Several forum posts have touched this a practical idea, but as yet it has not been addressed by Buffalo. Specifically, what is unclear is whether or not it is technically feasible. Other storage vendors provide similar utilities for their products, such as SanDisk, SeaGate, and Western Digital. This suggests a similar utility would be feasible for Buffalo storage products. Furthermore, it is not stated in product specifications or knowledgebase articles what differentiates Buffalo products so that a similar utility cannot be provided.
We purchased the DriveStation HD-CX500U2. By erasing this partition we could reclaim 784MB of storage space (according to Mac OS X Terminal.app's hdiutil command). In my view, this is a sizable amount of space, usable for a decent number of media content, and worth the trouble of reclaiming.
Given the below - and the fact that customers like us have paid for a storage product - it would benefit Buffalo and its customers to provide a utility via the Downloads section of their support site to all who purchased products that included the CDFS partition out-of-the-box. Perhaps customers would pay a reasonable license fee, especially if it included features directly tied to the hardware (as some vendors do).
JoshC: 1, 2 and 3 below contradict each other. If it this simply not possible, It is unclear what might be gained by posting to the Idea Exchange.
- He suggested it cannot be removed due to it being built into the drive's flash.
- He reiterated this is not possible.
- He suggested posting the request to the Idea Exchange.
Robo in the Idea Exchange Lounge states a utility to do this is now included in 3 drives (I have not verified this), contradicting JoshC's comments.
- Buffalo HD-CX2.0TU2-EU
- Buffalo HD-CX1.5TU2 (-EU)
- Buffalo HD-PX500U2/BLK