TViX M-4000 & MAC... Can we get along?

To further elaborate... the "Unable to Connect to Disk" Error message seems to be referring to the Network option, as the surser on the top of the screen is stuck on the Network option. For some reason it is unable to move to the HDD or any of the 2 USB options.


I just checked, the disk is formated in HFS+


I also tried removing the HDD, and tried to using it with a USB external drive with media files, but no good :/


It still seems to be stuck on the Network option not moving.


Does anyone know any other way to move the cursor to the HDD or USB other than the buttons 6-9?


Help is still needed and appreciated.

I tried just about everything guys, I checked their site FAQ as sckramer suggested, and found this post:
In the case of the TViX Player, we are currently supporting three kinds of file systems (HFS/HFS+/NTFS), so you can play any multimedia files on different operating systems (Mac & PC). Apart from the player mode, in external storage mode it is dependent on your OS functionalities.



Recommended File Systems

MAC User

HFS+

PC User

NTFS

MAC & PC User

HFS+/NTFS


## Make sure to format your HDDs for Mac ##


You should NOT select "Install MAC OS 9 Disk Drivers" when you format your partitions to HFS+ (plus) by disk utilities for Mac.

Some of the HDDs larger than 160GB should be partitioned with two separate 80GB partitions. In case you have recognition problems when you use HDD larger than 80GB, you should make your HDD into 2 or 3 partitions.


It suggested the HDD needs to be formatted into smaller partitions to be recognised, and it does work with HFS+. I did that (erasing everything) and partitioning the drive into 4 smaller dirves....but no good.

Still the cursor refuses to move to the HDD option or USB.

bearklaw, am sorry I didn't understand your solution very well (lack of technical skills I guess), but I am using Macbood with Intel Duo, but I have no windows booting on it.

I posted my question on DVICO's FAQ's, and I hope someone will reply at some point, as the Digital Connection Support could not help as he said they are not experts on Mac and can not offer more help.


Does that mean the device goes into the trash??? It sure feels like it right now.


Thanks guys for your help, truly appreciated.

I didn't know that TViX boxes supported HFS or HFS+. The manual, in the Specifications section, lists "NTFS, FAT32" in the File Formats section with no mention of HFS or HFS+. I suspect that you are having problems because HFS isn't actually supported.


OS X doesn't have a way to wipe a disk - you can reformat it, but that installs at least one partition. You can not delete the last partition on a disk using the GUI.


One thing to try - FAT32 can actually support disks over 1TB, but Windows won't let you do this. Try mounting your TViX on your Mac and formatting the disk again. Use Disk Utility, select the TViX hard drive, and in the "Erase" tab set the Volume Format to "MS-DOS File System" which is actually FAT32. (Do not pick the FAT16 version, which has (FAT16) appended to it.) I don't know if it will let you, but try formatting the entire disk that way, and see if the TViX will recognize it.


If it doesn't, I can think of three options:

1) Create four FAT32 partitions, as big as the system will let you. This is ugly because it chops up your drive, and FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB.


2) Install Parallels Desktop on your Mac, and then install a version of Windows as a guest OS. This allows you to run Windows on your Mac, and then access the TViX from the guest version of Windows. Its a good solution, as you can then use Windows to format an NTFS disk and to write to an NTFS file system, but it involves buying a copy of Parallels and Windows. I'm not a windows expert, but I imagine the cheapest edition of Windows XP support NTFS. (If you don't mind dual-booting you can use Apple's free BootCamp instead of Parallels. Then to get to Windows you have to reboot your Mac into Windows instead of running under OS X.)


3) There are some experimental add ons to OS X that give it the ability to write to NTFS file systems, but they are not for the timid. See How to read and write ntfs partitions on Mac OS X for more info.


Another option is to take the TVIX to a friend with a PC and use his machine to format the drive back to NTFS. They you will have to use the TViX's built in FTP server to transfer files via the network, which will be on the slow side.


Hopefully you will be able to use one big FAT32 partition. If not, I'd vote for 2) if the wallet allows it. Being able to run Windows on your Mac has other advantages.


-Bear

there's gotta be a way to delete partitions...


shell out to unix...!! not sure on the command however

Thanks guys... it worked like a charm. I formatted the drive into 4 FAT32 partitions of equal size and tested it, and it works


Finally.


One more question: Mac also allowed me to format it into 1 large FAT32 partition, so where will the 4GB limitation appear exactly so I know how to deal with it??


Thanks a million guys... you're a true help

I have a 750 gb Seagate in my TVIX partitioned as a single FAT32. You can do so using the OSX Disk Utility. When running Disk Utility, one may forget that there can be a difference between asking the application to partition vs reformat an existing partition.


What you need to do is


1. Click on the DRIVE in the left list. Don't click on a partition of the drive, but on the drive itself.


2. Select the PARTITION tab (not the Erase tab). This lets you set the partitioning scheme.


3. Set the scheme to 1 partition and the format to MS-DOS (which is FAT32)


This will format the drive as a single, large FAT32 volume.


I also use a Mac as an NFS server to feed the TVIX four additional network volumes. Works great and Windows was never needed to do any formatting.