Sony HAP 1 ES and adding external Hard Drives


This is a spin off of the existing HAP 1 ES thread as it addresses a single issue. I have carefully read the reviews of the product by Kal in Stereophile and Steven Stone in The Absolute Sound.
Kal mentions that when he tried to attach an external HD, the Sony requires that the HD be re formatted, and that once this is done the HD can no longer be
used in it's original set up. Stone's review did not comment on adding external drives.
The 1 TB storage would not be enough for me, as I estimate my collection is about 3 TB, uncompressed (not including my SACDs, DVD-As, and Blu Rays, which I don't think could be stored on the Sony). I therefore would be using external HDs. I am currently digitalizing my colection but have only used a fraction of the 3 TB hard drive that is being employed for this. I don't relish the thought of wasting a HD, although I guess it is a relatively small expenditure. Has any one tried adding external HDs to this unit?
richardfinegold

Showing 2 responses by brownsfan

Richard, I have an unused 1.5 TB HD that I bought but never used. I intend to dedicate it to the Sony. I can try to hook it up, but my guess is I will get the "reformat" command. If I can find a spare USB I will give it a go tomorrow.
Al, it sounds like that might be good news, unfortunately, you might as well be speaking aramaic. :) I know what an external USB drive is, but you lost me on the rest. No doubt, most of the readers will understand what you mean, but for me, unmounting the Ext partitions from windows sounds like an exercise in voyeurism or exhibitionism, or possibly both.

At a high level, if I catch your main point correctly, you have discovered a way to use an external drive with the HAPZ1 while preserving the ability to share the drive with another computer. Is that correct? Also, can you preserve existing data on an external drive while formatting it for use with the Sony?