Sony HAP 1 ES and adding external Hard Drives

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?

Yes. The drive could be disconnected from the Sony, then connected to a computer which has the Paragon ExtFS program installed, and files could then be copied from it to the computer or vice versa.

Can you preserve existing data on an external drive while formatting it for use with the Sony?

No. Formatting a drive destroys all data on it. However, after the Sony formats the drive it could be reconnected to a computer, and the same files copied to it if they are backed up on the computer (or on a different external drive that is connected to the computer), and if the ExtFS program is installed on the computer.

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.

:-)

When the Sony formats the drive, it would presumably format the entire drive into a single Linux-compatible Ext partition, not into multiple partitions as I did experimentally. Therefore you would not have to perform the process I described of ejecting the drive via the Windows "safely remove hardware" icon. And the unmounting process I referred to occurs automatically when the ExtFS program is closed.

So all you would have to be concerned with if you wanted to disconnect the drive from the computer while the computer is operating, assuming you are using Windows 7, is to locate the icon for the ExtFS program in the lower right corner of the screen (it looks like a large letter "P"; also you might have to first click the upward facing pyramid-shaped symbol in that area to see it), then right-click the icon, and then left-click the word "exit" which will appear.

As with many computer-related things, what seems daunting at first becomes trivial once you see how to do it.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al,

Maybe you can give me some thoughts on how you would proceed on this. I've been using Linux as my main OS for the last couple of years and like it very much. After reading some comments about people using Windows 8 find that it sounds better than Win 7, I became curious and went out and bought a copy of 8.1. To my ears, it really does sound better. (One thing I would like to be very clear on to anyone reading this is that I'm fairly new to computer audio. I don't consider myself qualified in any way to give advice. Why does 8 sound better than 7? I have no clue. I could very well not have 7 set up right.)

Anyway, back to my question. Right now, most of my music is on ext4 partitions, both internal sata and external usb. Would it make sense to go through the trouble of getting Windows working with ext4? The reason I ask is that ext4 is a journaling file system and from what I understand, data is safer from corruption than with file systems that don't journal. I do back everything up, so I would probably be OK with ntfs.

Hi ZD,

Not sure if you are aware that NTFS is also a journaling file system. And one that has proven to be very robust IME ever since XP (which could run on either NTFS or FAT32) was introduced in 2001. FAT32, of course, is a disaster waiting to happen in terms of robustness.

I have no idea either why some people report that Win 8 sounds better than Win 7. And I doubt that anyone else can say for sure, either. I am not, btw, into computer audio at all at this point, and I don't envision pursuing it in the near term. Despite being a technically oriented person, somehow I always seem to be among the last to get into new technologies :-)

Also, based on all I have read about Win 8 and 8.1 I have no plans to ever "upgrade" to it, due mainly to the many reports about its user interface and other features being unfamiliar and cumbersome, and given that Microsoft has indicated that security patches for the excellent Win 7 will continue to be provided until 2020.

Re backing up, as you no doubt realize, despite the robustness of journaling file systems there is always a chance that drives can fail at any time, and that operating systems or data files can become corrupted. My practice is therefore to back up data files almost daily to a second hard drive (internal or external), and to back up weekly or so to another hard drive, and to create a complete image of the "system drive" (usually the "c" drive in Windows) once a month or so. The imaging program I use is Terabyte Unlimited's Image For Windows. In doing so, I can recover from a drive failure, or a software installation or software update that goes awry or that I don't like, or a corrupted operating system, in an hour or so, plus the time to obtain a replacement drive if necessary.

BTW, although I've been mainly a Windows person over the years, for a couple of years several years ago I dual booted Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP, mainly just to see what Linux was all about. It worked well for me, but ultimately there were too many programs I or my wife wanted to use that were designed for Windows only.

Best,
-- Al

Thanks Al. I didn't know that ntfs was a journaling file system. I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that it wasn't, but I'm glad I was wrong. As far as Win 8 goes, I hate the interface. I just don't know what MS was thinking. There's a free program called Classic Shell. Using its default settings, it pretty much turns the Win 8 interface into Win 7. It also has a lot of tweaking options so you can mix features of both interfaces. So for me, Win 8 looks just like 7 and after using it for a couple of months now feel Win 8 isn't perfect, but like 7, you can make it work.

As far as Linux goes, I understand. Some users must have certain software. That said, I think if more people become exposed to Linux, it could very well be the future. It's just amazing what's is offered at no cost whatsoever. If you ever give Linux another try, maybe look at a KDE distro like Mint KDE or Kubuntu. Its the most Windows like desktop environment, and I feel, the most powerful.

Thanks again Al for the great info.

Thanks again Al for the great info.

Likewise! Thanks for the excellent info you've provided.

Best,
-- Al