FAT12 ,FAT16 ,FAT32 OR NTFS ?

vugtitan · 09-05-2010, 09:47 AM

Anyone know what file system the kindle 3 uses?

Even though it is linux ,is it fat32 or ntfs?

also can you reformat it from ntfs to fat 32?

Aa FAT32 is three times faster then NTFS it could be used to speed up the kindle?

can reformatting the kindle be used to solve freezes and crashes?

will reformatting wipe out the os?

jgaiser · 09-05-2010, 09:57 AM

My Kindle DX is Fat32. I expect the Kindle 3 is the same.

I wouldn't recommend trying a reformat. You'll end up with a thin little brick.

Tiersten · 09-05-2010, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vugtitan

Anyone know what file system the kindle 3 uses?

Even though it is linux ,is it fat32 or ntfs?

It is FAT32 for maximum compatibility as NTFS isn't as widely supported as FAT32. OSX only recently got NTFS write support.

Attempting to reformat it as anything else would be a bad idea. The Kindle doesn't appear to have the NTFS kernel modules in the firmware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vugtitan

can reformatting the kindle be used to solve freezes and crashes?

Some people have reported success in doing a factory reset but that may just be coincidence. There isn't very much on the storage partition anyway. \System contains a handful of configuration files and the index files for your books.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vugtitan

will reformatting wipe out the os?

No. The Kindle firmware is kept on the same flash chip but it isn't part of the accessible drive. The Kindle only exposes the storage partition and you can't access the firmware partition.

jgumphress · 09-05-2010, 04:29 PM

My Kindle DX is FAT32.

yifanlu · 09-05-2010, 09:09 PM

Root partition (can't access without usbnetwork) is ext3
Media partition (the one you put books on) is FAT(32?).

paperwastage · 09-05-2010, 11:36 PM

looks like the ntfs-3g kernel on linux doesn't have the best performance...

if you use ext3/4 for the media partition, then it might be hard to do usb plug+play on a windows machine, since windows doesn't come with a ext3/4 driver; you have to have some kind of hardware decoding/encoding for ext3/4

so fat32 is left

Tiersten · 09-05-2010, 11:51 PM

FAT really is the only widely supported filesystem that is certain to be supported by any recent OS. NTFS is out due to the poor support on anything not Windows based. HFS only works on OSX. Nobody appears to actually use EXFAT and that has even worse support than NTFS. Ext3/4 and the other Linux filesystems are only decently supported on Linux. You can get third party modules which allow access to these various filesystems on a non native OS but that is an extra layer of complexity which just isn't warranted.

The only alternative is to do what Apple do on their iOS based devices and not use USB MSC to present it as a drive. Apple run a service on the device which lets you send/receive files from the internal media partition which is actually in HFS format. The downside is that you have to use a special application i.e. iTunes to manage it.

For the Kindle to allow the computer to access the media partition, it has to unmount it itself which is why the Kindle goes into the special USB drive charging only mode. Having the Kindle and your computer both access the media partition at same time would cause issues as FAT was never designed to have more than filesystem driver accessing it.

09-05-2010, 09:47 AM	#1
vugtitan Addict Posts: 299 Karma: 1042776 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: none	FAT12 ,FAT16 ,FAT32 OR NTFS ? Anyone know what file system the kindle 3 uses? Even though it is linux ,is it fat32 or ntfs? also can you reformat it from ntfs to fat 32? Aa FAT32 is three times faster then NTFS it could be used to speed up the kindle? can reformatting the kindle be used to solve freezes and crashes? will reformatting wipe out the os? Last edited by vugtitan; 09-05-2010 at 09:52 AM.

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09-05-2010, 09:57 AM	#2
jgaiser Omnivorous Posts: 3,281 Karma: 27978909 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Rural NW Oregon Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1	My Kindle DX is Fat32. I expect the Kindle 3 is the same. I wouldn't recommend trying a reformat. You'll end up with a thin little brick.

09-05-2010, 04:29 PM	#4
jgumphress Connoisseur Posts: 59 Karma: 948 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Arlington, TX Device: Kindle Paperwhite	My Kindle DX is FAT32.

09-05-2010, 09:09 PM	#5
yifanlu Kindle Dissector Posts: 662 Karma: 475607 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Amazon Kindle 3	Root partition (can't access without usbnetwork) is ext3 Media partition (the one you put books on) is FAT(32?).

09-05-2010, 11:36 PM	#6
paperwastage Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 1310 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: kindle DX Graphite	looks like the ntfs-3g kernel on linux doesn't have the best performance... if you use ext3/4 for the media partition, then it might be hard to do usb plug+play on a windows machine, since windows doesn't come with a ext3/4 driver; you have to have some kind of hardware decoding/encoding for ext3/4 so fat32 is left

09-05-2010, 11:51 PM	#7
Tiersten Guru Posts: 987 Karma: 8641 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3G+WiFi	FAT really is the only widely supported filesystem that is certain to be supported by any recent OS. NTFS is out due to the poor support on anything not Windows based. HFS only works on OSX. Nobody appears to actually use EXFAT and that has even worse support than NTFS. Ext3/4 and the other Linux filesystems are only decently supported on Linux. You can get third party modules which allow access to these various filesystems on a non native OS but that is an extra layer of complexity which just isn't warranted. The only alternative is to do what Apple do on their iOS based devices and not use USB MSC to present it as a drive. Apple run a service on the device which lets you send/receive files from the internal media partition which is actually in HFS format. The downside is that you have to use a special application i.e. iTunes to manage it. For the Kindle to allow the computer to access the media partition, it has to unmount it itself which is why the Kindle goes into the special USB drive charging only mode. Having the Kindle and your computer both access the media partition at same time would cause issues as FAT was never designed to have more than filesystem driver accessing it.