Hard drive compatibility list

[BorisM]

Negative. Method used to bypass the 32GB partition, cluster size, file system, screenshot/picture proof booted in Windows CE mode, connectivity method, etc.

 

But yeah, I have a RAID5 array connected to my radio and it works fine because I say it does and I won't show any proof.

 

Suit yourself. There was no "method" to bypass anything, it is obviously running FAT32, and the only connectivity AVIC supports is over USB anyway.

 

In any case, AVIC would not care if you are connecting a single disk or RAID5 to it, as long as it is properly formatted.

 

Care to show a Microsoft link that says that WinCE 5.0 is limited to 32GB on external storage?

[pj134]

If you really need proof that it's supported, here's the email from pioneer customer service a week or two back when I contacted them, there is no reason to go after each other, I believe the reason for the 250 GB limit is because of the power needed for anything larger, apparently it's an issue for most 250's as well.

 

Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc.

 

The unit will work with most external hard drives. The size limitation would be 250 gig however it is very important that the hard drive not require more than 500 milliamp.

 

Thank You

 

--Original Message--

From:

Date: 04/23/09

To: customer.support@pioneerservice.com

Subject: Feature and Specification|B00002|2676299076[#1244990]

 

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Inquiry Type:Feature and Specification

lstPublishers:0002

lstTitles:B00002-Car Products-Navigation Inquiry:Do all head units in the AVIC F line support pocket hard drives? If they can, what is the maximum supported capacity? I am thinking about getting my brother one and I believe he has an AVIC F700 but I'm not sure, and I read somewhere that a while back headunits had a hard time powering external hard drives, so I wanted to make sure that something along the lines of a WD My passport or Seagate FreeAgent would be supported.

 

Thanks,

[wiretap]

Well, that's good to know then. That's all I was asking for. It must allocate a hard drive as a non-native partition due to having it's own controller. The issue with the large majority of people not getting theirs to work properly seem to be power related issues. But as far as the 250GB limit (probably just a soft limit), it may have something to do with how many sectors the unit has to scan through since FAT32 does a serial style scanning method which taxes the AVIC unit's processing capabilities too much. However, the unit is theoretically capable of addressing larger drives. Since we won't be performing writes to the drives when they're plugged into the AVIC, that shouldn't matter as much though, because we'd only be looking at read-only performance without a need for write enumeration over all those sectors. If it is determined there's a brick wall at 250GB, there may be something that was artificially added to the registry to prevent long wait times which disables drives over a certain size.

[pj134]

so has no one had success with a drive running off of just the power from the head unit?

[wiretap]

According to the manual, the max current output of the USB port on the unit is 500mA (if that). If you look at most 2.5'' drives, the spin-up requirements are generally higher. For example, a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm drive needs roughly 1000mA on spin-up, double of what the Avic unit can supply it.

[bego]

According to the manual, the max current output of the USB port on the unit is 500mA (if that). If you look at most 2.5'' drives, the spin-up requirements are generally higher. For example, a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm drive needs roughly 1000mA on spin-up, double of what the Avic unit can supply it.

 

On that note i had a thought. Im going to be wiring my 3.5" hard drive to a 12V line in the car, when i look on the plug it says output 12V / 2A (amps) i dont know what the ampage output from the car is so if i put an inline fuse for 2A will that work or will it just blow the fuse if the ampage is more than 2?

[wiretap]

I just picked up one of these to mount in my glovebox:

http://www.amazon.com/Multi-Use-Car-Cha ... 036&sr=8-4

 

...now all I need is my F700BT, lol. The stupid thing was on back-order so I'm canceling and re-ordering right now.

 

But for 2.5'' drive applications, a 2A circuit is plenty. Just look at the specs of what hard drive you are using. The manufacturer usually lists what the specs on their drives are. Most of the 2.5'' drives, I've seen pull about 1.5A during write cycles. But they are operating at 5v.

 

For your 3.5'' drive, I assume you're using the DC brick that came with it, and just snipping that to wire it directly into the DC power port on the drive enclosure. In that case, a 2A fuse may be too little. A 3.5'' drive can pull more current than that upon spin-up. A 3 to 5 amp fuse is plenty however. Don't worry about having a slightly larger fuse anyway; the drive won't pull more than it's designed to, unless there's a failure of some sort.

 

I'd actually recommend using the 2.5'' drive anyhow. They're designed to take more shock, they use less power, and the unit supposedly only has a 250GB limit on drive size.

[bego]

I just picked up one of these to mount in my glovebox:

http://www.amazon.com/Multi-Use-Car-Cha ... 036&sr=8-4

 

...now all I need is my F700BT, lol. The stupid thing was on back-order so I'm canceling and re-ordering right now.

 

But for 2.5'' drive applications, a 2A circuit is plenty. Just look at the specs of what hard drive you are using. The manufacturer usually lists what the specs on their drives are. Most of the 2.5'' drives, I've seen pull about 1.5A during write cycles. But they are operating at 5v.

 

For your 3.5'' drive, I assume you're using the DC brick that came with it, and just snipping that to wire it directly into the DC power port on the drive enclosure. In that case, a 2A fuse may be too little. A 3.5'' drive can pull more current than that upon spin-up. A 3 to 5 amp fuse is plenty however. Don't worry about having a slightly larger fuse anyway; the drive won't pull more than it's designed to, unless there's a failure of some sort.

 

I'd actually recommend using the 2.5'' drive anyhow. They're designed to take more shock, they use less power, and the unit supposedly only has a 250GB limit on drive size.

 

I dont really want to be using the DC brick/plug as i still need to be able to use it in the house to add/remove files from it. The DC converter is the actual plug so its difficult to wire it with that in line. I have a seperate wire without the converter which plugs into the Hard drive. I figured because the voltage is 12V and car voltage is 12V i could wire it straight to a 12V line in a car without the converter but obviously put a 2-5A fuse in between but if the ampage is more than 2-5A wont it just blow the fuse?

[wiretap]

Yeah, just snip the cord on the DC converter and hard wire it with a 5A fuse. That will be plenty for a hard drive. I dont' know what type 3.5'' drive you're using. There are some drives like the Seagate 7200.8 and above series, they pull ~3A on spin-up.