Audio: no possibility of usb drive (platter)?

[dtich]

hi all. i know that it's been ascertained that at the moment a platter usb drive will not work in the system, but i'm unclear about whether this is an actual electronic limitation, or a software (somehow..?) limitation. is there any hope/thought that a platter drive (one that runs on usb bus power) might eventually work in the car? i mean why would it not? the usb ports must have standard bus power to charge phones and whatnot, correct? 5VDC i think it is.. what else would be the holdup here...?

i'd like to have my whole lib in there, but it's around 225GB now.. VERY expensive thumbdrive. i can downsize to a thumb, but that just requires maintenance, i.e., periodically selecting new music, copying, etc... rather than the simple update of copying the whole lib every now and again... much easier.

thanks for the thoughts..

 

[brianman]

If the problem is power consumption, perhaps an USB-attched SSD.
Kanguru Solutions QSSD-2H-256GB Qssd External Ssd Usb3.0 Qssd2h256gb :

 

[spleen]

SSDs can have as much power usage as a portable 2.5 inch HD. My SanDisk SSD needed more power than a single USB port could supply.

 

[Jason S]

Two thumb drives. 128G ones aren't too expensive. :smile:

 

[dtich]

Two thumb drives. 128G ones aren't too expensive. :smile:

is that what you use? does anyone use two usb thumbs? i think i saw that in someone's pic recently... does it work well, the browsing seamless alphabetically or do you have to switch devices to search? and, of course, you're taking up both ports... which is an unnecessary drag.

 

[dflye]

is that what you use? does anyone use two usb thumbs? i think i saw that in someone's pic recently... does it work well, the browsing seamless alphabetically or do you have to switch devices to search? and, of course, you're taking up both ports... which is an unnecessary drag.

I have 2 small capacity thumb drives attached now; one for my music, one for son's; makes it easier for finding the right songs when driving to / from school (Christmas with the Chipmunks is going to drive me bonkers very soon) and another set for me when running errands.

There doesn't appear to be any way to combine the lists between the two devices, at least with the older firmware (not upgraded to 4.x yet)

 

[montgom626]

I have 2 small capacity thumb drives attached now;

Very cool! And you can switch back and forth? Can you post a picture of the screen showing the 2 USB drives????

 

[dflye]

Very cool! And you can switch back and forth? Can you post a picture of the screen showing the 2 USB drives????

Yeah, the two devices show up in the list of "My Music & Devices", although they don't use the volume name from the drives, just a generic "USB x" name.

 

[FlasherZ]

I can confirm that using a platter drive does work. I have a 500G Hitachi drive that has my MP3's and it works as you can see below:

 

[montgom626]

Yeah, the two devices show up in the list of "My Music & Devices", although they don't use the volume name from the drives, just a generic "USB x" name.

Thank you for the posting of the pics. I am waiting for my MS, so this is a close as I can get to living the dream!

How big a USB do you use? Do you know the limit for the USB drive? What file system? NTFS?

- - - Updated - - -

I can confirm that using a platter drive does work. I have a 500G Hitachi drive that has my MP3's and it works as you can see below:

Another great post with pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[FlasherZ]

Thank you for the posting of the pics. I am waiting for my MS, so this is a close as I can get to living the dream!

How big a USB do you use? Do you know the limit for the USB drive? What file system? NTFS?

- - - Updated - - -



Another great post with pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a 500G drive, formatted to one entire 500G FAT partition. Format was done by my Macbook Pro.

 

[spleen]

That is a 500G drive, formatted to one entire 500G FAT partition. Format was done by my Macbook Pro.

Didn't realize that FAT would support such a large drive. Good to know.

 

[clea]

Didn't realize that FAT would support such a large drive. Good to know.

neither did I ... and i still don't as i always thought the max size for a partition formatted as FAT was 32G. I would assume that FlasherZ meant FAT32 unless he replies to confirm and reveal his secret.

 

[montgom626]

I would assume that FlasherZ meant FAT32 unless he replies to confirm and reveal his secret.

it must be FAT32.

 

[spleen]

it must be FAT32.

I'm assuming so as well.

 

[FlasherZ]

I'm assuming the same. The Mac just calls it "FAT (MS-DOS)" but it's safe to assume it's FAT32.

 

[dsm363]

I'm assuming the same. The Mac just calls it "FAT (MS-DOS)" but it's safe to assume it's FAT32.

Looks to be the case
Mac OS X v10.6: Using MS-DOS (FAT32)-formatted disks for home directories

 

[brianman]

FAT(16) and FAT32 work in the Model S. NTFS does not.

At least for my vehicle.

 

[dtich]

I can confirm that using a platter drive does work. I have a 500G Hitachi drive that has my MP3's and it works as you can see below:

thanks! that's what i wanted to hear.

so, just to confirm, the car will not support a drive formatted in mac os ext?

 

[TXjak]

So what's the best/easiest way to move a CD collection to a platter drive?