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Back after a long hiatus. If you're still looking for an SSD+DVD solution I have pre-imaged drives in stock currently.
Compatible with all PCM 3.1 on North American spec vehicles (The drive is from my Cayenne but will work on any PCM 3.1). The latest navigation maps are also pre-installed on the drive.
The drive is pre-imaged and plug & play - I don't need your original drive nor does it have to be readable. You just pop the new drive in & insert the upgrade DVD I'm including with the drive. After 20-25 minutes your PCM is ready to use. No coding or dealer tool necessary.
PM me if you're interested in obtaining your copy - we've done this repair to dozens of vehicles and it's never failed -- I'm approximating there are 100 clones of my car driving around America at any given moment, all are working fine
Oz
Last edited by ozzythething; 04-01-2024 at 12:35 AM.
i have a pcm reboot problem. I'm not very tech savy. i have taken out my old hard drive and would like to be able to send it to you along with payment. i also have a new SSD drive to send as well.
Back after a long hiatus. If you're still looking for an SSD+DVD solution I have pre-imaged drives in stock currently.
Compatible with all PCM 3.1 on North American spec vehicles (The drive is from my Cayenne but will work on any PCM 3.1). The latest navigation maps are also pre-installed on the drive.
The drive is pre-imaged and plug & play - I don't need your original drive nor does it have to be readable. You just pop the new drive in & insert the upgrade DVD I'm including with the drive. After 20-25 minutes your PCM is ready to use. No coding or dealer tool necessary.
PM me if you're interested in obtaining your copy - we've done this repair to dozens of vehicles and it's never failed -- I'm approximating there are 100 clones of my car driving around America at any given moment, all are working fine
Oz
Originally Posted by Rufastenuf
this is what did:
This is the direction I used to get mine back! I bought an SSD from Best Buy and a SATA/USB cable and had some help from a computer savvy friend. Works perfectly!
Go to Clonezilla.org to download Clonezilla. Once you have the Clonezilla live iso or zip file, please follow this Live CD/USB doc to put it on the USB boot media.
Put the unzipped PCM files from the linked zip file above in \home\partimag\Pcm (or folder name of your choosing) so you can access them directly from your Clonezilla bootable USB. Use the device-image option and the restoredisk function to overwrite your new SSDD with the image. There are further instructions here: Restore Disk Image
Great news to see how the community can help each other.
One caveat though: As i found out the hard way, not all PCM 3.1 systems are using SATA drives. For example, my 2013 981 Boxster S with PCM 3.1 that was built in the fall of 2012 uses an ATA/IDE Toshiba automotive HD. Fortunately, these Toshiba drives can still be bought online on ebay, Amazon, or AliExpress (though I am not sure if they are new or from salvaged cars, so buyers beware). Maybe there is a PATA/SATA connector that allows you to fit a SATA drive into the hard drive bay of the PCM, but so far I have not found one that fits and I don't know if I can just replace the ribbon connector between the PCM or the HD with one that is SATA based. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Since my HD isn't failing yet, I made a clone onto a SATA SSD and will reinstall the original drive now. And unless I find a way to connect my SATA drive, I will have to buy the ATA/IDE drive, once my current drive starts failing.
Back after a long hiatus. If you're still looking for an SSD+DVD solution I have pre-imaged drives in stock currently.
Compatible with all PCM 3.1 on North American spec vehicles (The drive is from my Cayenne but will work on any PCM 3.1). The latest navigation maps are also pre-installed on the drive.
The drive is pre-imaged and plug & play - I don't need your original drive nor does it have to be readable. You just pop the new drive in & insert the upgrade DVD I'm including with the drive. After 20-25 minutes your PCM is ready to use. No coding or dealer tool necessary.
PM me if you're interested in obtaining your copy - we've done this repair to dozens of vehicles and it's never failed -- I'm approximating there are 100 clones of my car driving around America at any given moment, all are working fine
Oz
thanks for the info Oz. Not sure how i can DM here but could you provide info to me at bjpreaume@yahoo so I can get a copy and disc.
Great news to see how the community can help each other.
One caveat though: As i found out the hard way, not all PCM 3.1 systems are using SATA drives. For example, my 2013 981 Boxster S with PCM 3.1 that was built in the fall of 2012 uses an ATA/IDE Toshiba automotive HD. Fortunately, these Toshiba drives can still be bought online on ebay, Amazon, or AliExpress (though I am not sure if they are new or from salvaged cars, so buyers beware). Maybe there is a PATA/SATA connector that allows you to fit a SATA drive into the hard drive bay of the PCM, but so far I have not found one that fits and I don't know if I can just replace the ribbon connector between the PCM or the HD with one that is SATA based. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Since my HD isn't failing yet, I made a clone onto a SATA SSD and will reinstall the original drive now. And unless I find a way to connect my SATA drive, I will have to buy the ATA/IDE drive, once my current drive starts failing.
Yep, PCM's manufactured before July 2012 use IDE HDD drives.
You can distinguish these units by the CD jukebox functionality. SSD PCM's have the CD jukebox function, IDE PCM's don't.
Great news to see how the community can help each other.
One caveat though: As i found out the hard way, not all PCM 3.1 systems are using SATA drives. For example, my 2013 981 Boxster S with PCM 3.1 that was built in the fall of 2012 uses an ATA/IDE Toshiba automotive HD. Fortunately, these Toshiba drives can still be bought online on ebay, Amazon, or AliExpress (though I am not sure if they are new or from salvaged cars, so buyers beware). Maybe there is a PATA/SATA connector that allows you to fit a SATA drive into the hard drive bay of the PCM, but so far I have not found one that fits and I don't know if I can just replace the ribbon connector between the PCM or the HD with one that is SATA based. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Since my HD isn't failing yet, I made a clone onto a SATA SSD and will reinstall the original drive now. And unless I find a way to connect my SATA drive, I will have to buy the ATA/IDE drive, once my current drive starts failing.
I have a solution for IDE PCMs using a mSATA SSD + mSATA to IDE adapter, I can make you an SSD clone of your drive. PM me if interested.
Cloning an IDE/PATA Hard drive to an SSD (2013 Boxster)
I have completed my backup of my 2013 Boxster S. Since this was one of the early cars with PCM 3.1 without the Jukebox feature (software v3.4.3), it actually used an IDE/ATA Hard drive (Toshiba MK4050GAC automotive HD).
IDE connection.
So I had to be a bit inventive. First you need a HD 2 bay clone. I used the
to connect the drive into the docking station (maybe I could have combined it into one IDE to SATA cable, but I I couldn't find such a cable fast enough).
At first, I tried to use a SATA drive I had, but it became clear that it would not fit back into the hard drive casing of the PCM, so following the suggestion of @ozzythething and got an
for the mSATA card to make it easier to copy the disk, though I could have just bought another connector/cable pair to plug the IDE enclosure to the second bay of the docking station (The enclosure was cheaper though).
The cloning was a breeze (took maybe 20 to 30 minutes max):
Cloning the IDE disk.
I moved the mSATA card from the SATA casing into the IDE casing and installed it into the PCM.
One issue I currently have is that navigation and maps are not loading, but I am not sure if that is a problem caused by misconnecting one of the connectors on the PCM (I also installed a mr12Volt for Android Auto and may have accidentally screwed up the satnav connection). Let me know if someone ran into the same issue. It is not bothering me too much though, since I am using Waze via Android Auto anyway. Only time the satnav could be useful is if I am without cellphone connection and no preloaded maps.
I have completed my backup of my 2013 Boxster S. Since this was one of the early cars with PCM 3.1 without the Jukebox feature (software v3.4.3), it actually used an IDE/ATA Hard drive (Toshiba MK4050GAC automotive HD).
And since the SATA connector did not fit into the docking station, I used an F to M SATA to SATA cable to connect the drive into the docking station (maybe I could have combined it into one IDE to SATA cable, but I I couldn't find such a cable fast enough).
At first, I tried to use a SATA drive I had, but it became clear that it would not fit back into the hard drive casing of the PCM, so following the suggestion of @ozzythething and got an mSATA card (I got a 128GB card but a 60GB would have been sufficient, but the price was low enough) and an IDE enclosure for it.
I also got a SATA enclosure for the mSATA card to make it easier to copy the disk, though I could have just bought another connector/cable pair to plug the IDE enclosure to the second bay of the docking station (The enclosure was cheaper though).
The cloning was a breeze (took maybe 20 to 30 minutes max):
Cloning the IDE disk.
I moved the mSATA card from the SATA casing into the IDE casing and installed it into the PCM.
One issue I currently have is that navigation and maps are not loading, but I am not sure if that is a problem caused by misconnecting one of the connectors on the PCM (I also installed a mr12Volt for Android Auto and may have accidentally screwed up the satnav connection). Let me know if someone ran into the same issue. It is not bothering me too much though, since I am using Waze via Android Auto anyway. Only time the satnav could be useful is if I am without cellphone connection and no preloaded maps.
If the maps/navigation is not loading and Bluetooth audio does not work (connecting the phone via Bluetooth should still work) then the PCM is not reading the hard drive. I have the same type of hard drive and tried all the Amazon adaptors and none of them worked.
If the maps/navigation is not loading and Bluetooth audio does not work (connecting the phone via Bluetooth should still work) then the PCM is not reading the hard drive. I have the same type of hard drive and tried all the Amazon adaptors and none of them worked.
I see, it still gives me the other options (radio, SAT radio), I guess they do not need access to the HD. Oh well, I guess I have to reinstall the old drive and use the mSATA drive as the backup and get another IDE drive when the original fails. @ozzythething recommended an enclosure from Ciglow, but the US Amazon site delivers it when I am doing my Euro Delivery for a new car, so it will have to wait until I am back to do another try with a different enclosure.
If you have a bad PCM 3.1 hard drive, I have pre-cloned SSDs that will solve your issues. I also have 4.76 software update DVD and USB thumb drives available.
The SSD is cloned from a fully functional PCM 3.1 and supports all features like: Aux BT, navigation, USB, iPhone/iPod connection, DVD jukebox and AM/FM/XM radio. Navigation maps are pre installed for the North American region.
We have successfully fixed three forum members' bad PCM's with this replacement SSD + DVD update combo. I also offer installation support and shipping worldwide.
PM me for details
I replaced SSD and am unable to properly setup. Lost XM, Nav, BT Phone
Which PCM version are you using? Also, did you disconnect any of the connectors on the back?
In my case, I lost Nav, maps and Aux/BT Aux but preserved XM when I cloned my HD but the IDE housing for the mSATA card didn't work. XM is done with a hardware card inside the PCM housing and should still be there, assuming you have the XM antenna connected correctly.