partition usb to boot from and store movies on other partition, possible??

[Pete Garza]

I am new to this community and raspberry pi altogether. I was wondering if it is possible to partition a 64gb usb drive into two parts, one part to boot xbian from and a second to store movies on. Is this possible or do I need two different usb drives to boot and store movies?

ps: I used the search feature but didnt turn up anything info on this.

[IriDium]

Yes, it is certainly possible, but not recommended. To keep the O/S on one partition (Which will have by virtue high R/W I/O) and data on another which will have high R only, will cause R/W conflicts.

However, if the data on the movie part is not critical, then go for it.

In reality, if you have a good SD card, then you should keep xbian on the SD card, and keep your movies on the USB.

Problem solved.

[Pete Garza]

(8th Aug, 2014 05:36 AM)IriDium Wrote:  Yes, it is certainly possible, but not recommended. To keep the O/S on one partition (Which will have by virtue high R/W I/O) and data on another which will have high R only, will cause R/W conflicts.

However, if the data on the movie part is not critical, then go for it.

In reality, if you have a good SD card, then you should keep xbian on the SD card, and keep your movies on the USB.

Problem solved.

thank you for your insight. i read somewhere that xbmc would run faster from class 10 usb drive vs microsd. however i may try your way as it seems less complicated. thank you sir.

[IriDium]

You can get class 10 microsd cards :-) However, I haven't really noticed any real issues with slower cards unless you're doing high I/O or watching a 10Gb mkv movie.

You need an SD card in the RPi anyway, so you might as well use it.

[Kronus]

Hello all,

I know this is an rather old post but I'm also new, new to this community and very very new to Linux.
English is also not my native language so forgive me my dumbness and incorrect grammar and please do correct me if I'm wrong.

If I get it right then it is not possible (or wise) to boot from SD (of course) and have the XBMC on a HDD?
I'm just wondering what is the most smooth and fast setup for XBMC. The HDD I want to use is for homemade holiday-movies and -pictures (and tv-recordings through minidlna (I don't want to get stuck with tweaking a tv-card on the RPi)).
What is the most suitable format for this HDD? NFS? EXT4?

Second I want to install something like domoticz (or HomeGenie). Better install it on a different partition of the HDD or use an other HDD?

Due my lack of Linux knowledge the wiki also sound like hocus pocus to me.

I hope you can point me out/advise me, THX.


Software
XBian version: 20150114-2
XBMC/Kodi version: 13.2 Gotham
Overclock settings: default

Hardware
Device type and model (e.g. Raspberry Pi Model A/B 256/512 MB, CuBox-i i4Pro, ...): RPi Model B
Power supply rating: 5V 2A through Trust HU-5870V powered 7-port USB hub
SD card size and make/type: 4 GB Integral class 10
Network (Ethernet or wireless): Ethernet
Connected devices (TV, USB, network storage, ...): TV, Bluetooth dongle, Z-stick and depending on answer(s) 1 or 2 selfpowerd HDD

Log files
Link to logfile(s):

Problem description:
...

How to reproduce:
...

[rikardo1979]

@Kronus
I going to reply only the part of XBMC/Kodi
Is there any particular reason why you want to have XBMC on HDD??? Cos if you use decent Class 10 SD card it will be much faster than any spinning HDD connected over USB. So do not really see point to do so unless you have some special reason.
Also if you use like 8GB card which cost nothing these days you would be able to keep all whats needed to run XBina/Kodi/XBMC on it.
To use HDD for system, no matter what kind, is not a good move I would say. If you want to connect HDD use it just as storage, nothing else

[f1vefour]

The only benefit from system being on USB (spinning or flash) is it is more fault tolerant. I haven't benchmarked a Class 10 SD vs a USB 3 flash drive on the Pi but it is possible the USB hardware is a bit faster or slower than the MMC hardware, I think it is likely a negligible amount either way.

[rikardo1979]

yup, and USB 3 is irrelevant anyway.
the main reason that people would move install to USB flash drive was not speed but stability on Raspberry Pi B . As you all remember there were issues with SD cards corruptions and bad compatibility etc
Speed difference is barely noticeable as mentioned

[f1vefour]

The memory controller in USB 3 flash drives is much more efficient which makes them faster even on USB 2 ports is why I mentioned it.

[Kronus]

Thanks all for your answers.

I'll get myself a decent class 10 sd-card size 8 or 16 GB and will use HDD as extra storage only (Storage as mentioned in my post).
I was only wondering what is the most smooth, stable and fastest way to run XBMC with Xbian and now I got the answer

[rikardo1979]

(10th Feb, 2015 05:53 PM)f1vefour Wrote:  The memory controller in USB 3 flash drives is much more efficient which makes them faster even on USB 2 ports is why I mentioned it.

nice one, thanks for this