tresmith00

how many of you if it's possible would upgrade the 30 gig hard drive in the ls460?

I'm thinkng that it would be nice to upgrade to a 100 gig hd and drive around with my whole music collection. also with the price of this car you would think that they would put something bigger than 30 gigs. do they even make 30 gig hard drives anymore.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well, the 30gb is not all for mp3...... it's also integrated with nav i believe, which is about 22gb from another post (since they say the mp3 space is 8gb). i don't know if you can take the hdd out, do drive copy on the nav, and it will still function correctly. i think that would be the challenge

encore888

If they had full iPod integration then the HDD wouldn't be such a big deal...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

haha that's what we have all been complaining about right?

and actually, with their current (as far as we know) setup on transferring songs from cd to the hdd, if i get the car i would probably just play mp3 cd, seems like a much easier option

encore888

^^
Exactly. Ah, concert hall sound !

XeroK00L

Technically it's totally possible. Realistically we'll need someone who both owns a New LS AND is knowledgeable enough about deciphering file system layouts and encryptions and replicating them onto a larger harddrive. Now that person is hard to find (unless that New LS owner happens to lend me his/her new car to hack (hint hint) ).

People have done this over and over again, to the harddrives of the Xbox, the TiVo, and the iPod. It can be done.

In fact, people are running Linux and custom applications on Xbox and Tivo. If we had the specs of the processor of the headunit in the New LS, theoretically we can hack our way into running Linux and all that stuff on the New LS by "upgrading" the firmware. Well, that's a good theory I suppose.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

cloning a hdd is almost the easiest part i think, there are so many programs out there to clone them. so maybe if someone can find the location of the hdd they can easily upgrade it

the problem would be whether the system inside the car can recognize the extra space

XeroK00L

Cloning is NOT easy man, not when the target harddrive is of a different size AND when the filesystem format is a proprietary one. Those cloning software you see out there do not handle unknown filesystems, period. Xbox is a good example. It took a while before people figure out how to use Xbox's BIOS itself to access and format a new bigger harddrive, and it took a much longer while for people to figure out how to attach an Xbox harddrive to a PC for direct file transfers and manipulations (that would be the holy grail for the New LS's harddrive as well).

Your concern about whether or not the firmware will recognize the extra space is a valid one, however. It may very well always use the first 8GB for music, and "the rest" for nav, which is not what we desire. In that case we will have to modify the firmware in order to remedy that, or better yet, bypass the factory firmware by installing a "modchip" over it.

If the HDD system gets trickled down to the lesser Lexus models soon, which is likely since the JDM GS and IS already get the 30GB HDD, we will be able to have a much larger market (not to mention one that's more likely to include more techno-geeks) to warrant the development of such a modchip. We'll see.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

umm very good point there on the file system man, i missed that. just kept on thinking about windows file system and thought it's gonna be easy. @_@

oh well, dont' think i am going to get more grey hair on this for now. not unless they have a better way of loading songs to the hdd anyway

flipside909

It's funny, all this talk about modding the HDD of the New LS and main target audience would probably never even consider modifying their car, let alone trying to increase the hard disk size.

XeroK00L

Well as I said in one of my above posts, once the system gets inevitably trickled down to the lesser Lexus models we'll see the ball rolling a lot faster, that is if the Japanese folks don't figure it out first (again, the JDM GS, IS and Crown already have the system long before the LS does).

XeroK00L

BTW, isn't rominl considering the New LS too? I trust that he for one will mod the hell out of the car. In fact, take a look at the LS430 forum and you'll find all sorts of modding threads. So much for the "main target audience" not modding their cars eh?

Gojirra99

Well, many LS owners here are not the typical LS owners that constitute the vast majority

XeroK00L

Yes and that's why we the atypical ones are here on CL--to discuss about things that Lexus didn't think its main target audience needs. If we stop discussing about mods, the CL might as well become an automotive PR site. Right?

flipside909

We the enthusiast crowd (CL) only represent a very small demographic for this car....realistically 1%. Henry, and myself included would mod this car no doubt. How many actual owners of their LS430 really mod their car in general in comparison to those who talk about modding the car and actually own it (and not their parents)? If you think about it, it's a very small number considering most of the people that initiate or participate in those threads mentioned are mostly the same members.