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Formating SDHC as NTFS?

A

Ashton

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
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I've got a 32gb SHDC card that's currently formatted using the default FAT32 system, however FAT32 does not support files over 4GB in size and I'd like to put 8GB (1080p) movies on the card.

I've read that formating a SDHC card as NTFS will damage the controller and, while it will still seem to work fine, it will shorten the card's lifespan.

If this is true, is there a way to put 8GB moves on the card without problems or will I need to downgrade them (or, obviously, use my NTFS formatted platter-based USB HDD)?

Would formating it as EXT3/EXT4 work without damaging it? (it's primary useage is in my Android mobile devices --- though I'd prefer to still be able to read it in my windows laptop)
 
How could it damage the controller? It's just writing data like anything else...
 
I have no idea, I know very little about the inner workings of flash-based memory (namely that they use "logic gates" instead of magnetic sectors) So I figured I'd better play it safe and ask where everyone knows more than me :)
 
They're not very different from hard drives when it comes to that. Instead of sectors, you have data written in blocks, but the flash controller still can't tell the difference between say a picture and the MFT that would be created when you format a volume to NTFS.
 
Maybe you didn't think about this, but Android and NTFS don't go together. You're probably better off cutting your movies in two or three chunks.
 
If they're MKV files, you can split them without recoding them and losing quality. I've done this before to put large movies onto multiple DVD+Rs.
 
Blue Fox said:
They're not very different from hard drives when it comes to that. Instead of sectors, you have data written in blocks, but the flash controller still can't tell the difference between say a picture and the MFT that would be created when you format a volume to NTFS.
Click to expand...

That had been my asumption. a logic gate is just like a sector on a HDD, it's a 1 or a 0, the controller should just say which gate is open and which is closed, so it shouldnt be able to tell what system its using, but I didnt want to risk a $50 SDHC card to find you

Aesma said:
Maybe you didn't think about this, but Android and NTFS don't go together. You're probably better off cutting your movies in two or three chunks.
Click to expand...

I've read conflicting reports on that. Some places say "I can read NTFS fine" others say not. I'm currently able to read my NTFS-formatted USB HDD without a problem on my eeepad transformer.

dustNbone said:
If they're MKV files, you can split them without recoding them and losing quality. I've done this before to put large movies onto multiple DVD+Rs.
Click to expand...

Having spent a lot of time on the internet as it was developing, years ago you would have to upload/download movies this way because everyone was on 56kbps (or slower) Dialup. I REALLY hate when a movie stops at a more-or-less-random point and I have to go back to the folder and open the next part. However I am not above doing this if there is no other option.

danman said:
Use exFAT.
Click to expand...

I know absolutely nothing about the exFAT file system, In fact I've only heard it thrown around roughly 3 times. I will look into it.
 
I can't remember which program I used to do it, I think mkvmerge in Linux but it puts a pointer in the first file to point to the second one automatically if it's in the same folder, and your player supports it. Alternatively, you can just tell the player to play the entire folder (containing all parts, named numerically) and it should play them in sequence. There will be a tiny hiccup, but nothing terrible.

I don't see why you can't just format the card NTFS, if your Android device can see an NTFS HDD it will be able to work with an SD card. From what I can tell, Paragon makes an NTFS driver for Android, probably up to the vendor to license it, which explains some devices supporting and some not. For what you're doing I don't see wear as being a serious problem, we're talking about a very few large files here, the filesystem overhead will be minimal.

I guess ext4 is another option, access from Windows will be a bit awkward, though I haven't bothered trying to work with ext4 in Windows in quite some time, so maybe it's a bit more elegant now.
 
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