Hello All,

I tried searching the forums on this topic, but didn’t find the answer. If i understand correctly there is an approved 3rd party USB/Flash Drive Vendor list for the new C Class. I am trying to plug in my Home music connection. I read the posts that indicate that that you need to format, the drive to FAT32, but in addition there were posts that lead me to believe that Mercedes had a list of 3rd party hardware that they can support. If anyone has the link could you please repost?

Thx

 

I have plugged in 3 HDDs and numerous Flash drives - all have worked perfectly, provided they are formatted correctly (FAT, not NTFS). These include branded and generic HDDs, also.

I'm not aware of any hardware list and I am confident the kit is widely compatible.

Are you looking to connect something "exotic"?

 

A few things to keep in mind, file system format, directory structure, and number of files per directory.
I got a new stick (model below) especially for the car use, and so never had to reformat it.
SanDisk Ultra Fit CZ43 64GB USB 3.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive Up To 130MB/s Read- SDCZ43-064G-G46.

 

Thank you for the info. I had a few follow up questions.

Do you prefer USB hard drive, or flash drive? I have read that a USB hard drive may fail if the car ride is bumpy, but a flash drive (while more expensive) does not suffer this issue, cause they usually plug directly in to the USB slot (with no cable).

Will The Mercedes Command System pause ( or stop ) the music when i turn off the car and then pick up where i left off when im the song when i re start the car? I am trying to replicate the play back experience of the IPod (IPods just don’t have enough storage :-) )



Currently I have 160 GB of music in a ARTIST FOLDER/ALBUM SUB FOLDER/SONG SUB SUB FOLDER. I Have 1,559 Folders and 26,942 Files. is there a CAP on how many files the Mercedes Comand System will recognize?

Will a properly formatted USB/Flash drive with the amount of files I have listed be recognized by the Comand System? , 1,559 Folders

Thank you

 

Avoid hard disks (for a number of reasons), get a new/modern stick (i.e. USB flash/thumb drive), in particular one spec’d as USB 3 with high transfer rate from a reliable vendor.

I can recommend "SanDisk Ultra Fit" having been using it for some time now. It's very fast, and will indeed continue where you left of, the next time you get in the car.
iPods are less responsive in my opinion, I've got one but I don't use it anymore.

In my experience, you can partition a single/big USB disk into up to 4 logical partitions (in theory you can have up to 8 logical partitions). If you use both ports with two identical drives (preferably), that will give you a very decent capacity, and a well-organized directory structure that’s easy to update frequently.

I don't put more than 50 files per folder, that makes it easy to navigate even while driving.

Seeing the number of folders and files you have, perhaps it's the time to reorganize your music library. Unless, of course, you want to keep everything and let the system randomize the playlist for you (for a given active partition).

The theoretical limit is around 50,000 files with up to 8 directory levels per data medium (active device/logical partition).

For now, I use a single thumb drive with a single/primary partition, 8 parent directories and 4 sub-directories per parent directory, with 50 files per sub-directory. I don’t occupy the entire structure, but if you do the math, that’s about 8*4*50= 1600 files (my actual use is far less than that, I listen to 4 to 5 different/new albums every couple of weeks, my commute is too short, 30 min both directions – in the weekend, my wife becomes the DJ and plays her own playlist!)

I see that you drive a 190E, do you have a W205 already?