External Harddrive With Headunit

[Rekin]

Hey,

My friend has a brand new Pioneer headunit (6050UB) with USB connectivity.

The manual says it supports up to 250gb as long as its in FAT16 or FAT32 format...

We formatted two hard drives to FAT32 using partition magic and it doesnt seem to detect the hard-drives...

USB pen drive's work straight away..

Both external laptop hard-drives have a secondary usb connection for more power.

Do both USB connected have to be connected for it to work on the headunit?

It can run fine on the computer with only 1 USB connected..

Anyone know how to format the hard drives so they work?

Thanks

Patrick

[DRD-00F]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say it's a power issue.

The USB in computers changes it's power levels depending on what is plugged into it. I don't think the makers of your headunit were expecting you to put in an external HDD

[Rekin]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say it's a power issue.

The USB in computers changes it's power levels depending on what is plugged into it. I don't think the makers of your headunit were expecting you to put in an external HDD

nah they were expecting it, as they mention storage up to 250gb.

Doing some research reveals;

"Some 2.5" USB hard drives require up 900mA to start up, more than 500mA a USB port can provide; so, they will require a second USB cable just for borrowing power or a AC adapter"

So i would need to connect up a second power source for the 2nd usb connection on the portable hdd.

Either a cigerette lighter usb port or hard wire somehow from a 12v wire...

Anyone done anything similar to this?

[funkymonkey]

bust a USB plug, wire in a 5V adapter that uses the ciggie lighter and you'll solve your power issues. most adapters give you 1000mA.

[Rekin]

bust a USB plug, wire in a 5V adapter that uses the ciggie lighter and you'll solve your power issues. most adapters give you 1000mA.

ciggie lighter will be messy with cables, im thinking more of;

1. Buy usb cig charger for $5; http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk307/i...ter_White_1.jpg

2. Pull it apart

3. Hardwire 12v wire to the charger

4. Hide it behind the headunit

5. Plug usb hardrive

Correct?

[funkymonkey]

yeah that'll work. on the sticker it says 1000mA

[heller44]

It could also depend on the adapter in the ext hdd case.. The latest one I bought when installed in a comp comes up as just another disk, whereas a usb thumbdrive is recognised as an external device.

[SL33K]

Did it work?

[MANWHORE]

My experience has been that special software like partion magic format drives in a special way that may or may not be readable by certain headunits.

Afterall, correct me if I'm wrong (I can't remember the exact specifics of partition magic) but doens't it let you partition drives after you have already partitioned and installed windows etc - the headunit might not recognise this. Some headunits that I've installed didn't liek these specially partitioned drives.

Try deleting all partitions on the drive with fdisk - comes with windows - use it via the command prompt.

Then just format it standard using windows.

Try that before you do the power, and if it still doens't work, then it might be the power.

[Rekin]

its definitely the power.

Was reading up some car audio forums, the headunit cant provide enough power via 1 usb port. Hence why the hdd comes with 2 connections for extra power.

Better off just waiting until usb pen drives get bigger.

You can pick up a 8gb usb stick for $40 from shops~

[DRD-00F]

Well at least I was right

I have a 16Gb chip in my phone, which I use as my music player. Just use the headphone output to the stereo

[08yannch]

ipod classic has like 120Gb which is more than enough

+20,000 songs

[Rekin]

ipod classic has like 120Gb which is more than enough

+20,000 songs

ipod classics cost $350 and if the majority of the time it is hooked up to the car stereo its pointless to spend that much.

You can pick up external 2.5" 320gb hardrive's for $150 but as mentioned above, needs another usb power source.

[RANDY]

OK... to clear up some speculation, i've had this very same problem for 8 months.

Using a 5400rpm 2.5" hard disk in an external casing (been using this drive for YEARS).

One USB connected = "NA USB" on the screen

Connecting the secondary USB power to my laptop while the primary is into the head unit = "NA USB" on the screen

Formatting (fully and properly) the 40Gb disk as FAT32 = "NA USB" on the screen

Formatting as a 32Gb FAT32 partition = "NA USB" on the screen

Connecting my 1Gb and 8Gb USB keys works instantly. Both of these are less than 32Gb, and are formatted as FAT32.

I'm now looking into cluster sizes as a suspect. I'll be formatting my disk as 8Gb soon (the default cluster size should, in theory, be the same as my USB key)

[RANDY]

Oh, and also I will be trying without the stock extension cable... incase there is some kind of loss over distance.

After that, i'll see if I can "borrow" a 4200rpm hard disk from one of my laptops. (but I think they're all 5400rpm) =-/

[RANDY]

Update:

8Gb FAT32 partition, without the stock USB extension cable = fail again. =-/

[Omurru]

I know it's kinda different but it's worth a try, I've been playing with Divx DVD players and the WD 320gb passport HDD I have works fine with it when the manual for the dvd player says it only works with flash media. The WD passport only has one USB connection, might work with car headunits too as I can see a car headunit usb being much different from a DVD player one?

[RANDY]

I suspect you have some kind of "carpc" dvd headunit right? I had one of those and the USB HDD worked just fine, but in essence the headunit is actually a PC running a custom front-end.

It's worth a thought/try if anyone has spare money... i'm going to have to stick with trying to make my old/spare USB HDD work first. =-[

And to all:

I'm not entirely convinced that it's a power issue either, as i've already tried powering the disk with a secondary source (laptop), and in any situation the disk seems to power up and spin up correctly, with the headunit detecting a USB input at the same time. Reading the disk/filestructure seems to be a more likely issue at this stage.

[Rekin]

I suspect you have some kind of "carpc" dvd headunit right? I had one of those and the USB HDD worked just fine, but in essence the headunit is actually a PC running a custom front-end.

It's worth a thought/try if anyone has spare money... i'm going to have to stick with trying to make my old/spare USB HDD work first. =-[

And to all:

I'm not entirely convinced that it's a power issue either, as i've already tried powering the disk with a secondary source (laptop), and in any situation the disk seems to power up and spin up correctly, with the headunit detecting a USB input at the same time. Reading the disk/filestructure seems to be a more likely issue at this stage.

ooo didnt think of using the laptop as secondary power source.

Will give it a shot with my friends usb headunit and his usb hdd with his laptop.

Will let you know how it goes sometime next week

[RANDY]

If you like mate.. but as i've said above, it made no difference for me =-[

Some googling last night showed up a few posts from U.S sites where users hard-wired extra power in.

Also, it seems that 1.8" HDD's and some very low-power USB HDD's worked for some people.