500GB External Hard Drive works!!!
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2021 Tesla M3SR+, 2017 GLS550, 2011 E350 Bluetec, 2007 GL450 (GONE), 2003 E500 (GONE)
500GB External Hard Drive works!!!
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.
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.
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2021 Tesla M3SR+, 2017 GLS550, 2011 E350 Bluetec, 2007 GL450 (GONE), 2003 E500 (GONE)
one important thing to remember - I used a portable 500GB hard drive and not a huge, 3.5 inch one. Just wanted to clarify.
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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.
Last edited by listerone; Feb 24, 2012 at 04:41 PM.
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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.
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.
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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....
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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.
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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
.
!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
.
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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.
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.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Aug 2006
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From: San Diego
2021 Tesla M3SR+, 2017 GLS550, 2011 E350 Bluetec, 2007 GL450 (GONE), 2003 E500 (GONE)
I use Iomega 500GB drive and it works fine. There is no model number on the drive but it's about 1 year old.
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