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...

how come? i thought that was the max capacity that the f900bt supports correct me if im wrong

I contacted pioneer customer support and their limit as they told me is 250 gigs.

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...

how come? i thought that was the max capacity that the f900bt supports correct me if im wrong

My 320 works, although I haven't tried filling it to capacity yet. In any case, 250 would be a stranbge number to pick, programmatically. Although 256 might be a real cutoff...

ok no worries, any thoughts on how i can get it to automatically recognise the hard drive is there after switching it off? i have got it on a 32kb cluster/allocation size but sill wont automatically recognise it and i still have to unplug and plug back in again on the usb

Hi bego I was just wondering what software you use to format. I used fat32format and fat32formatter. Not too sure if they set 32 kb clust sizes.

ok no worries, any thoughts on how i can get it to automatically recognise the hard drive is there after switching it off? i have got it on a 32kb cluster/allocation size but sill wont automatically recognise it and i still have to unplug and plug back in again on the usb

Hmmm, not sure about it. Mine is always recognized automatically after startup, but sometimes it takes a while. How do you have it powered? Might be a timing issue...

At the moment i have it wired to a house hold extension lead with it plugged in to test it out untill i can hard wire it to the actual car at the weekend. Going to hook it up to a 12v line from the rear of the HU so if its a timing issue hopefully that will sort it.

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 drive probably requires too much power for the AVIC. Try getting an external drive that can take power from the cigarrete lighter and only use the USB for data (not data and power).

ok so finally I got my y cable and tried it with my f900. first things first recognition of the drive takes like 2 or 3 mints. Also it is not recognized if it was plugged in as the unit starts. I have to unplug my drive and then plug it back in and after like a mint or mint and a half the drive is recognized. My drive as I stated earlier is a seagate 250 gig freeagent go black. I have about 23 gigs of mp3s on it and they work pretty well. The only problem I have is that I have to unplug and replug my drive every time the unit starts. Other then that everything else is fine and I can live with the late drive recognition.

ok so finally I got my y cable and tried it with my f900. first things first recognition of the drive takes like 2 or 3 mints. Also it is not recognized if it was plugged in as the unit starts. I have to unplug my drive and then plug it back in and after like a mint or mint and a half the drive is recognized. My drive as I stated earlier is a seagate 250 gig freeagent go black. I have about 23 gigs of mp3s on it and they work pretty well. The only problem I have is that I have to unplug and replug my drive every time the unit starts. Other then that everything else is fine and I can live with the late drive recognition.

have you tried formatting it with a cluster size of 32k?

ok so finally I got my y cable and tried it with my f900. first things first recognition of the drive takes like 2 or 3 mints. Also it is not recognized if it was plugged in as the unit starts. I have to unplug my drive and then plug it back in and after like a mint or mint and a half the drive is recognized. My drive as I stated earlier is a seagate 250 gig freeagent go black. I have about 23 gigs of mp3s on it and they work pretty well. The only problem I have is that I have to unplug and replug my drive every time the unit starts. Other then that everything else is fine and I can live with the late drive recognition.

Ramon: So your squeelin' pig finally powers up, right? The recognition thing with the HD is a problem.

I wanted to update you...I finally got 29.9GB of music on my 32GB Verbatim flash and it is working just as the 16GB does. I can turn off my rig, come back, start it up and after 30 sec to 1 min music starts playing again right where it left off. I'm thinking that this might just be the way to go unless I read that someone has got the HD thing dialed in.

Let me know when you get 40+GB of Music on your 250

? Boris: How much music do you have on your HD now?

? Boris: How much music do you have on your HD now?

Not too much, definitely under 8GB... One day I will actually fill it...

Oh yah I got the squealer under control. And also I realized that plugged in from the start the system does recognize the hard drive it just takes time. I found out that the damn usb car lighter thing I use is a bit loose and that is why it dosnt recognize from the start up. Also the cluster size is 32 kb Since fat32formatter always formats to that cluster size. A flash drive sure does sound convenient. Who knows if I get problems pat 40 gigs I might just switch to a 64 gig one or maybe a 1.8 hard drive. On another note I have been look at the linux os that seems to be running on the f-series and was wondering what space limits that might have. Just a thought though I am not running to get my unit bricked or anything any time soon.

Oh yah I got the squealer under control. And also I realized that plugged in from the start the system does recognize the hard drive it just takes time. I found out that the damn usb car lighter thing I use is a bit loose and that is why it dosnt recognize from the start up. Also the cluster size is 32 kb Since fat32formatter always formats to that cluster size. A flash drive sure does sound convenient. Who knows if I get problems pat 40 gigs I might just switch to a 64 gig one or maybe a 1.8 hard drive. On another note I have been look at the linux os that seems to be running on the f-series and was wondering what space limits that might have. Just a thought though I am not running to get my unit bricked or anything any time soon.

It's running Windows...

I have a Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Drive 500gb. I used the 12v to 5v cigarette lighter to usb adapter and it works fine out of the box.

I have the same issue with it not booting up from a cold start. I need to unplug and plug it back into the hard drive to get it to recognize. Is there anyway to make it recognize without doing so?

My 100GB won't cold boot either.. same issue. Mine is powered properly, and I formatted it with the Windows CE disk management, also trying 32KB cluster sizes previously. I think it's a problem with recognizing certain volume sizes upon boot in Windows CE.. I'm not sure though. It would be nice if someone found a fix. But yes, it does work fine once the unit is booted and I re-plug it.

For reference, I'm using a 100GB hard drive. At the moment I have a little over 17GB of music, and 28GB of TV shows on it. I'm adding more and more every day. I have around 165GB of music but haven't loaded my HDD up with much yet. I don't listen to half the music I have.. lol. A lot of it is my brother's and friend's that I backup on my server for them.

Bump. Does anyone have a solution for the cold start problem?

ot but does anyone know how to organize the video files from the hard drive? i have some tv shows and when i click search i have to search by file number. is there a way to search through the list like the audio list? thanks in advance.

I don't think so.. I wish there was a folder tree list like the audio. I just put mine in folders by show/season. Then when I jump from folder to folder, I can tell by the short label I tagged the folder with. It sucks, but it's the only way I know to navigate it.

I know boris had it start from a cold start and maybe someone else. I have seagate freeagent go 250 and it sometimes got recognized from a cold start until I found out that my usb adapter was faulty and got a new one. Now it dosnt start unless I unplug and plug it back in.

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 bigger is the longer for bootup.Read this viewtopic.php?f=34&t=24109

so i just tried using my 250GB external western digital drive on my F900bt. it recognized the mp3's fine when there was only 1GB on there that i tested just to make sure it was in FAT32 and recognizable.

immediately after, i dropped another 100GB of music onto the drive and it didn't recognize it at all. The usb icon never lit up. i let it sit for 10 minutes and nothing.

ive seen some people have hit 40GB and havent been able to go passed it, someone else said they had about 17GB of music and 28GB of tv shows and it worked.

has anyone figured out if there is some hard cap on the F series that prevents you from using a full 250GB external hard drive to play music from?

i have all the files on the HDD sorted by artist/album/song.

any help here is definitely appreciated.

so i just tried using my 250GB external western digital drive on my F900bt. it recognized the mp3's fine when there was only 1GB on there that i tested just to make sure it was in FAT32 and recognizable.

 

immediately after, i dropped another 100GB of music onto the drive and it didn't recognize it at all. The usb icon never lit up. i let it sit for 10 minutes and nothing.

 

ive seen some people have hit 40GB and havent been able to go passed it, someone else said they had about 17GB of music and 28GB of tv shows and it worked.

 

has anyone figured out if there is some hard cap on the F series that prevents you from using a full 250GB external hard drive to play music from?

 

i have all the files on the HDD sorted by artist/album/song.

 

any help here is definitely appreciated.

Read this viewtopic.php?f=34&t=24109

thanks landmark, i read that thread and its my next step if the method that i am currently trying does not work.

it just seems kind of odd that i would have to format using the head unit rather than any fat32 formatter. should be the same exact thing, especially if im using the same allocation size.

landmark, whats the largest amount of data you've fit on an external hard drive that was recognized?

I have a Western Digital Passport Portable Hard Drive 500gb. I used the 12v to 5v cigarette lighter to usb adapter and it works fine out of the box.

 

I have the same issue with it not booting up from a cold start. I need to unplug and plug it back into the hard drive to get it to recognize. Is there anyway to make it recognize without doing so?

What is the File format on your WD 500 GB HD? Out of the box mine is NTFS.

Thanks