Formatting external USB drive on AC68U

[GeneJockey]

Sorry if this better belongs on another forum (NAS?).

Just bought an AC68U and want to add an external USB 3.0 hard drive to the router.

What format type should I use to initialize the drive? It will be used mainly for multimedia storage and streaming. I am running Windows 8.1 but I recognize that the router is more akin to a Linux box. What is the best HDD format to use?

Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

The best would be ext3/ext4, but that would require the use of a Linux boot CD to format it.

You can use NTFS, it should mostly be fine as well.

 

[GeneJockey]

Thanks.

And if I did format with, say, ext4, would that limit in any way my ability to share or otherwise manipulate files residing on the drive in my otherwise 100% windows environment? Sorry I am just not familiar with other than FAT and NTFS.

 

[chris2kari]

Thanks.

And if I did format with, say, ext4, would that limit in any way my ability to share or otherwise manipulate files residing on the drive in my otherwise 100% windows environment? Sorry I am just not familiar with other than FAT and NTFS.

Short Answer : No.

Long Answer : Since your router is running an embedded Linux OS using a natively supported file system on any directly attached USB device would be more efficient & least problems for the router itself. Your network users just see the files on the shared storage as they would if they were on their own Windows PC. This is fine for general use. Be aware that different Operating Systems have different conventions/limitations for file naming. If you are using long complicated file names you could trip over snags. Keep it simple, you will be fine.

Cheers
C2k