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#1
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What is the best flash file format to use
My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has
32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) |
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#2
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What is the best flash file format to use
default wrote:
My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) ExFAT is more "flash friendly". It tries to deal with the larger flash page sizes a bit better. And avoids "nuisance writes" when it can. FAT32 on the other hand, is more compatible with IoT devices. Not every manufacturer would want to pay an extra licensing fee just to support ExFAT. Maybe the TV doesn't have ExFAT support. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation. Some DVD ISO files might not fit. But don't worry - using 7ZIP or other ZIP programs, it's possible to make a segmented archive, and break a large file down into 4GB chunks. And then those will fit on the FAT32 partition. I've used that a few times to carry 30GB files on a FAT32 stick (sneakernet). Paul |
#3
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What is the best flash file format to use
On 08/15/2018 12:52 PM, default wrote:
My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) Fat32 is limited to files less than 4GB. So a good movie might exceed that. NTFS has, for the most part, no limitation. |
#4
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What is the best flash file format to use
On Wed, 15 Aug 2018 13:49:59 -0400, Paul wrote:
default wrote: My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) ExFAT is more "flash friendly". It tries to deal with the larger flash page sizes a bit better. And avoids "nuisance writes" when it can. FAT32 on the other hand, is more compatible with IoT devices. Not every manufacturer would want to pay an extra licensing fee just to support ExFAT. Maybe the TV doesn't have ExFAT support. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation. Some DVD ISO files might not fit. But don't worry - using 7ZIP or other ZIP programs, it's possible to make a segmented archive, and break a large file down into 4GB chunks. And then those will fit on the FAT32 partition. I've used that a few times to carry 30GB files on a FAT32 stick (sneakernet). As long as she doesn't expect to plug the drive into her TV and play a movie that's been chunked up by an archiving program. ;-) |
#5
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What is the best flash file format to use
default wrote:
My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. Put all the data files onto a USB HDD or a USB flash drive. The USB port is more robust regarding repeated insertions and extractions than are card readers; however, severe enough abuse can break anything. It is not upgradable. Yes, it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRl622WgaWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSlsmwIS6Yo Do a search on Youtube for "acer aspire 1 notebook yourmodel" to see if someone shows you how to replace the HDD, ram, etc. By the way, if you want to up the system RAM, check the notebook's specs first. It may have a limitation on the maximum memory it can support. There may be a maximum size for partitions on the HDD (or SSD if you want to boost the netbook's speed) determined by which operating system and which file system is used on the netbook but which you did not mention. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. FAT32 has a limit of 4GB for filesize. How big are the movies? You sure the TV won't accept NTFS or exFAT format? No one can check for you because you didn't mention the brand and model of your TV. Its manual might tell you or you check its online specs. exFAT is a Microsoft proprietary format. Anyone that uses it has to pay a royalty to Microsoft; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT (and the Adoption section about the fee). NTFS is also Microsoft proprietary but no one has to pay Microsoft to use it. You could use FLV format; however, Adobe is dropping Flash support in 2020 as they are discontinuing FLASH (and all the web browsers have already dropped Flash, made it optional, or will soon drop it). You could get a player that handles .flv files but eventually it may also drop Flash support (unless that's the only format the player handles - but you'll have to hope the author maintains that product for as long as you want the movies in FLV format.) FLV is a proprietary format by Adobe. FLV and MP4 are containers. You need to make sure you have the codecs used by the video within to decode the movie. As I recall, FLV is about 20% bigger than MP4 with the same video content using the same codec within. MP4 is an ISO standardized format in the MPEG-4 family. Support for MP4 is better than FLV. You might want to play the movies now on the netbook but you might later want to play them on a smartphone, too, or elsewhere. You'll also need to check what file format(s) your TV support(s). You don't say how you are obtaining the movies: what format the movie file uses and how you are capturing it or from where you are ripping it. Use whatever format they came in unless you need to convert for compatibility with the device where it gets played. Converting them to another format results in loss of quality. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? Yes, if the app allows it. Even if you install the app onto the flash drive, many apps still store some of their files on the OS partition. For example, many files are put onto C: when you install MS Office somewhere else. There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) There's no place inside the laptop for the card to insert. Space is at a premium inside a netbook, and having space for a card that may not be inserted means a bulkier case. Just remember to remove the card before moving; else, not only might the card get damaged but the slot could also get damaged and that's the end of using that card reader until you replace it. No hardware can survive abusive users. Not even industrial-grade computers can surive all abuse. When the wife breaks the card and/or the reader -- and *she* has to pay for the replacement card (after losing the movies on the broken one) or *she* pays for the reader repair -- she'll be more careful thereafter. It's her netbook, so she's the one responsible for how she handles it. |
#6
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What is the best flash file format to use
Char Jackson wrote:
On Wed, 15 Aug 2018 13:49:59 -0400, Paul wrote: default wrote: My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) ExFAT is more "flash friendly". It tries to deal with the larger flash page sizes a bit better. And avoids "nuisance writes" when it can. FAT32 on the other hand, is more compatible with IoT devices. Not every manufacturer would want to pay an extra licensing fee just to support ExFAT. Maybe the TV doesn't have ExFAT support. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation. Some DVD ISO files might not fit. But don't worry - using 7ZIP or other ZIP programs, it's possible to make a segmented archive, and break a large file down into 4GB chunks. And then those will fit on the FAT32 partition. I've used that a few times to carry 30GB files on a FAT32 stick (sneakernet). As long as she doesn't expect to plug the drive into her TV and play a movie that's been chunked up by an archiving program. ;-) Yeah, zip files don't play so well. They need to make the TV more clever. Paul |
#7
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What is the best flash file format to use
"default" wrote in message
... My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) The main advantage of exFAT (or NTFS) over FAT32 is that it can accommodate files larger than 4 GB. If she downloads a movie file which is larger than 4 GB (unlikely but possible) it cannot be written to a FAT32 drive, no matter how much free space there is. Some TVs and DVD players can handle both FAT32 and exFAT (but not NTFS); others are really picky and can only handle FAT32. |
#8
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What is the best flash file format to use
In article , Paul
wrote: As long as she doesn't expect to plug the drive into her TV and play a movie that's been chunked up by an archiving program. ;-) Yeah, zip files don't play so well. they do via vlc, but zipping a movie is silly. They need to make the TV more clever. yep. |
#9
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What is the best flash file format to use
In article , NY
wrote: The main advantage of exFAT (or NTFS) over FAT32 is that it can accommodate files larger than 4 GB. If she downloads a movie file which is larger than 4 GB (unlikely but possible) it cannot be written to a FAT32 drive, no matter how much free space there is. actually, that's quite common for 4k video and relatively common for 1080p. Some TVs and DVD players can handle both FAT32 and exFAT (but not NTFS); others are really picky and can only handle FAT32. most should handle exfat these days. |
#10
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What is the best flash file format to use
"Paul" wrote in message
news But don't worry - using 7ZIP or other ZIP programs, it's possible to make a segmented archive, and break a large file down into 4GB chunks. And then those will fit on the FAT32 partition. I've used that a few times to carry 30GB files on a FAT32 stick (sneakernet). As long as you have space on the PC's internal drive (which I presume is NTFS) you can download the file and then break it into bite (byte?) sized chunks. But how you then expand that to play it on the TV is another matter - I don't think you can do it. |
#11
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What is the best flash file format to use
"nospam" wrote in message
... In article , Paul wrote: As long as she doesn't expect to plug the drive into her TV and play a movie that's been chunked up by an archiving program. ;-) Yeah, zip files don't play so well. they do via vlc I didn't know VLC could play a zip file which contained one of the file formats that it can play. I'll have to try it some time to prove it... but zipping a movie is silly. Unless you are using the zip program mainly as a means of chopping the file into chunks, rather than as a means of reducing its size. |
#12
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What is the best flash file format to use
In article , NY
wrote: As long as she doesn't expect to plug the drive into her TV and play a movie that's been chunked up by an archiving program. ;-) Yeah, zip files don't play so well. they do via vlc I didn't know VLC could play a zip file which contained one of the file formats that it can play. I'll have to try it some time to prove it... i didn't either until earlier today. but zipping a movie is silly. Unless you are using the zip program mainly as a means of chopping the file into chunks, rather than as a means of reducing its size. a very strange use of zip, and that would be better done with .rar, which vlc also plays. there is also no reason to chop a file into smaller chunks. disk space is cheap and plentiful. |
#13
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What is the best flash file format to use
On Wed, 15 Aug 2018 13:36:51 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
default wrote: My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. Put all the data files onto a USB HDD or a USB flash drive. The USB port is more robust regarding repeated insertions and extractions than are card readers; however, severe enough abuse can break anything. It is not upgradable. Yes, it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRl622WgaWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSlsmwIS6Yo Believe me, I checked that out. The model she has, has about eight screws holding the bottom on and no other trap-doors or removable appendages like a battery. I Googled it and the info I found said HDD memory is soldered in. A114-31 series. Do a search on Youtube for "acer aspire 1 notebook yourmodel" to see if someone shows you how to replace the HDD, ram, etc. By the way, if you want to up the system RAM, check the notebook's specs first. It may have a limitation on the maximum memory it can support. There may be a maximum size for partitions on the HDD (or SSD if you want to boost the netbook's speed) determined by which operating system and which file system is used on the netbook but which you did not mention. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. FAT32 has a limit of 4GB for filesize. How big are the movies? You sure the TV won't accept NTFS or exFAT format? No one can check for you because you didn't mention the brand and model of your TV. Its manual might tell you or you check its online specs. exFAT is a Microsoft proprietary format. Anyone that uses it has to pay a royalty to Microsoft; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT (and the Adoption section about the fee). NTFS is also Microsoft proprietary but no one has to pay Microsoft to use it. I haven't tried on her Samsung TV but tried it on mine and it only plays FAT32. She lives ~120 miles from me, so I deal with her concerns when I'm at her house... You could use FLV format; however, Adobe is dropping Flash support in 2020 as they are discontinuing FLASH (and all the web browsers have already dropped Flash, made it optional, or will soon drop it). You could get a player that handles .flv files but eventually it may also drop Flash support (unless that's the only format the player handles - but you'll have to hope the author maintains that product for as long as you want the movies in FLV format.) FLV is a proprietary format by Adobe. FLV and MP4 are containers. You need to make sure you have the codecs used by the video within to decode the movie. As I recall, FLV is about 20% bigger than MP4 with the same video content using the same codec within. MP4 is an ISO standardized format in the MPEG-4 family. Support for MP4 is better than FLV. You might want to play the movies now on the netbook but you might later want to play them on a smartphone, too, or elsewhere. You'll also need to check what file format(s) your TV support(s). My Samsung TV plays flash cards but is not a smart TV and I have no control over the video player. I do have VLC on a "TV-stick" and can play some of the formats the TV refuses to play natively. Most of what I get is AVI MKV or MP4 and the TV will play them. You don't say how you are obtaining the movies: what format the movie file uses and how you are capturing it or from where you are ripping it. Use whatever format they came in unless you need to convert for compatibility with the device where it gets played. Converting them to another format results in loss of quality. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? Yes, if the app allows it. Even if you install the app onto the flash drive, many apps still store some of their files on the OS partition. For example, many files are put onto C: when you install MS Office somewhere else. Yeah, I have to take the time to see how her machine is set up. I know her downloads go to the C drive and that has to stop... There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) There's no place inside the laptop for the card to insert. Space is at a premium inside a netbook, and having space for a card that may not be inserted means a bulkier case. Just remember to remove the card before moving; else, not only might the card get damaged but the slot could also get damaged and that's the end of using that card reader until you replace it. No hardware can survive abusive users. Not even industrial-grade computers can surive all abuse. When the wife breaks the card and/or the reader -- and *she* has to pay for the replacement card (after losing the movies on the broken one) or *she* pays for the reader repair -- she'll be more careful thereafter. It's her netbook, so she's the one responsible for how she handles it. We have a good lasting cooperative and complimentary relationship, it is more important to me than things. I'm not too sure I'd put up with a card reader that has the card protruding like that, so I won't try to impose on her except as a suggestion. Laptops are easier to find than women that are "keepers" IMO. |
#14
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What is the best flash file format to use
On Wed, 15 Aug 2018 12:52:17 -0400, default
wrote: My wife has one of the Acer Aspire 1 net books. The C drive only has 32 GB of storage and Windoze uses most of it. It is not upgradable. It has superb graphics and she uses it to watch Netflix without being tied down to the TV set. She has added two 64 GB flash cards for storage. I currently have them both formatted as FAT32 drives. Are there good reasons to use NTFS or exFAT instead, and what are the reasons? The advantage to FAT32 is that if there is a movie, she can just unplug the flash drive and plug it into her TV to watch the movie on the big screen with friends. Can applications be loaded to the flash drives (and run normally) as if they were on the C drive? There is also an unused card reader on the machine, but unlike some laptops the standard size SD card it takes, sticks out by ~ one half, and it might get broken off the way she treats the machine if it has to live there 24/7. (or I have to find a half-length SD to micro SD card adapter for it) Thanks for all the replies. I'll leave at least one of her flash drives FAT32 to stay compatible with her TV. It is rare that we encounter movies over 4GB. I can split movies into parts or burn a DVD if I want it badly enough. I was more concerned with the file systems utility to the laptop itself than just to play movies. It's her machine though, and from what I see, it gets used mainly for some web surfing, simple games, email, and movies. It isn't a serious computer, but it does have a pretty good display, and long battery life so it is ideal for it's use. It's not like it has to do discrete Fourier transform analysis on sine waves from a radio telescope or something hinky like that. |
#15
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What is the best flash file format to use
default wrote:
Believe me, I checked that out. The model she has, has about eight screws holding the bottom on and no other trap-doors or removable appendages like a battery. I Googled it and the info I found said HDD memory is soldered in. A114-31 series. Ah, finally more details. I found a Youtube video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62O7bWGkjxY That's on the A114-31-C4HH which might be close to your netbook's configuration. The author says the RAM and HDD are soldered onto the mothboard. If soldering is with leads (the component is laid onto the PCB with leads going through blivets and soldered on the opposite side) then you could replace the components if you had the tools (solder iron, wick, solder sucker) and the expertise; however, finding a replacement drive would be very tough as the drives are probably special order by Acer, so they're the only ones with the drives (which they likely won't sell individually as the bigger drives are used to "drive" consumers to buy the pricier netbook configurations). I haven't tried on her Samsung TV but tried it on mine and it only plays FAT32. She lives ~120 miles from me, so I deal with her concerns when I'm at her house... If she gave you the brand and model of her TV, you could look up its specs and read its manual before visiting her. My Samsung TV plays flash cards but is not a smart TV and I have no control over the video player. I do have VLC on a "TV-stick" and can play some of the formats the TV refuses to play natively. Most of what I get is AVI MKV or MP4 and the TV will play them. There are media players you can hook up to the TV. I've not investigated those since I just make sure the next TV has got the smarts to do what I want; however, it seems the media players are more flexible for features and file formats. We have a good lasting cooperative and complimentary relationship, it is more important to me than things. I'm not too sure I'd put up with a card reader that has the card protruding like that, so I won't try to impose on her except as a suggestion. Laptops are easier to find than women that are "keepers" IMO. 120 miles apart means each of you get to mostly see just the better half of the other half. From the Youtube video, at that time the netbook only cost $200. If she breaks the card reader (the card can be replaced albeit losing the contents of the old card), well, there's the USB ports for using either HDDs or flash drive that way. |
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