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2GB+ Minidiscs?

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cdd101

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I recall some early Hi-MD threads discussing the ability to support 2GB & higher (maybe 4GB) disks.

But the player/recorders would have to abandon supporting the older pre-Hi-MD disks.

Haven't seen or heard anything 4 quite awhile now. It would B nice.

Do not agree. As combo DVD-RW can burn CD-RW , it is technically possible to keep compatibility with old 80min MDs.

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It is technically possible to go upto 2GB but not beyond.

Hi-MD uses the FAT formatting sytem and that has a limit of 2GB (4GB under NT/XP but ONLY with special conditions).

To go beyond 2GB would mean adopting a different format on the disc and thus will break the current compatability with Hi-MD.

As far as I remember there was a paper to say that the disc could technically store 4.7GB while staying backwardly compatable, however you have to think along the lines that 4.7GB was realised in a lab and would probably not suvive the standard usage pattern that most MD's get.

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It is technically possible to go upto 2GB but not beyond.

Hi-MD uses the FAT formatting sytem and that has a limit of 2GB (4GB under NT/XP but ONLY with special conditions).

To go beyond 2GB would mean adopting a different format on the disc and thus will break the current compatability with Hi-MD.

As far as I remember there was a paper to say that the disc could technically store 4.7GB while staying backwardly compatable, however you have to think along the lines that 4.7GB was realised in a lab and would probably not suvive the standard usage pattern that most MD's get.

FAT32 goes up 2 TB.

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But Minidisc uses FAT not FAT32 so we have this 2GB limit on partition size. If you try and force FAT32 (by conversion using windows) the Minidisc is useless and has to be re-formatted back to FAT using SS or the player.

FAT and FAT32 are not compatable, they are based on the same structure but FAT only systems cannot read FAT32 partitions.

Partition limit for FAT is 2GB

Partition limit for FAT32 is 2TB

File size limit for FAT32 & FAT is technically 4GB (FAT can only handle partion size of 2GB as above so 2GB is the physical limit)

File size limit for AVI files is 2GB (where most people get the max file size for FAT from, they can go bigger but index gets corrupted and most players wont play them)

There are no aproachable limits on NTFS (They are present but we wont hit them for several more years yet)

Edited by Qwakrz
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But Minidisc uses FAT not FAT32 so we have this 2GB limit on partition size. If you try and force FAT32 (by conversion using windows) the Minidisc is useless and has to be re-formatted back to FAT using SS or the player.

FAT and FAT32 are not compatable, they are based on the same structure but FAT only systems cannot read FAT32 partitions.

Partition limit for FAT is 2GB

Partition limit for FAT32 is 2TB

File size limit for FAT32 & FAT is technically 4GB (FAT can only handle partion size of 2GB as above so 2GB is the physical limit)

File size limit for AVI files is 2GB (where most people get the max file size for FAT from, they can go bigger but index gets corrupted and most players wont play them)

There are no aproachable limits on NTFS (They are present but we wont hit them for several more years yet)

Since HiMD is a mass storage device it is technically allowed to use either FAT/FAT16 or FAT32. Perhaps only HiMD's inner working should be altered, but I don't think it's a big job to add FAT32 support, if it hasn't already but unused.

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I have successfully used ext3 ( a Linux journalling filesystem ) on HiMD.

Worked without a problem for data storage via USB.

However, standalone playback is of course not possible with that and the recorder keeps complaining about the disc format.

I guess, Sony chose the FAT filesystem, because of the simple structure of it.

I have seen implementations of the FAT filesystem requiring less than 10kBytes code on an AVR microcontroller.

A read-only version occupied less than 3kBytes.

And that already included the drivers for CF/MMC/SD-Cards.

We shouldn't forget: Program space is at a premium on a portable unit.

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I guess, Sony chose the FAT filesystem, because of the simple structure of it.

Because it's demanded for mass storage compatible devices. The standard is FAT/FAT32.

The Operating system writes and reads the filesystem itself, the unit (HiMD, external HDD, USBdrive) do nothing but facilitating lowlevel datatransport. That why mass storage devices can be formatted in any filesystem. But since Microsoft is one of the founders for that filesystem and Windows 98SE/ME were still its consumer OS'es, the devices had to be compatble with those OS'es, thus FAT/FAT32.

Of course, since HiMD devices and MP3-players need at least reading capabilities (and some (like HiMD) write capabilities) software and logic has to be inserted in the device to operate the data-holder. Of course they don't add support for alternate filesystems because just about 0.0001% of the market has interest in that.

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Yes it is possible to use ANY format for the disc (I use NTFS for my Uni work on one of my discs as it allows compression).

The problem with Hi-MD over 2GB is that it will not be backwardly compatable with existing units and would therefore either i) cause confusion with existing users ii)not appear in its current Hi-MD name and use a new player / recorder.

Discs over 2GB would not be usable as audio discs with current machines, If sony release a new series of units then they could change the file system format to FAT32 and this would allow them to increase the disc size BUT they would loose the ability to play these discs in older Hi-MD machines. (Why did sony only use FAT in the Hi-MD???)

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