Hi there,

I’m wondering if anyone was able to use a USB hard drive using the USB port? If yes, which hard drive was it? Were you satisfied with the results? I’ve heard that some hard drives don’t work as they pull to much power from the USB port. Please share your “best practice”.

On another note, I have a flash drive which lights up when connected. I realized that the little annoying light stays on if I leave the flash drive in the port when I lock up the car. Does that mean it stays connected and is using the battery’s power?

And before you bother answering “this was covered under a different thread already”, I know how to search and read. I just thought having all specific devices in one post would be more convenient

Cheerios,
Bubba

 

TUDOR II had some success but didn't say what model drive he was using: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html

BMW owners reported success with Western Digital Passport HD (MINI and BMW probably share the same USB electronics): http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80270

It's been reported that an iPod will connect as a USB hard drive (without iPod adapter). Obviously this is under utilizing an iPod to use it only only as a hard drive, but if you had an extra one lying around...

However, even if you do connect a hard drive, you'll only be able to use a portion of its capacity because there is a total maximum number of items that the system can handle and a limit of 255 titles per folder or playlist. The system already starts to get bogged down even before approaching those limits. Therefore the extra storage of a hard drive may be of limited advantage over using just a flash drive.

If you wanted to consolidate information in one thread, it would be helpful to post links to the other threads you've seen.

 

As rkw says this thread has lots of good info in it my testing of a hard drive starts around post #58 and then goes on for about 30 posts.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-usb-keys.html

But the long story short is that it does not really work well. There are major limits to the usb connection in the MINI.

Edit: yes the power to the USB port stays on all the time.

And yes this is in another post and has all been covered as a USB Hard Drive so another thread is not really needed.

 

Interesting. I have an 09 JCW and have a USB MP3 player stick plugged into my USB port. It will stay on when the car is turned off (it has a red light on it), but after about 15 minutes it looks like the power to the USB port is shut off (the red light goes off).

 

This may be a change in late 08 as i have heard others mention this but from some early 09's i have also heard that the USB stick they leave in stays on all the time. It could also be that the MP3 player see no activity so it shuts itself down or goes to sleep etc.

 

I think its somehow hooked in to that circuit that times out after a while of inactivity. Before I found that awesome remote line, I was using the usb port as the trigger for the 12v remote line on my amp. I guess it depends on the model/year...