[JamieBee]

I have googled this and searched these forums but cannot find a definitive answer.

I have a laptop I can connect to my tv via hdmi and play hd movies.

However, I would prefer to play these movies by linking my Iomega external hard drive to the xbox. When I connect it to 360, it does not pick any "portable device". From what I have read, it is something to do with how ext hds are formatted (ntfs or fat32 - can't recall which is which). Are certain brands of hds ok and some not or are they just simply all not compatible ?

I read if you create a partition on your hard drive and make it either ntfs or fat32, you can play movies from that ? How easy is this to do ?

Thanks if anyone can help

[King Tones]

The Hard Drive needs to be formatted to either FAT32 or HFS+

You could add a partition but you can only go upto 32 gig i think.

I have my external 320gig drive fully formatted to FAT32 and it plays with no issues
But file size is limited to 4gig i think.

But i dont know the link i used for the software that i used to format it.

Anyone know of some free software to format a full drive to FAT32 ??

Deftones

[JamieBee]

Originally Posted by Deftones

The Hard Drive needs to be formatted to either FAT32 or HFS+

You could add a partition but you can only go upto 32 gig i think.

I have my external 320gig drive fully formatted to FAT32 and it plays with no issues
But file size is limited to 4gig i think.

But i dont know the link i used for the software that i used to format it.

Anyone know of some free software to format a full drive to FAT32 ??

Deftones

I have heard of FAT32 or HFS+. If I could add a partition, 32 gig would be fine, it is simply to play hd movies that I am unable to stream via media center.

If I made the drive 100% FAT32, would my laptop recognise Word, Excel and mp3 files on it as I want to store those on it too ?

How do you mean file size no larger than 4 gig ?

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by Deftones

Anyone know of some free software to format a full drive to FAT32 ??

Yep, its called Windows Vista. As long as you have the external drive hooked up to your pc Vista will format a section for you to FAT32.

You can't have a movie over 4gig in size is what it means.

I'm the same, I have a 250g external hd and have 50g partitioned in Fat32 for my Xbox's personal use.

[King Tones]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

Yep, its called Windows Vista. As long as you have the external drive hooked up to your pc Vista will format a section for you to FAT32.

You can't have a movie over 4gig in size is what it means.

I'm the same, I have a 250g external hd and have 50g partitioned in Fat32 for my Xbox's personal use.

Can Vista format a whole drive though ?
So a 320 Gig drive fully formatted to FAT32 ?

My Drive is formatted like that and my laptop has no problems viewing it at all.
You can create a partition and put your HD mvoes there but they cant be over 4 gig or they wont play or be recocgnised.

Deftones

[Gordon B]

AFAIK it will format a whole drive, yes.

[King Tones]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

AFAIK it will format a whole drive, yes.

Shame i dont have Vista

Deftones

[JamieBee]

Thanks for the replies.
I do have Vista on my laptop so I have the facility to format a whole ext hard drive to fat32 but if I want to do one partition only, the partition must be no larger than 32 gig and any file in it can be no larger than 4gig which pretty much rules out movies in DVD or HD format. Only AVIs will fit. I think I am understanding it correctly ?

I will have to stick to connecting my laptop to the TV as the file I was trying to view was 12 gig !

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by JamieBee

Thanks for the replies.
I do have Vista on my laptop so I have the facility to format a whole ext hard drive to fat32 but if I want to do one partition only, the partition must be no larger than 32 gig and any file in it can be no larger than 4gig which pretty much rules out movies in DVD or HD format. Only AVIs will fit. I think I am understanding it correctly ?

I will have to stick to connecting my laptop to the TV as the file I was trying to view was 12 gig !

Not so, AFAIK the partition can be any size (mine is 50g)

Must be one hell of a movie to be 12g in size. Admittedly I only tend to only watch tv programs converted from mkv but they are usually 44 minutes and only just over 1g in size and 720p

[JamieBee]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

Not so, AFAIK the partition can be any size (mine is 50g)

Must be one hell of a movie to be 12g in size. Admittedly I only tend to only watch tv programs converted from mkv but they are usually 44 minutes and only just over 1g in size and 720p

Ok, did I misunderstand ? So the drive can be totally converted or just a proportion of it, to fat32 ? But any file within it must be 4gb or less ?

The file in question was a bluray file converted to wmvhd. 720p I believe also but 2 hours long.

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by JamieBee

Ok, did I misunderstand ? So the drive can be totally converted or just a proportion of it, to fat32 ? But any file within it must be 4gb or less ?

Correct

[PurpleSteve]

How would you do this if you did not have widows vista? Ive got a 500 gig FreeAgent external HD and Id love to be able to watch the movies I have on it. I set up my new PC to stream things from Windows media player 11 but the films I have on it are AVI files and WMP only plays the audio?

Any hlep will be appreciated

[SyStemDeMoN]

Originally Posted by Deftones

Shame i dont have Vista

Deftones

You don't need Vista to format part of a drive, or even the whole drive in FAT32.

Windows XP will do it just fine.

If you want to partition the drive, just right click on 'my computer' and click MANAGE

Then just select 'Disk Managment' and you can do it quite easily from there

[SyStemDeMoN]

Originally Posted by PurpleSteve

How would you do this if you did not have widows vista? Ive got a 500 gig FreeAgent external HD and Id love to be able to watch the movies I have on it. I set up my new PC to stream things from Windows media player 11 but the films I have on it are AVI files and WMP only plays the audio?

Any hlep will be appreciated

See my above post

Although I'm not sure what file types the XBOX plays.

[PurpleSteve]

Originally Posted by SyStemDeMoN

See my above post

Although I'm not sure what file types the XBOX plays.

Cheers! I'll go have a looksie, found out that the videos play on the xbox even though WMP just plays audio.

[SyStemDeMoN]

Originally Posted by JamieBee

Thanks for the replies.
I do have Vista on my laptop so I have the facility to format a whole ext hard drive to fat32 but if I want to do one partition only, the partition must be no larger than 32 gig and any file in it can be no larger than 4gig which pretty much rules out movies in DVD or HD format. Only AVIs will fit. I think I am understanding it correctly ?

I will have to stick to connecting my laptop to the TV as the file I was trying to view was 12 gig !

There are programs that will split files into a series of 4gig files(just under) but I do not know of any that will do this to / or output them as WMV

[dazza1011]

Originally Posted by SyStemDeMoN

You don't need Vista to format part of a drive, or even the whole drive in FAT32.

Windows XP will do it just fine.

If you want to partition the drive, just right click on 'my computer' and click MANAGE

Then just select 'Disk Managment' and you can do it quite easily from there

i dont think you can do FAT32 anymore on windows XP since service pack 3 as i tried to do it the other week and had to hunt around for free app

[SyStemDeMoN]

Originally Posted by dazza1011

i dont think you can do FAT32 anymore on windows XP since service pack 3 as i tried to do it the other week and had to hunt around for free app

Well, I am using XP service pack 3 and the options are there.

[DongaTon]

I'm thinking of getting a 1TB external HD too.

I can stream standard def video files no probs at the moment using wmp11 and my laptop, wireless to router then router to homeplugs to xbox.

However, 720p stuff judders and stops all the time.

I'm also thinking of either having a full fat32 HD, or doing a partition.
Will it just operate the same if fat32 for mp3s, etc. The initial use for the terrabyte drive is for my music collection.

And here's the NOOB question!
do I need windows media player or something similar to stream the movie 'over'?
Or if I have a 4gb wmv file on my external hard drive, plugged into xbox USB, no laptops or wmp11, will the xbox 360 recognise it ( I think I had to change the file extension to .avi)and then just play it? I'm confused!

I'm dying to get HD video on my xbox and fancy telly

Thanks

[LJx]

If you are connecting an external HD to the xbox then the PC/laptop is irrelevant and you don't need any software. You won't be able to play any decent HD Rips from external as no file size greater than 4GB + no MKV.

[King Tones]

Originally Posted by DongaTon

I'm thinking of getting a 1TB external HD too.

I can stream standard def video files no probs at the moment using wmp11 and my laptop, wireless to router then router to homeplugs to xbox.

However, 720p stuff judders and stops all the time.

I'm also thinking of either having a full fat32 HD, or doing a partition.
Will it just operate the same if fat32 for mp3s, etc. The initial use for the terrabyte drive is for my music collection.

And here's the NOOB question!
do I need windows media player or something similar to stream the movie 'over'?
Or if I have a 4gb wmv file on my external hard drive, plugged into xbox USB, no laptops or wmp11, will the xbox 360 recognise it ( I think I had to change the file extension to .avi)and then just play it? I'm confused!

I'm dying to get HD video on my xbox and fancy telly

Thanks

If its FAT32 it will still work fine for your MP3's.

And you can connect the USB drive direct to the xbox and it will recognise the drive and you can play the HD Movie if its under 4gig in size.

Below are the file formats the 360 will play via a USB drive
The WMV HD file should work from the Hard Drive, i have a few HD WMV files and they work perfectly and look pretty good

http://www.avforums.com/forums/xbox-...stmenu_6291381

Deftones

[DongaTon]

Originally Posted by Sweat

If you are connecting an external HD to the xbox then the PC/laptop is irrelevant and you don't need any software. You won't be able to play any decent HD Rips from external as no file size greater than 4GB + no MKV.

Thanks to you both.

Sweat: I don't mind watching a large file in two parts, using gotsent or similar.

This will still work?

[Toshman]

Vistas will NOT format a whole FAT32 drive - I know because I tried. It only recognises 32GB.

If you have an Iomega drive, the chances are it is NTFS, mine is and I had to convert it to FAT32 and format it using third party software - freely available on the internet.

You are still limited to file sizes of less than 4GB though, may be a problem for HD movies but my SD movie collection averages about 2GB for a 2 hour movie encoded using H.264.

[Fe_man2000]

Also there a number of tiny free apps that will format a drive to any size in FAT32 - XP wont give you the option but grab a copy of FAT32FORMAT or similar, you dont need a difference operating system.

[JamieBee]

Right, I am trying to format and partition my external flash drive.

Looks like there is approx 115gb available and I have created an 80gb partition (which is labelled Gwhich is (very slowly) being formatted to NTFS which I will put my mp3s and photos o n for laptop use.

However, I also have an F: which is 4gb and 30gb labelled "unallocated". I want to increase the F: to the whole 34gb (or perhaps 32gb as I think that is the limit for xbox) approx and then format it FAT32 for xbox use and this is posing a problem.

When I right click the F drive > Extend volume it opens an Extend Volume wizard.

I have an Available column on the left and Selected on the right. I am a bit confused as to what goes where here. If I move the available 30 gb over to the Selected column and click Next, I get a message saying the operation I have selected will convert the basic disk to dynamic disk (???) and if I convert it, I will not be able to start installing operating systems from any volume on the disc (except the current boot volume). Am I sure I want to continue ?

When I click YES I get an error saying The dynamic disks are not supported by this operating system.

Can anybody help me out here ? Thanks if you can.

[Fe_man2000]

However, I also have an F: which is 4gb and 30gb labelled "unallocated". I want to increase the F: to the whole 34gb (or perhaps 32gb as I think that is the limit for xbox) approx and then format it FAT32 for xbox use and this is posing a problem.

Dont increase/expand it - either delete it and have 32GB unallocated and make a new drive from this space or make a another Drive called G maybe from the 30GB, either way no expanding

Cos if you do you have created a

When I click YES I get an error saying The dynamic disks are not supported by this operating system

which as you found out Xbox dont like - it must be a simple FAT32 formated partion not two bits of partion stuck together.