Mains or USB Powered External Hard Drive

Hi All

I am about to set up aTV Flash but was wondering which type of external hard drive to use. Does the external drive have to be mains powered or would something like a WD Passport (USB/bus powered) hard drive be OK with aTV? I can purhcase either, my main aspiration is to stream direct from aTV without constant need for PC to be switched on.

Thanks…

I’d personally go with the powered one. This way there is less stress put onto the ATV, as it would be powering itself. I just picked up the Western Digital Elements 1 TB HDD for that reason (and that it is a bargain price :wink: ).

The drive can be self-powered or have a separate power supply.

Thanks both, Ross, I have also now purchased the WD elements 1TB - as you say it was a bargain… will I have to format this to FAT32 in order to use? is there a simple/recommended means of doing this?

Kind Regards

Rob

Yes, you can easily format the drive in a FAT32 format by following the guide here: http://wiki.atvflash.com/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#AppleTV_is_Not_Recognizing_My_External_Drive

here is more info on AppleTV and USB power: http://forum.atvflash.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2767&p=11655#p11655