Beginners FAQ:Hardware Support (Rev #3, changes)

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Q: Which file systems does RISC OS support
A: RISC OS supports FAT16 and FAT32 as well as its own (FileCore) file system.

Q: How do I remove my thumb drive safely?
A: Click MENU (middle mouse button) on the drive icon and select ‘Dismount’. If the drive was FAT32 you will notice that its name changes from ‘FAT32_0’ to ‘:0’. Now it is save to unplug it.

Q: How can I format my thumb drive, so that RISC OS is able to read it from within RISC OS?
A: RISC OS currently only formats drives with its own (FileCore) format. If you plan exchanging data you should go for FAT32 on Windows/Linux/MacOS. To use the RISC OS file system see: using HForm.

Q: I have a spare USB hard disk. How do I use this on the RISC OS box?
A: You an use it with FAT32 or the RISC OS native file system (FileCore). See using HForm.

Q: How can I enlarge the RISC OS SD card image to use the full SD card?
A: Currently you cannot enlarge the SD card image to use more than 2GB. To use the remaining free space you could create a FAT32 partition and use this instead. See this forum thread

Q: Can I cache filesystems in RAM?
A1: Yes. !Memphis is a RAM based file system that auto-sizes to provide a cache for commonly used files. An option is available to automatically cache the !Scrap directories, which can lead to an improvement in performance for applications like !NetSurf which make a lot of use of this area.
A2: RISC OS provides RAMFS, which can be controlled from the !Configure utility.