ok so i had the f700bt installed in my mustang a couple days ago. and i purchased a 250G external hard drive because i was told i could upload songs/vids to the hard drive and plug it into the USB connection in my glovebox. so i did just that. but when i plug the hard drive into the USB the f700 isnt recognizing it, the USB key is still grey on the screen. anyone have an idea what might be wrong? any help is greatly appreciated. thank you
the only thing that pioneer says about external hard drive compatibility is that it must be 250gb or smaller and that it must be formatted in FAT32. confirm that it is formatted in FAT32 and if that doesnt work try a smaller hard drive since that one is right at the capacity maximum.
I tried my 2.5" external hard drive and the USB port didn't have enough juice to power it up. Does your drive have any lights on it? If they aren't lighting up then you might have the same problem.
no it doesnt have any lights on it. its a western digital. i can hear something spinning inside it though. as far as the formatting goes, how do i know what its formatted for? ive never formatted anything in my life 
no it doesnt have any lights on it. its a western digital. i can hear something spinning inside it though. as far as the formatting goes, how do i know what its formatted for? ive never formatted anything in my life
Assuming you got a Windows box at homew, plug the drive in there, and in Windows Explorer right-click on it and sleect Properties. It should tell you if it was formatted as FAT32. If it wasn't, there's a tab where you can fix it.
Now, AVIC will show it as available in AV Source menu only if it has media files that can be played, so drop a few folders with music on it.
Also, AVIC does not put out enough power over the USB connector to spin 2.5" drives. If oyurs has a secondary power connector, use it to give реу drive more juice. My 320GB unit would ont be recognized when plugged to AVIC only, but works fine with secondary power.
ok boris i did what you said and it does show as being fat32. so i guess maybe its to big for the USB to power it? the people at bestbuy told me it would work perfectly fine without a seperate power source as this one does not have one. i guess maybe ill have to get a smaller HD? does anyone have any recommendations?
ok boris i did what you said and it does show as being fat32. so i guess maybe its to big for the USB to power it? the people at bestbuy told me it would work perfectly fine without a seperate power source as this one does not have one. i guess maybe ill have to get a smaller HD? does anyone have any recommendations?
As if anyone at Best Buy would have any clue...
Capacity of the drive does not really matter, it's the physical size of it... I've heard that people had success running 1.8" mini drives with no external power. 2.5-incher, however, is just too heavy...
I am using a Buffalo portable drive, since it came with a second power port and a little USB to Power cable...
Well thank you Boris, I happened to be the "person at BB who doesnt have a clue" who is also currently a 700BT owner running a 2.5" HD with no issues and no need for an external power supply. There are a couple of factors that may account for the issues that ppl are having like the speed of the drive and the enclosure itself. While it is true that in most cases the need for an external power supply should not be required the actual design of the board the HD is coupled with may be limited and in some cases some companies supply a dual USB connector to supply the required power needed for their drive.
Well thank you Boris, I happened to be the "person at BB who doesnt have a clue" who is also currently a 700BT owner running a 2.5" HD with no issues and no need for an external power supply. There are a couple of factors that may account for the issues that ppl are having like the speed of the drive and the enclosure itself. While it is true that in most cases the need for an external power supply should not be required the actual design of the board the HD is coupled with may be limited and in some cases some companies supply a dual USB connector to supply the required power needed for their drive.
Well, good for you. That makes you drastically different from your regular Best Buy teenager who has only been trained to sell $50 extended warranties for $20 keyboards...
I suppose there might be some 2.5" drives that are so low-power that they will work off of AVCI's USB directly, but this seems to be a very rare occurence...
Hi i have a question to the boris, I was just wondering which model of the bufflo drive u use. And also does unit accept more then 320 gigs.
thanks
Boris - Power problem is a solve.
How full is your HD? I get above 40GB and HD boots up but only song #1 in files are recognize.
I tried making files only one deep then mp3's (1 file = 1 album).
Also partioning less then 40GB but only first partition is recognized.
I don't care to much about long boot time, would more like to have my full 230GB of music recognized with all songs playable.
I have not seen anywhere that anyone has a drive that large, full and working. If so would love to know how it is loaded up.
Any input from anyone would be great...
Boris - Power problem is a solve.How full is your HD? I get above 40GB and HD boots up but only song #1 in files are recognize.
I tried making files only one deep then mp3's (1 file = 1 album).
Also partioning less then 40GB but only first partition is recognized.
I don't care to much about long boot time, would more like to have my full 230GB of music recognized with all songs playable.
I have not seen anywhere that anyone has a drive that large, full and working. If so would love to know how it is loaded up.
Any input from anyone would be great...
I'll have to check what the exact model is... It is sitting in the car right now. Looking at their site, it's most likely MiniStation TurboUSB. I am sure that AVIC will do larger drives as well (probaly up to FAT32 limits), although performance will degrade, I imagine.
I only have about 10 Gigs copied for now (need to finish ripping my CDs) and it has no problem recognizing all of them...
I am just wondering what software do u use to format u r drive to fat32. I used fat32format which is command line based. I used chkdsk and it showed the cluster to be 32 kb which is the max anyways. I formatted a 500 gig lacie 3.5 hd. I use a 175 W motomaster elimanator invertor in my car to run the hd. Unfortunatly it didnt work with just a few mp3s on the drive. Also how do u give u r drive extra juice.
thanks
This format program worked well for me with vista to format HD to FAT32.
Boris - Let me know when you get over 40GB on your HD and If you start running into problems.
I had just under 40GB on mine and when I pushed it up started having my problems...
Thanks for the reply.
This format program worked well for me with vista to format HD to FAT32.
Boris - Let me know when you get over 40GB on your HD and If you start running into problems.
I had just under 40GB on mine and when I pushed it up started having my problems...
Thanks for the reply.
Will do... I probably have enough FLACs to bring the drive in and compress them...
Well I tried very hard to get my lacie 500 gig to work with my f900, but to no avail. I tried the fat32formatter and thanks by the way, but that didnt work either. So I just had a question to the guys that power their drives in the car. Can put a full description of what you have because most likely not all drives will work with the F series. Also a question to boris, does u r hardrive come with some sort of split usb cable where u can plug into a car invertor for more power or do u do something else. I would be greatfull for this info cause I am trying to decide what kind of drive to buy and how to power it.
thanks
Well I tried very hard to get my lacie 500 gig to work with my f900, but to no avail. I tried the fat32formatter and thanks by the way, but that didnt work either. So I just had a question to the guys that power their drives in the car. Can put a full description of what you have because most likely not all drives will work with the F series. Also a question to boris, does u r hardrive come with some sort of split usb cable where u can plug into a car invertor for more power or do u do something else. I would be greatfull for this info cause I am trying to decide what kind of drive to buy and how to power it.
thanks
Mine has a second port for power only (looks like a regular DC jack) and a USB to round jack adapter cable. I routed some switched power to the glovebox, wired it to a lighter USB adapter, and plugged the cable there.
So I just had a question to the guys that power their drives in the car. Can put a full description of what you have because most likely not all drives will work with the F series. Also a question to boris, does u r hardrive come with some sort of split usb cable where u can plug into a car invertor for more power or do u do something else. I would be greatfull for this info cause I am trying to decide what kind of drive to buy and how to power it.
thanks
If you are having a power problem get a USB cable that has 2 USB 2.0 and a mini USB for Data. One USB is for Data and Power extra USB pigtail is just for extra power. F700 does not put out enough power for most portable hard drives that I have tried. Get an adapter that plugs into your car lighter or power plug that you can plug a USB into. It will solve your power issues.
📎 USBCable1.jpg
Thanks for the explanations. I am thinking of going with seagate free agent go hd. Their power usage seems really low max 2.0 watts which rounds to around 400-440 miliamps. I am gonna go for a 250 since I dont wanna risk any problems then their already are. Also I am gonna look for the usb y cables as they seem to be called and see how it goes.
thanks 
Thanks for the explanations. I am thinking of going with seagate free agent go hd. Their power usage seems really low max 2.0 watts which rounds to around 400-440 miliamps. I am gonna go for a 250 since I dont wanna risk any problems then their already are. Also I am gonna look for the usb y cables as they seem to be called and see how it goes.
thanks
I have a Seagate Free Agent go HD 250GB. Still have to use the "y" cable to power up.
You have to re-fomat the HD. And the F700 does not recognize partioning. I tried that to shrink the drives it saw and it only recognizes the first partition.
I have about 80GB of music i'm try to get the F700 to read and it just doesn't seem to want to work.
I have tried a number of things... file sizes less then 2GB, single files... nothing has worked yet.
I do have a 16GB Verbatim Flash Drive that I've got working so I'm about ready to just get a few more of those. I have a 32GB Flash but have not had a chance to work with it yet.
Power is not a problem though once you have the "Y" USB or with the Seagate the docking station works if both USB ends are used, works the same way the "y" cable does.
If you figure out how to get the full capacity (or even half) of a HD to work I would like to hear how.
Good Luck!
By any chance when u pluged u r seagate with just one cable did it make this beeping noise and the light rapidly flashed?
By any chance when u pluged u r seagate with just one cable did it make this beeping noise and the light rapidly flashed?
Yes, It squeeled like a stuck pig!
Do the "Y" thing...
LMAO yah it does squel like a stuck pig. I just put my order in for y cable from ebay. I live in toronto and non of the stores here had it. Some didnt even know what it was.
I bought a 250GB portable Hard drive, formatted it with fat32 and a allocation size of 32kb but it didnt work the lights on it come on but it just makes a click type noise, i know its not screwed coz it works fine on the computer.
Anyway i had a good think about and i now have atm a working 120GB WD 3.5" hard drive connected once again formatted with fat32 and allocation size of 32kb. The actual drive is 640GB capacaty but i have partitioned it to 120GB also its one of these house hold external hard drives but becuase the output voltage on the plug/adaptor is 12V DC i hard wired it to a 12V output in my car and it works great!!!
Im next going to try and format it to 250GB and see if that works, i wont go any higher than this though as i know the F900BT is only compatible with up to 250GB.
Im next going to try and format it to 250GB and see if that works, i wont go any higher than this though as i know the F900BT is only compatible with up to 250GB.
250GB would be a very strange number to set a limit at...