USB Flash drive question

[shaunmed]

i have 08 E70 and i connect my iphone with the Y cable which works fine.

i would like to just have a memory stick with my songs on it that i keep in the USB port in the center console.

i know BMW sells one but i would like to just buy one at staples, etc.

QUESTION:
will any flash drive work or do i need the BMW flash drive?

do i have to format it in any soecific way?

thanks.

[TI Master]

I'm going to guess that most of them work, I put a PNY brand 8GB one in mine and it works fine in my 2009 E70. I dont recall changing whatever the default format is, but my guess is FAT32 works.

[GPSnV1]

My brand-name USB (Memorex?) works fine in my 2008 but I use an extension cord as I get into the console quite a bit.

[Syndicate]

FAT 32 format, and so far, every USB drive has worked fine. What has been everyone's experience with load times? By that I mean where the entire drive is searchable by either artist, album, song, etc. I want to get a 64gb or 128gb flash drive but am worried that it would take it 10 minutes to index the drive every time.

Cheers,

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by Syndicate

FAT 32 format, and so far, every USB drive has worked fine. What has been everyone's experience with load times? By that I mean where the entire drive is searchable by either artist, album, song, etc. I want to get a 64gb or 128gb flash drive but am worried that it would take it 10 minutes to index the drive every time.

Cheers,

It only indexes when you make a change to something on the drive.

[Jim E.]

Originally Posted by apw2607

It only indexes when you make a change to something on the drive.

Using a 1 TB Toshiba USB drive and going strong. Very quick too.

[ECS Tuning]

We carry the BMW 8 Gig Flash Drive, it is formatted fat32 out of the box, and works with the USB systems in the X5, 550i, and M5 from my personal experience. On my 8 gig flash drive I can put nearly two thousand mp3s, the load time isn't even worth considering. Something to take in account when going to a large drive such as a 64 gig is load times. I have a 32 gig flash key at the house with a lot of mixed media on it, that particular key took a noticeable amount of time to become ready to use.

[two-five boy]

I use an 8GB generic thumb drive in my center console and it works fine. Load times are quick and never had an issues with file reading.

[shaunmed]

I got a 16mb card and it works flawlessly.