[sterling01]

My solution was to sell the crap 3 series and buy an Audi A6. 20Gb free space on hard disk plus 2 SD card readers that I have 2x 32Gb cards in. Plus it has BOSE sound system that makes the 3 series sound like a children's toy.

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by sterling01

My solution was to sell the crap 3 series and buy an Audi A6. 20Gb free space on hard disk plus 2 SD card readers that I have 2x 32Gb cards in. Plus it has BOSE sound system that makes the 3 series sound like a children's toy.

That's great, but I'm doubtful that the Bose system sounds any better. I've had 3 cars with Bose systems and they all sounded like crap. They will stick there name on anything if the car manufacturer want's to pay.

[sterling01]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

That's great, but I'm doubtful that the Bose system sounds any better. I've had 3 cars with Bose systems and they all sounded like crap. They will stick there name on anything if the car manufacturer want's to pay.

I disagree. My test was an Alicia Keys track. On the BMW it would try to play the bass loud but would either badly distort or automatically drop the bass level and flatten the song. On the BOSE system in the A6, it plays it full power. No distortion, just perfect pitch, clarity and volume. Then there is the bass. You feel it pounding on your body. As I said, it makes the 3 series sound like a speaker setup from a children's toy. BMW dealer quoted me £800 ($1000), supply and fit, to upgrade the amp, speakers and sub. Whilst speaking with the service manager, I commented on the BOSE system. He warned me that even after the upgrade, it would not be as good as the BOSE. I kept my money, sold the 3 series privately, bought an A6 via Audi approved for the same as I sold the BMW. And it came standard with 4 wheel drive, HD Sat-Nav and BOSE.

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by sterling01

I disagree. My test was an Alicia Keys track. On the BMW it would try to play the bass loud but would either badly distort or automatically drop the bass level and flatten the song. On the BOSE system in the A6, it plays it full power. No distortion, just perfect pitch, clarity and volume. Then there is the bass. You feel it pounding on your body. As I said, it makes the 3 series sound like a speaker setup from a children's toy. BMW dealer quoted me £800 ($1000), supply and fit, to upgrade the amp, speakers and sub. Whilst speaking with the service manager, I commented on the BOSE system. He warned me that even after the upgrade, it would not be as good as the BOSE. I kept my money, sold the 3 series privately, bought an A6 via Audi approved for the same as I sold the BMW. And it came standard with 4 wheel drive, HD Sat-Nav and BOSE.

Did you have Harman Kardon or the base system in your 3 series? If you had the base system, (which I think you did) then you can't really compare it to upgraded Bose system in the A6.

[undecided]

Has anyone taken their drive out? How is it powered? Currently there are PATA 2.5'' adapters to mSata. The form factor would fit perfectly into a 2.5'' slot. Only questions left are, how to clone the drive and whether we can provide power. I am not looking to do this for storage space. My primary reason is as a backup in case the CIC drive fails. Possible performance boost would be another reason.

[jimborae]

I'll shortly be trying to clone my CIC hard drive, initially I'll be trying to clone it to a 128Gb SanDisk mSata drive and then put this into a PATA/mSata caddy.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/128gb...s-81k-iops-max

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom...-ide-ssd-drive

If that doesn't work then I have an old PATA ide laptop hard drive I can use, the goal primarily is to have a working copy of my original CIC hard drive that I can use in case of hard drive failure. If the SSD works then there may be speed benefits and I can then look at trying to expand the music partition using the process described in this thread. Just got to wait for parts to arrive and time to do it. Fingers crossed.

[jimborae]

Parts have arrived, just need to find some time this weekend or next week.

[Rotary Rasp]

looking nice, let us know how it performs.

[jimborae]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

looking nice, let us know how it performs.

So the short answer is it doesn't perform. Cloned the hard drive using Acronis, put it in & anything uses the hard drive in the CIC didn't work as if the hard disk was not detected. Dont know if this is an Acronis issue or it doesn't like SSD's. Eitherway when I have some more time I'll try cloning it again but this time using Linux.

[jimborae]

On further investigation it would appear that the SSD caddy was doa as it doesnt show up when connected to my pc. So it could be that the cloning was successful after all!! Just need to get a replacement caddy

[esberelias]

Damn... well keep us posted!

[chadrandom]

Very interested in how this progresses. Please keep us posted, and thanks for diving in.

[Rotary Rasp]

hurry up already!

[jimborae]

Replacement arrived today so I will try again tomorrow!

[Rotary Rasp]

Update?

[jimborae]

It would appear that the CIC does not like either adaptor or SSD's. I now have a working adaptor and SSD with the hard drive cloned correctly on it but the CIC still does not seem to see it. So it looks like its a bust.

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by jimborae

It would appear that the CIC does not like either adaptor or SSD's. I now have a working adaptor and SSD with the hard drive cloned correctly on it but the CIC still does not seem to see it. So it looks like its a bust.

What software did you use to clone the drive?

[jimborae]

Acronis True Image, the only thing left to try now is to clone the drive again using Linux.

[chadrandom]

Bummer, I was really hoping this would work. Will definitely keep subscribed to this thread in case any breakthroughs are made. If anyone has links to successful SSD or HDD upgrades please post them here.

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by jimborae

Acronis True Image, the only thing left to try now is to clone the drive again using Linux.

I was able to make a successful copy with HD Clone. I've been running my car with a 7200rpm drive for a few years without any issues.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=801452

Give it HD Clone a shot, I bet it will work for you.

http://www.miray-software.com/HDClone

[GreQonE]

I think the problem might be within the adapter, not the cloning.

I think there are still few SSD's with PATA port available, why not try these?

[danyro]

hi colleagues,

unfortunately my CIC HDD dies without any warnings/screams and so on.

and more over, i didnt have a backup of it. please can some of you make a clone of the disk? i would be grateful for such help in this bad situation

thank you guys