so i've got the jvc kw-avx800 http://www.mobile.jvc.com/product.js...hId=133&page=1

and i've read reviews on it and have heard people connecting external hard drives but have tried and can't get it to work. i was wondering if anybody might be better than me at searching or if somebody has had some experience could give me some feed back.

 

Most headunits will vary on which external drives will work with them. I know, after researching this, that a lot of people have had succes with the Cleo drives from LeCie (not sure of the name, it's been a while).

I got a 60GB 1.8" USB drive from Frys. It is an Apricorn drive. Seems that the rule of thumb is that you want a 1.8" drive. I tried my 160GB Seagate USB drive and it didn't work (it's a 2.5" drive).

Some headunits will work well, with spinning disk drives. Mine, however, won't hold the last position on the drive when I turn the unit or car off. So, I've switched to using flash drives. Right now, 16GB flash drives are around $100 at Newegg. 32GB flash drives are at around $200 at the moment. About 4 months ago, the 32GB flash drives were $1200. I'm waiting for the price to drop to about $100 on those before I buy one. For now, I'm using 2GB drives.

 

will the drive work through a powered usb hub? you could rig up something to work that way.

 

strontium; cool thanks for all the info. i guess i'll start to look around and see what i can find in a 1.8" drive. never really realized there were different sizes. why do you think the disk size would make the difference on whether it works or not?

 

I think it has to do with the power output of the interface.