Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Reason i ask is i'll be moving my HU to the glovebox and figured i could get away with hooking up a portable HDD to it with all my music instead of a flash drive, considering how cheap portable drives are these days compared to large flash drives. So my question is this, are you running it off the HU power or using a separate source? If a separate source, how have you managed it? Just trying to plan out my options 
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daymoon
Premium Member
Registered: 1st Aug 08
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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You can get an adapter that goes from 12v to the power needed for HDD. Search on ebay. Only few quid.
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
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Plugs into the fag lighter? Seen those, but ideally would like to keep use of it, plus would like to keep wires hidden and such. Been wondering if it'd be possible to conjure up some wiring to splice in or something.
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
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Should be able to hard wire it in.
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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I wouldn't have a clue where to start tbh, would it be as simple as getting a 3-way USB cable and splicing it in? Or need more complicated workings? Also, im guessing vibrations wouldn't really be an issue as modern portable drives are designed for use on the move? Guessing no-ones really done it as i can't find anything on the net
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Loads of people have plugged a hard drive into a headunit.
Limitations will be power, either get a powered drive and source power from the car, or check the HU can supply enough for a bus powered drive.
Partition/overall size might be a limit for the HU.
I'd also try and make sure it's one with no encryption because that can be funny with non windows equipment.
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Well yeah, lots of people have plugged a HDD into their HU with the 3-way adapters and the fag lighter bits, just i haven't seen much about hard wiring in a power source for it. From what i've read it's a bit hit and miss whether the HDD and HU work together, i.e. some HDD work with some HU while others do
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Phillips_91
Member
Registered: 20th Jan 10
Location: Blackpool. Drives: Sapphire Black Mk4 Astra 1.8
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Mines usb powered so runs straight from the head unit, but i use mine to store films not music
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Archie
Organiser: Scotland
Premium Member
Registered: 18th Dec 07
Location: South Ayrshire
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Wire a second cig lighter under the ashtray area ?
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LeeM
Member
Registered: 26th Sep 05
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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get a usb powered hdd, i can imagine the headunit will be able to power it. my old sony h/u charged my iphone with no bother, doubt a hdd needs more power than that
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Well i've got a Freecom drive at the minute. This one to be precise, and a Pioneer DEH-2120 HU which don't seem to work together
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Dom
Member
Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul W
Well i've got a Freecom drive at the minute. This one to be precise, and a Pioneer DEH-2120 HU which don't seem to work together
Power tends to be the usual issue. Quickly testing it with a mains powered usb hub will tell you if that is the case, in which case you could see about hard-wiring (take power from the cig-lighter or if you're really adventurous a new feed back to the fuse box; either way make sure you fuse the feed) a USB hub as most of those are 12v.
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AlexW
Member
Registered: 25th Oct 08
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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If it has a cig lighter plug on the end, chop that off, fit a fuse inline and then wire it up to a ign live and the other side to earth.
Could run it off the cig lighter or another live, Could even run a cable off the battery via a relay but thats taking it a bit far.
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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At the minute the HDD has just got a USB to mini USB cable, obviously tried that on the HU which says 'No Device' when USB is selected, the HDD sounds like it's trying to spin up making a clicking noise. Which leads me to believe it's due to not enough power.
So my options are to find a mains USB hub, locate that in the glovebox and run the wiring to splice in with an in-line fuse to an ign live, using a 3-way usb cable to go from hub-HU-HDD, right?
Or i could try and find a USB cable with a cig lighter plug, lop the cig lighter plug off and wire it in the same as above.
TBH the second option sounds the easiest. Just wish i would have bought a mains powered portable HDD 
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