So I tried an western digital 250 gig external hard drive today loaded about 200 gig of music. Some flac, some mp3 and some AAC.

Initial read took an hour, pretty much expected.

However each time I started my truck it took 2 minutes to repopulate the music again, gonna buy a ssd and see if it's faster on load times after initial load, cause if it is, that may be the road I'll stick with.

I'd rather have all music in one place cause right noemi using 32 sd card, 80 gig iPod, and phone, still doesn't give me all the music I have

I use a 64g sd card full with music, videos, and movies and it takes seconds after the first read. First read took a couple of minutes.  

I'm surprised the external HDD (not SSD) worked at all; the usual problem is insufficient power down the USB bus, and the usual result is EXTREMELY flaky operation, if it comes up at all.

This is why external USB hard disks (before USB 3.0, which allows >500ma on a standard port) have an external power adapter -- they need it.  However, an SSD has MUCH lower power consumption and as such is fine on a standard USB port.

I have NEX4000 coming and intend to use a NTFS-formatted 128gb SSD as storage for my music.  I'll report here once I've got it installed and working on how it behaves.  An intelligent head unit should NOT require a material amount of time provided the device has not changed; all volumes have a VolumeID that they internally generate randomly when formatted (it's part of the formatting process) and so long as that Volume ID has not changed the device does not need to be re-indexed.  The other thing the device can do is keep a checksum of the directory structure (and only the directory structure!) to detect changes to the media which allows for disconnect and reconnect, so long as you don't write to it, without requiring a full reindex.

I would hope Pioneer is intelligent in this regard -- some other manufacturers are NOT.

if powering is a issue i would advise against using a external HDD or SSD. under powering a device can cause poor performance and tons of errors which may lead to corrupting directories. 

I use a 64g sd card full with music, videos, and movies and it takes seconds after the first read. First read took a couple of minutes.  

Could you tell me exactly which card?

Sandisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 reformatted to FAT32

Sandisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 reformatted to FAT32

Great thanks Ive read that those card should not be reformatted as they will unlimately have problems down the road. Are you using it in the card slot? Thanks

Yes

I have had this problem before the trick is to get more power so what you do or what I did was buy a usb cable with two male out and one female in usb on ebay i bought 4 i use it on anything with this sort of problem one to system other to external charging of youre choice witch will boost youre portable hardrive I used it on my avic z130bt no im gking to use on my nex8000 when I have a minute I will post a pic oh by the way usually cable is 3 to 4 ft so I buy a extended cable from back to glove conpartment

im using that same 64g sd card and it tells me its incompatible but when i use the 32g card it works fine am i missing something? i put a bunch of movies on it

going to get this hope it works: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281332418317

For those who are hooking up large-size USB drives with over 50gb of music...does the NEX categorize the music so that you can look up and search by Artist, Album or Song?

I would not recommend using hdd, for three reasons. 1. They are too susceptible to damage from vibration or bouncing around 2. Power consumption is about 3 times that of ssd 3. Startup and read times are faster on ssd.

If you are going to use large ssd, format ntfs, fat is limited to <100 gb, and 4 gb per file. Pioneer's limit is 4gb per file, 1500 folders,15000 files, movies have time limit also.

The NEX, categorizes all my music, and i have 65 gb of music on 80 gb intel ssd.

I also just ordered new AVIC-U260 nav add-on for my 4000NEX. 329.00 no tax, free delivery. It is 2014 replacement for AVIC-U250. Can not wait to install.

The NEX, categorizes all my music, and i have 65 gb of music on 80 gb intel ssd.

I also just ordered new AVIC-U260 nav add-on for my 4000NEX. 329.00 no tax, free delivery. It is 2014 replacement for AVIC-U250. Can not wait to install.

Where did u order it?

Ebay store, had 349.00 or make offer, i offerred 310, he countered 329.00, i accepted.

autosounds4less is ebay store.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=201093598225

they have 4 left as of 4:51 texas time.

they also have the cheapest pioneer backup camera i have found, 112.94 shipped.

I would not recommend using hdd, for three reasons. 1. They are too susceptible to damage from vibration or bouncing around 2. Power consumption is about 3 times that of ssd 3. Startup and read times are faster on ssd.

If you are going to use large ssd, format ntfs, fat is limited to <100 gb, and 4 gb per file. Pioneer's limit is 4gb per file, 1500 folders,15000 files, movies have time limit also.

I believe Pioneer's 4gb/file only applies to video files...not audio.

Could be, can't imagine a song being 4 gb. Maybe a whole album as one file.

Great price on the U260 Ouch on the camera I got and integrated license plate camera for $55 shipped works great looks great. Please post a review of the U260.

120Gb SSD works fine on my 4000-NEX.

NTFS formatted, USB3 enclosure (so it can take power off the USB cable, which many USB2 enclosures cannot.)

Just want to confirm that the NEX units can read NTFS?

Nex can read ntfs, fat16,fat32 and that is it.

Correct.  They will NOT read exFAT (e.g. SDXC cards)  NTFS works fine; I'm using it on my 4000.

Hmm, I don't it's now as large as a hard drive or fast as an SSD but what about using a 160gb iPod Classic? Wouldn't that index correctly with the tracks and show album art? The manual says it's supported and it might be a cleaner implementation. Well minus videos I guess but for music that should work... I wish I had one to try...

The track sorting alphabetically instead of in order is annoying...