Compatible 128gb USB Flash drives?

[Syndicate]

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone knows of a 128gb flash drive that fits in the USB slot under the armrest. It appears that the design does not allow for thick flash drives.
I am running a 500gb hard drive, but have grown tired of the time it takes for all the artist and songs to load, in order for the search features to work.

I am asking here because I'll have to order the usb flash from the internet, and don't have any available to test out before purchasing.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,

[jammit]

USB will be slower than the hard drive you are using now. This is a hidden problem which discussed in few threads:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...e-upgrade.html

[Syndicate]

Originally Posted by jammit

USB will be slower than the hard drive you are using now. This is a hidden problem which discussed in few threads:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...e-upgrade.html

I read through your posts and that is not at all what I experienced. I tried several different USB sticks and they started up very quickly and were searchable very quickly as well. That is why I am interested in ditching the HDD in favor of the USB stick. I'm just searching for one that can hold all of my music.

Perhaps it is the Windows Media that is slowing yours down

I have a 2gb stick with me right now. I'll load that up and report back on how long it took for the iDrive to recognize etc.

Cheers,

[Syndicate]

Loaded up the 2gb stick and it resumed playback in about 4 seconds. The track picked up from where it had left off, and mind you that it hadn't been loaded in nearly a month and a half. The entire usb stick was searchable within 10 seconds.

Jammit, I'm really not sure why you are having delays with your usb stick.

I found a USB extension cable, and playback was just as quick. With the cable, it means that this thread can be closed, now that I'm no longer limited to the dimensions of the OEM usb slot.

Cheers,

[ranchhand]

I have an 8gig Kingston filled and it takes about 30 secs with the latest program updates. Used to be much faster.
Also even though it continues playing where it left off, sometimes the display indicates a non related song is playing.

Service says that is the way it is!!!

Will be going to a 2011 ML350 Blue Tec soon so I don't care to
continue fighting BMW to fix their programs.

Good luck.

[wpr]

do any of you guys just leave your USB plugged in all the time? any concern about power draw?

[TheWanderer66]

I have a 64gb USB stick that I'm using for mine. It usually takes about 20 seconds or so from a cold start, although there are times that it's available immediately. I'm not entirely certain why that is, and I haven't removed it from the car since putting it in with all the music.

Search performance is instant, that may have more to do with the fact that all the metadata is cached on the internal drive of the system. The manual does say that the system will store about 16k entries.

Physically, there is no issue with it's fit in the console and it's about twice the size of what you'd normally find in a usb stick.

The only issue I found was that it came formatted using the exFat file system, and the system in the car didn't recognize it. I had to download a fat32 formatting tool to force it to format as fat32 (Windows7 insisted on staying with exFat). Fat32 supports up to 137gb drives apparently, so, I'm wondering how folks using larger USB hard drives have theirs formatted..

[Syndicate]

Originally Posted by TheWanderer66

I have a 64gb USB stick that I'm using for mine. It usually takes about 20 seconds or so from a cold start, although there are times that it's available immediately.

Nice... Could you please provide the make and model of your USB stick? Thanks for the reply.

Cheers,

[eugeneflim]

The solution that works reasonably well for me (YMMV) - 30GB SSD drive in the enclosure. This can be had at ~$60 now, about the same as the stick, but I think it's a LOT faster. Regular external drives seem to be bogging down reading algorithms - I had my regular backup drive there (2.5" size), just to see how it would work, and it really drove me crazy, taking 5 mins or so to read the contents. Now, with SSD, it's pretty decent, a few seconds top.

[Sea Doom]

Originally Posted by wpr

do any of you guys just leave your USB plugged in all the time? any concern about power draw?

I leave a 32GB Lexar plugged in all the time with no battery issues. Commute 24 mi./day = 12freeway:12street for charging consideration.
Not sure if the USB port remains "hot" after unlocked shutdown; suspect it doesn't.