My workaround for the USB drive issue

[herb2k]

Not sure if this has been posted before - I found out one way to make my USB flash drive to stay recognized when starting up the unit.

 

I did this on my Corsair Voyager 8GB drive, it's actually quite simple.

 

I reformatted the USB drive with a cluster size of 32K, and that did it. My F700 takes about a minute from turning on the car to playing off the USB drive now, but at least I don't have to reach over to the glove box and unplug the stick anymore!

 

An attachment is posted with a screenshot of how to do this.

[dpdurst]

Not sure if this has been posted before - I found out one way to make my USB flash drive to stay recognized when starting up the unit.

 

I did this on my Corsair Voyager 8GB drive, it's actually quite simple.

 

I reformatted the USB drive with a cluster size of 32K, and that did it. My F700 takes about a minute from turning on the car to playing off the USB drive now, but at least I don't have to reach over to the glove box and unplug the stick anymore!

 

An attachment is posted with a screenshot of how to do this.

 

Interesting, i'll do this to my 8gig kingston and report back if it works.. thanks

[herb2k]

Actually, I just tried it again but with my Kingston 8GB today at work (it worked too).

 

For those of you who aren't using Vista, if Windows XP won't let you select the allocation unit size - type this in your command prompt:

 

>format /FS:FAT32 /A:32K /Q

[dpdurst]

Yep just tested on my Kingston 8 gig and works great! Nice find.. thanks for sharing.

[ill.die.trying]

i will have to try this

[ill.die.trying]

haven't tried it yet but what does changing the allcation size do?

[herb2k]

haven't tried it yet but what does changing the allcation size do?

 

In a FAT32 file system, the allocation unit (or cluster size) is the smallest block that a piece of data can occupy.

 

For example, with a 64K allocation unit size if you store an 8K text file, there will be 56K of wasted space. On Windows machines, the OS automatically selects the allocation unit size (between 4K - 64K) based on the disk size, to attempt to balance between wasted slack space and keeping the FAT small.

 

Windows CE has some limitations with allocation unit size (too small or too large - 32K is the largest, and it won't necessarily recognize the files stored on a device) immediately, 32K is the standard size on legacy systems (Win98, etc) - so just for tricks I tried reformatting my USB stick using 32K clusters, and that solved it!

[ill.die.trying]

sweet, it worked like a charm, now i have to try this on my portable HD,

[Heftiger]

I emailed Pioneer about this problems along with having to unplug the USB plug to get my ipod to work. They immediately asked me to send them my unit for warranty repairs.

 

Is this a problem with the HU?

[ill.die.trying]

try it on my 60G portable drive and still no luck,

[Ramon]

Hi I was looking around the web for a way to get around this 16 gig limitation on usbs and I found this website.

 

http://www.hpcfactor.com/support/cesd/h/0044.asp

 

Now from what i have read from this site, the f900 should be able to read drives greater then 16 gigs. Also to all the people who are trying usb powered portable drives, are you just using the power supplied by the HU to power u r hard drives or some sort of a split with an inverter for extra power? I would be greatful for some extra info cause I want to carry my music library around with me on a portable drive either usb powered or plug powered.

 

thanks

[ill.die.trying]

Actually, I just tried it again but with my Kingston 8GB today at work (it worked too).

 

For those of you who aren't using Vista, if Windows XP won't let you select the allocation unit size - type this in your command prompt:

 

>format /FS:FAT32 /A:32K /Q

 

i just noticed that only one file per folder show on my unit, when i did the 32K mod, any ideas?

[herb2k]

Actually, I just tried it again but with my Kingston 8GB today at work (it worked too).

 

For those of you who aren't using Vista, if Windows XP won't let you select the allocation unit size - type this in your command prompt:

 

>format /FS:FAT32 /A:32K /Q

 

i just noticed that only one file per folder show on my unit, when i did the 32K mod, any ideas?

 

I didn't have any problem... Perhaps try it again?

 

One more thing, FAT32 has a maximum limit of 32GB for a partition (if I recall correctly) - if you go over that size, there are no guarantees that the drive will store/retrieve files in a stable manner.

 

I don't believe that the Avic will read larger file systems easily - as it appears to be based on the CE 5.0 core.

[ill.die.trying]

Actually, I just tried it again but with my Kingston 8GB today at work (it worked too).

 

For those of you who aren't using Vista, if Windows XP won't let you select the allocation unit size - type this in your command prompt:

 

>format /FS:FAT32 /A:32K /Q

 

i just noticed that only one file per folder show on my unit, when i did the 32K mod, any ideas?

 

I didn't have any problem... Perhaps try it again?

 

One more thing, FAT32 has a maximum limit of 32GB for a partition (if I recall correctly) - if you go over that size, there are no guarantees that the drive will store/retrieve files in a stable manner.

 

I don't believe that the Avic will read larger file systems easily - as it appears to be based on the CE 5.0 core.

 

it's a 16G usb stick, guess i'll have to try it again,

[Ramon]

http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 72#p160972

 

On the post above our friend boris is running a 320 gig drive on his avic f, I tried to run a 500 gig formatted fat32 but alas the HU didnt seem to recognise.