Fat32 & NTFS

[Randy Reyes]

Hello everyone!! I was watching a demo of the firestore at its website:

http://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/videos/FSbig.wmv

At around 3:35 the spokesperson says that it records onto "standard fat32 volumes." Using fat32 volumes are no problem for me, BUT, if I'm using NTFC formatted harddrives on my PC will I have a compatiblilty issue? Will I still be able to copy the footage onto my cpu?

Also, has anyone found good price with quality service & product for this item yet? Thanks for all your help. :]

ps: how can I make my links clickable??

[Rush Hamden]

Hello, my name is Rush with EVS. We are a qualified DVinfo.net sponsor, and dealers for Focus Enhancements. I went ahead and viewed the video link that you posted, but could not answer your question. So I called Focus, and based on their reply, the FS-1 is fully qualified for WIN2000/XP, which is an NTFS based system. Media drives can be NTFS or FAT32, and PC WIN2000 will read and write both. From past experience, I can let you know that I have had FAT32 drives brought to me as media drives, and that did not affect my ability to import footage from them. On your NTFS machine, you can format media drives as FAT32 so that you can have mutiple operating systems on the same PC. So, according to Focus, you have the green-light.

[Randy Reyes]

Thanks a lot for the reply! Really, really appreciate it. That will definitely push me forward to investing in a firestore drive. Now all I need to do is find a dealer with a good price & quality service!! :]

[Matt McEwen]

Sorry for the late reply. Rush from EVS is quite correct. While all FireStore models require a FAT32 FireWire disk drive, these can be mounted to Win98SE/ME/2000/XP or Mac OS9/10 systems as external FireWire volumes regardless of the format of your local machine's hard drives. The nice thing of course with FireStore is that it is not always necessary to transfer clips to your NLE system for use. It is possible to simply stream the content directly from the FireWire drive you recorded the clips on to the NLE's timeline. Of course, if you want to copy the files over to media volumes, that is possible as well.

Also of note, all FireStore models now have the ability to create a FAT32 format on any FireWire drive - regardless of what format is on it. For instance, if I have a FireWire drive with no format or a HFS+ format (Mac), it is possible to make a FAT32 volume using FireStore.

Hope that helps

Matt McEwen
Product Manager
Focus Enhancements

[Nathan Gifford]

Even if you are use FAT32 you can copy between NTFS and FAT disks. Remember that your floppy drive is a FAT device and you can copy files back and forth with no problem.

[Chris Trainor]

I am using XP, with a FS1 and xls1, and a lacie 80g firewire drive.

When I plug the FS1 and the drive together, it says NO DRIVE.

It is currently in NTFS file structure, and according to the above posts, I need to convert it.

However, in XP, it will only allow me to format it again to NTFS.

Is there a work around, or an obvious solution I am missing?

Thanks.

[Andrew Petrie]

You should have no problem formatting back to FAT32 through XP. when you go to the Format utility, is there not a drop-down box labelled 'File system', which has both NTFS and FAT32 listed?

[Chris Trainor]

<<<-- Originally posted by Andrew Petrie : You should have no problem formatting back to FAT32 through XP. when you go to the Format utility, is there not a drop-down box labelled 'File system', which has both NTFS and FAT32 listed? -->>>


no, there isnt. only ntfs.

however, i installed a partion app, that will allow me to do it. appears xp cannot do it on its own.

so i split the 80 gig in half, one ntfs and one fat 32, and my firestore still doesnt see the drive.

does the entire drive need to be fat32, or will FS1 work with multiple partions?

[Rob Lohman]

FAT32 will not appear for very large drives (if I remember correctly
the mark is around 137 GB) during formatting. I also seem to
remember that they removed the FAT32 option above a certain
other size to encourage people to switch to NTFS. You should still
be able to format the drive under a DOS box in FAT32 (after you
return it to one partition). The correct call would be:

FORMAT X: /FS:FAT32

Where X: is the drive letter for your partition (check disk
management tool which is inside the computer management
option under administrative tools. The disk management tool
can be found under the heading storage in computer
management. Make SURE you have the correct drive letter)

I doubt the FS will work with multiple partitions. I can imagine it
will only work with the first partition and this one must be FAT32.
But that's just a guess.

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Chris,

I would recommend that you contact the Focus support line at support@focusinfo.com or call 408-370-9963. They should be able to help you out with this.

Matt