Music Hard Drive

[JCE]

Has anybody saved music onto the hard drive yet?

If so, are music files the only thing I can have on a flash drive when I plug it in? Does idrive prompt you to choose a folder?

And, if I want to add some music later does it delete the previous stuff or just add it to the remaining memory?

Thanks.

[RevFreak14]

Originally Posted by JCE

Has anybody saved music onto the hard drive yet?

If so, are music files the only thing I can have on a flash drive when I plug it in? Does idrive prompt you to choose a folder?

And, if I want to add some music later does it delete the previous stuff or just add it to the remaining memory?

Thanks.

Glad you brought this up. I can't figure out how to transfer music from my Iphone to the hard drive. Yet it actually saved music from a cd to the hard drive(I was amazed that it could do this). Would love to be able to store mp3 music from my Iphone. Does anyone know how to do this ???

[OAKs///M]

Also while we're on the subject of the hard drive, does the nav software come with the car at no cost and is it stored on the HD as well?

Thanks,

Matt

[SenorFunkyPants]

To transfer music to the HDD from USB sticks use the dedicated USB port in the glovebox...you can add more music from other USB sticks up to a fixed number of sticks..it should all be covered in the manual. The Nav software is also stored on the hard drive and comes pre installed.
Best not to transfer music from an ipod/iphone due to the odd internal folder naming system that Apple uses.

[OAKs///M]

Great! Thanks.

[JCE]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

To transfer music to the HDD from USB sticks use the dedicated USB port in the glovebox...you can add more music from other USB sticks up to a fixed number of sticks..it should all be covered in the manual. The Nav software is also stored on the hard drive and comes pre installed.
Best not to transfer music from an ipod/iphone due to the odd internal folder naming system that Apple uses.

I thought it would only copy .wma and mp3? It won't save ipod files, and why should it since there is an ipod port?

What I am gathering from your post is that if I add more music later it won't erase what is previously there.

No, unless I overlooked in the OM didn't cover this. I guess I will need to look again.

[AMOCHOSTO]

Originally Posted by JCE

Has anybody saved music onto the hard drive yet?

If so, are music files the only thing I can have on a flash drive when I plug it in? Does idrive prompt you to choose a folder?

And, if I want to add some music later does it delete the previous stuff or just add it to the remaining memory?

Thanks.

Yes I have (including Rage Against the Machine). It seems better to copy from cd than USB though.

When I copy from USB I get all the songs on that usb under a file folder called USB1 if I put more songs on it and copy again I get a file called USB2 so effectively you have 2 "albums" with the same stuff on it other than what you recently added. The USB can have files on it other than music, only music will be copied in my experience. Also some file formats can not work on the hard drive whatever format apple uses doesn't work for me although a tech savvy friend of mine says you can convert the files and put it on.

[TheRealOrosie]

Originally Posted by RevFreak14

Glad you brought this up. I can't figure out how to transfer music from my Iphone to the hard drive. Yet it actually saved music from a cd to the hard drive(I was amazed that it could do this). Would love to be able to store mp3 music from my Iphone. Does anyone know how to do this ???

I was told by my Sales Rep that it was not possible to transfer mp3's from the iPhone/iPod. Only via CD conversion or usb stick.

[JCE]

Originally Posted by AMOCHOSTO

Yes I have (including Rage Against the Machine). It seems better to copy from cd than USB though.

When I copy from USB I get all the songs on that usb under a file folder called USB1 if I put more songs on it and copy again I get a file called USB2 so effectively you have 2 "albums" with the same stuff on it other than what you recently added. The USB can have files on it other than music, only music will be copied in my experience. Also some file formats can not work on the hard drive whatever format apple uses doesn't work for me although a tech savvy friend of mine says you can convert the files and put it on.

Can you just delete USB1 from the hard drive?

[MNm3]

Originally Posted by JCE

Can you just delete USB1 from the hard drive?

Yes you can Delete USB1 form the HD only.

The way that i have done it is just to keep track of what I've put on each USB off of my computer, upload it to car and then delete everything off the USB (using a computer). Repeat. If you've got more than one USB drive, you can do it much quicker. The whole process is a real pain in the @$$ anyway if you ask me, but I haven't figured out a much better way yet.

[mexicanmike]

You will not be able to transfer files from a ipod or iphone in its standard Operating System mode. The iphone/ipod are one way devices when it comes to digital media. You can only put this type of content on and can not remove it.

In addition the files that are stored when you go directly from the cd to the iDrive music storage is said to be extremely low bit rate. I have heard/read that you are better off importing this media onto a computer at the highest supported bitrate, and then transfering to a usb stick, then to the car. Google for the highest bit rate supported by the BMW system.

[JCE]

Originally Posted by MNm3

Yes you can Delete USB1 form the HD only.

The way that i have done it is just to keep track of what I've put on each USB off of my computer, upload it to car and then delete everything off the USB (using a computer). Repeat. If you've got more than one USB drive, you can do it much quicker. The whole process is a real pain in the @$$ anyway if you ask me, but I haven't figured out a much better way yet.

I was told by my sales guy the M3 hard drive holds 12.5 gb...I cannot find any note of this in the OM. Off topic, but I find the OM to suck in several places. Anyway...

If you have a USB storage device that large, could you just reload the whole thing as you add music to it? For example, I have a 250 gig WD harddrive I plan to use...

[Dartanium]

do all M3s have this HDD or only iDrive equipped

[MNm3]

Originally Posted by Dartanium

do all M3s have this HDD or only iDrive equipped

Just the iDrive equipped I believe.

[MNm3]

Originally Posted by JCE

I was told by my sales guy the M3 hard drive holds 12.5 gb...I cannot find any note of this in the OM. Off topic, but I find the OM to suck in several places. Anyway...

If you have a USB storage device that large, could you just reload the whole thing as you add music to it? For example, I have a 250 gig WD harddrive I plan to use...

Never tried it with a stand alone hard drive. I assume that it would work, I think that you would have to have the music be the only thing on the hard drive.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

To transfer music to the HDD from USB sticks use the dedicated USB port in the glovebox...you can add more music from other USB sticks up to a fixed number of sticks..it should all be covered in the manual. The Nav software is also stored on the hard drive and comes pre installed.
Best not to transfer music from an ipod/iphone due to the odd internal folder naming system that Apple uses.

Correct... from the CIC OEM document:

Copying music data from audio devices such as an MP3 players or iPods using the USB connection is possible although not advisable. The folders and file structure of the MP3 player are also copied when copying music files from these devices. In this case, the copied folder names are represented by means of cryptic characters instead of an album title. This makes it virtually impossible to search for a music file.

[SenorFunkyPants]

I've found it best to load all my music (the manual says there is 8gb available for music but I think the limit is somewhere around 12gb...even though its an 80gb drive) onto one USB stick and transfer onto the cars HDD in one go..it takes quite a while!
Any further music I want to listen to I put onto a smaller USB stick and leave it plugged into the USB port in the centre armrest. I believe you may be able to plug into the centre console port a larger USB HDD (as long as its a low power usage unit <500ma) however the contents of the drive have to be read and catalogued before its available to play and that could take some time if there is a large amount of music on it. Note you are only supposed to use USB sticks to import music using the glove box port....and not have a USB stick in the (import/export) glove box port and the armrest port at the same time.
As noted using the cars DVD drive to rip CDs is done at a low bitrate (128kbs IIRC) so it would be best to rip cds onto a USB stick at home to a max of 320bps I believe.

[blueman2]

A couple comments from my experience:

1) if you select USB1 on your iDrive and select options, there is an option to see how much space is left on the hard drive. Sure enough, there are 12G reserved for music use. That is all I will ever need.

2) If you use separate USB sticks to add music, then each time there will be another master folder created. USB1, USB2, USB3, etc. That is very inconvenient, IMHO. So, I just use the same 4G USB stick any time I add music. I fill it with music, copy it over to the iDrive, and then delete the music on the USB stick and add more, then copying it again to the iDrive. Doing this, everything keeps going into the same USB1 folder. Much neater.

3) I recommend at least 192 kbps encoding 256 is probably the optimal rate. Above 256, you will not hear any difference but you will waste disk space. Below 192, you will hear the difference.

[E90M3CDFR]

FYI: you can rename each USB1 USB2 etc folder to something you specify.

Also you can backup the music onto a USB drive...for example when you take the car in for service in case they do an update on the iDrive software that wipes the drive. With the newer iDrive software the back up process is very quick (about 45 mins for a 10GB)...with an earlier version it took so long I would run out of gas before the backup completed.

[zibawal]

Originally Posted by blueman2

A couple comments from my experience:

1) if you select USB1 on your iDrive and select options, there is an option to see how much space is left on the hard drive. Sure enough, there are 12G reserved for music use. That is all I will ever need.

2) If you use separate USB sticks to add music, then each time there will be another master folder created. USB1, USB2, USB3, etc. That is very inconvenient, IMHO. So, I just use the same 4G USB stick any time I add music. I fill it with music, copy it over to the iDrive, and then delete the music on the USB stick and add more, then copying it again to the iDrive. Doing this, everything keeps going into the same USB1 folder. Much neater.

3) I recommend at least 192 kbps encoding 256 is probably the optimal rate. Above 256, you will not hear any difference but you will waste disk space. Below 192, you will hear the difference.

can it play wave or flac formats?

[blueman2]

Originally Posted by zibawal

can it play wave or flac formats?

WAV, yes.
flac, no.

[zibawal]

Originally Posted by blueman2

WAV, yes.
flac, no.

Thanks. I'll put a couple, wave and flacs on USB to test. Btw if on iphone, does it show cover art.

Btw just acquired 2010 E93 DCT!