On board hard drive

[jparnes1]

Does anyone know the capacity of the on board hard drive in the E89?

[Dave Driver]

30GB

[msimon18]

This is out of the Z4 Brochure:

BMW’s onboard Navigation system quickly guides you to your specified
destination by using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites in
conjunction with data stored on the Roadster’s internal hard drive.
Choose from a variety of features, including detailed
-D daytime and
nighttime maps, zoom, and a travel planner. Select the shortest, fastest
or most scenic route. And in many large cities, make traffic jams a thing
of the past with Real Time Traffic Information. This feature displays and
describes current local traffic information on your monitor; in case of
congestion, it suggests alternate routes. Information is displayed on a
high resolution monitor that pops up from the dash and retracts out of
sight when not in use. The Navigation system’s hard drive also offers
12 GB of space that can hold all your favorite music; hook up your MP3
player to the available iPod® and USB adaptor to scroll through playlists
using the iDrive Controller.

[Z4@Phuket]

12 GB "confirmed"

[riccis]

I seem to remember 30GB also but confirm 12GB of the total capacity is available to store music.

The rest (whether it be 30GB or something else) presumably is to store maps, iDrive OS etc etc.

[Dave Driver]

30GB all up. 12GB for your personal storage e.g. music

[SHADOW4]

Do not forget to make a backup!

How do I do an backup?

What kind of hd is it?

Where is it located?

Is it possible to upgrade?

[jparnes1]

If you're going to import your iTunes music library, then your iPod's your backup. You can import directly from CD's, but those wave files will take up a lot of room and your HD will be full before you know it. And then you still need an iPod or some other mp3 player to use as your backup.

[EandS]

My understanding is tracks from CD's are converted to MP3's when they're stored on the hard drive.

From the 2010 manual page 158:

Audio CD: tracks are converted into a compressed audio format when they are stored.

Best regards and happy listening,
Ed

[jparnes1]

That's interesting, Ed. I have my music stored in Lossless format on my iPod. I guess that means that when I import the music files from the iPod they will be converted to mp3 as well?

[jparnes1]

Well, I should have checked the manual before I asked! Any music files imported from a USB device are stored in the original format, whether it's wave, Lossless or mp3.

[EandS]

I discovered a few dozen direct copies of tracks from CD's or lossless versions of them worked fine being played from a flash drive connected through the USB interface in the center console. However, for 100+ tracks the system would "choke" on them in terms of trying to undertake various operations. Those same tracks converted to MP3's worked flawlessly on that USB connection.

The USB connection in the center console cannot be used to copy tracks to the hard drive. Only the USB connection in the glove box can be used for that purpose.

Best regards,
Ed

[flpnout]

Originally Posted by jparnes1

Well, I should have checked the manual before I asked! Any music files imported from a USB device are stored in the original format, whether it's wave, Lossless or mp3.

I still can't get my files to transfer from the USB drive from the glove box to the HD yet. I ended up giving up and using my ipod or iphone in th center console.

[EandS]

Exactly what steps are you following and what happens? Haven't had any difficulty with that function - that's how I loaded MP3 tracks to our hard drive.

[MikeChrista]

I managed to transfer all of my IPOD music to my hard drive using the usb connector in the glove box and the standard IPOD lead. However, there are a few things that need to be checked before it works. Look at the full info here - http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewto...213890#p213890

[jparnes1]

Thanks for the link, Mike. I'm surprised that that guy got 122 ACC-formatted albums into 12gb of space. I keep my songs in ACC on iTunes and that many songs is about 24gb. I'm wondering if in fact the car converts ACC to mp3 after all, even though the manual says it doesn't convert. How many songs did you get on your hard drive?

[juhap]

Originally Posted by jparnes1

I'm wondering if in fact the car converts ACC to mp3 after all, even though the manual says it doesn't convert.

AAC files are usually smaller than MP3 files, so a conversion would not help unless you also decrease the sound quality even further.

[juhap]

Originally Posted by jparnes1

I'm surprised that that guy got 122 ACC-formatted albums into 12gb of space. I keep my songs in ACC on iTunes and that many songs is about 24gb.

I have roughly the same amount of albums in iTunes and they take 8.4 GB of space. The difference is most likely explained by different bitrates or some other setting that affects the sound quality.

[teagueAMX]

Originally Posted by SHADOW4

Do not forget to make a backup!

How do I do an backup?

What kind of hd is it?

Where is it located?

Is it possible to upgrade?

Don't know for sure but can't imagine BMW using anything other than an IDE Ultra ATA133 interface, which was the modern standard before SATA came out. IDE's are really cheap right now.

They would also be easy to upgrade but the only limitation is if BMW coded size limitation into the head end unit firmware.

[SHADOW4]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

Don't know for sure but can't imagine BMW using anything other than an IDE Ultra ATA133 interface, which was the modern standard before SATA came out. IDE's are really cheap right now.

They would also be easy to upgrade but the only limitation is if BMW coded size limitation into the head end unit firmware.

One should think they had the good taste of putting in an SSHD since the car does 0-60 in 5 sec and the roads nowadays are so porely maintained.

If they not manipulated the firmware it should be easy to clone the disk and make a larger partition for own stuff.

Maby something for the electronic aftermarket guys. Like Smart-top aso.

But its probably difficult to take the harddrive out without tearing the interior out.

12GB is really not much.............

[msimon18]

Wow !! 12GB is ~4,000 songs. At ~3 minutes each that would be ~600 hours or 25 days !!!!!

It's a car not an amphitheater !! With 12GB one could drive cross country and never listen to the same song twice !!

I guess for some people if you cannot store their ENTIRE library there is NOT ENOUGH SPACE. I have over 8,000 CD's - all burned to my PC and served up (along with movies and photos) to my home entertainment system through a SAGE Home Theater device.

I have loaded, via the USB port about 8GB of my favorite music to my Z4 HD..... more than enough for me...

[juhap]

Originally Posted by msimon18

Wow !! 12GB is ~4,000 songs. At ~3 minutes each that would be ~600 hours or 25 days !!!!!

Actually it's only 200 hours of music

I guess the problem is that you never know beforehand what music you'll want to listen to, so you gotta have it all available. I don't like to compromise, but luckily I don't have to in this case. All my music will easily fit into 12 GB.