Mmcs solid state drive upgrade with new m160 2009 european maps
 

After a long time of waiting I finally took the risk to replace the interrnal MK3029GAC TOSHIBA 30GB (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Pat...Specifications) drive with the TS64GSSD25-M 64GB SSD MLC 44PIN 2.5 IDE DRIVE (http://www.transcendusa.com/support/...t-6140-V10.pdf)
The Toshiba drive was unlocked according to rcostin thread and afterwards paragon partition manager (vs 9) was used
1. To copy the TOSHIBA drive (RAW COPY WITH VERIFY ...not partition copy..) to Transcend drive. Both drives were connected to usb ports via usb-ide adapters to my pc (practical as there was no need to open pc case..).
2. The unallocated 30GB+ space of Transcend was then added to the TFAT 5.9GB AV Music Server partition with a total amount of more than 37GB free for storing music.... This TFAT partion is a part of an extended partition of the drive so you must FIRST add the unallocated space to the extended partition and THEN yo the TFAT 5.9GB partion..
3. Afterwards I performed a file replacement of all files in the Navi partition. My previous maps dated from 2006(!!!) occupied merely 3GB in the 20GB HDD partition while the new M160 2009 MAPS OCCUPIED A TOTAL OF 12GB+ in the same partition...!!!
Below you can find a torrent link for the 13GB m160 maps. This torrent is active with at least 2-3 seeders for the time being...
4. The transcend drive was then placed back in the MMCS AFTER REMOUVING A CONNECTOR THAT SHORTED THE EXTRA FOUR PINS OF THE DRIVE (slve/master)!!!! DON'T MISS THIS AS IT SEEMS THAT MMCS USES ALL 44 PINS!!! OTHERWISE THE DRIVE WILL NOT CONNECT PROPERLY AND MOST PROBABLY WILL BE DAMAGED!!!!
5. As you can see from the above URLs although Transcend drive is not automobile specific matches the specs of the Toshiba.. with SSD drive being more tolerant to vibrations (massive 1500G vs 300-800G) whereas the Toshiba drive can perform up to -20C and up to 85C (0C-70C for the Transcend..). This means that maybe for cool north Europe Transcend might not work whereas for southern countries like mine this might not be a problem..
6. If you try to do the same as me buy
A. a SLC-SSD drive (they are more reliable than MLC SSD drives but they cost a bit more)
B. DON'T RUSH TO BUY A HUGE DRIVE (>64GB) AS MOST PROBABLY DUE TO 16BIT LBA ADDRESSING MODE THE DRIVE WON'T BE ACCESSED AFTER A COLD RESTART.. Both Toshiba and Transcend are ATA 6 drives... Ultra DMA drives might not work. MMSC loads files after cold starup from drive and then acesses the rest of the drive..) Try also to find one with better temperature limits...
C. Don't alter/resize any other partition of the cloned drive...as it might not boot at all.....
7. Driving for 3 hours after placing the new drive (in the bumby Greek roads...) I can verify that the drive is shock proof...and it seems to LOAD/WORK AT LEAST 30% FASTER than before!!! The durabillity of the drive to extreme temperatures needs further testing.. Summer is approaching in Greece and so time will tell..
Greatings from Athens Greece....

Nice write up doctorC, I'll try it in my MMCS too :)

1500km UPDATE...
 

Ok the drive seems to work without faults... although I noticed one glitch:
If you try to start the engine while the key is ACC position (and MMCS is running) the car cuts power to MMCS for 1-2 seconds and afterwards MMCS fails to restart showing a message of the disk beeing unavailable.....
If instead you turn off completely the car and then you restart the engine (MMCS not working) then MMCS works perfectly.....
I suppose that this has to do with Transcnd's SSD firmware that shuts down the drive after this short power failure in order to protect the drive....
This might mot happen with other makes of SSD drives..
Actually there was a firmware update for the drive that I only saw short after placing the drive indifr MMCS...
M160 maps are pretty good for Greece and I am still looking for the M170.....

Thanks for nice idea for SSD replacement doctorC.

Just obtained two Transcend SSD disks (one SLC and one MLC), so for this weekend I plan migration of MMCS HDD.

Migration to SSD completed, working without any problem.

Weird thing is that SLC SSD boot 8 seconds longer than MLC SSD. I do not have a clue what is the reason, since image for both SSD disk are made from original Toshiba drive.

zlatko check the transcend site to see if there is any firmware update for the drives....
I am currently updating to m190 maps that a member of the forum provided in the navigation maps thread...

After Summer vacations in Greece with temp rising above +40C the drive still .. performs perfectly... So high temperatures are not a problem for Transcend SSD drive.
I have upgraded tp 2010A maps (M190 2011 product..) with minor upgrade coverage for Greece... The maps cover Greece pretty good although in my trip I found uncharted new roads...

Hi guys,

I also have replaced on my Pajero/Montero the original Toshiba 30GB with a 60GB IDE with new maps m190 and dvd in motion, but I'm not satisfied about the speed. The access at MusicServer is very slow, so I have decided to buy a SSD drive.

Question:
for DoctorC, Do you have solved the problem of the power failure of trascend disk?

for ZLATKO1, really the slc is more slow compared to an MLC ssd?

Thanks.... sorry for my bad english .....

AALISANT
No the startup problem remains as applying the new firmware would mean complete erase of ssd data...
This is not really a problem .... If you are in the AC mode instead of directly startup the car I turn it of and start it up right away....
MLC is fast... just try it ..they are cheap (but in a few years won't be available as the SATA models prevail..) and you always have your original disk as backup...

After upgrading firmware as doctorC suggest, SLC drive performance is as fast as MLC.
In reality I could not notice big difference in speed. Having in mind that price of MLC is dramaticly lower, my suggestion is to go with MLC.

Related to temperature, no problems yet, tested on my holiday within Greece on +40, as well as at home at +45 on sun. Even I try to remove disk and measure temperature, on outside it was 58 degrees and still works without problem.