hi all.
I just got my MCS last week, and am determined to get to the bottom of the USB port's capabilities.
I'm a total computer and technology nerd, so paying $100 for the Y apapter for analogue sound wasn't appealing to me, I want a better sounding solution with as much music as possible available without messing around.

I had a breakthrough last night, I got my 160gig USB mobile hard drive to WORK in the USB port!! It was beautiful. Fair to say, my apple lossless encoded songs listed but would not play, BUT everything 320kbps and lower thumped through my stereo in all of it's digital glory!!! The menu was all there, and I could scroll through quite quickly!!!
As time passed, the indexing of the drive got further through the list (45 gigs of music), and I started giggling like a school girl that I'd figured out the impossible. "I'm going to be famous on NAM", I thought.
My wife called me a genius, life was good.
Then we pulled into our parking spot and turned off the engine.
That was the last of the HDD working in the Mini, BUT it still works perfectly on my Mac, and the USB port in the car still plays nicely with USB flash, so nothing is broken. Nothing broken, but the setup no longer works. An odd combo.

I've since bought a 16gig flash card and am seeing major benefits to limiting myself to 16gig in trade for a very easy and fool proof library of music to maintain (and keep) in the car that is shock proof and more heat resistant. The hard drive was probably going to get upset with my sport suspension, for one thing - solid state is much more reliable!! Another is just not knowing the limitations of the USB port - and not wanting to find out the hard way.
That said - I am GOING to improve on the 16gig card if it kills me. I'm just a geek that way.

Any other geeks out there want to join in on this? Any advice on how to implement the HDD so the power supply is more gentle on it when powering up and down? I think that's the key to the problem I had.
My advice though, is don't run out and buy a hard drive for your car till we've posted better results than I had - though I feel very close to getting it to work flawlessly. I just LOVE the idea of 160gigs "built into" my car!!

I should mention I opted for the premium hi-fi without NAV, and have bluetooth/usb/aux etc etc.
I'd really like the spec sheet for the Alpine(?) deck in my car. I bet that would shed some light on what's possible with the USB.

If anyone has a reason that I might be destroying my USB port by trying to get a HDD to work, please let me know!!! I've heard warnings, but no reasoning. I've used PCs and Mac's long enough to know that USB ports generally don't blow up or break - but that's just experience talking - not science!!

Thanks all. It feels great to be posting something more useful than "my car is on the boat!!!"
I've been waiting for this!!!

 

IIRC, one complication reported over on Mini2 was that the drive needed to be formatted as FAT32.

You don't mention that you formatted the drive, but figured that I'd throw some third-person-hearsay out there

 

Thanks. I neglected to mention that i had done that. FAT32 all the way, and it was working great.
Once the car was turned off though, it seemed to neglect to initiate the hard drive upon restarting about an hour later. I tried plugging it in a few times, and waited, and waited. Nadda.
Songs seem to need to be formatted in 320 or 256 kbps max. 320 does load, but I wonder is all file types will work in that bitrate, since the manual mentions 256kbps being the max that is compatible.
I'm using both MP3 and AAC encoded files. All work great.
My thinking is that if it'll work on a USB Flash Drive, it'll work in the Hard Drive. It's just a question of getting more reliable use of the hard drive.

 

I suspect that the problem with hard drives is that they take more power than USB flash drives. Some external hard drives have a plug so you can power them from an AC adapter if the USB port doesn't supply enough power. A drive like that would probably work if you rigged up an adapter to get power from the cigarette lighter.

 

External hard drives require more power than some USB ports put out. Some of them come with USB Y cables to draw power from two USB ports if one is not enough. I'm not sure why it would work at first and then stop working, but you might need to hook up a separate power source for the hard drive. If it doesn't have a dedicated power jack, you might be able to use a USB Y cable with one of them hooked up to a Cig-lighter to USB power supply and the other to the car's USB port.

 

I actually have one of those multi plug cig adapters that I've been meaning to try. I just need to get around to doing it. Perhaps I will get the GPS installed this weekend if so I'll toy around with it then and let you guys know what I find.

I actually got my portable HDD to spin up once but it wouldn't read anything, then it died. I'm thinking it is definitely a power issue.

 

First plug the the hard drive back into your PC and verify that it is okay. I think it is more likely that the problem was the hard drive rather than the USB (and USB did work with a flash card afterwards). My other thought was that the power level may be marginal for your hard drive and you just got lucky the first time.

Although it was only temporary success, it is very nice to see some progress. BMW owners have reported success with hard drives. The MINI system probably uses the same electronics.

 

OK. Great to see some interest here, I think we can solve this!!
Here's my update. I did a road trip on the weekend and needed something to work - so I went out and got the 16GIG USB Drive I spoke of earlier and loaded 15GIGs of 256kbps music onto it.
I am happy to report that it worked - though it didn't work well enough for my gadget thirst to be quenched.
Indexing of the USB drive was slow, as was selecting/changing tracks. Each time we turned the car on again it showed the USB input as "EMPTY" for a good few minutes while it sorted itself out.
Now... I should mention that to put on 15GIGs of music onto the stick took over 8 hours using a brand new iMac and USB2 port. Speed is the downfall of the USB Drive if you ask me. If it's that slow on a new iMac, what chance does that give the Mini!!?
SO.... The USB drive is not a solution for me, but I'll always keep on handy as backup!!
I'm going to go back to the hard drive project now, and a new idea I want to try out before I share.... stay tuned!!!

 

I got a chance to try out my other idea last night..... a SanDisk 16GiG Extreme III card and a CF only mini reader.
I put the exact same selection of music that I had tried in my 16GIG USB Flash drive. That drive was slow to respond, switch tracks, and scroll. Indexing took a good 5 minutes each time we started the car. Not ideal.
BUT... the CF card was MUCH more like it. I tested it out for about a half hour and am very happy with the results so far!!
More on this later, when I've had more time to test it out. So far I'd say to anyone about to buy a USB2 Flash drive for your Mini... DON'T....YET.
Camera memory is well worth a serious look if you ask me. I'll follow up on this when I have done more testing.
I'm also going to work on getting a hard drive working. I'm not giving up on that!

 

100 dollars for a y adapter? Didnt they throw one in when you bought the car? My MCS was the first 08 at the dealership, and when i asked about the ipod adapter my MA went to the parts counter, grabbed one, and gave it to me. Is a hundred dollars standard for the Y adapter?

 

I got a discount on the car, on the day of pickup, when it came to the Y adapter they said they usually include it in the price of the car, but they had nowhere to go in my case because I got a good deal.
I really thought it was part of the Media Connect, Bluetooth/USB package, or the Premium Hi FI all of which I have. I am pretty disappointed that they are now trying to sell it to me given that it seems to have been free for EVERYONE on here!!!?
What do you guys think? Should I pursue this??

 

That is disappointing

 

i had a spare 4gig micro vault and popped some music onto that. works great and takes up no space in the usb port, its kinda slow on transfer speed to fill up tho. and i cannot adjust the input level (like ipod)

 

I am exactly the same situation as you at the moment - I just picked up my MCS with nearly every option on the weekend, got a great price on it all...however when I found out that the Y-cable wasn't even included with the media package I was extremely disappointed. You spend so much money on all these options and they can't even package the cable with it.

I'm in the process of discussing this with the dealer...as I really dont want to fork out another $100.

 

You mean even if I buy the $1500 Convenience package I will need yet another cable to hook up my iPod? You've got to be kidding.

 

No the car comes with an ipod cable, usually sitting in the the golve box still wrapped iin plastic.

 

geekswrath - you are one of the many many people who did get the cable for free without even asking for it.
I am one of the few who have been refused the cable because I got a good deal on the car. This seems to be a way for the dealer to regain some of the discount given on the car -by selling you a WAY over priced piece of cable that is supposed to be free. Free in a humble way, not "WOW LOOK WHAT YOU GOT FOR FREE".... just sitting in the glovebox like the drivers manual. Many posters here actually didn't know what it was for when they found it.
My advice - CONFIRM when ordering your car, that you get your discount, AND the cable for free.

I am pretty peeved that after my $40k purchase, I'm being raked over the coals on a cable that costs nothing to make. They want $115 for it.
iPod integration is free in most budget-minded cars now. I dropped $750 on upgrading the HI FI to premium, $500 on Media Connect/Bluetooth, every other option other than NAV, and SOMEHOW I am without my free iPod cable.

My dealer dropped the ball on this one in a big way. I've been in touch with them on the topic repeatedly and have just now graciously been offered it for $15 off at $100.
It hurts to think that they literally took the cable out of my glovebox and sold it to someone else - essentially to get part of the discount back that they gave me on the $40K car. I can only assume that's what happened, and boy oh boy is that ever a disappointment!!

 

Tudor - which dealer did you get your mini from? I'm in exactly the same situation - the dealer is refusing to throw the $115 cable in....

I saw that Kenwood cable which may work - so I'm tempted to check that out actually as it's longer and might be able to be routed through to the hidden compartment.

I'm completely at a loss on this, it's just so disappointing that you spend $40k on a car and then they still expect you to buy this cable that only costs them $5.

Let us know if you make any progress...I'm thinking of emailing BMW Group on this, it's just completely misleading.

 

Wait a minute, the cable is part of the package not a dealer add on. Sounds to me like some dealers are trying to rip some people off. From what I understand when you order the Bluetooth package the car comes with the cable.

I'm wondering if they took it out of the car when they received it and figured "hey they should pay extra for this".

 

Yeah... I'm with you on contacting BMW.

I don't want to tarnish the dealer's name. How sad is that considering my situation? I may well draw their attention to this thread in hopes they will see the light. They are in Toronto, Canada.

I actually ordered the Kenwood cable last week - paid $30 including shipping on eBay and they sent it to the wrong address. Refuse to resend, or fix the mistake.
Nice eh?

It would probably cost them less than $20 to correct this. How many $30k cars are they not going to sell this year because of how I feel?
I drive a hot Mini and people always ask me 100 questions.... turns out I'm on the front lines of Mini public relations!! Shame I'm so unhappy over a wee cable.

And how many times did the dealership say "we just want you to be satisfied so you come back for your next car or the SUV when it comes out"

Well... apparently they don't care THAT much!!

 

What makes you think that $115 cable only costs them $20?

 

well... generally cables are always sold WAY over cost. Bought a HDMI cable recently? Read up on the Monster Cable scam?
Without weighing the copper inside... you can trust that the materials cost next to nothing for the y adapter, but bmw would have paid apple a license fee for the apple connector.
if it wasn't for the apple license I'd say less.... WAY less.
but we digress. That's not really my point, and I'm not claiming to be an expert on wiring. Keep in mind though, that cables are ALWAYS a rip off.

Heck - even at full price - it simply should have been free.
Anything vs. free is a rip off... and that is where we're left feeling hosed. My point about the cost of the cable is simply to say that BMW and the dealers are losing ESTABLISHED customers based on COST of a $125 (retail) cable. That's remarkably bad business if you ask me.

 

Too late, eh? (checked out the license plate ring in your gallery pics).

Here's hoping they wise up. I'm still not sure where I'll be taking my MCS for service once it's delivered. My dealer is out of town so I won't likely be going there regularly.

Good luck!

 

Well, well well....

This is my first reply on this forum and after reading each and every response I felt that I had to respond. I work for a Mini Dealer as a salesperson and the question of the proprietary cable comes up all of the time. You folks are buying a media connection package, not specifically an IPod connection, therefore, why would we supply an Apple specific cable? The option is clearly labled as "Media Connect" which includes Bluetooth wireless technology and USB Audio Integration (order code 6ND) no where in any of the literature does it state that this is an IPod specific connection. So the fact that some of you have recieved one for free is great and you should commend your dealer for throwing one in as they most certainly did not have to do this. So in defence of the dealers out there, please take the time to clearly read and understand what it is that you are ordering and purchasing prior to bashing anyone on here. Just my .02.

Cheers,

 

When configuring the car from the end user perspective, the convenience package lists it as "Comfort Bluetooth with USB/iPod adapter". That could be interpreted as including the adapter or stopping at providing the ports I suppose.