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SD Cards

9151 Views 17 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  RAMageddon
I didn't find this posted anywhere but figured I would share with you. The SD Card reader in our trucks will not read anything over 32g, if you do have something larger, as I did (64g), you have to format the card FAT32 for it to read properly. After that it will read no problem.
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Thanks for pointing this out since these days it's more common to come across higher capacity SD cards, seen some that hold somewhere in the 100GB range since it's just way too easy to fill up a 32 or anything below.
Thanks for pointing this out since these days it's more common to come across higher capacity SD cards, seen some that hold somewhere in the 100GB range since it's just way too easy to fill up a 32 or anything below.
I thought my card reader was broke for awhile until I came across the information after some good digging around and figured I would share it because as you said higher capacity cards are out there and fairly cheap. Between my sd card and my one year of SiriusXM, think I have my music taken care of for awhile.
how do you format FAT32??
Most Sd cards for PC come fat 32 pre-formatted.

Plug into any Windows pc, open "my computer" or "This PC" right click the "sd card drive", select format, select "fat 32" under "file system", give it a name under "volume label" 10 character limit, leave "capacity & allocation" as is, select start & your done.

Double check everything above, but when you select format, it should default to fat 32. Hope this helps.
Note
Frank
Note* if you don't have a memory card reader for sd cards on your PC, you can buy an SD card to USB adapter cheap on Newegg.com.
There are also websites that will format your card for you as well, JUST MAKE SURE YOU PICK THE RIGHT DRIVE THAT YOUR CARD IS IN TO FORMAT ! Don't want to format the wrong drive.
being fat 32 should not have anything to do with it and its frankly OLD. NTFS is what most windows things are formatted in and took over for FAT a long time ago. Its more likely the Card reader type, its an SDHC type reader if its limited to 32 and not a newer SDXC type that can go above (2tb).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#SDHC

I guess it says it comes formatted in fat32 but im not sure thats really the issue, your card is either sdhc or sdxc type.

I just use a thumb drive (USB) in my truck, got a 128GB drive for 30 bucks and it works just fine, though I didn't pay attention to what filesystem type it is formatted with. I currently have a few thousand MP3's on shuffle. Its great!
With all due respect, fat 32, It's the file system Uconnect recognizes on all external devices. Always has been.
New Rebel owner. Came from a Wrangler with a Uconnect system with CD player and hard drive. Appears this unit has neither. Planning to get a USB thumb drive and just keep it in the truck. Any tips? Also, I can copy music from ITunes directly to the USB or SD card and the truck will read it? Any advantages over SD card vs. USB drive?

Thanks...still getting used to the new technology!

Mike
With all due respect, fat 32, It's the file system Uconnect recognizes on all external devices. Always has been.
Indeed. It's not a case of what the memory card will support, it's a case of what file system drivers exist on the host computer and what it can therefore support. Uconnect appears to be running on an embedded Linux variant with limited memory space. It would make a lot of sense that they would NOT install NTFS drivers on it if space was an issue. Why? Because NTFS would most likely come into play only on very high-capacity drives/memory cards. More customers/owners are likely to have low-capacity cards and flash drives for their music.

In fact, there's really no reason to use NTFS on flash and SD devices when talking about music files. Music files average in the 5 megabyte size range. NTFS supports file sizes to 4 gigabytes, nearly a thousand times larger (longer) than most songs. FAT32 also supports file system sizes to 2 terabytes. Most flash and SD drives are 128GB or less. And there are other valid reasons for not putting NTFS on these devices. Journaling, for instance, causes more write cycles, which in turn reduce the life of the device. NTFS also provides file permissions controls for security, controlling access to the files. Most people don't care about that when taking music cards to their vehicle. "What, I have to log into my car computer to access my music???"
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New Rebel owner. Came from a Wrangler with a Uconnect system with CD player and hard drive. Appears this unit has neither. Planning to get a USB thumb drive and just keep it in the truck. Any tips? Also, I can copy music from ITunes directly to the USB or SD card and the truck will read it? Any advantages over SD card vs. USB drive?

Thanks...still getting used to the new technology!

Mike
Mike,
I just went with a SD card, seemed the easiest for me but that is just up to you on how you want to do it. I had both laying around. As for the files, I put my music into one folder and the wife's in another and the system read them both, took a little bit for it to load up all the songs. Yes you can copy your files from Itunes onto your thumb drive or sd card.
Arkhams Finest,

I appreciate the feedback and suggestions!

Mike
No problem Mike and hope it works out for you okay. If you have any problems let me/us know. There are more than enough people on here that would help out.
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No advantage other than "storage space bang for the buck" USB is cheaper per gigabyte. Music format will be the deciding factor. Depending on the uconnect operating system, you may be limited to mp3. The newer operating system decodes just about every common format known, including lossless. Google your model# to find out which formats it's compatible with or try the uconnect website & the info you seek will be there.

Hope that helps,
Frank
Good points. The biggest SD card I have handy outside my cameras is an 8GB unit, not large enough for my needs. You don't need a "fast" one, you're not going to stream video off of it. You can get a 64GB SD for about $25-$35. You can get 64GB USB drives in the $19-$30 range.

The primary advantage of using an SD device is then you still have the open USB port in your truck for other uses.

We've probably all got one of older-style "thumb drives" - sticks which protrude a couple of inches out of the USB port. I personally don't like that in the truck, because I have other things in the console that might bump the stick and damage it, or more likely, the USB port. If you're going to get a USB device, I suggest one of the low-profile drives. They barely stick out of the port when plugged in, and you're less likely to cause unintended damage.



There are lots of brands. A 64GB version runs up to $27. 128GB runs up to $45.
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Oh, and I stand corrected on my speculation that Uconnect is an embedded Linux variant. It's actually embedded QNX, an entirely different, but in many ways similar operating system that was first released in 1982. QNX was purchased by RIM (now BlackBerry) five years ago. My apologies for the misfire.
Good points. The biggest SD card I have handy outside my cameras is an 8GB unit, not large enough for my needs. You don't need a "fast" one, you're not going to stream video off of it. You can get a 64GB SD for about $25-$35. You can get 64GB USB drives in the $19-$30 range.

The primary advantage of using an SD device is then you still have the open USB port in your truck for other uses.

We've probably all got one of older-style "thumb drives" - sticks which protrude a couple of inches out of the USB port. I personally don't like that in the truck, because I have other things in the console that might bump the stick and damage it, or more likely, the USB port. If you're going to get a USB device, I suggest one of the low-profile drives. They barely stick out of the port when plugged in, and you're less likely to cause unintended damage.



There are lots of brands. A 64GB version runs up to $27. 128GB runs up to $45.
Lexar is a good brand of SD card and last I checked they had some of the highest transfer rates.

Photographers trust Lexar as as you know they need reliability, speed and capacity.
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