Easier way to do QNAP external storage formatĪ workaround solution for formatting external HDD for QNAP is to use a professional format tool in another operating system like Windows OS. It is a wise move to turn to other helpful disk formatting tools if you unlucky to facing one of those problems.
For example, you may encounter “Formatting failed (Cannot unmount disk)” or the unknown file system error during formatting the external disk in QNAP NAS. Click “Storage Information” to edit the drive’s label and the label will become the shared folder name of this USB device in File Station.Īs simple as the method is, sometimes accidents happen. Tip: Starting with QTS 4.1, labeling is supported for external USB devices. Start the formatting and wait for the process completes. Select file system options from the drop-down menu. There are four options available in the toolbar. Connect the external drive to a USB or an eSATA port of the NAS and you can see its details in Storage Manager.Ģ. How to format external drive under QNAP NAS?Īctually, it is very easy to perform QNAP external USB formatting or hard drive formatting.ġ. With that driver purchased and activated, QNAP can read exFAT devices and use them with QNAP NAS applications. But it has collaborated with Microsoft and Paragon Software Group to provide a customized exFAT driver for the QNAP NAS.
In general, the QNAP NAS does not natively support exFAT devices. Some users want to make an exFAT format external drive recognized and used by QNAP NAS. To make it readable, ask a bootable Linux CD for help.įor disk volumes larger than 2TB, it is recommended to format them to the EXT4, NTFS, or HFS+ file system. Note that these two formats cannot be read by Windows. Besides, NTFS file system has secure property comparing to FAT32.įormat to EXT3 or EXT4 if you care of the performance and stability of backups. Further, format to NTFS if you’ll place files larger than 4GB in size into the partition. To be specific, you can tell which the proper format is based on following cases.įormat to HTFS+ file system if you want to access the drive from a Mac OS machine.įormat to FAT32 or NTFS file system if you want to access the drive from a Windows PC. Then, which format is the most suitable one?Īs a matter of fact, that depends on the things you care for and the environment you’re using. In QNAP NAS, the external device can be formatted as EXT3, EXT4, FAT32, NTFS, or HFS+ (Mac only) file system. However, they have no idea when it comes to choosing the partition format for the external storage. Many users want to format their external hard drive or USB drive for QNAP NAS backup.
Since formatting erases everything on the drive, Seagate recommends you have a good duplicate of your files on another media before formatting the USB drive.Find the right QNAP external drive format Some USB drives may require specific drivers in the state they come out of the box or may have some preloaded files that can interfere with the process. Seagate recommends you format the USB drive from a computer in one NTFS partition, if possible, prior to setting up the backup plan. Select Add and Start Now if you wish to run the task immediately.