External Solid State Drives

I have a Pioneer FH-S701BS
I have been using a older Western Digital standard portable hard drive 1Tb drive in my USB port. I have over 6000 songs and it has worked well for the past few years. Wanting to update the drive I have tried some new WD drives this past year and some don't work. I have reformatted the drives into Fat 32 because that it what the HU recognizes. Even with the reformat into Fat 32 and even made only one partition on the drive some still don't work or are not recognized by the HU. It can get expensive purchasing a drive just to find out it is not recognized even after the one partition and Fat 32 reformat. Seams only some of the older WD models work that i have been able to purchase. I did exacly what i did to the older WD drives that work to the newer models of WD drive and the newer ones don't work. Can't seam to figure out why. Some may say, just buy a flash drive. Yes but they too get expensive when you get up over 512GB. I can buy a WD portable 1TB drive for $60.

So now i wanted to try a SSD drive. The prices have come down and more affordable. SSD drive, They much faster and no moving parts. So my question is, who has or is currently using a SSD drive in there USB port in there HU and what brand is it and did you have to do anything special to make it work. I know i may have to reformat it to the Fat 32. But i just did not want to buy a SSD drive just to find out it don't work.

I have heard and seen specs that some of the new more high end priced HU models now have included NTFS format capabilities. But i just don't need a $500 HU just to use a NTFS hard drive. My $160 Pioneer dose just fine.

So if you have an answer let me know please.
 
Hmmm. Might have to plug my SSD into my headunit.. I don't really see any advantage though but I am not really tech savvy. I just know the SSDs have much quicker load times than my HDDs.
 
A head unit that only recognizes FAT32 is going to have limitations on individual file size, number of folder and sub folders and or as well as how big of a storage device it will recognize. A head unit that will also recognize NTFS will have no real limitation to speak of in these respects. Your head unit will do FAT32 at most per the user manual. It is also USB 2.0 @ 1.5amp. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible so that should not be a cause for concern. The list below is what a Windows computer will recognize... a car stereo head unit may be the same or they may choose to limit it further. If you are wanting to stick with your head unit, find an external, usb SSD that will function on 1.5a or less and only partition it to have 1 partition. Your head unit states it will only play the first partition. Some new SSD's will have a factory partition... this may prevent your head unit from being able to see the music. Do a FULL (not quick) format and remove ALL partitions, reformat to fat32 and it should work.

-------Maximum--------
File Volume Number
Size Size Files

NTFS 16TB 256TB 4.3G

exFAT 16EB 64ZB **

FAT32 4GB 2TB 4M

FAT16 4GB 4GB 65K

FAT12 ** 16MB 4K

** limited by volume size
 
Hmmm. Might have to plug my SSD into my headunit.. I don't really see any advantage though but I am not really tech savvy. I just know the SSDs have much quicker load times than my HDDs.
yes you are correct that a SSD drive is quicker load time. But i have to say my older HDD drive WD is not so bad in load times. few seconds that's all and i can or have been ok with that. But like i said i have not tries a SSD drive yet and was thinking of trying one.
 
yes you are correct that a SSD drive is quicker load time. But i have to say my older HDD drive WD is not so bad in load times. few seconds that's all and i can or have been ok with that. But like i said i have not tries a SSD drive yet and was thinking of trying one.
What some overlook from time to time is that a HDD is a rotating platter with a magnetic seek head. Bumps in the road are not friends of HDD's. An SSD has no moving parts and no chance for errors due to bumps in the road.
 
I suggest you read the manual to determine the max drive size. Older headunits don't support very large drives. 512gb and 1TB are unlikely.

I doubt load times will change. The speed of spinning disc drives, flash drives, and SD cards generally well exceed bitrates of tracks. You'd need to be dealing with very high fidelity lossless material for it to matter.

As previously said, the main issue is vibration for HDD's
 
A head unit that only recognizes FAT32 is going to have limitations on individual file size, number of folder and sub folders and or as well as how big of a storage device it will recognize. A head unit that will also recognize NTFS will have no real limitation to speak of in these respects. Your head unit will do FAT32 at most per the user manual. It is also USB 2.0 @ 1.5amp. USB 3.0 is backwards compatible so that should not be a cause for concern. The list below is what a Windows computer will recognize... a car stereo head unit may be the same or they may choose to limit it further. If you are wanting to stick with your head unit, find an external, usb SSD that will function on 1.5a or less and only partition it to have 1 partition. Your head unit states it will only play the first partition. Some new SSD's will have a factory partition... this may prevent your head unit from being able to see the music. Do a FULL (not quick) format and remove ALL partitions, reformat to fat32 and it should work.

-------Maximum--------
File Volume Number
Size Size Files

NTFS
16TB 256TB 4.3G

exFAT 16EB 64ZB **

FAT32 4GB 2TB 4M

FAT16 4GB 4GB 65K

FAT12 ** 16MB 4K

** limited by volume size

Media Type
CD (-R/RW)
USB (AOA/MTP/MSC)
File System
ISO9660 Level 1/Level 2, Joliet, Romeo​
FAT 12/16/32​
Playable File Types
MP3: bit rate of 8-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 8-48 kHz
WMA:
bit rate of 48-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 32, 44.1, 48 kHz
AAC: bit rate of 16-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 11.025-48 kHz
WAV: bit rate of 8/16-bit w/ sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz​
MP3: bit rate of 8-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 8-48 kHz
WMA:
bit rate of 48-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 32, 44.1, 48 kHz
AAC: bit rate of 16-320 kbps w/ sampling frequency of 11.025-48 kHz
FLAC:
bit rate of 16/24-bit w/ sampling frequency of 44.1, 48, 96 kHz (not supported by MTP)
WAV: bit rate of 8/16-bit w/ sampling frequency of 44.1 kHz (not supported by MTP)​
Maximum # of Folders/Files
99 folders/999 files​
1,500 folders/15,000 files​
Tags
ID3 tags (ver.1.0/1.1/2.2/2.3/2.4), WMA/AAC/FLAC tags​
This is the list that i saw on Crutchfield web site were i got the HU from. I wanted a HU to play FLAC files (Hi Def). It shows it at 1,500 folders & 15,000 files. that is a lot for a Fat 32. I don't think i will ever have 1,500 folders or 15,000 files. Drive all across country and never hear the same song twice. My HDD drive has now 17 main folders, like Rock folder & POP, Soft Rock, Country, Rap so on. And inside each one has songs or sub folders or both sub folders & songs. Example Rock folder has sub folders like AC-DC folder & Bad Company, Judas Priest, Hammerfall, and so on. Same for the others like POP folder has sub folders too. But not near 1,500 or 15,000 All together i have over 6000 songs on there. Like i said my older WD drive have worked fine but some of the newer models don't or not recognized.

Remember that these are the small portable HDD drive I'm talking about.

I did also think about that USB 3.0 that is backward comparable. And like i said i reformatted the drive to have only one partition because i did figure out that the HU did read only the first partition. And i new i had to use Fat 32. I have to say that i do know a lot about the computers and new to do all that formatting to the drives to make it work. Few years back i did the tests to figure it out and found out what worked. But some of the newer models drives don't work. Yes i also did notice the factory partitions on the drive and deleted them all and repartitions to only one partition. What has worked in past older models of HDD seam to not work on some of the newer models.

So i have to give an update. Yesterday i got a new Toshiba Canvio Advanced HDD drive $60 (amazon) 1TB and did exactly what i did in past, re-partition to only one partition and format to Fat 32 so on. Then copied my older drive music exact copy then tried it in my Pioneer HU works fine. I also found a guy selling a PNY flash drive 512G on Ebay under $100 new and did same thing yesterday with that flash drive. It also works fine. So now I know the Toshiba HDD drive works, and the PNY flash drive.

I also just got this week a new G-Technology G-drive brand HDD 1TB drive direct from Western Digital website. WD owns G-Technology brand and it was a good price. Did all the same changes to the drive as i did with the other that work,
yes you guessed it, it don't work in the Pioneer HU

I have had reliable service with WD drives over the years that why i try to use them. The older Western Digital HDD drives I'm using are the, My Passport (my older original first drive) then a little newer WD My Passport Ultra drive. Both work fine after doing the changes to them. But i have a WD My Passport Ultra i purchased last year a current newer model that will not work. I have formatted it slow and fast and fixed the partitions and did Fat 32 and everything i can think of and the Pioneer HU will not recognize it. So now i just use it in NTFS format as one of the many back up drives for my computer and my music collection. I just checked and it shows i have close to 300G of music on the drive WOW 300G of music is a lot for most people.

But i am now wanting to try a SSD drive and see if that will work. That is why i asked my original question. Amazon has a
WD 500GB My Passport Go SSD cobalt portable USB 3.0 drive right now for $70
So if any other Car Audio people have experience with using a SSD drive Please let us know. What Brand and what you did to make it work and size of drive.
 
What some overlook from time to time is that a HDD is a rotating platter with a magnetic seek head. Bumps in the road are not friends of HDD's. An SSD has no moving parts and no chance for errors due to bumps in the road.
Your correct on that. I have to say that i have not had any issues with it say skipping because of bumps. And i drive a 04 Tacoma x-cab truck. I have only used so far the WD brand of HDD drives and they have been great. The portable drives are small enough to fit inside my ash tray just under my Pioneer HU and it plugs in perfect into the USB port. Maybe the ash tray helps with softening the bumps.
 
I suggest you read the manual to determine the max drive size. Older headunits don't support very large drives. 512gb and 1TB are unlikely.

I doubt load times will change. The speed of spinning disc drives, flash drives, and SD cards generally well exceed bitrates of tracks. You'd need to be dealing with very high fidelity lossless material for it to matter.

As previously said, the main issue is vibration for HDD's
yes i have to say i have had no issues with bit rates and load times. It may take few seconds more then a SSD but for now when i first plug it in, it may take like 10 seconds to recognize and then play and then when i skip songs it may only take like 2 to 3 seconds to play. I am using a 1TB WD drive and just tested a 512 PNY brand flash drive that works fine. So the 1TB and 512G work for me on my Pioneer FH-S701BS. But like my post said, i am wondering now about using a SSD drive do to the better prices these days and the problem with some of the newer WD HDD drives not working. I would have to agree that it may make the drive work harder and wear out sooner do to using the drive in a moving vehicle.
 
yes i have to say i have had no issues with bit rates and load times. It may take few seconds more then a SSD but for now when i first plug it in, it may take like 10 seconds to recognize and then play and then when i skip songs it may only take like 2 to 3 seconds to play. I am using a 1TB WD drive and just tested a 512 PNY brand flash drive that works fine. So the 1TB and 512G work for me on my Pioneer FH-S701BS. But like my post said, i am wondering now about using a SSD drive do to the better prices these days and the problem with some of the newer WD HDD drives not working. I would have to agree that it may make the drive work harder and wear out sooner do to using the drive in a moving vehicle.
Buy it and try it out. You can always get something that you'll later use in your laptop like a 2.5 inch drive and a SATA enclosure if it doesn't work. Otherwise you could format the drive and return it. I've never seen 1tb SSD's <$100 unless it's an extremely crappy brand like Kingston.
 
Buy it and try it out. You can always get something that you'll later use in your laptop like a 2.5 inch drive and a SATA enclosure if it doesn't work. Otherwise you could format the drive and return it. I've never seen 1tb SSD's <$100 unless it's an extremely crappy brand like Kingston.
You have a point. But do i buy it and try it out just to find out it don't work. Yes right now a reputable brand for a 1TB SSD drive is over $100 but recently i saw a 1TB SSD on ebay under $100 and i just can't remember what brand but i know it was not one of those cheep no name brands. That is what caught my eye and i told myself wow under $100. It was a reputable name. So this WD SSD i said is $70 right now on AZ But it is only a 500GB drive. Prefer to find a 1TB under $100. Well 500GB that is plenty of space for what music i have now. So I just not sure. just have that doubt right now. I have to fly out Sunday on work trip for 2 weeks and maybe keep looking and might come across a name brand again under$100. Also i just spent few green backs on that Toshiba and PNY i commented about. Good thing is the Toshiba & PNY work.

By the way i have to disagree on Kingston being cheep stuff. I have used there memory a few times and never had any issues.
Personal opinion i guess
 
I currently use thumb drives. Sandisk and a Samsung. My main is a 128GB Sandisk. Never one problem. I do want a 500GB - 1TB USB SSD so I can load it and mount it more permanently.
 

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The issue is not wether your drive will read it or not.. The issue is the adapter you use as some require drivers others are plug and play.

The current external you have can be taken apart and replace the internal drive.

Sk hynix sells a 1tb ssd drive for 120$, should work well. But the type of partition should not matter as the fat32 4gb file limit should be more than enough for mp3s.

Consider upgrading to a bluetooth unit and uploading your mp3s to a cloud drive and streaming them as you go.

Beats youtube **** quality.
 
Update
I have not pulled the plug and got a SSD drive yet but I did find a PNY brand 512G flash drive at a decent price under $100
someone was selling on Ebay. Loaded it up with all the 6300 + songs and still have close to 200G left. And these are high quality wave files that are non compressed file. It plays fine and the transfer rate is very good. Takes only second to change songs. Also tried a Toshiba portable HD 1tb and it works find too. Just that it would be nice to have my HU have NTFS file format so songs are alphabetized, not so with Fat 32 file format. But all works great.
 
I currently have a 32gig flash drive, that has more than enough music for me. Just purchased a 1TB flash drive for $10.99, and will try loading some music and books on it.
 
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