UMI and USB Hard Drives - definitive guide?

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Bobsta

Bobsta

Active Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
112
Location
Hampshire
Car
2009 C63 Performance Pack, 2017 E220d AMG Premium Plus
Hi all,

I'm getting increasingly infuriated trying to get my W204 (C63) to read from a USB HD.

- USB sticks work fine when formatted with FAT32 (not with NTFS, understandably)
- I then formatted my USB HD (Samsung S2 Portable 500GB) with FAT32 using FAT32format - no joy
- I then tried using a 4k block size instead of 32k - no joy
- I then tried formatting the S2 Portable using Samsung's own format utility - still no joy

All this despite the fact that the Samsung S2 Portable 500GB is on the Mercedes Benz list of approved devices - Mercedes-Benz Bluetooth Connectivity

Any hints/tips? As I say, this is beginning to really frustrate me!
 
I would have thought it is down to power consumption and drive firmware - if the usb doesn't provide enough current then the hd won't spin up - some drives can use a spit usb lead that allows you to connect to 2x power sources at once. Or if the drive has a mains option try it on the drive with mains power then at least you can prove the theory.
 
I have this before with a Pioneer stereo. Two issues:

1- ( the most likely) the HDD consumes/needs for than 0.5Amp which the USB port is limited to. Hence some HDD come with two USB plugs on the same cable. Find a HDD rated at 0.5Amp or below (maxtor and the WD digital passport I think fit the bill)

2- it might not read fat32 either and needs formatting to fat16 with obvious partition limitations that entails
 
Wont be a power consumption issue as the drive is on the approved list.

You cant have a 500GB fat32, you need to partition the drive, then format each partition as fat32.
 
npuk said:
You cant have a 500GB fat32, you need to partition the drive, then format each partition as fat32.
Click to expand...
Thanks npuk... when you say "you can't have 500GB FAT32" is this an MB restriction that you're aware of? You most certainly *can* have FAT32 volumes of 500GB - cos I've created them(!)... It's just Windows being daft when it won't let you create one bigger than 32GB.

Are you aware of a max FAT32 volume size that the MB media interface can handle? If so, what is it? I'll partition the drive into multiple volumes if necessary - just seems a bit daft that this isn't mentioned on the MB approved list.

Thanks,

Rob
 
In previous threads I have read it mentioned a 500gb drive has worked when partitioned so try that first.
 
I created a 30GB partition and a 200GB partition. Formatted them both with FAT32 and chucked some MP3s on. Still no luck.

The drive spins up but there's not a lot of head movement. I'll try borrowing a twin-USB Y-cable from a colleague on Monday and see if a decent power feed from the 12v ciggy lighter socket does the trick.
 
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So... I tried a "y" cable to give the drive power from the 12V socket as well as from the UMI. No joy with the Samsung HD.

But... Maplin were selling 64GB USB sticks for £30 delivered last week so I ordered one and it works a treat. Instant startup, no issues with recognising it, and I can fit a reasonable amount of music on a 64GB stick.

It's this one: 64GB CnM USB Flash Drive : Standard & Micro : Maplin Electronics - back up to £39.99 now but a pretty cost-effective solution even at that price.
 
Price is good but poor read / write speed.
 
So will these USB sticks and hard drives work with the standard Audio 20 setup or will it need the media interface also? The new facelift C-Class comes with USB as standard.
 
Usb

I just plugged a USB stick with a load of music in the USB socket in the centre console of mine (the car is the same as yours only delivered Monday) and it works a treat. Not as good as the UMI in the last car (fitted by Alfie) but reasonable. Need to have a bit of a look as only some album artwork is displayed, even though I know it is there. Give it a try! :)
 
G.O'Rilla said:
I just plugged a USB stick with a load of music in the USB socket in the centre console of mine (the car is the same as yours only delivered Monday) and it works a treat. Not as good as the UMI in the last car (fitted by Alfie) but reasonable. Need to have a bit of a look as only some album artwork is displayed, even though I know it is there. Give it a try! :)
Click to expand...

Great, well that's good to know. Was supposed to get the motor 3 weeks ago but still waiting. Will be perfect if I can get a large USB stick or even a hard disk working. Just need the car to try it now!
 
USB hard drives and ICE is a thorny subject.

The limitation is not the current for supported devices or the FAT32 volume size (4.3TB is the theoretical max by the way - 32GB is an entirely notional Micorsoft limitation).

No, the limitation is the number of folders/directories the ICE (Merc or otherwise) can handle and the complexity of the sub-folder regime.

Most ICE has a 255 folder limitation. That's 255 folders in total.

So if you have all your 'A' artists, then the Albums and then the tracks chances are you'll hit 255 folders before you get to AC/DC (assuming you like ABBA that is).

Try you hard drive formatted with a single FAT32 partition with one album on it. I think you'll find it works perfectly. Thereafter it's just a matter of finding out how many folders the head unit can handle.
 
Right that makes sense. Bit weird that 255 is the limit but it is what it is. Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go when the car finally arrives!
 
I had a 320gb hdd working on mine with 80gb worth of music in it. It was an old WD brand formatted as fat64 drive I had lying around. Problem was it took ages to 'boot up' which annoyed me and it would just throw an error when trying to read on start up from time to time. I bought a cheap 64gb USB stick instead and it works perfectly.
 
SmartMAC said:
I had a 320gb hdd working on mine with 80gb worth of music in it. It was an old WD brand formatted as fat64 drive I had lying around. Problem was it took ages to 'boot up' which annoyed me and it would just throw an error when trying to read on start up from time to time. I bought a cheap 64gb USB stick instead and it works perfectly.
Click to expand...

This is quite normal. Hard disks, particularly older models, are quite slow in read mode compared to USB flash sticks. The head unit will read the entire folder/filename structure before the device is made available and the more complex/full your HD is the longer it will take.

PS. 255 is 256 -1. 8 bits. The head unit has to reserve memory for the folder tree. 255 may seem very small but when you take into account 64, 128 or 256 bytes for the filenames within those folders it soon adds up. Using a 16 bit folder table would increase this to 65535 folders and subsequent filenames but then you would be potentially using a couple of gig of memory just for filenames. Head units have to store all directory information about the attached devices, the don't have the luxury of being able to read the device on the fly like Windows/Linux/Mac etc.
 
I'm using a 32gb stick and it works fine, but with one minor irritation. The unit seems to be picking up a load of "phantom" tracks. If I have an album folder with with 15 tracks in it the Audio 20 unit shows that there are 30, but then just skips past the first 15 sequentially before it gets to one it can play. These "phantom" tracks don't show up when I have the drive plugged into my iMac, any suggestions as to why this is happening?
 
It's the long file names. Macs and PCs handle long file names slightly differently.

All files have a short name and the long file name is just a pointer to the short file name.

The phantom files are the unit deciding what file names it's going to use.
 
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