[V9] How to Format USB into 2 Partitions for DashCam and Music [Windows]

[SomeJoe7777]

@brianman,

I wrote this guide with the firmware that had the very first release of TeslaCam. At the time, it appeared that many people were having corruption problems, and it seemed that the manner of formatting made a difference.

With the later versions of the firmware, many bugs in the USB and FAT32 write logic and drivers in the Tesla firmware have been fixed, and I no longer believe the choice of formatter makes any difference. I'm 80% sure that the single biggest factor in any corruption that people are still experiencing at this point is the result of the quality and speed of the USB drive. Slower and older drives are more likely to have problems.

I think any FAT32 formatter will work properly. I'd use the Windows built-in format to prepare any partition up to 32GB. If you want a larger partition (especially necessary if you're going to use Sentry Mode a lot), then I see nothing wrong with the 3rd-party formatter I linked to in the original post.

It would be interesting to compare two images to see if there is indeed any meaningful difference in the two formatters. But even if there is, we have no evidence that those differences would cause problems. For example, in the master boot record (MBR) are some values for the count of cylinders, heads, and sectors. Those values are all but ignored by any modern operating system in favor of the LBA (logical block addressing) numbers. If one formatter puts one set of CHS values in the MBR, and the other puts a different set, we have no idea if that would actually affect the Tesla firmware or not. It shouldn't, but who knows?

 

[maunstar]

Thanks for making this tutorial. For whatever reason as a few others have noted, I'm getting the "This operation is not supported on a non-empty removable disk" error - see attached. Doesn't appear anyone who had this issue got it resolved from what I can tell.

I'm going to try this on another PC and hopefully have better results.

Windows 10
Drive is GPT (screenshot was after a few attempts)
Running as administrator
Sandisk 128GB Ultra Fit USB 3.1
I've tried various sizes of initial partition, in the image shown I tried 24GB but i've tried 16 and 32 as well.

 

[J0kers]

Hello everyone,

I have the exact same issue as @maunstar !
Any chance you found a solution since thursday ?

Windows won't recognize a second primary partition on a removable disk.
Can't create it with diskpart and if I create it with something else it won't appear anyway.

Can't figure what's wrong since many of you managed to do it !

 

[maunstar]

Hello everyone,

I have the exact same issue as @maunstar !
Any chance you found a solution since thursday ?

Windows won't recognize a second primary partition on a removable disk.
Can't create it with diskpart and if I create it with something else it won't appear anyway.

Can't figure what's wrong since many of you managed to do it !

It ended up being an issue with the machine I was using (Work machine with increased security software on it) - I was able to run all these commands on my Home PC without an issue, so I'm not sure. they are both Windows 10 professional.

I ran the commands and then used Mini Tool's Partition Wizard to make the partitions FAT32.
Note that on my Home PC I was able to recognize the Secondary Partition in Computer Management.

How I definitely know it is something with that PC is after doing this and transferring Music to it, my work PC still won't recognize the 2nd partition, So take that for what it's worth - I got what I wanted on the drive so I'm done investigating.

My recommendation would be to try another machine or ask a friend to use theirs for it. the process only takes 10 minutes or so when it works

good luck!

 

[GPinzone]

Hello everyone,

I have the exact same issue as @maunstar !
Any chance you found a solution since thursday ?

Windows won't recognize a second primary partition on a removable disk.
Can't create it with diskpart and if I create it with something else it won't appear anyway.

Can't figure what's wrong since many of you managed to do it !

Windows 7 won't recognize the second partition. Windows 10 can, but only if it's completely up to date.

 

[hijdaarmetdieX]

Thanks works perfect on Win10 1709

 

[ESoCal]

Great thread and info. On Win10, I ended-up using Mini Tool's Partition Wizard to make the partitions FAT32. So easy to use. A 128gb usb, partitioned to 32gb for teslacam (anticipating possibly needed more storage when Sentry mode is added) and 98gb for music. Win10 recognized the Secondary Partition without issue, and assigned drive letters in Computer Management. Loaded up my music, ran the TORG folder organizer. Installed the USB drive the first time today, and the TeslaCam worked perfectly, as does accessing my entire music library via usb ... no more bluetooth and having to access music via the phone. Should have done this long ago.

 

[dfwatt]

Has anyone seen a recurrent USB drive loading error since the last firmware update in relationship to music on USB?. We have two SSD USB drives serving as hard drives for music in our two cars. Occasionally we get a loading error but now I can't read the drive at all in either car. Seems incredibly unlikely that two SSD drives have failed simultaneously. And they look absolutely normal plugged into a PC with no apparent directory or other errors. Can anyone offer any insights into what the heck is going on? I have a USB hub in both cars but it's never caused a problem before

 

[adjacentengels]

Has anyone seen a recurrent USB drive loading error since the last firmware update in relationship to music on USB?. We have two SSD USB drives serving as hard drives for music in our two cars. Occasionally we get a loading error but now I can't read the drive at all in either car. Seems incredibly unlikely that two SSD drives have failed simultaneously. And they look absolutely normal plugged into a PC with no apparent directory or other errors. Can anyone offer any insights into what the heck is going on? I have a USB hub in both cars but it's never caused a problem before

I haven't seen this exactly, but since the update my Taptes wireless charger is no longer working. It works fine if I plug it into USB ports at home and phones charge if plugged directly into the USB, but when I plug the Taptes into my Model 3 each sides just powers on and off and on and off.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

Has anyone seen a recurrent USB drive loading error since the last firmware update in relationship to music on USB?. We have two SSD USB drives serving as hard drives for music in our two cars. Occasionally we get a loading error but now I can't read the drive at all in either car. Seems incredibly unlikely that two SSD drives have failed simultaneously. And they look absolutely normal plugged into a PC with no apparent directory or other errors. Can anyone offer any insights into what the heck is going on? I have a USB hub in both cars but it's never caused a problem before

There's several reports of both the Jeda and the Tapates wireless chargers that won't function properly after updating to 2019.8.x. (Note: Looks like the Nomad wireless charger is not affected.) It looks like the problem with those wireless chargers can be solved by using a cable that has only the power wires connected, not the data wires. This indicates to me that the when the data wires are connected, the Tesla is attempting to identify the device and configure it as a peripheral. Given that the Tesla has no idea what to do with a wireless charger, it then power cycles it. With a cable that connects power wires only, this doesn't happen.

So, seeing as how on software versions prior to 2019.8.x this did not happen, that gives good evidence that Tesla changed the USB drivers in this firmware version. If I may speculate, I would say that a USB driver change could very well be responsible for the SSD's no longer getting recognized.

 

[dfwatt]

I haven't seen this exactly, but since the update my Taptes wireless charger is no longer working. It works fine if I plug it into USB ports at home and phones charge if plugged directly into the USB, but when I plug the Taptes into my Model 3 each sides just powers on and off and on and off.

I think that's the same issue. They've done something to change how the port reacts to load. Or perhaps how it detects something other than a simple phone such as a USB bus. Whatever the final explanation something has changed and it clearly no longer works as well as it once did. Instead of very occasional loading errors suggesting a sub-optimal management of USB buses, now it simply won't read from a USB drive at all.

 

[evM3Sekar]

Introduction

I find the requirement for a separate USB drive for music and the v9 dashcam feature to be annoying. Without some type of work-around, that would use both USB ports in the front of the car, leaving you with no USB port for phone charging. It's been reported that you can partition the USB drive into two separate partitions and make a single USB drive work for both dashcam and music, but this is not the easiest thing to do on Windows...

Inspired by this post, I have created one for Mac here:
Mac: divide USB into 2 partitions (for dashcam and music)

 

[Wennfred]

Added 2 thumb drives, a 64gig for the TeslaCam and the 256gig for music. Using each USB port with a Y adaptor so that I can plug in both wireless charger USB cords. Had to create a Music folder on the 246 and also convert some of the songs to m4a format, the m4p wouldn’t read.


Fred

 

[Jedi2155]

Added 2 thumb drives, a 64gig for the TeslaCam and the 256gig for music. Using each USB port with a Y adaptor so that I can plug in both wireless charger USB cords. Had to create a Music folder on the 246 and also convert some of the songs to m4a format, the m4p wouldn’t read.

Fred

Only problem with Y adapters is that iPhones don't support those, and Android devices typically charge a much lower rate when using them.

 

[dfwatt]

Added 2 thumb drives, a 64gig for the TeslaCam and the 256gig for music. Using each USB port with a Y adaptor so that I can plug in both wireless charger USB cords. Had to create a Music folder on the 246 and also convert some of the songs to m4a format, the m4p wouldn’t read.


Fred

I can't get any m4a to be loaded properly either from a flash drive or an SSD with proper FAT32 formatting. Something has changed in terms of how the system reads the USB bus,

 

[Wennfred]

Only problem with Y adapters is that iPhones don't support those, and Android devices typically charge a much lower rate when using them.

The IPhone charges fine with the Taptes wireless charger on both sides. The Taptes is connected to both of these Y connectors on each of the D/C side only, and on the data side of the Y connector are the drives. The IPhone connects via Bluetooth. No issues at all.

 

[Wennfred]

These are the ones I use with good results.

 

[Jedi2155]

View attachment 399986

The IPhone charges fine with the Taptes wireless charger on both sides. The Taptes is connected to both of these Y connectors on each of the D/C side only, and on the data side of the Y connector are the drives. The IPhone connects via Bluetooth. No issues at all.

Sure they'll power a wireless pad that doesn't require communication. It will NOT power an iPhone through the stock dock though, and the android device through the stock dock. I'm not using a wireless pad as the provided Tesla dock works great with my case.

I bought a Y-cable through amazon and found out the hard way that it didn't work. Ended up buying a USB hub in order to charge the iPhone while using the flashdrive.

 

[CSFTN]

Any thoughts on using this method on a SSD drive, rather than a thumb drive?
I am looking at a Crucial MX500 (it claims to have a method to protect the drive from power interruptions) and a SATA to USB cable. Should be plenty of room for all 8 cameras, if Tesla ever supports such, and much less over-writing than with a 32 GB thumb drive.

 

[Knightshade]

Any thoughts on using this method on a SSD drive, rather than a thumb drive?
I am looking at a Crucial MX500 (it claims to have a method to protect the drive from power interruptions) and a SATA to USB cable. Should be plenty of room for all 8 cameras, if Tesla ever supports such, and much less over-writing than with a 32 GB thumb drive.

Should work fine, though check the detailed specs as some SSDs have narrower operating temp ranges to be sure it'll work for your local conditions... (last time someone cited an SSD for example it wasn't rated for temps below 32F or about I think 90ish, while the flash card they were comparing to went down to 0 and up over 100)