myLink with a portable HDD

afireinside7444 · July 14, 2015

Can i use a small USB powered HDD with MP3 files on it in my glove compartment? Instead of needing a ipod?

Smoothbassman · July 14, 2015

No

Max size of flash drive is 64GB. Larger than that you my Link will be stupid slow to index all of those files.

If you have one laying around somewhere, just plug in and see what happens.

jimlem · July 14, 2015

Just partition it into separate 60GB partitions and then fill each. Use FAT32 format.

Lawnmower2020 · July 14, 2015

What they said. It takes a loooooong time to index even thousands of files. If you're in the 10,000+ range it may not even be possible. I don't know. My first attempt had something like 5500 files and it hadn't completed by the time I stopped it after about an hour and a half. Haven't tried the partitioning idea, but that could be a good problem solver.

I can tell you with certainty that you can stick an SSD in a 2.5" drive to USB adapter and it will work. I used an old Corsair Force SATA-II drive and a Transcend USB3 drive housing. However, I think this is kind of pointless anymore because right here on my desk I have two new Sandisk thumbnail-sized 64GB USB3 flash drives. They're the ultra small type where there's only enough sticking out of the USB socket to get ahold of to pull it out. Works like a champ. Was $21 @ Amazon as a hot deal a couple of weeks ago. 64GB is probably large enough to hold more files than you'd care to try indexing.

Something to consider: You might want to re-encode your files for use in a vehicle. I guarantee you that 160KB/sec ave. VBR is perfectly fine for a high-noise background like a vehicle. There's absolutely no reason for high-bitrate or uncompressed files in any automotive use. You can't possibly hear the difference. If you have a lot of FLAC files, one tool you might consider is FlacSquisher available at SourceForge.