Tag Archives: thumb drive

Mounting BT Home Hub 3 USB on WD TV Live

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This post may be of interest to UK users who own both a BT Home Hub 3 router and a WD TV Live media streamer. Both are Linux based systems, but getting one to work with the other can be a bit of a challenge.

The USB port on the back of the Home Hub 3 can be used to share storage over the network. Plug in a disk or memory stick, and it is automatically shared out as a windows share. Using a large capacity memory stick offers the possibility of NAS like, always-on access to your media files from any connected device. Low power consumption too. This post explains how access the USB connected drive from the WD TV Live. Continue reading →

Format and Relabel a Flash Drive in Linux

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Flash drives (as in memory sticks) are a popular choice for backups. A 64 Gb drive can be bought for just over £20 at the time of writing. Once your data is backed up to the drive, it is easy to store in a safe place or transport off site for added protection. Actually that applies to any portable hard drive, as does the following procedure.

Most flash drives come formatted as FAT32. That is fine from day-to-day but there is a strict 4 GB limit applying to the size of any file. Backup software is likely to produce large archive files well over 4 GB, so won’t work well with FAT32. What’s needed therefore, is a better file system. Continue reading →

Sorting a Directory in the FAT File System

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The venerable fat16 and fat32 file systems are still in widespread use today. Devices such as digital cameras, satellite navigation systems, memory sticks and mp3 players all make use of FAT.

The files in a FAT file system are arranged in a strict order. This can affect the way that some devices behave. For example, some MP3 players will play songs only in the order in which they are arranged on the device, rather than the more convenient alphabetical or alphanumeric order. Music players that use USB memory sticks and in-car USB systems can be affected in the same way. The only way to get the songs to play in a more sensible order is to sort the directory (folder) in which they are located. Continue reading →