Usb Port Issues

nordiskskier · April 5, 2010

The USB port on my 2010 GMC Sierra appears to recognize only one of the USB thumbdrives I have. This drive is 4 Gb, and the MP3 and WMA files play fine - and the menu system on the NAV radio works fine. However, the USB port/Nav radio does not recognize larger capacity thumbdrives (14 Gb; this drive eventually shows up as "Aux" on the Now radio, but cannot be accessed) and hard drives (500 Gb).

Is the USB port in the vehicle limited to low capacity thumbdrives or is there another way for the USB port to recognize large capacity drives?

Gregorio · April 5, 2010

My 16gb works fine. Haven't tried HDD yet.

ken1mod · April 5, 2010

You might try formatting the big drive into two logical drives.

jblakeney · April 6, 2010

The USB port on my 2010 GMC Sierra appears to recognize only one of the USB thumbdrives I have. This drive is 4 Gb, and the MP3 and WMA files play fine - and the menu system on the NAV radio works fine. However, the USB port/Nav radio does not recognize larger capacity thumbdrives (14 Gb; this drive eventually shows up as "Aux" on the Now radio, but cannot be accessed) and hard drives (500 Gb).

Is the USB port in the vehicle limited to low capacity thumbdrives or is there another way for the USB port to recognize large capacity drives?

Do take note to the fact that a hard disk should not be used. As it will have spinning disk and read/write arms (fingers) in between the platters. If the disk is shaken (pot hole, sudden dip, etc, .....) It could cause the drive to fail.

Jbo

Edit: Do note Solid State Drives do NOT HAVE disk they will operate just fine in this condition.

Gregorio · April 6, 2010

Do take note to the fact that a hard disk should not be used. As it will have spinning disk and read/write arms (fingers) in between the platters. If the disk is shaken (pot hole, sudden dip, etc, .....) It could cause the drive to fail.

Jbo

Edit: Do note Solid State Drives do NOT HAVE disk they will operate just fine in this condition.

Most iPods have disks and work very well under rough service. I've got one in all 4 cars. The oldest is going on 4 years. Disks designed to backup or suppliment home systems might not be so rugged.

trucc_boi · April 6, 2010

we have video camera systems at work for school buses that are mounted upside down, sideways, etc. that go down extremely bumpy roads and have crappy fujitsu japcrap drives in them and we have had very few fail (they may have came defective from the factory/got damaged shipping.

basically anyone buying a hard drive (minus an SSD) knows that it's not going to be permanent and make sure to backup the media on another hard drive (they should all be on the CD's you PURCHASED and ripped onto your computer, right? )

anyways.. just allow enough ventilation and a good power source that doesn't cut out.. something that would cut on/off with the radio such as an amp remote wire or something that cuts on as soon as you open the door and a good inverter and you could mount it where it's not too dusty such as in a console or something.. i think that would be a great idea. i would have already done this if i had the USB port on my truck and could give you more info.. but i have an '07

there are several carpc sites that have more info about things like this.

min9861 · April 6, 2010

iphones/ipods also work with the usb drive, which is just awesome becuase it charges it at the same time

jblakeney · April 7, 2010

Hmmmmm, I have fixed a lot of laptops with disc plate drives over use in trucks (if it fails I usually take it apart to see what happened hard drive included)...... Maybe it has something to do with them being oil field trucks...

Jbo

nordiskskier · April 7, 2010

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

The small portable hard drive I am trying to connect to my truck's USB port is a Seagate Free Agent Go drive (500 Gb; $89!!), which is very robust and resistant to vibration and shock. However, a solid state thumb drive is definitely less prone to damage from abuse (too bad the capacity is still "relatively" low at 64 Gb; and still expensive at about$169).

My Seagate drive powers up fine when connected to the truck's USB port, but the drive never shows up on the NAV radio display. The 14 Gb thumb drive also powers up, but again is not accessible from the NAV radio. This leads me to think it's a software driver problem.

I'd go ahead and spend the cash for a 64 Gb thumb drive if I knew for certain that the truck's USB system would actually read the drive.

I'll keep searching for a solution (the truck's manual is no help!).

By the way, be careful when using a thumb drive in the truck's USB port in the storage console. If the drive is knocked or bent while connected, it could crack the port's circuit board (this has happened on several of our laptops as people walk around with a thumb drive sticking out of the computer ... cracked mother board!). A short USB extension cable should lessen the chances of breakage.

Batiatus · July 18, 2010

Did this ever get resolved? I have the same hard drive and can't get the truck to read it. Just some error message about file system not supported. The Seagate comes NTFS and I reformatted it FAT32, but still get the same error message.

captainmorgan00 · July 19, 2010

I had issues with my USB when got it. Gave me the file system not supported error. I formatted it several times trying different options and when I changed the Allocation size to "Default allocation size" and the FAT32 file system; it started working.

C. Charles Hahn · July 19, 2010

Guys, it might also be valuable to keep in mind that portable hard drives may not be able to function with the USB system in these trucks simply because of the power requirements for them. I'm not so sure the console/dash ports put out enough power to spin up a traditional drive reliably.

Batiatus · July 19, 2010

I had issues with my USB when got it. Gave me the file system not supported error. I formatted it several times trying different options and when I changed the Allocation size to "Default allocation size" and the FAT32 file system; it started working.

What software did you use to re-format? I re-formatted mine 3 times using 64, 32, & 16 kb allocation and get "cannot connect no mp3 or wma present" even though there is both on the drive.

Batiatus · July 20, 2010

Guys, it might also be valuable to keep in mind that portable hard drives may not be able to function with the USB system in these trucks simply because of the power requirements for them. I'm not so sure the console/dash ports put out enough power to spin up a traditional drive reliably.

I'm starting to believe this is the problem. Going to try to find a 12v USB power supply and see if that rectifies the problem.

captainmorgan00 · July 20, 2010

I had issues with my USB when got it. Gave me the file system not supported error. I formatted it several times trying different options and when I changed the Allocation size to "Default allocation size" and the FAT32 file system; it started working.

What software did you use to re-format? I re-formatted mine 3 times using 64, 32, & 16 kb allocation and get "cannot connect no mp3 or wma present" even though there is both on the drive.

Sorry, I must have missed that you were talking about the hard drive. I was referring to a thumb drive.