I thought I'd write this little guide about how to prep your USB pen, convert CDs to MP3 and store music on the drive for your Juke. I hope someone finds it useful.Note: I've written this guide for a Windows PC although some of the information is more general. Maybe someone with a MAC could add some MAC-specific info The USB PenThe pen must be format with the 'FAT32' File System. If it is not then the car will not be able to read from it. To be honest, I've never bought one that wasn't format in this way.Any USB pen will do, obviously the bigger capacity it is, the more music it will be able to store.If you wish to start afresh with a USB pen then you can format it yourself:1. Insert it into your PC2. Wait for it to appear under 'My Computer' 3. Right click on the drive and select 'Format' from the menu *** be sure you select the correct drive! ***4. Check that the 'File System' type is set to 'FAT32'5. Give the USB drive a name if you wish by entering the name in 'Volume Label'6. Click Start / OK to format the drive - you will have to accept the warning messages7. Once the format is complete you will notice the drive is empty and ready for your filesConverting your CDs to MP3There are many programs and tools that will do this. I downloaded FreeRIP the other day and it seems pretty good. The 'Basic' is free and does all you need. It will automatically get all the info for the CD (artist, album name, track info, genre, etc) and populate the MP3 tags with that info (so that your Juke will display that info when you play the song).Have a look at the options it gives you when ripping songs - the one you will probably be interested in is where it stores the MP3s and how it names them.You can buy the 'Pro' version but I don't think you'll find it necessary.
MP3 tagsIf want to modify MP3 tags then I think MP3tag is hard to beat. You can edit all the tags nice and easily, rename files to suit the tags, etc. Pretty nifty if you have MP3s that are not tagged properly. And it's free Copying the MP3 files to your USB driveThis is simply a case of dragging and dropping (or copying / pasting) your MP3s onto the USB drive. However, you might want to consider creating some folders to organise your files. There are some things you might like to think about when you do this:1. Too many folders can be cumbersome to navigate around2. Too few folders mean all your music is jumbled up, making albums hard to find3. You may want to organise albums by genre, age (60s, 70s, 80s, perhaps), alphabetically, or have a different folder for each person who uses the carA few other things to consider1. It doesn't matter if you have other files on the pen - they will just be ignored. However, it's tidier to keep a pen specifically for your car2. It might be a good use of old, smaller capacity drives, to have a selection in the car - perhaps for different people or occasions3. Viruses can be spread on USB drives so be careful what computers you plug your data pen into. Viruses will not effect the Juke, however
MP3 tagsIf want to modify MP3 tags then I think MP3tag is hard to beat. You can edit all the tags nice and easily, rename files to suit the tags, etc. Pretty nifty if you have MP3s that are not tagged properly. And it's free Copying the MP3 files to your USB driveThis is simply a case of dragging and dropping (or copying / pasting) your MP3s onto the USB drive. However, you might want to consider creating some folders to organise your files. There are some things you might like to think about when you do this:1. Too many folders can be cumbersome to navigate around2. Too few folders mean all your music is jumbled up, making albums hard to find3. You may want to organise albums by genre, age (60s, 70s, 80s, perhaps), alphabetically, or have a different folder for each person who uses the carA few other things to consider1. It doesn't matter if you have other files on the pen - they will just be ignored. However, it's tidier to keep a pen specifically for your car2. It might be a good use of old, smaller capacity drives, to have a selection in the car - perhaps for different people or occasions3. Viruses can be spread on USB drives so be careful what computers you plug your data pen into. Viruses will not effect the Juke, however