HDD Compatibility

[monty51502009]

Could some helpful person point me in the right direction for the list of HDD's that are confirmed by Audi as compatible with the AMI? The links in the posts on HDD's takes me to the main website and all i can find is details on phones & mp3 players. Many thanks in advance.

:1zhelp:

[Hippogriff]

Hi,

Do you have the AMI tray or the netting? It is quite important, I believe, if you have the netting, to get a 1.8" HDD like the Samsung S1 (which I have and have no problems with)... and to avoid 320GB capacity disks at any rate, as I had issues with these (Western Digital My Passport, but not the fault of the disk, more the capacity) - wouldn't fit into the netting properly, and really long start-up times after ignition. Besides, you can't use that massive capacity with the track limit on my car anyway (may not affect you).

I don't know where the list of compatible hardware is, but I suppose it could be quite out of date, anyway. So I thought I might tell you what works perfectly for me with the AMI with netting - Samsung S1, snugly fits into the netting (2.5" disks don't), quick start-up, no issues whatsoever really.

Hope that helps somewhat, and doesn't confuse.

[monty51502009]

I have the AMI tray, i'll have to measure the opening to see the max physical size i can fit in. I read a while ago the various posts re formatting & folders so hopefully i can get over the issue of the number of tracks. Will have to re-read to refresh my memory.

The S1 looks perfect however i can get a HDD through my companies supplier at a greatly discounted price so i am limited to what they sell and unfortunately they don't stock the S1. As for size 320gb is way more than what i need, i currently have a 120gb ipod that is only about 2 thirds full but to allow a bit of room i'm hoping to get something around 160.

As i'm getting it cheap i don't have to watch the pennies too much and shop around so just wanted to play safe and get one that will definitely work.

Thanks for the input.

[Hippogriff]

2.5" Western Digital My Passport should work fine then.

I don't think you will suffer from track number limitations either, but that's a function of the car, not the disk.

[monty51502009]

That's great, thanks.

Just out of interest what issues did you have with the Western digital drives and what is the reason for avoiding the 360gb? The smallest one i can get is the 250gb so would be good to hear of your experience.

[Hippogriff]

When I crammed the 2.5" 320GB Western Digital My Passport into the netting (a task in itself) I found that the car took ages after ignition to start playing tracks. Also, it didn't play the track I was listening to last time, but the first track from the first album from the first artist each time - highly frustrating.

I guess that each time I turned on the ignition, it was doing some full scan of the disk's directory structure. Sometimes it could be minutes before the first track was played.

It said a lot to me about capacity when Audi released their centenary hard disk (part of Audi accessories, limited run) and it was 250GB. Audi gave me one of these as an apology for bad advice... I sold it. 2.5" form factor again, so suited for the tray, not the netting.

The day I changed to the 160GB (might be 120GB?) Samsung S1 (with a direct copy of the folders I had on the Western Digital) all my issues just... disappeared.

[monty51502009]

Cheers, looks like i'll be getting a Western Digital one. I contacted my local dealer to see if they could email me a copy of the compatibility list and the guy i spoke with was a little surprised to hear that you could plug a USB HDD into the AMI.

Once again thanks for taking the time.

[juniperz]

I grabbed this from the Audi site last July, and it didn't seem very up-to-date then. I also use the WD Passport 320GB and it's fine, though I do not have anywhere near as much on mine as Hippogriff does. I find I actually use the SD Card more than the HDD (updating with fresh podcasts every couple of weeks).

[monty51502009]

That's great. I only have around 80GB of music anyway so should be safe with the WD Passport 250GB or 320GB. Problem solved, thanks all.

I do use the SD slot occasionally but only becasue i managed to use the 8GB micro SD card from my old Nokia N95 with an adapter. Access and skipping tracks is almost instantaneous. Shame a USB solid state drive isn't as affordable as the traditional kind.

[amillen]

have purchased the samsung S1 having read the recommendation on here but alas to no avail. Keep getting error message that either cable of device is not correct. As there is only one AMI USB cable I assume that it can't be this so I have re-formatted the hard drive to FAT32 and will give it another go this evening

[Hippogriff]

Well, it definitely needs to be FAT formatted, that I can guarantee. Page 9 of the MMI manual. However, I'm surprised if your disk wasn't FAT file-system'd when you bought it? Was it NTFS?

[amillen]

was fat32 formatted but I deleted everything anyway and tried again. having checked last night I think I see what the problem is having read the manual more carefully. I see that they do not recommend that you use a cable between the ami cable and the hard drive, which I was doing as I assumed this would not be a problem. Looks like I will have to get the mini usb cable and plug this direct into the hard drive which I hope will solve the problem.

[monty51502009]

amillen,

can you let me know if the cable change sorts your problem? I have ordered the WD Passport 320GB and a little USB adapter rather than using a cable. If this doesn't work it would be nice to know the Audi cable sorts the problem rather than blowing money on a cable.

[amillen]

will do, should have the cable in a couple of days. As the samsung s1 seems to be a proven hard drive the cable seems to be the only reason for it not working

[monty51502009]

My hard draive & USB adapter turned up this morning, adapter doesn't fit as the HDD has the tiny USB rather than the mini USB. Formatted the drive to FAT 32 using some free software from tinternet (305GB usable out of the 320GB) and dragged some music folders straight out of iTunes. Good news is it worked straight away and with the cable supplied in the box, so amillen, the Audi cable may not solve your problems! I have been told that USB cables differ depending on use so i would suggest trying some different ones if possible.

However, got back in the car after lunch and it did the same trick it does occasionally with my ipod as in it doesn't find the AMI so starts playing the SD card. Unplug & reconnect the HDD and it starts working again. Have not looked to see if there is anything on here about it yet so will have a browse before i post any requests for help.

Thanks all for the advice everyone

[monty51502009]

On this topic i have a question that i know has been brought up in a recent post but i don't think was answered, could not find it anyway. It seems that the car is powering the the AMI regardless of whether the key is in the ignition. In the case of the ipod this is not an issue as it simply charges it up. However with a HDD it is continually on and presumably spinning. My concern is that this will shorten the life of the HDD if it is permantly on.

Anyone got any clever ideas on solving this, perhaps a setting that the dealer can sort? I did notice a post from someone that mentioned they had to get a 2009 cable for their ipod as the (presumably) older one did not power the ipod. Perhaps an older cable for the HDD will in my case be a benefit?

Any advisce greatly appreciated as always.

[Pauls898]

I use a 320GB Segate 2.5" drive (Old one out of my Dell laptop after an upgrade) I mounted this into a SilverStyle caddy, cost me £20 from scan.co.uk. Using this with the standard Audi AMI to USB cable and pluged into a standard USB to mini USB to caddy. Formated the disc using Windows to FAT32, filled with 18,000 odd tracks (my complete music collection to date) Works fine. It remembers the last track it was playing, even if I remove from car, add more music onto drive and replace. (With ingition off off course) Fits into little tray too.....
Point to note, Yes the disk is powerred as soon as you plug it in, as I see a green activity LED on the caddy flashing, but then goes to sleep after about 5 mins of no activity, so Yes the disc isn't running continually so don't worry.
One thing I changed from the standard iTunes folders, was I changed the way I organise my music on the HDD for easy navigation from the MMI.
I basically made 26 Folders at Root Level, AAA,BBB,CCC - ZZZ then copied each artest into each lettered foldesr, so AbbA into AAA, Boyzone into BBB etc, then from the MMI interface its very easy to find a track by just say 4 clicks, you can get to any album in your collection, for example, 1/ scrol to VVV, 2/ scrol to Vertical Horizon in list, 3/ Scrol to Album Name in list? 4/ Press to Play, so thats only 3 levels down and one click.
On an iPod to get to Artest begining with V would take loads of spinning of the MMI wheel, if like me you have a large music collection.....
Hope this helps.;)

[amillen]

got the mini-usb cable yesterday, plugged it in and still get the same error message. Have tried different usb adapter cables but to no avail so really at a loss as to why it will not work, anybody with any ideas? Have used the usb cable with various memory sticks which work fine