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Drive Media - Direct-Access Media (HDD, RDX, Flash Memory)

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Overview

Firestreamer supports any storage devices recognized by the operating system as direct-access media, such as internal and external hard disk drives (HDD), RDX removable disks, flash memory, and so on. As a safety precaution, Firestreamer can only access a direct-access medium if it has been used with Firestreamer before, or when all of the following conditions are met:

  • The medium contains a single partition.
  • The partition is formatted with the file system supported by the operating system, such as FAT or NTFS (the actual type of the file system is not important).
  • The root directory does not contain any files or folders, including hidden or system ones, with the exception of RECYCLER, RECYCLED, $Recycle.Bin and System Volume Information. The root directory may contain other hidden files or folders only if it also contains a file or folder called FirestreamerWriteAllowed.

If any of the above conditions are not met, the Activity view of the Firestreamer Snap-in will display the E028 message for the medium.

In addition to the above, Firestreamer only supports the disks that meet the following requirements:

  • The disk type is Basic, as opposed to Dynamic.
  • The type of the partition table is MBR (Master Boot Record), as opposed to GPT (GUID Partition Table).
  • The sector size is 512, 1024, or 2048 bytes.

Preparing Media

To prepare direct-access media for first use with Firestreamer, follow the steps below:

  1. Open Windows Disk Management.
  2. Delete all partitions on the target disk.
    WARNING:
    This will destroy all data on the medium.
    64-bit systems: You can use the DiskPart system utility to delete special partitions, such as EFI.
  3. On the right lower pane, right-click the disk icon (not the partition space), and then click Convert to Basic Disk, if available.
  4. Right-click the disk icon again, and then click Convert to MBR Disk, if available.
  5. Create either a new Primary partition or a new Simple Volume on the disk, and assign a drive letter.
  6. Format the partition with FAT, FAT32 or NTFS. The type of the file system is not important because Firestreamer will reformat the medium. You may want to use the Quick Format option to speed up the formatting process.
  7. Open the newly formatted disk in Windows Explorer, and then create a new folder on it called FirestreamerWriteAllowed. The presence of this folder will allow Firestreamer to use the disk even if the latter contains hidden files or folders.
  8. You can either remove the drive letter or leave it assigned. For more information, see Drive Media.

 

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