[Jeff Flowerday]

Originally Posted by jkurgan

for those who are capable of playing WMA lossless, can you post what tag information your Tracks have if you ripped from DB Poweramp?

Mine have rating and Album art and I think that might be screwing it up.

When I ripped from Windows Media Center, it had Artist, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Album Artist, and Composer.

Definately ditch both the rating and the album art, the art is just wasting space anyway.

[arabbmw]

can playlists be made when using a hard drive or usb stick?

[Nucking Futs!]

Originally Posted by arabbmw

can playlists be made when using a hard drive or usb stick?

Yup!

[arabbmw]

Originally Posted by Nucking Futs!

Yup!

haha i guess i should of also asked how.

So how do you do it?

[Nucking Futs!]

Originally Posted by arabbmw

haha i guess i should of also asked how.

So how do you do it?

Oop, now I know what you meant LOL! I use Winamp to create the playlist then save it onto the main directory of the HDD or usb stick.

[TARPON HUNTER]

Many of the problems most are having with the 4500rpm with 80 GB or less USB Drives have nothing to do with Dealership Software, the length of the cord or the drive!!!

Most are because the USB drive is not properly formatted.
The drive should be FULLY Formatted not "Quick formatted in "FAT32", do not use "eXFAT" or "NTFS".

Windows only allows 32MB format size of FAT32, many think that is the largest Partition Fat 32 supports...IT'S NOT!!! The 32GB barrier is a Windows limit not the formats limit, as any Linux user can verify.

On all windows systems pre windows 7 download and use this program (freeware)to format your drive in FAT32:

http://download.cnet.com/CompuApps-S...-10070864.html
Important Before Formatting!!
First Transfer or copy all the music you loaded on the drive if you do not already have it backed up as all information on the drive will be erased.


You can also use Acronis True Image Backup program if you have it which works in Windows 7 even the 64 Bit Version of Windows 7.

Or you can download the trial version of Acronis True Image and use it to format your external drive then remove it from your computer if you wish.
Download the Free Trial here:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...cts/trueimage/

For Acronis:
First Transfer or copy all the music you loaded on the drive if you do not already have it backed up as all information on the drive will be erased.

1. plug the drive into your Computers USB port
2. open acronis, click on Tools and Utilities, click on "ADD New Disk"
it will list all the drives attached to your computer be SURE you select the external hard drive you will be using in your car and when click next, delete the partitions of the drive and select FAT 32 on next screen unselect quick format.

Once the format is compleate you can copy your music onto the disk...be sure you have show hidden operating system files on windows explorer active and do not copy any art work, desktop.ini or other files to your directory or folders as that will cause some of the slow loading and other problems some had with their drives!!

You should now be good to go with the drives that others got to work...Hope this helps!!!

Happy Holidays!!

[marconi118]

There are 3 problems with HDD and the USB 6FL

1) the darddisk needs only one partition and formatted in FAT32, look for the h2format.exe utiliy on the net to format it

2) the power consumption of 2.5" HDD over the USB +5V is too high, plugging the disk in the car will only result in klicking. Solution: use a Y usb cable (mostly supplied with the 2.5" drive) plug the data end of the Y to the car usb, plug the other Y branch to a cigarette lighter USB charging adapter (belkin made a really small one). This adapter transforms 12v of the cigarette lighter in +5V for the USB drive

3) if the disk is big and full it takes time to load all directory in the idrive menu... leave it plugged and wait. be patient, once the 20000 song limit is hit, you can't browse per artist etc, but you can go to the directories and play all the files on the drive.

Hope it will help all members with HDD problems, all HDD should work, even a big 3.5" 1000Gb

[bsd107]

Originally Posted by jkurgan

for those who are capable of playing WMA lossless, can you post what tag information your Tracks have if you ripped from DB Poweramp?

Mine have rating and Album art and I think that might be screwing it up.

When I ripped from Windows Media Center, it had Artist, Album, Track, Year, Genre, Album Artist, and Composer.

All of my WMA Lossless files (which play fine in my LCI E90) have been ripped using dBPoweramp directly from CD, with both rating and Album Art.

I had read elsewhere on this board that if the album art is too large the car will not read the tags properly, but I have not encountered this issue. I do know from experience that Windows Media Player allows you to add album art of variable sizes. dBPoweramp I think is standardizing on a smaller size that may be more compatible with the car....

[bsd107]

For those who may be considering, note that I bought a 128GB USB stick over the holidays and it works great in my LCI E90 playing WMA Lossless. It's a "LUXIO 128MB" stick made by Super Talent.

This should be a great option (although very pricy) for those looking for big storage without having to use an actual hard drive.

The stick is relatively large, but it does fit in the armrest just fine without rubbing the lid.

[Neil McRae]

just for ref I put toshiba store alu 160 drive. It won't power up off the USB port by itself but it actually comes with a Y cable and plugging in a USB cigarette lighter port and plugging it in brings it to life, takes longer to index (got July 09 build M3) but works fine.

Neil.

[philmcgee]

I am *thrilled* to confirm that the Samsung S1 Mini 160GB works in my 2007 E92 without any extra power supply. It's a 1.8" drive and apparently low-power enough.

[s.myrr]

Wow you can get 250gb for $100! The 1.8" drives work well and are a decent value!

[Neil McRae]

i got a strange one.

I have two USB Sticks, one 8G and one 16G. They are identical interms of whats on them, around 7G of music.

The 8G takes a few seconds to fire up, the 16G takes a few minutes. I did a HD tach on them and the throughout of the 16G is faster than the 8 but the access time is slightly higer on the 16G (not enough that it should be such a huge difference in speed I would have thought).

Anyone seen this sort of behaviour?

Also I've found that WMA Pro from media monkey won't play in my car either... I've got an 09 HD based nav.

Cheers,
Neil.

[Neil McRae]

hmm just noticed that the byte size of the format is different - now formatting the same allocation.

[philmcgee]

Originally Posted by Neil McRae

hmm just noticed that the byte size of the format is different - now formatting the same allocation.

Would be very interesting to know if that makes any difference. I have tried 4GB and 16GB sticks and a 30GB LaCie 1.8" and all fired up instantly. On the new 120GB 1.8" I am using I have about 120GB filled with 11,000 songs - all MP3 with minimal tags. Very noticeably slower to fire up. Would love to try a reformat with different sectoring if it would help.

FYI, I never use anything other than directory browsing - forget the artist/song/genre stuff.

[s.myrr]

Originally Posted by philmcgee

Would be very interesting to know if that makes any difference. I have tried 4GB and 16GB sticks and a 30GB LaCie 1.8" and all fired up instantly. On the new 120GB 1.8" I am using I have about 120GB filled with 11,000 songs - all MP3 with minimal tags. Very noticeably slower to fire up. Would love to try a reformat with different sectoring if it would help.

FYI, I never use anything other than directory browsing - forget the artist/song/genre stuff.

Any update with this? When you say slower are you talking about ~1 minute or so when you first get in the car?

[Tasmanian Green Devil]

Happy to report success with the 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager GT USB stick. This is one of the fastest USB sticks currently on the market and I'm glad I payed a little extra for the fast memory. It is super-fast and loads up quickly on my 09 328i with the factory iPod/USB option. The first time I plugged it in it took about 5 seconds to index the ~3,000 songs and after driving for a couple of minutes I was able to sort by Artist, Album, Genre, etc.

[Bimmerforlife]

How does the USB option work if you don't have the Navi?

[Tasmanian Green Devil]

On non-iDrive models, artist and track info is displayed on the 2-line BMW Professional audio display. The knob on the right side of the display lets you scroll up or down the list of artists, albums, tracks, etc.

[Sirrus]

I guess I should add my results:

Western Digital Scorpio Blue 160GB (WD1600BEVT) in a Vantec NexStar TX enclosure. Works with suplemental power. Interestingly, it continues playing for a few seconds after I push the power button. I believe it is playing through the drive's cache. Then it abrubtly switches to radio and the drive clicks off. Since I don't have much invested in the drive, I'm going to go ahead and keep it this way. I'll let you all know if I kill the drive.

Also, it takes about 10-15 seconds between powering up and offering me USB as an option. I only had about 50 songs on there so I'm not sure if that will change.

The sound quality is much better than I was getting through my iPod nano or iPhone (they use AUX for the audio signal).

[BLOWNCO]

ill add to the list of drives that work

western digital my passport WD3200ME
also note i had to buy a dual usb cable i link the one i bought
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812270226

[Sirrus]

Originally Posted by BLOWNCO

also note i had to buy a dual usb cable i link the one i bought
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812270226

What did you connect the second USB connector to? If it's connected to a USB charger, then it belongs in the "with supplemental power" category.