I've owned a Model 3 since March of 2019, and have used a partitioned USB SSD as a dashcam and music storage device since then. I originally set it up as two FAT partitions, and this worked fine for years. Recently, I've noticed that the TeslaCam logo has been showing a red "X" from time to time, but not 100% consistently. I figured that the drive was overheating in the summer heat, and might be on the verge of failing entirely, so I pulled it to investigate and perhaps replace it. I discovered, though, that the car has trashed my partitions and created a new single exFAT partition with a label of "TESLADRIVE", wiping out my music partition, and also deleting some old TeslaCam recordings. I hadn't listened to music on that drive in a few weeks; I'd been favoring listening to my phone via Bluetooth. Thus, I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but it was between June 24 (when I know I listened to music off my drive) and July 9 (when I saved a new TeslaCam video in what I now know is the new partition). I had no Tesla software updates in that period, so the rude trashing of my music wasn't triggered by that.
My working hypothesis is that the Tesla software detected a problem with the drive and figured it'd be best to reformat it, thus wiping out my music; however, if somebody has a better idea, or knows for certain what happened, I'd appreciate hearing it. I can, of course, re-create my old music partition (likely on a new drive, since I no longer trust the old one), but if there's something I can do to minimize the risk of the Tesla trashing my partitions in the future, I'd like to know what it is.
My working hypothesis is that the Tesla software detected a problem with the drive and figured it'd be best to reformat it, thus wiping out my music; however, if somebody has a better idea, or knows for certain what happened, I'd appreciate hearing it. I can, of course, re-create my old music partition (likely on a new drive, since I no longer trust the old one), but if there's something I can do to minimize the risk of the Tesla trashing my partitions in the future, I'd like to know what it is.