Sony HAP 1 ES and adding external Hard Drives

Richardfinegold said: " If I read Kal's review correctly, once you format the HD, you won't be able to add any more music to the external HD."

I did not say that. I said that the Sony will reformat the drive to the Linux-variant format and that, probably, your computer will not recognize it. Also, that reformatting will erase whatever you had put on it. However, you can use the regular Sony app to transfer files to it from your computer, just as it will to the internal drive..

Hmm, would the Paragon ExtFS for Windows product be a way to transfer the pre-loaded music files on the HAP-Z1ES to a desktop PC for playback?

Well, my curiosity eventually became sufficiently piqued about the Paragon ExtFS program that I decided to give it a try, which worked out very nicely.

I formatted a small (26 GB) Linux Ext4 partition on one of the three internal hard drives I have in one of my Windows 7 computers. After installing and then opening the ExtFS program, that partition immediately became visible to Windows, no differently than all of the standard Windows NTFS partitions on the three drives.

I then copied a .wav file to that partition, double-clicked its icon, and it played successfully in the default player (Windows Media Player). I then copied that file from the Ext4 partition to a Windows NTFS partition, and played it there as well.

When ExtFS is closed, which is done by right-clicking an icon it places in the "systray" area in the lower right corner of the screen when it is opened, and then selecting "exit," the partition "unmounts" from Windows, and can of course no longer be accessed by Windows until the program is re-opened.

A setting is available in the program to specify whether it starts automatically when the computer is booted, or manually when its icon or program group listing is clicked. I chose the latter.

During the process of installing the program a simple registration process is required, in which you enter into a page at their site your name, email address, country and state, and if you want to opt-in to receiving emailed announcements from them.

Cool! Best regards,
-- Al

This morning I repeated the experiment, but using an external USB drive rather than an internal drive, and for both Ext3 and Ext4 partitions on the external drive. Worked great!

Before disconnecting the drive, I closed ExtFS to unmount the Ext partitions from Windows, and I also used the Windows "safely remove hardware" icon to eject the drive because it contained an NTFS partition in addition to the Ext partitions.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, it sounds like that might be good news, unfortunately, you might as well be speaking aramaic. :) I know what an external USB drive is, but you lost me on the rest. No doubt, most of the readers will understand what you mean, but for me, unmounting the Ext partitions from windows sounds like an exercise in voyeurism or exhibitionism, or possibly both.

At a high level, if I catch your main point correctly, you have discovered a way to use an external drive with the HAPZ1 while preserving the ability to share the drive with another computer. Is that correct? Also, can you preserve existing data on an external drive while formatting it for use with the Sony?