DJWLDW

Thanks Greg I did not know that.

But my question would be why? I have a 160 gig iPod that travels with us in the Lexus which is what we use as I do not have a smart phone.

Dennis

greg3852

I also keep an iPhone loaded with music and have a Verizon Mifi in the car, but it is nice to not have to turn anything else on and just switch to HDD and play stuff. Obviously I have my favorite stuff on the Harddrive. It is handy.

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

They got rid of it for the 2010 model year when they incorporated the USB input. Now you can use your ipod/iphone or any USB MP3 player (not sure what problems you are referring to). Kinda made the HDD redundant.

mannye

So it looks like a standard HD that should be easily cloned. The Tivo people used to put HD images online so DIYers could replace the original drives with higher capacity drives. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I cloned three or four of them and made an exact copy of one that was starting to fail as well.

There are dozens of cloning programs out there that should be able to do it, but without an image, it's just a $30 hard drive. What Lexus is undoubtedly charging for is the software on the drive, not the drive itself.

I can't believe no one offers a refurb with a core exchange for a couple hundred bucks.

It's good to know this information now that I'm shopping for an '07 or '08! I just knocked $1000 off the price.

roadfrog

Sounds like you might have a business idea!

So if cloning is possible, why not do this onto an SSD instead of an HDD? I love the SSD I installed on my home system.....ridiculously fast.

greg3852

Cloning it may not be an issue, my problem is taking the chance with $1000 to test it. That's my only issue. The only thing needed to use an SSD provided the cloning worked would be an IDE to SSD converter. But even with that there is a chance this is meant to recognize only a certain HDD.

roadfrog

Pffft....couple of OT's! LOL

Steve748

Kurt,

Thank you for your warmest regards! I agree with you in waiting for a heated garage. This job would be no fun in the cold and would probably lead to many cracked trim panels and clips. I hope that you have success with however you pursue this project. It was certainly a learning experience for me and I'm still debating whether it was worth all the time I put into it; both mental and physical. Although having $1k in my pocket vs the dealer's is always a nice thing. Enjoy your Holiday season!

With regards from the U.S.

Steve

Luckyoreo

This is not correct. The hard drives are actually an expensive hard drive. They are automotive temp parts which are rated for extreme temp operation. I believe it's operating temp was from -30 to 85 degrees C or something close to those numbers. I can't quite remember the part name/number for the drive but when I looked the part up about 6 months ago, I couldn't find the exact part but I did find a refurbished 20gig version of the same drive and it was still about $500. If you use a generic drive from newegg or amazon it will likely fail due not being able to operate in the summer heat.

seanl

Yes, temps would be an issue, because even enterprise class HDs and SSDs installed in server systems and datacenters have specific cooling requirements etc.

Now if the LS460s' A/C system could channel cold air onto a more generic drive, that would be different.

And I thought our drives were expensive (I work for Dell Enterprise Solutions)!

Lynzoid

Ahh, like some kittens in a bag...
Of course HDD is replaceable. I think oem is hitachi unit (40gb or so).
You need to use HDAT2 utility to unlock the original drive etc. (drive will be autolocked by the car so dont worry about relocking a new one).
To clone the drive only winhex is good.
After using hdat2 to unlock the drive will appear in windows explorer.
Instructions are out there on the interweb. Folk are updating the maps in those HDD units for free nowadays.
Look for 'prius hdd nav update' or something. The prius crowd found this thing.
Toodle-pip

edit: http://prius-club.su/index.php/topic,1569.0.html - in russian or something but describes the procedure correctly. My guess - yes, ssd can be used (yay).

joedaddy1

iTrader: (1)

who knows how to read russian? I need to replace my HD on my 2007.. never buying 1st year model cars again...

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

I don't think that its a "first year" issue, just bad luck. The Hitachi Endurastar drive - the one Lexus uses - is the best drive for the application (not counting SLC SSD drives, which weren't available back then). The 30Gb drive is no longer available but you can get them on e-bay. I also believe the 80Gb drive will work (but I don't think you can use the full capacity).

roadfrog

Agree with Keith. Bad luck. I don't think my 08 is any different than the '07, and it hasn't caused me any grief that's unique to a first model year.

greg3852

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fprius-club.su%2Findex.php%2Ftopic%2C1569.4890.html%3FPHPSESSID%3Di7ej5lkv4c28p8siocvgvl84m4&edit-text=&act=url

There is the page translated.
Also its a 2007, which makes the harddrive 10 years old. Thats not too bad considering.