Bart sMartWeed

The response time is OK. When I open a folder for the first time it takes a few seconds and after that there's no delay (for large folder (about 200 sub folders) max. 20 sec). According to Rudy (see next post) it has probably something to do with the model/build. My car is a 525D 2008 LCI (build: MAI 2008 Europe version) I don't have navigation nor GSM, just an USB interface. Scrolling goes smooth and quick even in large lists.

My problem was I always wanted to listen to music that I didn't had in my car at that moment. Now I have everything with me . I also have some audio books on the drive. I have to travel about 250km every day (highway) and listening a book is a nice time killer. In the beginning it was a little strange but after a few chapters it was the same as listening music.

An option I would like is the possibility to add songs I here in a play list via iDrive. This way I can easily listen and mark the music I like. When at home I don't listen to music often.

robg

Rudy:

Any chance of collecting all of this information and the information in the other, related thread and creating an FAQ topic or sticky? It would be very useful to have all of the hardware/formatting issues in one spot.

Thanks.

Rob

double_trouble

Stupid question, (new owner), but how do I add USB to my E60?

I'm an early 04 model.

PJNL

The fact that the manual mentions "No USB Hard Drives" could be related to the higher power consumption of the HDD. Since it's working fine for 3 weeks now, probably nothing to worry about.

rodybmw

I agree that the best solution for the older (pre-LCI) E60's is the Dension Gateway 500. You can use both iPods and USB flashdrives/harddrives with it.

For those of you who want more info about the Dension please go through the following thread. I am planning on getting one as soon as finances allow. The pricing is between the mid $500's and the mid $400, depending on who you buy it from. As far as I know the only requirements for the Dension system are to have a BMW CD-Changer (or pre-wiring for a CD-Changer) and the ability to play MP3's. If your car is currently coded to play MP3's AND you have a CD Changer then there is no coding needed from BMW. What I'm not sure of is for those who have the pre-wiring for the CD-Changer, but not the actual changer itself whether a BMW dealer can code their car without an installed changer, or whether they would have to have a changer installed (at least temporarily) for the coding to be accepted.

Here's the link to the Dension thread: >>>>>CLICK HERE<<<<<

pinguhk

you will need to add a box for the amp speekers and aux and usb well any think you can think of.
itis very hard to mod the hifi so many people will add a box to plug things in.

e60scotland

I've aquired a 160gb Freecom HDD USB Drive, I'm fairly IT literate so I'll post back as i get to the bottom of the options I'm running through.

Firstly I've formatted the drive to FAT32, the drive powers up and indeed appears via the idrive as 'NOSERIAL' and light on the drive to search for tracks, the tracks on the HDD are loaded in the root as they were on my 4gb USB Solid State Drive so in theory assuming the HDD works the tracks should load without issue.

I've searched the forums for 'NOSERIAL' this is what appears on the idrive next to 'Aux In', there seems to be noone having reported this outcome previously, I'll get to the bottom of it somehow, for now i thought it worth posting to see if it jogs any memories and indeed solutions.

Thanks

Rudy

I think NOSERIAL is just what shows up when the drive has no volume name. You can name it anything you want when it's connected to a PC.

Also, one bit of advice -- don't put all your files in the root of the drive. There is a limit as to how many files a FAT32 volume can have in the root and with a 160GB drive, you'll clearly hit that limit some day.

My advice is to either put all the files in at least one directory or, better yet, break things down into a handful of directories that are based on the alphabet. For example, you can make one folder for A-B, one for C-D, one for E-F, and so on (or you could just do one letter per folder) then put your files in there by artist name -- you can keep them in folders per artist if that's how your files are ripped. In other words, in my A-B folder, I may have a sub directory called "The Beatles" and in that folder I might have a sub-directory for "Abbey Road" and another for "Sgt. Pepper", etc. The actual MP3 files would be in the folder for the album they were ripped from.

Having these things in order like this cuts down on the scrolling you have to do in iDrive significantly...

e60scotland

Hi Rudy

I thought that of 'NOSERIAL' but i had named the drive when connected to my PC, also i understand the files/folders, I have my collection in folders I need to learn to be more specific.

Thanks

Rudy

I just finished a couple days with a loaner 3 series (335xi coupe) that had the iPod/USB interface and wanted to report that BMW must have bumped the power output of the interface since my hard drive worked flawlessly each and every time I started the car (as I posted earlier in this thread, on my 5, every so often I have to "help" the drive spin up due to the lack of power the USB port is providing...)