How To Guide: Preparing an MP3 USB Hard Disk

[gibaccord]

I managed to get a 200GB hard disk working off the USB in the Accord this weekend so thought I would post a little guide to help those of you might want to do the same

1: First thing you need is a USB hard disk; one of the laptop sized ones with no power supply. I had an old 200 GB IDE laptop disk lying around so I just bought an enclosure for it for £12

2: You need to format the disk in FAT32 format as the car will not read the newer NTFS format used by Windows 7 and the like. To do this you need to download a utility such as Fat 32 Format.

I used this one http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?guiformat.htm

You basically plug in the USB drive into a PC and format it using the utility.

I tried it under Windows XP SP3 and it worked fine.

3: Copy your Mp3 folders on the hard disk, I’ve copied around 80GB and 400 folders and so far so good. From other posts I understand that the car reads the folders in the order written so you may need to defrag the hard disk when adding new material.

Hope this helps!

Note: This information with my best intentions but is provided as is and with no guarantees that it will work or incur data loss etc.

 

[Paul the Bobby]

Blimey how many years would it take to listen to all that? Good guide mate

 

[St3ve]

Another good format utility is "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool".

HTH

 

[A-EX]

This is epic!

Although I dont think I'd ever listen to every single track!!

 

[gibaccord]

This is epic!

Although I dont think I'd ever listen to every single track!!

thanks guys although it worked i actually went back to a 2gb stick, just too many tracks to manage !

good for a long long trip though

 

[Maxis]

3: Copy your Mp3 folders on the hard disk, I’ve copied around 80GB and 400 folders and so far so good. From other posts I understand that the car reads the folders in the order written so you may need to defrag the hard disk when adding new material.

Just to add a small update to this, if you like your folders in alphabetical order (Yes I'm sad I know :blink: ) then the wee program below is spot on and sorts the usb drive in seconds..

MP3 Dir Sorter