.

[Mark Hennessy]

But FAT16 only supports 2GB or thereabouts. For bigger discs, you need FAT32.

FAT16 won't even be offered as an option on a 256GB disc. The only place you might see it today is really small USB memory sticks (I have an ancient 128MB one here that's FAT16 - all my others are several GB, and are mostly FAT32).

[Murphyv310]

Yes I do know this but what I've found is the machine /TV etc then can actually see the drive and formats it to its particular OS. When you ordered a Drive for one of these things according to "disks" on Linux Mint its unallocated.
Of course that might not work on the Pana set under discussion.

[Mark Hennessy]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't understand how you'd format a large drive it with FAT16 in the first instance?

The only way I can think to do it with a large disc would be to create a tiny partition that is small enough to be supported by FAT16, and hope that the machine - if it does now recognise the disc - will re-write the partition table and reformat the partition(s) it creates as necessary. But that all feels a bit incredible to me. Prepared to learn, though

When disc management tools report "unallocated" space, that usually means no partition is present in that space. Obviously a brand new hard drive would have no partition table on it - that has to be done before formatting can take place, but that step is often carried out "invisibly" by the OS installation if you accept the default recommendation - I normally spend a bit of time partitioning up a new disc to have a D and E drive in addition to the default C.

The fussiness I mentioned with my digital sound desk earlier is because of with hardware incompatibilities with certain controller ICs used in USB memory sticks - nothing to do with the file format as such - and these sorts of things are quite common when using propriety firmware rather than an established OS like Windows or Linux. Thinking about it, I've just remembered that my Rigol 'scope can be fussy too, and fails to recognise some sticks (I upgraded the firmware in our fleet at work a few months back, and it took me several goes to find a USB that would play nicely). I've never tried using the USB interfaces on my TV, but I wouldn't be surprised if I ran into similar issues, and that's why I'm suspecting Gary might be having this problem. Of course, some TVs use Linux/Android, so you might expect those to less fussy, perhaps.

[Murphyv310]

Hi Mark.
Sorry for being unclear. Even formatting a few MB after partitioning with FAT16 worked with the full drive then being seen. I've no idea how these recorders work or the data how it's laid down or even the type of format done. Windows would report the drive needed repair then formatting.

[Mark Hennessy]

That is weird, but yes, that was the only way I could imagine it working. I know nothing about YouView boxes, but presumably in the factory they had an automated way of doing this to new drives before fitting them to boxes - what a faff!

As this is not something the majority of consumers would be able to do, it's probably safe to assume that it's not the issue here, but you never know! Certainly, I'd try another drive - but appreciate that not everyone has a collection of drives sitting around.

I've just remembered another thing like this - I bought a Blaupunkt car stereo in about 2008 IIRC that was one of the first to support MP3 playback with a rear-mounted USB socket that was intended to power a 2.5" HDD. But that was also really fussy too. I think I bought 3 different drives, based on reports online that they'd work with this unit, but to no avail. In the end, I took it back to Halfords and got a refund. Shame, but as it was a nice stereo otherwise... As a result, I've a collection of ~80GB USB drives that were quite pricey, and are too small to justify using (given that they are power-hungry spinning rust) - should have returned some/all of them at the time... I did try powering them separately, but again, this was simply another example of hardware incompatibilities - of course, the Blaupunkt was running its own firmware rather than an OS.

In the car now I have a 128GB USB memory stick that is barely larger than the USB plug and cost almost nothing. Amazing how technology goes...

Funny how these things can trigger memories both recent and old

[Murphyv310]

Hi Mark.
I too had a problem with the raspberry Pi4b when they eventually got them configured to run an SSD from the USB ports. The whole operating system could be loaded to the drive and the SD card was then redundant. The issue was the interfaces between the SSD and USB, some worked and others didn't but the ones that didn't would work with a 2.5 inch HDD perfectly. All very annoying and costly, I've four of these leads that don't work here with SSDs and funnily enough some SSDs work, all down to compatibility.

[Radio Fixer]

What a nostalgia trip all this FAT stuff is. Back in the days of DOS pretty much. I used to do all that stuff then. Now its nearly all automatic and easy. Do you remember the early days of recording to CDs and DVDs? Pretty much had to leave the PC to it and not try to do anything else while it was attempting this. Of course it was back when memory RAM was minimal.

This PC with W10 only allows NTFS (default) or exFAT (whatever that is). I have dug out another drive which is of the Hard variety but with a USB 3 ? connection. Today I will try it either direct or thru the powered connection. Will let you know how I get on.

thanks for your interest and trip down memory lane Gary

[Radio Fixer]

No difference with this drive either. TV knows its there, in either format, and will play videos from the PC in NTFS format. Cant read them in exFAT.

This is only with Quick Format as Full looks like it would take days with 500 GB.

Could try it though ... go for a long walk, lovely day here.

Gary

[Mark Hennessy]

Gary, what's the model number of the TV?