fat32+250gb usb hd = 32gb?

Hi, I'm trying to figure out if a Pioneer AVH-P4000DVD will be able to use a full hard drive if it is formatted in fat32? For example, if I have a 250gb usb hard drive will the deck only be able to use 32gb or 250gb? Thanks, Nate

if you have the manual, check it. it should tell you what is the maximum supported memory for a jump drive/hard drive. mose wont do more than more than 16GB

GENERALLY, the limit is the limit on 32 bit LBA, which is 132GB. This is why your decks can see an iPod 80GB player, but not all decks will see the Classic 160GB player. If you can see an 80GB drive, but cannot see a 250GB drive, then this will be the issue with your deck. One more problem: without a third party utility, (and not all work well, I might mention) Windows will ONLY format partitions larger than 32GB as NTFS, which NO deck will read. I recommend SwissKnife, although, as I said, it will not work 100%, 100% of the time. This one IS, however, the easiest I have found for the conversion. The recommendation sns made is still sound advice, as not all decks will see larger partitions like that. I have found that most manufacturers are fairly tight-lipped regarding maximum capacity recognition; It's almost always been a hit and miss affair for me.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

It won't do anything "bad", hardware-wise. FAT32 isn't as reliable at capacities like that, not to mention the fact that your cluster sizes are SO huge, that you have really inefficient storage... (I'm in IT, does it show...?) As far as hardware reliability, there is no reason that I can see that would make the drives "last a shorter time". One thing I can tell you, and this is in my experience... ALWAYS USE THE SAFE REMOVE ICON FROM YOUR TASK TRAY, especially with FAT32. All SwissKnife does, is converts the NTFS table to FAT. It was built before LiNUX could reliably write to NTFS, and it just hangs ot as a necessity for now. I'd keep a copy, in case it disappears! What *I* would do, would be to buy the drive you want, format it to FAT32, COPY (don't move) your rips to the drive, and make sure it will do this reliably repeatedly, before deleting your ripped files.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Do you recommend a program that's compatible with vista? I have a laptop with XP but it is USB 1.1 and that is too painful...

SwissKnife should work. I don't use the POS known as Vista, and my condolences to ANYBODY roped into it by M$, (but I digress...) Wait... Never mind that, I recall attempting to install it on a Vista laptop, and it failed. Let me do some research, and I'll see what I can come up with. A second option... For 20 bucks, and a Fry's store, you can add USB 2.0 to that laptop! :)It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

I used HP USB Disk storage utility. It seems to work but I think I'm going to return the HDD for a 16gb flash drive. I am having problems putting music onto it from another external usb drive. I just realized I can't put video on this USB HDD anyway so there is no real incentive for me to keep it...

FAT32 for simple devices are sometimes more reliable in the since of simplicity, i'm in IT also and i agree with Haemphyst. NTFS is used primarily by computer systems and user-defined interfaces, whereas simple machines like lots of mp3 and mp4 players used FAT32. I would still double check though with the factory specs, and perhaps call Pioneer themselves and see what they have to say. Also, a very simple way to convert a NTFS in FAT or FAT32 is to simply plug in the harddrive, reformat, and select either format. (FAT32 is faster BTW) XP and Vista both give you the option to change formats... (unless you're running home (LOL!) then maybe not!) <~~sorry i couldn't help myself..Look twice, think thrice, 1 splice/ 1 slice!

This is a phrase i came up with and something i will now live by.