Has anyone done a z2 to z3 upgrade using a laptop with Vista and been successful? How???
I have answered your question in the other thread that you posted. Please do not double post the same question in multiple threads. Most of us read them all 
Okay I have bee trying to figure this out for two days now..Someone please help me. I have my drive hooked up to my computer and the unlock software will not unlock it. The magic boot will run but if I enter y to turn off the security it will run the checksum then gives me and device error. if I enter n for the security it will run the checksum then done. Also afte the eid prompt it give the drive info but it says my smart is disabled and my security high is on instead of enabled and off as was stated in the write up given in the post. I need help bad as I said before the drive has been out for two days now and I am going stir crazy........Thanks in advance
It sounds like you may be trying to turn the security off without unlocking the drive first... This is a 2 step process. 1. unlock the drive 2. turn security off with mhdd.
I tried to do the unlock and it says unable to unlock drive after I have already paid for it.
It sounds like you may be trying to turn the security off without unlocking the drive first... This is a 2 step process. 1. unlock the drive 2. turn security off with mhdd.
Do you have any more drives? If so how much and what's your approximate delivery time to maryland 20707.
It sounds like you may be trying to turn the security off without unlocking the drive first... This is a 2 step process. 1. unlock the drive 2. turn security off with mhdd.
Do you have any more drives? If so how much and what's your approximate delivery time to maryland 20707.
I have more drives due tomorrow, and I might be able to get a couple shipped out before the post office last call. Priority shipping is 2-3 days (Friday is a holiday). Express shipping is next day. Please see my ad for more details:
Just wanted to say thanks to all that had input in this. I finally got mine done. 
Just popping in to say hi! Had mine updated for over a month now and so far no issues. Well, I did notice that my cell phone does not stay connected very well anymore, but that just might be my ancient treo 650. Time to upgrade that now I suppose. Still seeding the image and have shared over 82.5 gigs so far. Keep seeding!
I just updated my Z2 to a Z3 the other night.
Is AFMagnum still updating the first post? If so, it might not be a bad idea to mention the upgrade can be done for as low as $4.97 IF you don't care about losing your music library. HDD Unlock Wizard will unlock the drive for just $4.97, but will wipe it clean. I know this info is available if you search, but it would be nice to have it in the first post for those who are using the first post as a reference. There's no reason to spend the $42 if you are upgrading a new old stock Z2 or if you don't care about having to redo your music library.
I followed his instructions to upgrade my z2 to z3. It worked beautifully and was quite instructional. He made it so easy to do. Thanks Afmagnum. the voice commands and the Bluetooth work a lot better and the maps are definately better in the Boston area. Great instructions
I am getting ready to do this, I have read quite a few posts, but still have few question.
I will do everything the way it said
A. Download and install WinRAR (or similar archiver):
http://www.rarlab.com/rar/wrar371.exe
B. Download and install the 15-day trial of Acronis True Image Home 11:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/do ... 1_d_en.exe
C. Download Magic Boot Disk from HDDGURU:
http://hddguru.com/download/software/Ma ... r_v2.0.exe
D. Download, install and purchase one-time license for A FF Repair Station ($42.37):
http://www.hdd-tools.com/products/rrs/l ... ic411.html
E. Purchase a Laptop 2.5" to Desktop 3.5" IDE Hard Drive Adapter Converter (I picked mine up at CompUSA for $6.99): http://www.compusa.com/applications/Sea ... &CatId=470
but my question is that why do i need the part D: and pay 42.37 for one time licence for unlocking hardrive, when there is a site for unlocking for 5.00 dollars
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16132
so it is different than A FF REpair Station by any means, or the same thing, besided saving the data which i really dont care much. I am just trying to save some money
and second question is i just have a laptop, with serial, parallel, and usb ports, so all the ports, so in order to get that drive connected to laptop, which converter would i need, please let me know. I have got a understanding so far that with laptop you cant do, so i though i still ask anyway.
I will be waiting for replies, because those questions are only holding me back, thanks
I am getting ready to do this, I have read quite a few posts, but still have few question.
but my question is that why do i need the part D: and pay 42.37 for one time licence for unlocking hardrive, when there is a site for unlocking for 5.00 dollars
check earlier posts, essentially the $5 route means to unlock your HDD, the drive will be wiped clean in the process. so any music, address info, map configs, images, etc etc will be gone. To keep your data you need to go the more expensive route. (note the same company makes both applications...Capitalism, baby!) 
But yeah if that data isn't important to you, go for the cheaper unlock!
Thanks, DATA dont mean. if it is cheaper than i will have to do with that route, and what about laptop adaptor, is there such a think to connect the dirve to laptop?
cuz as i mean reading you can only do it with desktop. thanks
Yeah, the cheap unlock will work fine for you.
You could possibly use a laptop, but it will be difficult. The reason is because the HDD Unlock program REQUIRES the drive to be connected directly to the computer's IDE hard drive controller. The HDD Unlock program also requires to be run from Windows. Laptops usually only have ONE IDE connector, and it's for the OS boot disk. If you replace the laptop's hard drive with the AVIC drive, then your laptop can't boot into Windows which is the main problem.
There are not-so-easy ways around that. You could replace the laptop's built-in hard drive with the AVIC drive and then try to boot Windows from USB. You could try an IDE to USB adapter on your laptop's hard drive and see if it will boot from it. From what I've read, however, it's not that simple, I think there are some changes or tweaks required to get Windows to boot from USB. You could also make a Windows boot flash disk, but that's not so simple either.
Easiest way - use a desktop computer!
I just updated my Z2 to a Z3 the other night.Is AFMagnum still updating the first post? If so, it might not be a bad idea to mention the upgrade can be done for as low as $4.97 IF you don't care about losing your music library. HDD Unlock Wizard will unlock the drive for just $4.97, but will wipe it clean. I know this info is available if you search, but it would be nice to have it in the first post for those who are using the first post as a reference. There's no reason to spend the $42 if you are upgrading a new old stock Z2 or if you don't care about having to redo your music library.
Great point. Updated...
ok, im stuck, how do i make the 14 files 1 and which partition am i putting it on?
You don't have to make them one, just click "Next >" and pick the drive you want to write the image to. When it completes, you're done.
hey guys n gals, new to the forum here and I just got a Avic z1 from a friend and Im looking to upgrade the drive which isnt the problem....i saw someone say something about a double ground bypass for the z3 and now im confused.....do i still have to get the flasher bypass to make it work with the z3 updated drive or the other method which im clueless about.
hey guys n gals, new to the forum here and I just got a Avic z1 from a friend and Im looking to upgrade the drive which isnt the problem....i saw someone say something about a double ground bypass for the z3 and now im confused.....do i still have to get the flasher bypass to make it work with the z3 updated drive or the other method which im clueless about.
no, the new 2-wire method replaces the flasher method.
how is that done? is there thread for it??
how is that done? is there thread for it??
A link to the bypass instructions can be found here:
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5281
If you update your drive, or replace with a pre configured drive, then you will not need any updates, and will only need to ground the 2 wires as described at the bottom of the instructions page.
thanks a lot appreciate the help!
Hi all
I am in need of some help please.
I am trying to upgrade my Z2 to the Z3 image. I have a new hard drive, from a laptop, it is a 40G. Just want to see if this works and then perhaps later go and get a decent drive. Anyway, I downloaded the 14 TIB files. Then downloaded Acronis True Image home. This is where I am stuck. I run the program and select restore, then select the data I want to restore, is this where I would select the file i.e. Z3_virgin1?
If so, the next screen has three options, which one do I select?
1 – Restore disks
2 – Sector by sector
3 – Restore specified files etc
If I select 1 (which is what I thought), do I then just select my 40G drive?
I did do this and the PC rebooted, went into acronis at startup, selected the drive and the files were restored, it was very very quick. Then put the drive in the car and the AVIC said can’t read hard drive.
What did I do wrong – hopefully not much.
Do I also need to unlock this drive before doing anything to it?
Please help and would appreciate it if you could be as detailed as possible. Thanks in advance.
Yes, you just restore the disk....shouldn't need to reboot unless you were doing something that was using the drive.
But unless you disabled the security on the drive, your Z unit probably locked it now.
ok, so basically the way I did it was correct?
When I started the restore from acronis, it said the system needs to reboot to complete, so I clicked ok, it rebooted into acronis and not my OS. The clicked on finish, rebooted again to my OS. The drive did not work in the AVIC, any suggestions. Also, yes the drive is now locked, can't see it when connected to my PC