DR800 alternative filesystems

bran · 09-24-2010, 01:41 PM

Hi All,

I've bought a new microsd and formatted it with ext2 filesystem instead of vfat. I copied the contents from the original card to the ext2 card on my linux box and inserted that into my DR800S.

It works. My DR800S seems more responsive and the reindexing is definately faster. Can anyone else confirm?

This will not be helpful to windows users as that OS neither supports ext2. I have managed a test on a windows device since, and contrary to my speculation in a thread in de iRex dev forum the disk exports it's native format. The disk my DR800S with ext2fs emulates is recognized as a disk but the partition is not.

Regards Bran

dima_tr · 09-24-2010, 03:17 PM

Nice work

Quote:

Originally Posted by bran

This will not be helpful to windows users as that OS neither supports ext2.

Not really true. Take a look at http://www.fs-driver.org/ , I remember I've tried it once - works just fine.

bran · 09-24-2010, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dima_tr

Nice work

Not really true. Take a look at http://www.fs-driver.org/ , I remember I've tried it once - works just fine.

I realized that almost as I posted. I know there are ext2 tools for windows but, I'm not going to try them. I only have sporadic access to windows machines (Yes, I do have an Windows7 box running in virtualbox but I never mount my DR800 in that and, I do not want to spend the time getting that to work with ext2 via usb.) In that sense if you do not know how to use the ext2 tools as a windows user, you are stuck with the vfat implementation.

OTOH, if you managed to format a microsd with ext2 using windows you probably have the expertise to mount the resulting sd card.

My concern regarding that was more aimed at people who use calibre to connect to their DR800 rather than mount tools. The calibre implementaion I use on my linux box has no problem mounting as the ext2 fs. It is natively supported after all. I have no idea how calibre reacts on windows with an ext2 formatted microsd card, I imagine that out of the box the answer is, not well.

Regards Bran

dima_tr · 09-28-2010, 05:29 PM

http://www.ext2fsd.com/ has everything for a Windows user. Works fine on my Windows 7 laptop.

1. Use the installer to have the driver. Alternatively get .zip archive and do a manual installation (install xp or install w64). Run as Administrator on Vista/7 !
2. Start ext2fs Manager, this will load the driver. It may happen you need to open Options and uncheck "mount as read-only".
3. connect DR 800 to Windows, you'll see SD card as say disk Y:
4. *backup *all* SD content*
5. start cmd.exe, browse to installed ext2fs files (Program Files/??? or your manual installation folder in case of using .zip archive)
6. to format Y: as ext2 do............... Mke2fs -b 4096 -L DR800 Y:
7. once done you can copy the books to SD as it is accessible with ext2fs driver.

09-24-2010, 01:41 PM	#1
bran Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: IREX DR800S	alternative filesystems Hi All, I've bought a new microsd and formatted it with ext2 filesystem instead of vfat. I copied the contents from the original card to the ext2 card on my linux box and inserted that into my DR800S. It works. My DR800S seems more responsive and the reindexing is definately faster. Can anyone else confirm? This will not be helpful to windows users as that OS neither supports ext2. I have managed a test on a windows device since, and contrary to my speculation in a thread in de iRex dev forum the disk exports it's native format. The disk my DR800S with ext2fs emulates is recognized as a disk but the partition is not. Regards Bran Last edited by bran; 09-24-2010 at 01:57 PM.

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09-28-2010, 05:29 PM	#4
dima_tr Groupie Posts: 175 Karma: 863 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Germany, Karlsruhe Device: Iliad v2, DR800S (inlove)	http://www.ext2fsd.com/ has everything for a Windows user. Works fine on my Windows 7 laptop. 1. Use the installer to have the driver. Alternatively get .zip archive and do a manual installation (install xp or install w64). Run as Administrator on Vista/7 ! 2. Start ext2fs Manager, this will load the driver. It may happen you need to open Options and uncheck "mount as read-only". 3. connect DR 800 to Windows, you'll see SD card as say disk Y: 4. backup all* SD content* 5. start cmd.exe, browse to installed ext2fs files (Program Files/??? or your manual installation folder in case of using .zip archive) 6. to format Y: as ext2 do............... Mke2fs -b 4096 -L DR800 Y: 7. once done you can copy the books to SD as it is accessible with ext2fs driver.

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