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      03-24-2018, 02:17 AM   #24
p0lar
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Drives: 11 E90 M3, 12 E70 X5d, 04 M3
Join Date: May 2012
Location: NoVa

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I just performed this 'upgrade' to my '11 M3. Overall, it's not a bad procedure and everything went as planned. I used the Recadata 256GB mSATA SSD (~$100 shipped) and the Ableconn IIDE-MSAT mSATA SSD to 2.5-Inch IDE Adapter (~$29 shipped).

I also used two other components, though technically only one would have been necessary. The part required to read the OEM drive to an image (this took about 80 minutes on my Macbook Pro using "dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/Volumes/storage/cic_backup.img":

UNITEK USB 3.0 to IDE & SATA Converter External Hard Drive Adapter Kit for Universal 2.5/3.5 HDD/SSD Hard Drive

And to write to it as well as work with it within QNX and PartEd, a USB3 to mSata adapter (I don't have the part # on this as it was something I had on-hand). This procedure took about 13 minutes using "dd if=/Volumes/storage/cic_backup.img of=/dev/rdisk3 bs=64k".

The only hiccup I ran into was that QNX did not like something about the USB3 to mSata adapter, so it would create the qnx6 filesystem, but wouldn't mount it unless it was read-only (which clearly wasn't going to work). To fix this, I mounted it with the "sync=optional" command (though sync=ignore may also have worked) as follows:

Code:
mount -o sync=optional -t qnx6 /dev/hd10t77.4 /root/media
mount -o sync=optional -t qnx6 /dev/hd10t77.5 /root/debug
The full list of qnx commands was very simple.. I also added an extra 15GB VMWare drive to QNX as HD1 to copy the initial bits (it only needs to be large enough to hold your hbmedia and hbdebug partitions) -- do mind your drive names, I won't even pretend to be responsible for data loss if you're not familiar with posix syntax and device naming conventions! My temporary scratch space/virtual drive was /dev/hd1. My usb mSATA adapter was /dev/hd10t77, of which .4 and .5 were the media and debug partitions respectively. I used a couple of environmental definitions that point to the scratch drive and media/debug partitions. This makes it easier NOT to foul up other partitions, though it's not the end of the world if you do since you're working from the replacement drive. May as well alias mount while I'm at it since we're only working with qnx6 filesystems.

Code:
# scratchdrive="/dev/hd1"
# mediapartition="/dev/hd10t77.4"
# debugpartition="/dev/hd10t77.5"
# alias mount="mount -t qnx6"
# mkqnx6fs ${scratchdrive}
# mkdir /root/{saved/{debug,media},debug,media}
# mount ${scratchdrive} /root/saved
# mount -o ro ${mediapartition} /root/media
# mount -o ro ${debugpartition} /root/debug
# cp -Rp /root/media/* /root/saved/media/
# cp -Rp /root/debug/* /root/saved/debug/
# umount /root/{media,debug,saved}
-- make your changes in the partition editor then go back to your qnx VM, check your device lists to ensure your scratch and CIC drive definitions didn't change! --

Code:
# scratchdrive="/dev/hd1"
# mediapartition="/dev/hd10t77.4"
# debugpartition="/dev/hd10t77.5"
# alias mount="mount -t qnx6"
# mount -o ro ${scratchdrive} /root/saved
# mkqnx6fs ${mediapartition}
# mkqnx6fs ${debugpartition}
# mount -o sync=optional ${mediapartition} /root/media
# mount -o sync=optional ${debugpartition} /root/debug
# cp -Rp /root/saved/media/* /root/media/
# cp -Rp /root/saved/debug/* /root/debug/
# umount /root/{media,debug,saved}
-- now disconnect your USB drive from VMWare, mount the mSATA into the adapter, mount the adapter into the CIC adapter and replace in the vehicle --

Notes:
  • Overall, I would say the nav is slightly more responsive, but not lots. The music load is absolutely faster, and I can't imagine ever importing over 175GB of music.
  • There is a way to do this strictly in QNX with just a script without rebooting to use the partition editor, but it would take significantly longer to achieve and would require more scratch space and some script-fu to automate the partition boundaries properly.
  • Thanks to the OP for posting this -- I found a thread on the X5 where others have also done something similar, perhaps without the partition expansions which I think is the real reward here.
  • I'll update this post with the results on how the recadata i6m handles the heat/cold cycles. Overall I feel pretty confident it will do well.
  • OEM HDD, Toshiba Automotive MKxx50GAC Series - The 80GB seems to be the largest Toshiba made in that series so a logical upgrade within the same manufacturer series is out of the question.
  • After giving it more thought, I think I will be adding a small piece of rubber between the mSATA and the chassis in the event that the retention clip doesn't hold. The clip on the Ableconn adapter really isn't designed for automotive use and though it should hang on, my suspicion is that at some point it will let go.
  • After driving about 20 miles with it in, the media is noticeably faster to load, much .. much faster.

Last edited by p0lar; 03-24-2018 at 08:41 PM..
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