MB500

I've read that many people tried to connect external hard drives through USB port in the glove compartment but didn't have much success with it. After several trial and errors, I managed to make it work. I know store all of my mp3 music on Iomega 500GB hard drive and it works flawlessly in my car.

The trick is to format the entire drive as FAT32. Windows doesn't allow to format more than 32GB in FAT32 so you have to use 3-party software to format the entire drive. I used HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool 2.2.3 (available FREE) and it worked great.

Give it a shot if you have a large music collection and want to store it all in your car. I know that iPod offer much better music experience but my music collection is 400GB in size and 160GB iPod won't be sufficient for me.

I now wonder if our cars support lossless audio codecs like .flac, .ape or ALAC? I may give it a shot tonight.

chrisvr6

thats awesome!

illmike

NICEEEE! GOOD INFO!

BenzV12

Awesome indeed , this is as cool as wi-fi support

MB500

one important thing to remember - I used a portable 500GB hard drive and not a huge, 3.5 inch one. Just wanted to clarify.

Poomobile

I read in the manual that the car can only see 1000 songs...is this true?

BenzV12

I do have an external portable Western Digital 500 GB , once I get my car I will be also trying that

MB500

Good question - I will check tonight....

illmike

will the drive auto shut off with the car--- on the portable ones?

MB500

It should as it gets its power from the USB port. I assume that one you turn the car off, the power to USB cuts off. It probably acts same way as an iPod would.

mikemargolis

???

My glovebox only has the Y cord for iPod/iPhone and headphone jack.

Is it a separate cord that plugs in the same port that has a USB?

MB500

Yes, this is a separate accessory that plugs into the same port. You local dealer should have it. Part number: 001-827-67-04

listerone

That was my experience with a 32GB USB stick....over 2000 MP3s loaded but it read *exactly* 1000 of them.But those thousand songs *did* play flawlessly.

listerone

I paid $55...although you might be able to get it cheaper on ebay.

telemakhos

That must be an impressive collection at 400GB!

Mine tops out at 8 GB.

MB500

Thank you. I used to have thousands of CD and gradually converted them into lossless format and MP3s.

Now, I am really curious about the 1000 song limitation. What if you have artist folders, then album folders and then songs? Would the limitation apply? I am going to experiment with it tonight.

MB500

I have good news to share. I just copied 20000 songs to my external hard drive and plugged it into the car. I could see/read all of the files. I have my albums organized by Artist Folder/Album Folder/Tracks.

The USB stick that you used might have been formatted as NTFS but the key is to format your entire drive as FAT32.

I am yet to check out any lossless formats....

MB500

Just checked the support for .FLAC and .APE formats -- none of these supported. Will try .ALAC but doubt very seriously that it's supported either.

PHML

cool...thanx for sharing.

BM2BZ

great job, mb500 !

i was planning to do the same thing awhile back but that damn ipod/usb adapter/converter couldn't do the trick .

i wish it can play videos as well but guess we all can't ask for too much .

BudC

The USB interface in the W212 can supply up to 800ma. I've been trying to find out how much power my Lacie portable drive requires and can't find it. What drive are you using and do you know how much power it requires?

MB500

I use Iomega 500GB drive and it works fine. There is no model number on the drive but it's about 1 year old.

BudC

Thanks, I'll see how it compares with mine.

derekdi

i tried .ape it doesnt work....

MB500

Yes, no lossless support.