What to do?

[TheWinman]

I have a pioneer AVH-P4000DVD head unit with a usb cable running from the head unit to the glove box. I can easily connect a USB flash drive with no problems at all. Now I wanted to hook up a portable hard drive so that I can have all my music with me. I have a SImpleTech FS-U25 portable hard drive which is made for traveling and can be powered by USB or a power adapter. I tried the USB power option first with no success. I guess not enough power from the head unit to the hard drive. THe drive does not come up with the power adapter so here is what I tried.

1) The hard drive which has 2 usb wires is connected into an ac powered USB hub, THe hub is connected to the USB cable that runs to the head unit. THe ac power cord of the hub is then connected into a power inverter which is plugged into the car power socket. I can select the USB source on the radio, but no music shows up, just a blank playlist. So something is still not working here. The hard drive should be sufficiently powered going through the power inverter. Any ideas on why this is not working? Any ideas on how to make it work or a better solution. Thanks in advance.

Kevin

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[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

It may be the file system on the hard drive that is keeping the player from recognizing it. See if you can format the drive to FAT32 and see if it accepts it then.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

It may also be that your HU does not support the HUB. It can't understand that it needs to look at the USB port your HD is connected to. HUBs aren't independent hardware. They require drivers to be installed on your computer for your system to be able to use it. These drivers are automatically installed when you connect the HUB to a Windows computer.

If a USB Y adapter exists that may work, since it's only wire and no drivers involved.

 

[TheWinman]

I don't think the file system is the problem as the file system on the USB flash drive is NTFs and not Fat32.

I cannot find a USB y adapter either.

I guess I'm still looking for any ideas.

 

[jrwalte 10+ year member]

I'm pretty sure only Windows NT, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista can read NTFS. Most devices are probably only FAT or FAT32.