I have a Clarion FZ709 head unit in my car and just recently added a Toshiba Canvio Basics 500gb USB hard drive to the mix. I was unhappy with the amount of songs I could keep with me on USB sticks (8gb and 2gb), and I found the drive on Amazon for ~$60 brand new.

So far, so good. I think it's great because the Clarion unit can (theoretically) read up to 130,000 songs.

My only wonder is about longevity inside a car. I understand the heat issue (particularly living in south Texas), but I intend on taking the drive with me if I'm parked (it's pretty small). I guess vibration and shock is the big concern. I'm storing it in the passenger foot well in that netting.

Any thoughts on this? Worse comes to worse, the drive has a 3 year warranty.....

 

i remember working on a carputer a few years back and the biggest hurdle was shock proofing the hard drives. any suddenly jolt would cause the hard drive to freeze so we ended up mounting them to a cd changer chassis. this was all before solid state drives of course and the setup was for running an OS not media storage. other things you need to consider is the capacity limit the HU can recognize, format compatibility (FAT,FAT32,NTFS), does the usb connector have enough power to supply to the hard drive. personally i wouldnt want to manage my entire library playlist through a tiny screen, id rather have separate playlists on a bunch of different thumb drives.

 

I already know the drive works. It's currently installed in my car.

Per the Clarion manual, the head unit reads up to 512 folders with a max of 255 files per folder (512x255 = 130,560). The manual actually states a max of 130,560 files, so that's not really a concern for me. There's no actual capacity limit like the older USB-readable head units.

I already have about 13,000 songs on there, a good mix of great music (as far as I'm concerned), contained in about 208 folders separated by artist (along with a couple compilations), and so far I'm content with it. From punk rock to oldies, indie rock to alternative, hip hop to electronica, and nearly everything in between. I just let it run on random, and it suits me well.

It reads FAT format, so I had it formatted to FAT32 before I began copying over files. The USB on the head unit is 1.3(?)/2.0, so powering the drive is no problem.

I've gone on a few drives since installing it, and I haven't had a problem with the drive stopping or skipping when I hit any bumps. Either the net where I store it helps, or this drive is just that good. It does have a "Internal Shock Sensor" as stated on the back of the box.

 

I'd switch to a SSD, sooner or later even with the shock sensor on that HD the reading heads will keep clashing against the plates and either damage the heads or damage the plates. Just that and the heat a spinning harddrive can produce when its not properly fanned like in a computer case will also cause premature failure.

 

Can't find it for your drive but manufacturers usually have operating specs for their products including temps, amount of G's that the drive can take while operating and while powered off, etc. An SSD would be a better long term solution.

 

SSD is too expensive for too low of space.

I sent an email to Toshiba tech support inquiring further specs, including what exactly the "Internal Shock Senor" does.

Hopefully in a few years (or by the time the warranty runs out), SSD's will be much cheaper. 256gb drives are running around $600....

 

This is a confusing statement. I imagine EXTERNAL hard drives are built to tolerate not being fanned.

Regardless, where the hard drive sits is right in proximity to the A/C vents for the footwell, so it stays plenty cool when driving.

 

How does this work? Is it just a free fall sensor? I don't know how fast can park the head when you get a severe bump from hitting a pothole whatever. The car's suspension may provide enough damping to prevent the heads from parking only to then be greeted by a severe jolt.
http://us.toshiba.com/computers/rese...impact-sensor/

How hot does that get when you park in the sun? How does this compare to the maximum operating temperature? I can't find any information on their site. For reference, I see 60°C listed as maximum operating temperature for desktop HDDs. That's 140F, which is in the realm of how hard a car interior gets in the sun. Usually it's lower, but it's high enough that it would be an additional concern to me.

 

I still haven't heard back from product support, so I'm still clueless about it.

regardless, I've gone down pretty bumpy roads already (not just a bump or two, but 100' stretches of rough road), and there hasn't been any cutouts or stoppage.

Well, lately it has been ~100°F, so I imagine interior temp has been in the 120°F+ range. For giggles, I've been keeping the hard drive inside the car since I've installed it, and no problems have arisen.

 

for reference, here's the drive (about the size of an iphone, just a bit bigger)



dimensions:
3.1 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches ; 9.6 ounces