Can I use an existing HDD without formatting it?

[Scollinguk]

Hi All,

I did check the wiki but couldn't find an answer to this, but if it is somewhere please accept my apologies!

I have just acquired a A-110 NMT and have a 2TB drive to put in it which is on the compatibility list. It has been used as a drive for a media server up until now and is partitioned into two partitions, the primary has been used as boot partition and the second to store the movies and music. Both partitions are NTFS and I don't have enough storage on another drive to keep all the data on.

I thought the easiest way would be to reduce the secondary partition to the current size of the data and extend the primary partition which should then give me enough space on the primary to move the data to it. Then I can delete the secondary partition and extend the primary partition to then cover the whole drive.

At that point can I then connect the drive to another computer, delete all the data except the movies and music folders and install it in the NMT.

Will the NMT allow me to then install the apps on the drive and use it without needing to format it?

Thanks everyone!

[halfelite]

if you want apps installed the drive has to be formatted as it has to be ext3 and split into 4 partitions

[Scollinguk]

Thanks for the quick reply!!!

So that would make me think the best way would be to split my movies and music and store them across the other computers I have, format the drive completely using the NMT and then move the data back across once the NMT is up and running?

Cheers!

[halfelite]

that is correct. or just leave the files on your pc and stream over network to the pch.

[Scollinguk]

Excellent, thank you!!!