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

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It should not. The partitions can be any size.

Note that the car is case-sensitive when it comes to the volume name as well as the folder name for the TeslaCam partition. Make sure if you set it up again manually that you use the proper casing for the names otherwise the TeslaCam drive will not be recognized.
Thank you, @SomeJoe7777!

I triple-check file names and folder names every time. They are correct. I also created the USB partitions twice (prepare the stick and test, re-partition and re-test), and both times, it didn't work, and Tesla gave me X sign for the TeslaCam. Music worked.

Now, I tried this yesterday: re-partition the 256GB stick to 119GB and 128GB, instead of 128GB and 119GB, and made 119GB partition for TeslaCam. Magically this time, it worked!
Didn't work: 128GB TeslaCam + 119GB TeslaMusic, both FAT32
Worked: 119GB TeslaCam + 128GB TeslaMusic, both FAT32

I will test the TeslaCam, including Sentry, for a few more days and report back.
My current hypothesis: the TeslaCam partition should be the smallest in the disk.
 
Thank you, @SomeJoe7777!

I triple-check file names and folder names every time. They are correct. I also created the USB partitions twice (prepare the stick and test, re-partition and re-test), and both times, it didn't work, and Tesla gave me X sign for the TeslaCam. Music worked.

Now, I tried this yesterday: re-partition the 256GB stick to 119GB and 128GB, instead of 128GB and 119GB, and made 119GB partition for TeslaCam. Magically this time, it worked!
Didn't work: 128GB TeslaCam + 119GB TeslaMusic, both FAT32
Worked: 119GB TeslaCam + 128GB TeslaMusic, both FAT32

I will test the TeslaCam, including Sentry, for a few more days and report back.
My current hypothesis: the TeslaCam partition should be the smallest in the disk.
After about ten days, TeslaCam is still working.
 
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So this was pretty straight forward.

1) Take 128GB USB Tesla stick out of car put in computer USB.
2) Use Windows Disk Management through Computer Management tool.
3) Right click USB stick, Delete Partition
4) Create New Partition, Name it TESLACAM formatted exFAT 108GB size.
5) Create folder on new partition called "TeslaCam" no quotes
6) Right click free space left in disk manager tool, Create new Partition using the rest of the space, FAT32, named it MUSIC
7) Went out to car, inserted USB. Music showed up under USB and by the time was looking back up, car was recording already.
8) Played music and also selected camera and looked at the footage it had just recorded for the past minute or two.

Done
 
Tested these steps and they worked. Both the dashcam and music partitions were exFAT. I was able to play music and verified that at least sentrycam recorded something. Also confirmed, that "Format USB Drive" does exactly as it says on the tin :). It blows away all partitions on the drive then creates a single partition as exFAT with the name "TESLADRIVE". Was hoping to use a single USB for both music and sentry but that Big Red Format Button makes this risky.

I am currently using a 256GB microSD slotted into a Rocketek card reader and USB-C to USB-A right-angle adapter. This works but when playing music the card reader feels kinda very warm almost hot.

Reader: Amazon.com: Rocketek Aluminum USB 3.0 Portable Memory Card Reader Adapter for Micro SD Card/TF Card Reader Adapter: Industrial & Scientific
Right-angle adapter: Amazon.com: USB C to USB A Adapter OTG, CableCreation USB 3.0 C Male to A Female 90 Degree, Thunderbolt 3 to USB Female OTG Cable, Compatible with MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, Galaxy S20/S10, Note 10, 15CM/ Black: Home Audio & Theater

Edit:
I just copied 64GB of music to the music partition and t he Rocketek got actually hot to touch.
 
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Quick note re using flash drives vs using SSD drives: flash drives are more economical and are typically in a very small form factor. But they are nowhere near as fast nor as long lasting as SSD's (Solid State Drives). Considering the price difference may be about $60 (and your car is worth 50K) I really don't understand why you'd want to use flash drives. Space really isn't a constraint.

My recommendation would be to go with Samsung SSD's (and if you don't want to buy a separate housing case, just get the portable Samsung T7 500GB drive $80 at BandH.com preferably or Amazon if you must - with B&H you do get tech support and can speak to a real person).
To format it Fat32, exFat etc I can recommend using the free and very capable AOMEI partition manager. (Sorry I don't know an equivalent software for Mac, but maybe you can as a friend w/ a Windows PC)
 
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Quick note re using flash drives vs using SSD drives: flash drives are more economical and are typically in a very small form factor. But they are nowhere near as fast nor as long lasting as SSD's (Solid State Drives).

Already covered pretty extensively in this and other threads.

But any decent flash drive is already much faster than needed for this task, so MOAR FASTER doesn't help at all.

And likewise decent quality flash memory on a USB key should, for the small amount of data the car actually writes, be good for 5-10 years on average for say a 128GB key used the typical 8-12 hours a person might use sentry.

And you can buy 4 or 5 of em for the cost of one SSD. (even if you run 24/7 sentry, just get a 256 for still cheap enough you can buy 2 or 3 vs one SSD).

Plus SSDs typically are rated for a narrower band of acceptable temperatures and use 5-10x more power (while not a massive difference in the moment, over years in an EV it'll be a measurable one). Plus they need you to run a cable of some sort instead of just sitting right at the port, making the console interior messier too.


Essentially there's no real upside for a lot more cost, and a few (outside maybe the temp thing) minor downsides.


The only situation where the SSD makes sense in the car at all is if you have a MASSIVE music collection, like more than 300-400GB in just music... because at that point cost starts spiking on USB keys and choices get slim
 
Posted this in the sticky thread but this was my process...easy....using SSD drive I had around already 1TB in size.

I originally partitioned the stock 128GB USB stock with a TeslaCam and Music label, but the stick fills up too fast due to sentry I use at work. It gets alot of activity throughout the day due to parking location and high traffic past the location in the garage.

So, I already had one of these laying around for work Amazon.com: SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE61-1T00-G25: Computers & Accessories

I took that, wiped the partitions, using the Free Windows Partition Wizard from Minitool. I then made sure to delete the partitions and start with 2 new ones.

Then, I created a 990GB exFAT partition labeled TeslaCam, then created the TeslaCam folder under that. Nothing more needed, it will create the other subfolders is needs for the car cameras/sentry.

Then, created a 10GB FAT32 partition labeled Music, then copied all my music folders I have arranged by Artist into the root of that partition.

All works fine again. The Sandisk is nice because it works AND they provide a USB C to USB A adapter that works in the 2021 Glovebox USB A, and it sits nicely on top of the few items I have in the glovebox. Yes, it is pricey....but hey, it is a high speed and capacity SSD drive that should last, will see!

Good luck.
 
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Already covered pretty extensively in this and other threads.

But any decent flash drive is already much faster than needed for this task, so MOAR FASTER doesn't help at all.

And likewise decent quality flash memory on a USB key should, for the small amount of data the car actually writes, be good for 5-10 years on average for say a 128GB key used the typical 8-12 hours a person might use sentry.

And you can buy 4 or 5 of em for the cost of one SSD. (even if you run 24/7 sentry, just get a 256 for still cheap enough you can buy 2 or 3 vs one SSD).

Plus SSDs typically are rated for a narrower band of acceptable temperatures and use 5-10x more power (while not a massive difference in the moment, over years in an EV it'll be a measurable one). Plus they need you to run a cable of some sort instead of just sitting right at the port, making the console interior messier too.


Essentially there's no real upside for a lot more cost, and a few (outside maybe the temp thing) minor downsides.


The only situation where the SSD makes sense in the car at all is if you have a MASSIVE music collection, like more than 300-400GB in just music... because at that point cost starts spiking on USB keys and choices get slim

Posted this in the sticky thread but this was my process...easy....using SSD drive I had around already 1TB in size.

I originally partitioned the stock 128GB USB stock with a TeslaCam and Music label, but the stick fills up too fast due to sentry I use at work. It gets alot of activity throughout the day due to parking location and high traffic past the location in the garage.

So, I already had one of these laying around for work Amazon.com: SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD - Up to 1050MB/s - USB-C, USB 3.2 Gen 2 - External Solid State Drive - SDSSDE61-1T00-G25: Computers & Accessories

I took that, wiped the partitions, using the Free Windows Partition Wizard from Minitool. I then made sure to delete the partitions and start with 2 new ones.

Then, I created a 990GB exFAT partition labeled TeslaCam, then created the TeslaCam folder under that. Nothing more needed, it will create the other subfolders is needs for the car cameras/sentry.

Then, created a 10GB FAT32 partition labeled Music, then copied all my music folders I have arranged by Artist into the root of that partition.

All works fine again. The Sandisk is nice because it works AND they provide a USB C to USB A adapter that works in the 2021 Glovebox USB A, and it sits nicely on top of the few items I have in the glovebox. Yes, it is pricey....but hey, it is a high speed and capacity SSD drive that should last, will see!

Good luck.

@Knightshade: you make a good point that one has to choose quality flash or SSD memory as their operation under varying temperatures, reliability and endurance depend among models /brands. SSD speed certainly is overkill for normal use, but if you ever have to review /download files you may enjoy the higher speed. Power consumption, eh, a watt or so when in operating mode doesn't seem objectionable to me.

On capacity needed, I'd prefer more headroom than not, and as @techlogik experienced, 1TB is a requirement for his situation.

Finally, re space used, other folks have mentioned using right angled cables, so the SSD can lie flat at the bottom.
Lots of fine details to hash out, I'm surprised no outfit offers a proven, solid custom solution.

And, personally, I may have a bias against not using best hardware when feasible at reasonable costs considering later headaches when failures occur - like the widespread failures of early Tesla boards relying on too small an onboard flash drive. Not having to worry about replacing flash drives etc sounds better to me.
 
On capacity needed, I'd prefer more headroom than not, and as @techlogik experienced, 1TB is a requirement for his situation.
Finally, re space used, other folks have mentioned using right angled cables, so the SSD can lie flat at the bottom.

As I say, needing LARGE capacity for a giant music collection.... (and not wanting to use 2 USB devices) is the only place SSDs really make a ton of sense.

Personally I still prefer keeping music and cam footage on separate devices (and plugged into separate ports)- I hate single points of failure that take multiple things down.



So, lots of fine details to hash out, I'm surprised no outfit offers a proven, solid custom solution.

Honestly, Tesla suggests a couple specific USB keys in the manual. For new cars they even include one with the car.

So I suspect the # of folks who really NEED more, or it even occurs to them they would want more, is relatively small.

That said there's a few places that rebrand off-the-shelf SSDs they pre-format with a Teslacam folder then mark up 50-100% and sell as "Teslacam" drives or whatever.

Not a huge fan of the practice.


And, personally, I may have a bias against not using best hardware when feasible at reasonable costs vs later headaches when failures occur - like the widespread failures of early Tesla boards relying on too small an onboard flash drive.



The big issue with the early tesla boards.... well, 2 issues.... but neither was really too-small at the core.

1. Tesla did insanely excessive and pointless logging of basic Linux logs for years and years wasting a ton of write/erase cycles on the eMMC. That probably at least halved the life of those chips if not worse. That's not relevant here as we pretty much know up front the amount of data being written over any given period of time.

2. They weren't (easily) replaced at all. Whereas here if a 128GB Samsung USB key you got for $20 dies in 5 years, you put another (by then prob. $5) 128GB key in there in 5 seconds... (in fact, on the off chance it ever happens when I'm out someplace, I keep a spare (but known to work for dashcam) 32GB stick in the car... (I also swap that in if I ever need to take the big one inside while I want sentry on, say at work, to pull files off of it.... it's too small to use long-term, but it's fine for a few hours once in a while).
 
So this was pretty straight forward.

1) Take 128GB USB Tesla stick out of car put in computer USB.
2) Use Windows Disk Management through Computer Management tool.
3) Right click USB stick, Delete Partition
4) Create New Partition, Name it TESLACAM formatted exFAT 108GB size.
5) Create folder on new partition called "TeslaCam" no quotes
6) Right click free space left in disk manager tool, Create new Partition using the rest of the space, FAT32, named it MUSIC
7) Went out to car, inserted USB. Music showed up under USB and by the time was looking back up, car was recording already.
8) Played music and also selected camera and looked at the footage it had just recorded for the past minute or two.

Done

I bought a Samsung 500gb T7 for music / possibly movies? , and for sentry cam, I would like to set up the drive the same way as this ... is it recommended same space 108GB size for the TESLACAM partition and then just leave the rest for USB drive still or should I be using a higher number for my TESLACAM partition?
 
Question about cabin heat and SSD. I will use a SSD for music in my car. I park outside in CA with outside temperatures at 90 plus. Will the SSD be able to handle the inside cabin temps? Do i need to turn on overheat protection on the car? Should i just pull the SSD out daily when i get to work and plug back in to go home? Thanks
 
Question about cabin heat and SSD. I will use a SSD for music in my car. I park outside in CA with outside temperatures at 90 plus. Will the SSD be able to handle the inside cabin temps? Do i need to turn on overheat protection on the car? Should i just pull the SSD out daily when i get to work and plug back in to go home? Thanks
No need to worry. We've had ssds in both cars and they've been baked in Florida heat no issues at all.

PS but we do have a cabin overheat protection turned on and I forgotten what temperature we have it set at but it's set fairly High
 
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...Do i need to turn on overheat protection on the car?...

As soon as Tesla added the cabin overheat protection, I started to use that feature right away without hesitation. It would keep the cabin to a maximum of 104F which is still hot but not hot enough to warp/destroy things in my car. I've seen warped plastic glasses, warped Tesla key cards... from non-cabin overheat protection practice.
 
Ok. I have seen the back and forth about what should be done with a TeslaCam / Music Drive.

What I plan on using is a Samsung T7 SSD (Connected through the Glove box connection in a 2021, whenever I actually get my car).

My question is, what partition drive structure and what volumes on the drive?

I have seen people use MBT with Fat32 / Fat32. GPT EXT4 / FAT32, GPT EXT4/EXT4. What is runs on the latest TeslaCam / Car Firmware? I would prefer GPT EXT4/EXT4 since that is a more modern drive configuration, but wasn't sure if that was an actual valid drive configuration or just speculation while people dealt with drive configuration.

Thoughts? Practical Experience?
 
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Huh... I had been following this guide for years but did not realize we can do exFAT now. With exFAT, do we simply create 2 partitions in Windows Disk Management? Seems to me all this extra stuff is unnecessary then?
Yes. I think with the most recent software update both TeslaCam and USB music are now supported on exFAT. Not sure what version software enabled this however.
 
Most USB-interfaced portable SSDs and thumb drives are spec'd with a 0~60C operating temperature including the Samsung T7/T5. People think 0~60C (32F~140F) is well enough for an environment where a human is also operating a computer, and the human operator or the host computer electronics might quit earlier than the drive due to extreme temperature. However, leaving a storage device out there with a vehicle and expecting all components to still run nicely in extreme temps and cycles without human, it needs a higher standard on every component.

The only USB drive I found that goes beyond that common 0~60C spes is the Samsung DUO Plus. It supports an operating temperature (ambient) of -25C~85C, or -13F~185F.

Almost all MicroSD cards also have an operating temperature spec of -25C~85C including those Endurance versions, but USB-to-SD dongles do not. I wouldn't bet on Cabin Overheat Protection either.
 
Most USB-interfaced portable SSDs and thumb drives are spec'd with a 0~60C operating temperature including the Samsung T7/T5. People think 0~60C (32F~140F) is well enough for an environment where a human is also operating a computer, and the human operator or the host computer electronics might quit earlier than the drive due to extreme temperature. However, leaving a storage device out there with a vehicle and expecting all components to still run nicely in extreme temps and cycles without human, it needs a higher standard on every component.

The only USB drive I found that goes beyond that common 0~60C spes is the Samsung DUO Plus. It supports an operating temperature (ambient) of -25C~85C, or -13F~185F.

Almost all MicroSD cards also have an operating temperature spec of -25C~85C including those Endurance versions, but USB-to-SD dongles do not. I wouldn't bet on Cabin Overheat Protection either.
So what is the recommend product for us cold weather owners?
Montreal can down to -30° C or lower, normal winters are down in the-10's° C - 20's° C or so.
Don't know what the inside of the car will drop to after sitting in that for 10 + hours, but I would think it would be close to the ambient.
 
Had anybody actually run into problems with cold and SSDs? I couldn't find any in this thread.
Since TeslaCam is usually operational when the car is "sitting", I'd think the SSD would also generate a little heat. I don't think you'd actually have any troubles. I haven't in up to 1 week of -8 celcius, but this is not -30 weather, so I can't guarantee anything :)

Command I use on MacOS to format my USB SSD's:

Bash:
diskutil list # Find out which /dev/disk<Number> your USB drive is
diskutil partitionDisk disk<Number> GPT exfat TESLACAM 320g exfat MUSIC 0 # Where "320g" is 320 gigabytes, and 0 means "the rest"

Then simply create folder "TeslaCam" on TESLACAM partition, and copy music to MUSIC partition.