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Author Topic: Default fileformat?  (Read 7608 times)

warius

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Default fileformat?
« on: October 09, 2008, 02:09:51 AM »
Does the disks use NTFS or FAT32? Anything else maybe?
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jrbilodeau

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2008, 05:03:34 AM »
ext2 its a linux file format
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warius

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2008, 05:12:25 AM »
Thanks for your answer. Is it possible to reformat them to NTFS?
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ECF

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2008, 08:30:59 AM »
EXT2 is the only supported file system format on the DNS-323 and 321.
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Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream

Piotr

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2008, 09:58:52 AM »
Quote from: ECF on October 09, 2008, 08:30:59 AM
EXT2 is the only supported file system format on the DNS-323 and 321.

What about EXT3 support in DNS-323? Will it be re-added in 1.06 firmware? There were some problems with EXT3 in 1.00-1.02 firmwares. D-Link "fixed them" by removing EXT3 support ( >:(). But there is some very interesting discussion here: http://forum.dsmg600.info/viewtopic.php?id=2225. It looks like that the root kernel change made in 1.03 probably solved the EXT3 issues. There is a guy who has been testing EXT3 with 1.03 and 1.05 firmwares and everything is OK (no file/directory corruption).
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DIR-655 H/W A2   FW 1.30EU    *    DSL-320B H/W D1  FW EU_1.21    *    DNS-323 H/W A1   FW 1.08b05    *    DWA-645 H/W A1

D-Link Multimedia

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2008, 10:05:41 AM »
It is currently not an option in the latest 1.06 firmware build however it has already been added to the DNS-343 and will be re-added to the DNS-323. Will need to verify if it will make it into this firmware or not.
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MountainMan

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2008, 10:40:00 PM »
I have a related question about the file format.  Its very important to me that my NAS hard drives be formatted in an industry standard format that can be easily read when removed from the NAS/RAID1 and attached to a standard PC.  The reason is that eventually this D-Link DNS-323 will probably fail and will no longer be available for purchase.  I'll want to connect a drive to a PC at that point and copy all the data off for transfer to a new NAS.  Some NAS use a proprietary format hence you are pretty hosed if the NAS itself fails and you don't have another identical one to plug the drives into.

While NTFS or FAT32 would be more convenient, I can live with EXT2 or EXT3 so long as they are 100% standard compliant so an linux OS can read them.  Also, I think there are some EXT2/3 drivers available for Windows as well.

Can D-Link confirm their version of EXT2 is 100% compliant and compatible if plugged into a linux computer?

Can any users confirm that they have actually tried taking a raid1 drive from the DNS-323 and reading it from a linux computer?  How about installing an EXT2 driver on windows to read it?  Which driver did you use?  How well did it work?

Thanks!
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fordem

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2008, 05:53:02 AM »
I have used the ext2ifs installable file system driver to read disks removed from a RAID1 array in the DNS-323 on a Windows XP system.

Just out of curosity - which NAS was it that you found had a proprietary file system?

Last thing - yes - it is good to have a disaster recovery plan in place, but, RAID1 is not a backup, and if used as such, you will find yourself regretting not having a proper backup, even if you can remove the drives and read them elsewhere.
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RAID1 is for disk redundancy - NOT data backup - don't confuse the two.

MountainMan

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Re: Default fileformat?
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2008, 11:06:04 AM »
I was trading the Promise Tech NAS boxes against this D-Link DNS-323.  One of the biggest problems with the Promise Tech boxes is that I read they don't use standard EXT3.  I've read that they use a slightly modified and incompatible version of EXT3.  I wrote an email to their tech support asking them to confirm or correct this information a week ago but I've not heard back.  But this was a must-have feature so I ended up with the D-Link.  The other thing that finalized my decision was how active D-Link is on these forums trying to understand bugs and fix them.

Yeah, I know RAID1 isn't a complete backup solution.  It won't help me much if my house burns down, a thief grabs the NAS box, or I accidentally delete a file I want.

But realistically, I'm not going to run a separate back up of 1 TB very often.  Its kinda on that future "to-do" list but I am looking to setup something.

What do you suggest as an occasional backup solution for a 1 TB RAID 1 array?

I was thinking that I can cover critical files that have changed by periodically (maybe once a week) backing up to an external hard drive on the local network.  And I can occasionally (maybe once every 3 months) copy the entire array to an external hard drive that I keep at another location.  I was
considering using a blu-ray drive but it would be a huge hassle and expense to copy 1 TB onto a big pile of RW blu rays.
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