HDD and Flash Memory

On This Page

• Overview
• Preparing Media

Overview

Firestreamer-RM supports all storage devices recognized by Microsoft Windows as fixed or removable direct-access media, such as external and internal hard disk drives, flash memory and so on. As a safety precaution, Firestreamer-RM only connects to a media drive when either the latter contains the medium that has been used with Firestreamer-RM before or when the following conditions are met:

• The medium contains a single partition; and
• The partition is formatted with the file system supported by Windows, such as FAT or NTFS (the actual type of the file system is not important); and
• 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 is not met, the Activity tab of the Firestreamer-RM Control Panel will indicate that the medium is not prepared.

In addition to the above, Firestreamer-RM only connects to the disks which are:

• Basic, as opposed to Dynamic.
• MBR (Master Boot Record), as opposed to GPT (GUID Partition Table).

Preparing Media

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

1. Disable Firestreamer-RM via the Backup tab of the Firestreamer-RM Control Panel.
2. Open the Windows Disk Management.
3. 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.
4. On the right lower pane, right-click the disk icon (not the partition space), and then click Convert to Basic Disk, if available.
5. Right-click the disk icon again, and then click Convert to MBR Disk, if available.
6. Create a new Primary partition on the disk and assign a drive letter.
7. Format the partition with FAT, FAT32 or NTFS. The type of the file system is not important because Firestreamer-RM will re-format the medium. You may want to use the Quick Format option to speed up the formatting process.
8. Open the newly formatted drive in Windows Explorer and create a new folder on it called FirestreamerWriteAllowed. The presence of this folder will allow Firestreamer-RM to use the drive even if the latter contains hidden files or folders.
9. You can leave the drive letter assigned to the disk, however, we recommend removing the drive letter because this will reduce the chances of other software interfering with the drive.
10. If the medium is removable, eject and reinsert it. Otherwise, if the drive is removable, perform the safe removal operation and then reconnect the drive. If the drive is fixed, restart your computer.
11. Enable Firestreamer-RM, which should now connect to the media drive.