USB file system

[ozgurcnbyz]

Hi,
I am having hardtime figuring out the optimal filesystem i should use in my usb drive which is attached to my rt-ac66u. I thought maybe u guys could recommend something.
I only have mac computers at home as well as ios devices including an apple tv. What i would like to achieve is that i should be able to read/write data to the usb drive using my macbook and be able to stream the content from the drive on roku or other devices. How should i format the usb drive ?

Thanks

 

[josh.zyman]

I have an ASUS RT-AC68U and I formatted the HDD as EXT4.
My Samsung TV is able to play all my media from the attached HDD and SAMBA let's me use the attached HDD in my windows network without any problems (read, write and even map drives to Windows). I also have a laptop with LinuxMint and I can browse the network and use the attached HDD without problems. I don't know if samba can help you with your mac, but you can give it a try.

I recommend you check that you use the latest firmware and format the hdd as EXT4. Put some dummy media files on it an try it like that for a day or two. If it works, leave it as EXT4. If not, go to EXT3.

Be sure you try it with all the services you need (NFS, samba, ftp, minidlna, itunes server)

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

thanks alot but i also would like to attach the usb to my mac directly and move some files there. even if samba worked it'd take alot of time.

 

[josh.zyman]

thanks alot but i also would like to attach the usb to my mac directly and move some files there. even if samba worked it'd take alot of time.

I don't see the porpoise of doing that. If speed is a problem, it's easier to use a network cable to transfer some big files. If you are downloading stuff from torrents, instead of using your mac to download and then transfer to router's hdd, use transmission for optware/entware on your router.

As I know, the router supports EXT file systems and NTFS. It does not support ExFAT or HFS+.

If you are thinking in using NTFS with optware/entware, you should know that they are not very compatible and you will face many problems.

And SAMBA does work with MACs.

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

allright. samba it is then. thanks for your help

 

[josh.zyman]

allright. samba it is then. thanks for your help

Samba with EXT4 file system for the best compatibility and performance. If EXT4 is not available for your router, go for EXT3.

Good luck!

 

[ozgurcnbyz]

thanks but dont think ext4 is supported. i remember reading a thread about it here on the forums.

 

[josh.zyman]

thanks but dont think ext4 is supported. i remember reading a thread about it here on the forums.

It's safer to try than to trust the rumours. Just format an USB stick on EXT4 and see if the router mounts it correctly. It might take... 10 minutes?

 

[L&LD]

Ext4 is only supported on RT-AC56U and RT-AC68U models.

Ext3 is recommended for the RT-AC66U.

 

[DrTeeth]

Ext4 is only supported on RT-AC56U and RT-AC68U models. Ext3 is recommended for the RT-AC66U.

PMFJI, but what file systems are supported on the N66U?

TIA,

DrT

 

[r00t4rd3d]

PMFJI, but what file systems are supported on the N66U?

You should be using Ext3 with your N66U.

 

[Noremacyug]

don't be expecting fast transfer speeds though. if you have big files and time is of the essence then transferring over the network will leave you wanting. at least it did in my experience.

 

[josh.zyman]

PMFJI, but what file systems are supported on the N66U?

TIA,

DrT

It's not that difficult to test and the options are not that many.
Partition an unused external HDD or flash memory and format each partition with a different system and check which is correctly mounted.

 

[DrTeeth]

It's not that difficult to test and the options are not that many.

Nothing like giving a helpful answer eh? I can format to 15 file systems here if I wished and do not feel like checking them all. That is why I hoped that somebody could be more helpful by telling me more. There is no point in re-inventing the wheel.

 

[RMerlin]

PMFJI, but what file systems are supported on the N66U?

TIA,

DrT

The MIPS routers support ext2,ext3,FAT32 and NTFS.
The ARM routers (AC56 and AC68) additionally support HFS+ and ext4.

In general:

ext4 is best for HDD (or ext3 if your router does not support it )
ext2 is best for USB flash drives (the journalling from ext3/ext4 would slow down performance on a flash drive)
NTFS is best if you really need to be able to unplug the HDD and plug it back to a Windows box
HFS+ is probably only really good if you use Time Machine, or if you need to be able to plug the HDD back to a Mac

 

[bugmenotplz]

Hi guys, maybe you can help here, I formatted my WD 2TB from NTFS to ext4, since with ntfs the drive was visible/accesible for about one week, and after it just disappear from the asus gui and could not be accessible with \\192.168.1.1 from win. Now the drive is attached back to the router (AC68U) but I cannot copy anything on it (the paste command from the menu is gray) like the win8 is not recognising the drive as writable.

Thank you for advice.

 

[DrTeeth]

<snip>
ext4 is best for HDD (or ext3 if your router does not support it )
ext2 is best for USB flash drives (the journalling from ext3/ext4 would slow down performance on a flash drive)
NTFS is best if you really need to be able to unplug the HDD and plug it back to a Windows box

Excellent, many thanks. I have come across Windows drivers that give access to ext2 etc systems and will test between NTFS and ext2 for any differences in performance.

Regards

DrT

 

[RMerlin]

Excellent, many thanks. I have come across Windows drivers that give access to ext2 etc systems and will test between NTFS and ext2 for any differences in performance.

Regards

DrT

I recently played with Paragon's free ext driver for Windows. Seemed to work decently well, aside from Windows' own limitation (inability to manipulate Linux permissions, for instance).

 

[RMerlin]

Hi guys, maybe you can help here, I formatted my WD 2TB from NTFS to ext4, since with ntfs the drive was visible/accesible for about one week, and after it just disappear from the asus gui and could not be accessible with \\192.168.1.1 from win. Now the drive is attached back to the router (AC68U) but I cannot copy anything on it (the paste command from the menu is gray) like the win8 is not recognising the drive as writable.

Thank you for advice.

Make sure the file permissions on that disk are set to be writable to the world. Something like this, while inside the root directory (through SSH, or with the disk plugged to a Linux machine):

chmod -R 777 .