[Question] USB in car question

Bubble181 · Feb 5, 2014

Here we are again. Because in new technology, nothing ever works the way you'd want it to right from the start. Ah well.

So, I have a USB-port in my car. I've used it to listen to MP3s in the past from a flash drive. I bough an external HD with the express purpose of putting all of my music on it - I now keep a map of about 150 CDs in my glove compartment, but I can think of handier ways of carrying that around.

First attempt - Reading error. Ok, after a bit of a search it turns out it can't handle NTFS (because why would it? :rolleyes:

). Reformatted in exFAT (because Win 8 doesn't like FAT32? I guess? No option for it in the standard formatting menu...I could go search deeper but oh god why it's 5 am here). Annnnnd....Reading error. Of course.

Now, I think there's two options:
a) it can't read exFAT either - I don't know exFAT well enough to know, is there much of a difference with FAT32 that could be the root of the problem? If so, could I reformat (part of) my drive in several small FAT32 partitions?
b) The USB port in my car might simply not give enough power to use the drive. The LED goes on and I can hear the drive spinning, but still.

Since it really is 5 am and I don't want to wake the neighbours 15 times running to and fro my car...Any suggestions? Is there a reason to assume it'll be a complete no-go anyway; or is there an easy way to work out what the problem is? The HD's a WD My Passport 1TB (I know it's overkill

), thz car's a Kia Cee'd.

PatrThom · Feb 5, 2014

WinXP and up don't like trying to format a disk > 32GB as FAT32. You can still use other tools (or WinME) to format the disk. You could format the drive in multiple partitions, but it's anyone's guess whether or not your car would be able to see them all (plus you would be limited to 4 partitions max anyway). Microsoft recommends not exceeding a maximum FAT32 drive size of just over 127GB. exFAT and FAT32 are different enough that you shouldn't try to exchange them. Also you may be right, many modern drives require more power than the (usually) USB 2.0 spec of 500ma max. If you have a lighter plug nearby, you can use a double-headed cable to give supplemental power, assuming your drive supports it.

Best test: Try to format your 1TB drive as a single 32GB FAT32 partition (a waste of the space, I know). Make sure you are using the MBR partition type (and NOT the GUID one). Try your MBR/32GB and see if it works. If it does, then you know your hardware setup is good, and then you can start trying to experiment with partition sizes. If not, then try one of the other troubleshooting options.

--Patrick

jwhouk · Feb 5, 2014

Did you see if your owner's manual has some manner of formatting a thumb drive using whatever?

Shakey · Feb 5, 2014

Does the manual say which file system types it supports? My guess is it's only fat32. I doubt they expected someone to attach a full hard drive to it, so they most likely didn't care about file system limits. Pat posted a good way to test it.

figmentPez · Feb 5, 2014

I'm kind of wondering if the UI would even be reasonable to use with a large collection of music. If they didn't build it to handle anything more than a small-ish flash drive, then it might not be the easiest to use with a large library of music.

PatrThom · Feb 6, 2014

Straight from the manual: (p. 4-182)

• When the formatted byte/sector set-
ting of External USB device is not
either 512BYTE or 2048BYTE, then
the device will not be recognized.
• Use only a USB device formatted to
FAT 12/16/32.
• If the USB device is divided by logi-
cal drives, only the music files on the
highest-priority drive are recognized
by car audio

What this means is that you shouldn't use drives which are labeled as "Advanced Format" (4096BYTE sectors) unless they can do 512B sector emulation.
If you have trouble finding a way to format the drive in FAT32, you might try this tool...IF you are willing to trust some unknown person on the Internet's utility to play nice when formatting a disk.

Yay Internet searching!

--Patrick

Bubble181 · Feb 7, 2014

PatrThom said:
Straight from the manual: (p. 4-182)

I have the manual right here, so I went checking because I really thought I hadn't been that lazy. In French and English, that's there. In Dutch, it isn't. Hurray lazy translations! But, thanks

Now to weigh my options.
For one thing, I'll probably reformat my older 500 GB HDD instead of this one - not as much wasted space

bhamv3 · Feb 7, 2014

Bubble181 said:
I have the manual right here, so I went checking because I really thought I hadn't been that lazy. In French and English, that's there. In Dutch, it isn't. Hurray lazy translations! But, thanks Now to weigh my options.
For one thing, I'll probably reformat my older 500 GB HDD instead of this one - not as much wasted space

As a lazy translator myself, I apologize on behalf of my people.

PatrThom · Feb 7, 2014

Bubble181 said:
I have the manual right here, so I went checking because I really thought I hadn't been that lazy. In French and English, that's there. In Dutch, it isn't. Hurray lazy translations! But, thanks Now to weigh my options.
For one thing, I'll probably reformat my older 500 GB HDD instead of this one - not as much wasted space

Dutch people don't use USB. They use UUSB.

--Patrick