DIY 2012 Civic Formatting USB Stick for use with i-MID

bamathrasher

bamathrasher

Well-Known Member
20
26
Formatting USB For iMid On 2012 Civics

I have a long road trip coming up this weekend, and decided to load up a USB stick with music for use in my car. I loaded up a 16gb microsoft flash drive we had lieing around at work and plugged it into my car and got an "Unsupported" error message from the i-MID. The flash drive was formatted NTFS, so using windows I tried right clicking the drive and formatting the drive Fat32 using the windows GUI method. I transferred some music back to the drive and walked out to my car, once again I got the Unsupported error message. The kicker here was that I could see the power light on the usb stick coming on so I knew the port was powerful enough to power the drive. Here is where I used my nerd powers to dominate the "Unsupported" error message.

Note: This will only work if you know for sure your drive is getting power and you are getting the unsupported error message from your i-MID. Also only works if you have a Windows PC, duh.
Fun Fact: This method is also how you setup a usb flash drive to install Windows Vista and 7 from. Good to know if you ever have to install windows and don't want to burn the ISO to a disc http://www.***************/forum/images/smilies/smile.png

Step 1: Plug the drive into your computer and transfer any files you want to keep off of the drive to a safe spot.
Step 2: From the start menu, type cmd into the search bar and hit enter. Alternatively, you can go through All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
Step 3: From the command prompt, type diskpart and hit enter.
Step 4: Once diskpart has started, type list disk and hit enter.

listdisk.png


Step 5: Locate your flash drive in the list of disks, look very carefully at the size so that you are sure you select the right one. Then enter the following commands where > means hit enter:
select disk x > (replace x with the number for your drive, mine was 3 in the picture above)
clean >
create partition primary >
active >
format fs=fat32 quick >
assign >
Click to expand...
Step 6: You can now close diskpart and command prompt, load up your music and enjoy
I haven't tried this method using NTFS, but if somebody wants to give it a shot, all you have to do is replace fat32 with ntfs in the command line.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
very nice. There were others talking about usb sticks in the audio area. This will be helpful. :thumb:
 
I have this same problem with a Patriot Memory 3.0 USB flash drive. I have formatted fat, but it didn't work. I formatted it several times by right-clicking the drive and clicking format, chose quick and full, no luck. It still said it was unsupported. Will this way make it work?

I have SanDisk USB 2.0 drives and they work great. I want 3.0, because of the faster transfer speeds from the USB drive to the computer and vice versa. There is a big difference in speed!
 
I've not really heard many comment about USB 3 or if its a problem. Does it specify anything in the manual?
 
Possible. But it should, it works fine in my mac and my pc. Probably something stupid with the i-Mid hardware or software.
 
Many people are unaware of this but you can use a 3.0 USB in a 2.0 slot but its the same as using the 2.0 USB.
 
hmmmm maybe I could explain. The connectors for both is the same physical connector, the difference is the five additional pins USB 3.0 has. USB 2.0 communication uses VBUS, D-, D+, and GND pins which is the first 4 pins. The additional USB 3.0 pins are two differential pairs (4 StdB Pins) and one ground (GND_DRAIN). The two additional differential pairs are for SuperSpeed data transfer; they are used for dual simplex SuperSpeed signaling. The GND_DRAIN pin is for drain wire termination and to control EMI and maintain the proper signal. Which is also why USB has the power reduction advantage So 3.0 Ports also has 9 pins as 2.0 has 4. So just stick with 2.0 USB for the iMids.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ADExternal said:
hmmmm maybe I could explain. The connectors for both is the same physical connector, the difference is the five additional pins USB 3.0 has. USB 2.0 communication uses VBUS, D-, D+, and GND pins which is the first 4 pins. The additional USB 3.0 pins are two differential pairs (4 StdB Pins) and one ground (GND_DRAIN). The two additional differential pairs are for SuperSpeed data transfer; they are used for dual simplex SuperSpeed signaling. The GND_DRAIN pin is for drain wire termination and to control EMI and maintain the proper signal. Which is also why USB has the power reduction advantage So 3.0 Ports also has 9 pins as 2.0 has 4. So just stick with 2.0 USB for the iMids.
Click to expand...

Yep, makes sense. I know a good bit about computers so I get what you are saying.
 
ADExternal said:
Many people are unaware of this but you can use a 3.0 USB in a 2.0 slot but its the same as using the 2.0 USB.
Click to expand...

It might be the same, but I can tell you the transfer speeds are not the same.
I researched this question prior to purchasing some Patriot Memory USB 3.0 drives. However, I did spend the money to get the better drive. I forget the read/write speeds, but they were very good. I also tested this out myself on my pc and mac that a usb 3.0 drive transfers and reads faster on a usb 2.0 port than a usb 2.0 drive does on a usb 2.0 port. I could only image how fast a good 3.0 drive would work on a 3.0 port!
 
I actually did the speed test and it about 8-9x faster than 2.0. I transfer a full 64GB and took about 23mins.
 
It is not something stupid. It is because of a hardware specific controller. Not to mention the licensing is probably more expensive.
 
squiggy said:
It is not something stupid. It is because of a hardware specific controller. Not to mention the licensing is probably more expensive.
Click to expand...

Yep, it makes sense. I figured it was a hardware issue, but I can tell you from the other forum I think someone has used a 3.0 and it worked. I will have to get back to you on that one.
 
RR'12SiCp said:
Yep, it makes sense. I figured it was a hardware issue, but I can tell you from the other forum I think someone has used a 3.0 and it worked. I will have to get back to you on that one.
Click to expand...

It is possible that they may have gotten a 3.0 stick to work, BUT it would still only be able to transfer at 2.0 speeds.
 
squiggy said:
It is possible that they may have gotten a 3.0 stick to work, BUT it would still only be able to transfer at 2.0 speeds.
Click to expand...

Correct, that makes perfect sense. I guess we will see. Maybe I'll try the way stated in this post. Or try another 3.0 drive. Thanks for your help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top