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Z1, Z2, and Z3 HDD FAQ


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Thought I'd add what I learned about the process as I have only seen the methods I've mentioned a couple times and not listed in the main faq page.

I used the 80gb Toshiba Drive as Newegg was out of 60gb and sent the 80gb instead. To unlock the drive I took out the drive from Dell Latitude D810 laptop and put it in, and used the Magic ISO 2.0 bootable cd with MHDD. Using MHDD I disabled the security features. Once this was accomplished, I used a usb 2.0 2.5" hd enclosure to connect to my desktop pc (which had the z2bypassed iso) and used Acronis True Image to restore the drive. I disabled the copyright overlays by renaming the files, and placed a few additional bitmaps on the drive. So far everything is working fine.

I tried to use up the free space for the Music MSV partition but didn't have luck using Acronis Disk Director. When I try to resize or expand it won't let me increase the size past the image's 9gb initial sizing. I tried some trickery with swapping locations with the last one so that the MSV partition was adjacent to the drive's free space, and then increasing it, which worked in Acronis, but the AVIC-Z1 of mine wouldn't read the hd. I simply restore the image again and just left the partition sizing alone to verify everything else was working, which it did.

The key things I wanted to stress since I don't see them mentioned enough are:
-Used laptop with bootable Magic ISO + MHDD CD to permanently unlock my HD
-Used USB 2.0 HD adaptor to restore the z2bypassed image
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  • 3 weeks later...
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[quote name="zeeker78"]So, if i follow your method i will be saving the $42 to unlocked the hard drive right?
What i mean is, if i buy a new hard drive i don't have to pay the license to unlocked the new hard drive, right?
Thank you
Zeek[/quote]

Well it's not my method as I learned it from a handful of posts interspersed amongst threads on this topic here on avic411.com :)

This method means you don't have to go through the annoying process of hooking up a new drive as an IDE drive on a desktop pc if you have a laptop laying around. However it might not work on all laptops, as I only know it works on the one I own. I wonder though if my problems with expanding the MSV partition are because I am using a usb enclosure. I don't need the extra disk space seeing as I barely encode CDs to the drive but it would be nice to use what I paid for with the new drive. Allegedly I still got an increase in speed though I personally can't tell any difference (and I defragged the partitions too). I was only after the map upgrades really.
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[quote name="tsiawd666"]Thought I'd add what I learned about the process as I have only seen the methods I've mentioned a couple times and not listed in the main faq page.

I used the 80gb Toshiba Drive as Newegg was out of 60gb and sent the 80gb instead. To unlock the drive I took out the drive from Dell Latitude D810 laptop and put it in, and used the Magic ISO 2.0 bootable cd with MHDD. Using MHDD I disabled the security features. Once this was accomplished, I used a usb 2.0 2.5" hd enclosure to connect to my desktop pc (which had the z2bypassed iso) and used Acronis True Image to restore the drive. I disabled the copyright overlays by renaming the files, and placed a few additional bitmaps on the drive. So far everything is working fine.

I tried to use up the free space for the Music MSV partition but didn't have luck using Acronis Disk Director. When I try to resize or expand it won't let me increase the size past the image's 9gb initial sizing. I tried some trickery with swapping locations with the last one so that the MSV partition was adjacent to the drive's free space, and then increasing it, which worked in Acronis, but the AVIC-Z1 of mine wouldn't read the hd. I simply restore the image again and just left the partition sizing alone to verify everything else was working, which it did.

The key things I wanted to stress since I don't see them mentioned enough are:
-Used laptop with bootable Magic ISO + MHDD CD to permanently unlock my HD
-Used USB 2.0 HD adaptor to restore the z2bypassed image[/quote]



I just did the Laptop method and works perfect.
I have one more question thought.
What is the copyright overlays? Do i have to do this?
Thanks a lot
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  • 2 weeks later...
Something I wanted to share. This morning my Z1 upgraded to Z2, with MK6034GAX harddrive, the unit showed a message that it "Could not use HDD". The temp this morning was about 15-20 below 0 in Wisconsin.

Moral of the story is this drive doesn't handle the cold as well as the stock. I know this is pointed out in the specs of the two, just wanted to confirm.

Anyway, it worked fine after a few minutes with the heater on.
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  • 3 months later...
Just an FYI on unlocking the original Toshiba HDD...with an older computer, especially older Dell systems. I searched for solutions here and noticed a few other users had similar problems as outlined below but no one had a working solution.

I purchased a new 40GB HDD for my Z1 and had no trouble putting the Z3 image on it using the instructions provided here.

My troubles were with imaging the original HDD. I could not get the unlocking software to see the drive. I tried hooking it up with the IDE adapter on the Secondary IDE channel as master (nothing else on the line). I tried it on the Primary Channel in line with the system drive, changed the system drive to secondary channel...etc.

No combination would work. Either the unlocking software wouldn't recognize the drive or it would see the drive, but it would give an error saying the drive was inaccessible.

As a last ditch effort I tried Dell's website and looked for a bios update. The last bios update for my system was in 2002 and I already had it installed. BUT, I noticed there was an update for the ATA/IDE controller that I didn't have. I installed it, put the drive on the secondary channel (with nothing else) and in worked.
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Hello all,

I tried to unlock my Z1 HD and put the Z3 image in. When I used the HDD Unlock Wizard to unlock it, it is telling me that it is unlocked, but I am unable to see the drive. I am using a P4C800-E Deluxe mobo with RAID configuration. I'm not sure if RAID has anything to do with it not detecting the drive properly. Someone else on this thread had a suggestion to use MHDD first to remove the security settings on the drive, then unlock it. Does this make any difference? I will give it a try later, but if any of you professionals have other ideas for me to try, please let me know. Thanks in advance.
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Yeah, I tried it and it didn't work. I got 6 other PCs but all of them are running Vista and they are also setup in RAID 0 Array. My next step attempt is to try to install XP in a regular single HD setup and see if that works. Does anyone have any other suggestions that I can try? Thanks.
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Okay, finally got my Z1 stock HD to unlock. I had to use my work's Dell machine running Win2K to do it. It's not that easy, either. For some reason, the system will not boot when the drive is installed. I had to boot the machine and install the drive after it is on. Basically, hot swap it. I thought I was going to fry the drive but it's all good. Just thought I would give my 2 cents to someone who might be having the same problem. Thanks.
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Crap, crap, crap. I know better! Anyway, I got impatient and got sick of waiting until I could go buy a new drive. I decided to take the plung and unlock the stock drive. I didn't need the data, so I went ahead and used the wizard.

The unlock wizard seemed to work flawlessly. Everything was fine and it said it was successful after it was done. I downloaded the magicboot v.2 and tried to disable the security. I can't get it to "see" the drive! So, I boot all the way back up... still can't see the drive! So, I pop it in my USB adapter (Sh!ts and giggles) still no partitions, but I can see it in the device manager. :evil:

What gives? Anyone else run into this. I have tried it on 3 diferent computers varying in age and motherboard chip sets. I'm in the sa diego area close to Miramar. Anyone close enough and want to take a look? Just wondering. I think I might try usiung the CD rom Magic boot this evening. Maybe the USB floppy drive I have doesn't work with this procedure. :?:
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