VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Is there any easy way (kit, adapter, etc.) to connect a standard 3.5" PC hard disk to the Bose headunit or any kind of aftermarket headunit? I have a spare 120GB disk and I'm just dreaming of how sweet it would be to have my entire music collection at hand. The problem it seems would be the interface...how would you select the songs? I guess with a new HU that has a USB input you could plug in an external HD (would have to power it somehow) and maybe there are HUs that could read the directory structure and let you scroll by artist, track, etc.

Just wondering...sorry I'm a total car audio n00b.

dmBK

iTrader: (3)

it would be easier to go with a laptop HD, the 2.5, as they are used in "portable" enclosures, without the need for AC power. however, many of them require 2 USB ports to function, since most USB ports don't provide enough juice to power them.

Strontium

Well, you have 1999 right? I'm guessing that it doesn't have AUX input. That nixes that. Best bet is going to be either replacing the HU with one that has a USB input and using a 1.8" USB drive (or waiting till the prices on 16-32GB flash drives drops).

Only problem with using a hard drive (with spindle, real hard drive) is that every time you turn the car off...guess what? It has to spin back up, next time, and you have to scroll through however many thousands of songs you have to get back to you were.

Now, if you were to have a computer (maybe some DVD-NAV units are capable) that was controlling it, that wouldn't be an issue. However, for right now, head units are very primitive in this regard. In fact, I can't find one that will allow for sub directories. They just see mp3's...and the folders on the first level.

Oh well. Do some research. Google.

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Thanks for the advice, guys. There's a thread with people adding Aux inputs to 4th gen Bose headunits but even if it's possible I wouldn't want to mess with that. I don't mind waiting 15 sections for the hard drive to spin up; I usually only want music on longer trips anyway so I wouldn't be starting and stopping the car a lot.

I think it's just wishful thinking at this point. I did a few cursory Google searches and didn't come up with much. I was surprised that more people haven't done this. I guess the other options (especially just hooking up a flash or HD iPod) are much simpler and work well. I suppose I could get an older HD iPod for pretty cheap, and then I'd have a tried-and-tried interface.

theKerb

The thing with connecting just a hard drive to just a head unit would be near impossible. And here's why:

Functionality:
A hard drive's function is to store and retrieve data, and nothing else. The motherboard in your computer has a hard drive controler (ATA, SATA, SCSI, etc.) that tells the hard drive what to store/retrieve and where, head units don't have this. Now if you had an auxiliary USB port on your head unit you *might* be in luck--Check the manual, most USB storage device readers (especially in things like head units) have a maximum capacity for external storage.

In addition, you couldn't just connect the hard drive to the auxilary stereo jack on your head unit as there's nothing to tell it what to play or how to play it--you would need some form of computer to read from the drive and convert it into an audio stream (this is what an iPod does). As for head units that do this (I haven't seen any), they would have the actual hard drive interface connectors on them (SATA, IDE, SCSI, etc).

Feasibility:
The worst thing you can do to a hard drive (aside from taking a magnet to it) is vibrations (even in laptop hard drives that are more resistant--key word--to vibrations). The drive heads (little magnets that read from the plates) are nanometers from the surface of the plates, bump it too hard and it scratches the plate giving you bad sectors on the hard drive. Bad sectors = loss of data and eventual drive failure. This is why static memory is being used more and more.

Also, as Strontium pointed out, another factor that's hard on the hard drive is the spinup. It's more taxing on the motor and can eventually lead to irregularities in spin speed. Most hard drives have error correction built in to compensate for this, but it can cause slower data retrieval--which is another reason why it's better to leave a computer on than turning it off daily. Also, it does indeed take a few seconds to read the file allocation structures.

Long story short: You'll need some form of computing system between the HU and the HD to retrieve the data and translate it into a language the HU speaks in addition to taking input from you to know what to play (unless you operate on the iPod Shuffle principle)

--EDIT--

One more thing I just thought about is temperature variations. These can kill a hard drive in no time as well. Temperature variations can cause the plates of hard drives to warp--if you look at the specs for a hard drive, you will see that there is an operating range (its different for each company/hd model).

BLACKonBLACK98

iTrader: (42)

kerb: its no where near impossible to connect a hd to a hu. connecting a hd to a FACTORY hu might be another story. you seem to know a lot about hd's, but not so much about car audio. hd's in hu's are pretty common these days. some have internal hd's and some offer usb connections for external hard drives. there are even some oe units.

theKerb

"some have internal hd's"

Agreed, this wasn't the question asked, and it is sometimes possible to swap them out depending on how the head unit accesses them and what it has stored on them.

"some offer usb connections for external hard drives"

See above around where I said "Now if you had an auxiliary USB port on your head unit you *might* be in luck--Check the manual, most USB storage device readers (especially in things like head units) have a maximum capacity for external storage."

BLACKonBLACK98

iTrader: (42)

didn't mean it prsonally, and yeah i did miss that part somehow. i was just offering information that i thought you might not know.

theKerb

no hard feelings, don't worry about it.

Fast1one

iTrader: (12)

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/showth...d+drive&page=7

Read the first post on page 7, theres more in that thread, as well as lots of helpful information and which units they used, thats the first success story I found, was lazy to look at the rest

whattingh

Hi. I have a JVC KDG821 HU with a front USB port and a 2.5" ide external drive. My HU can not give enough power to run the drive. I have however connect my ipod nano with its usb data cable and that worked. So maybe get a large ipod and a HU with usb. Also many brands these days have ipod adapters which enable you to fully control a ipod with your HU and would keep the artist album songs structure.

VQuick

iTrader: (17)

Thanks for the comments, Kerb. Temperature is a good consideration since in the car and everything in it gets pretty hot/cold in the summer/winter. Solid-state storage obviously is superior in all these respects and it's only a matter of time before it replaces hard disks. But I have an old HD laying around and I don't really care if it gets beat on. But I've already given up on this idea anyway.

You seriously are saying that leaving a computer with its hard disk on 24/7 causes less wear than powering it on and off once a day, say for 8 hours daily uptime? Do you have any evidence to back that up? I'd be interested in seeing a good study that compares wear in the long run. My gut feeling is that as long as you're not powering on and off incessantly, you're going to put less wear on it by reducing the operating hours to 1/3.... I just retired a Hitachi 120 GB drive (the one that I wanted to use in the car ) that gave me 5 years of trouble-free use (still working perfectly), and I powered it on and off a ton.

In any case, the extra power usage is a complete waste and I do everything I can to save energy including shutting my computer down every night. Why don't you save the wear and tear on your starter and leave your Maxima on all the time?

theKerb

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102...ssageID=218588
"Fact: When you turn your computer on and off often, it does cause a little more wear than leaving it on due to spin-up and spin-down. Sort of the same thing as the wear on a car in stop and go traffic."

PCs cost about a buck a week to use, based on about 9 cents per KwH. It is your monitor that uses the most juice, especially if you have a CRT (not flat panel), so just set your power settings to turn it off after so many minutes.

You're right, if you power off and on once a day or so, its not going to give you any problems. I would assume, however, that you would start and stop your car more often than that. And keep in mind, starting up and shutting down your computer often isn't a guarantee your drive will fail--plus, Hitachi does make good hard drives.

You buy the gas and oil, I'm game. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure my hard drive doesn't have millions of tiny explosions going on inside of it...