# Easy EHD question: FAT32 or NTFS?



## shortspark (Oct 25, 2006)

I have a 500gb WD Essentials EHD that is currently formatted to NTFS. It came as FAT32 but I reformatted it to NTFS because I was thinking of using it as a PC backup. Can someone tell me what my 622 will format this drive to if I decide to use it as a program archive and about how long it takes for the 622 to reformat if it needs to go back to FAT32? The EHD is currently empty.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

shortspark said:


> I have a 500gb WD Essentials EHD that is currently formatted to NTFS. It came as FAT32 but I reformatted it to NTFS because I was thinking of using it as a PC backup. Can someone tell me what my 622 will format this drive to if I decide to use it as a program archive and about how long it takes for the 622 to reformat if it needs to go back to FAT32? The EHD is currently empty.


It will reformat it. I don't think anyone officially has said what the format is but it is not FAT32 or NTFS.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

tnsprin said:


> It will reformat it. I don't think anyone officially has said what the format is but it is not FAT32 or NTFS.


And, it's pretty quick.


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

It will be formatted with some flavor of Linux. I believe.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

It is formatted using Linux ext3. It normally takes a few minutes for the drive to be formatted and the encryption info to be put in place. If you're seeking more information you can read the posts on this Yahoo Group.


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## shortspark (Oct 25, 2006)

Thanks to all for the responses. The reason I asked was that perhaps I could reformat the thing faster on my PC if I knew what format was used by DISH. On second thought, maybe not since it took nearly three hours to reformat it the first time from Fat32 to NTFS.


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## TheGrove (Jan 10, 2007)

shortspark said:


> Thanks to all for the responses. The reason I asked was that perhaps I could reformat the thing faster on my PC if I knew what format was used by DISH. On second thought, maybe not since it took nearly three hours to reformat it the first time from Fat32 to NTFS.


Fortunatly/unfortunatly it won't matter if you format it or not. As soon as you hook it up to DISH it will format it no matter what.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

shortspark said:


> On second thought, maybe not since it took nearly three hours to reformat it the first time from Fat32 to NTFS.


Yeah, I had to do that to four drives last Christmas. What a drag.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

phrelin said:


> Yeah, I had to do that to four drives last Christmas. What a drag.


Reformatting shouldn't really be slow. Conversion (saving the data) is slow. The more data the slower it is.

As stated the reformat to DISH to whatever format it is (linux ext3 apparently) is fairly fast and always done the first time a drive is attached to one of your receivers. Assuming household key you can then switch it between your various receivers.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

tnsprin said:


> Reformatting shouldn't really be slow. Conversion (saving the data) is slow. The more data the slower it is.
> 
> As stated the reformat to DISH to whatever format it is (linux ext3 apparently) is fairly fast and always done the first time a drive is attached to one of your receivers. Assuming household key you can then switch it between your various receivers.


The Dish reformat isn't slow. But I reformatted four empty USB drives from FAT32 to NTFS to put family pictures and movies on to give to family members at Christmas. Man was that reformatting a slow process.:eek2:


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## shortspark (Oct 25, 2006)

Does anyone know what will happen regarding this reformatting by the dish dvr with partitions on the EHD? Will the whole drive be reformated?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

shortspark said:


> DWill the whole drive be reformated?


Yes.


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