Re: backup to FAT32 fails due to bad characters in file names

bshannon · ‎2015-12-03

I'm trying to backup my ReadNAS to an external USB disk with FAT32 (VFAT) filesystem.

The backup fails because some of the files have names with characters that aren't supported in FAT32.

Is there a way to get the backup to map the filenames so that the backup will succeed?

If not, what other filesystem types are supported for USB disks? I tried ext3 but the

ReadyNAS didn't recognize it.

Is there a way to use the admin GUI to reformat the disk with another filesystem type

that won't have this problem?

ReadyNAS 6.4.0 on RN 314.

Thanks.

ukbobboy · ‎2015-12-04

Hi bshannon

I have a simple suggestion, why not reformat your external HDs in NTFS?

NTFS is totally compatible with FAT and FAT32 plus you can have long file names, just to let you know I have used external USB HDs in the past and found that NTFS is the way to go.

Hope this helps.

UK Bob

bshannon · ‎2015-12-04

If NTFS doesn't have any of these file name problems, that's worth considering.

How do I format the disk for NTFS using the ReadyNAS console?

Note that I don't have any Windows systems to use to do the formatting.

Can I format a disk for NTFS using Linux or Mac OS?

StephenB · ‎2015-12-04

I don't own a Mac, so my knowledge here is second-hand.

But I believe you will need to install an NTFS toolkit on the Mac. Paragon sells one for $20 (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/features.html)

bshannon · ‎2015-12-04

I guess that means there's no way to format the disk using the ReadyNAS?

StephenB · ‎2015-12-04

You can format internal drives. I don't think you can format USB drives as NTFS.

ukbobboy · ‎2015-12-09

Hi StephenB

As I've said, I have used external USB drives in the past and as long as windows can see those drives then they can be formatted in NTFS.

However, as BShannon does not have access to a windows PC then there's not much that can be done.

UK Bob

bshannon · ‎2015-12-09

I figured out how to get ReadyNAS to format the drive as ext4, which then worked fine for backups.

StephenB · ‎2015-12-10

@ukbobboy1 wrote:

However, as BShannon does not have access to a windows PC then there's not much that can be done.

I gave him a way to format w/o a Windows PC. It isn't free, but it is quite affordable - ~$20US.