[the_rangdo]

Originally Posted by Bicax

For those of you who are using an SSD connected to the armrest USB, how long does it take for music to start playing from the moment you open the car? If anyone could time it, I would appreciate it.

If you could specify the type of files that you use as well as the size they are occupying it would help.

Roughly 10-20 seconds, seems to vary a little bit.

110GB of lossless WMA files.

An initial 'new volume' metadata scan took 5 minutes last night

[Bicax]

Ok, thanks a lot.

I've just measured a wait time of roughly 40 seconds with a 500Gb Lacie Littledisk, ~50Gb of lossless WMA files. I'll try to convert my FLAC collection to wav to see if I can get around 110Gb and compare with your times.

The difference seems to be quite noticeable, then. At least for short trips to the supermarket

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by Bicax

For those of you who are using an SSD connected to the armrest USB, how long does it take for music to start playing from the moment you open the car? If anyone could time it, I would appreciate it.

If you could specify the type of files that you use as well as the size they are occupying it would help.

Not an SSD, but my 120 GB 2.5" 7200 rpm drive goes from car on to playing in 2-3 minutes I'd estimate. Mind you, I'm pre combox, and that 2-3 minute time allows me to browse the directory. But it won't populate the artists/albums/songs/genre/playlist thing for approximately 90-120 minutes after the car is turned on.

[reppin513]

Why not just get a big flash drive or two and not worry about power requirements for hard drives. They are large enough and cheap enough these days.. I mean I quadrupled the size of my xbox harddrive and saved tons of money by sticking a flash drive in the front of it. It boots from it, too. Besides the point, but I have an 06 without usb. Any knowledge of wiring a usb port into an 06 e90?

[skylar.sutton]

Originally Posted by reppin513

I have an 06 without usb. Any knowledge of wiring a usb port into an 06 e90?

The USB option is called "6FL"... search the forums there are a bazillion and one posts about 6FL.

[skylar.sutton]

Originally Posted by skylar.sutton

I just wasted an hour of my life formatting an HP v165w to FAT32 and fiddling with it - but the car simply won't recognize it.

...

On to the next flash drive.

Update: Tried a Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 64GB formatted to FAT32 with H2Format and it worked flawlessly. Copying 40+ gigs to it tonight, I'll let you know how indexing goes tomorrow.

[the_rangdo]

Originally Posted by reppin513

Why not just get a big flash drive or two and not worry about power requirements for hard drives. They are large enough and cheap enough these days.. I mean I quadrupled the size of my xbox harddrive and saved tons of money by sticking a flash drive in the front of it. It boots from it, too. Besides the point, but I have an 06 without usb. Any knowledge of wiring a usb port into an 06 e90?

I've tried large memory sticks, various brands upto 64GB. Maybe I'm just unlucky but I've found them to be unreliable.

Many times I've had tracks that stop part-way through and skip to the next track, and later scanning on my PC showed up unfixable errors.

[clemsonkev]

I already have a 64gb stick... just need a USB input into my Logic 7 system. Help?

[eezeekial]

I created a new thread because I somehow missed this one. I have an 07 335i with idrive/nav. I have the 2 usb slots in my center console and both ports work to charge my phone. I have tried 3 different usb sticks ranging from 4gb to 16gb and none of them power up. I have plugged them in before I start the car and after- no lights at all. Is it possible I have 3 sticks that are not compatible with the system? Is my firmware too old? I would have thought one of these drives would have worked. I have formatted them FAT32. Any ideas?

Is there is difference between the 2007 and 2008 models? Does anyone have the usb drive playing on their 2007?

No mention of ipod in my manual and no usb in the glove.

[Denny347]

Originally Posted by eezeekial

I created a new thread because I somehow missed this one. I have an 07 335i with idrive/nav. I have the 2 usb slots in my center console and both ports work to charge my phone. I have tried 3 different usb sticks ranging from 4gb to 16gb and none of them power up. I have plugged them in before I start the car and after- no lights at all. Is it possible I have 3 sticks that are not compatible with the system? Is my firmware too old? I would have thought one of these drives would have worked. I have formatted them FAT32. Any ideas?

Is there is difference between the 2007 and 2008 models? Does anyone have the usb drive playing on their 2007?

No mention of ipod in my manual and no usb in the glove.

I was unaware that '07 had USB ports, let alone 2. I bet they are aftermarket installations used for charging only. They are not connected to the stereo.

[eezeekial]

Originally Posted by Denny347

I was unaware that '07 had USB ports, let alone 2. I bet they are aftermarket installations used for charging only. They are not connected to the stereo.

That's exactly what someone on bimmerfest said. I should be able to play dvdr's with mp3's though?

[Denny347]

Originally Posted by eezeekial

That's exactly what someone on bimmerfest said. I should be able to play dvdr's with mp3's though?

You have the CCC iDrive correct? Yours is the same as mine in my '06 and they are not very sophisticated. Look up CCC iDrive here or Google for better information. I think you have to get it coded to play a CDR with Mp3's recorded on it. Our units do not play DVD's. That logo on the front of the iDrive unit is for the DVD navigation DVD only.

[eezeekial]

Originally Posted by Denny347

You have the CCC iDrive correct? Yours is the same as mine in my '06 and they are not very sophisticated. Look up CCC iDrive here or Google for better information. I think you have to get it coded to play a CDR with Mp3's recorded on it. Our units do not play DVD's. That logo on the front of the iDrive unit is for the DVD navigation DVD only.

Interestingly enough the NAV drive plays dvd-r mp3 discs and shows everything on the screen.

[Denny347]

Originally Posted by eezeekial

Interestingly enough the NAV drive plays dvd-r mp3 discs and shows everything on the screen.

To be quite honest I've never tried it. I might test that myself.

[N8N]

Originally Posted by reppin513

Why not just get a big flash drive or two and not worry about power requirements for hard drives. They are large enough and cheap enough these days.. I mean I quadrupled the size of my xbox harddrive and saved tons of money by sticking a flash drive in the front of it. It boots from it, too. Besides the point, but I have an 06 without usb. Any knowledge of wiring a usb port into an 06 e90?

I did... am using a micro SD card in a USB adapter. But I'm reading this thread as I would like to try using lossless files instead of mp3 and if I do that I'm either going to have to delete some music, find something bigger than 64GB, or get multiple thumb drives/SD cards.

[skylar.sutton]

Originally Posted by skylar.sutton

Update: Tried a Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 64GB formatted to FAT32 with H2Format and it worked flawlessly. Copying 40+ gigs to it tonight, I'll let you know how indexing goes tomorrow.

Ok - I need some help. Everythign worked fine with 10 songs, it worked fine with 1GB of songs... but when I jumped to 24GB it no longer lets me navigate the folder or populates the artist/genre lists. It just sits there and scans the disk, never finishing... even after a 3 hour car ride.

I've converted all of the mp3's to 256kb constant bitrate, and stripped all image data out of the id3 tags before sync'ing it.

This thread is full of people with 40+GB and 1-3m scan times... what's the trick?

[hybrid90]

I have a non-iDrive HiFi system w/Professional HU. I also have BT for the phone but not the audio. I am using a Sandisk 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive formatted to FAT32 and it seems to work just fine. Very clean audio and the only issue I've had is that it just takes a while to read the entire Drive. But once it's read, no issues.

Edit: After six days, I have noticed that while the car recognizes the USB and never disconnects, it seems to keep playing the same 30-40 songs over and over (I use Random all the time) so I guess there IS an issue.