Please, use the information below at your own risk.

Below, I am going to provide a short summary of what I did to upgrade the head unit hard drive to a solid state drive in my 2010 LS460. This is one of ways, there are alternatives routes.

The head unit on 2010 LS460 uses 40GB (only 12GB is used) Hitachi Endurastar drive protected by ATA password.

Steps:
0. Remove the head unit. There are many threads about it but I recommend removing the head unit in warm weather, and, when it comes the time to actually remove the unit, pull it out from underneath while helping with a trim tool on sides. Do not try to pry it from the top, otherwise you will break the face piece. You are supposed to remove the unit with a disconnected battery, however, you will need to move the transmission stick to allow the CD player to come out. Instead of connecting the battery, switching the car on and moving the stick, use the emergency release button while holding the brakes.


Highlighted is the emergency release allowing the move the stick without connected power. Press and hold the brakes when engaging the release.

1. You will need a computer that supports ATA passwords - some of them don't and those will not work. I have a Dell Optiplex 990 that I use for my small experiments and it supports ATA passwords.
2. You need a replacement hard drive/solid state drive that supports ATA passwords. I used Hitachi TravelStar 30 GB and SP SSD-I20 32GB and 64GB.


Cloning setup, from left to right: OS disk, the OEM drive and the SP SSD-I20 64GB connected to the Dell Optiplex 990. The OEM drive and the SSD connected to the computer with IDE/PATA 44 pin to SATA adapters.


Hitachi and SP SSD-I20 use different jumper settings, Hitachi is primary without a jumper and SP SSD-I20 is primary when a jumper installed as depicted above.


If you computer supports ATA password, you will see a window like this.


All drives are recognized by the computer. In the picture the chipset is configure in RAID mode but it needs to be in AHCI.

3. ATA password can be dealt in many ways: hot swapping, using special utilities (just google it), knowing the password. I know for a fact hot swapping works, but I used an easier route and tried passwords available online. One of them actually worked: "siihakawhc2o6937" + 16 spaces.

4. You will need OS and cloning software, I used Windows 10 and a trial version of Macrium Reflect.

List of available disks is presented in cloning software.


Source and destination are defined with preserved layout. It is possible to shrink and extend the clone. In this case I used expanding function. But I tested shrinking functionality and worked with 30GB hard drive and 32GB solid state drive.


Option window with settings I used while cloning the drive.


Cloning progress...


It took a little over 1 hour to clone the drive. There is no need to set the ATA password.

5. In order for the head unit the see the SSD you have to shorten "Cable Select" or "Primary" pins on the SSD. You can't use a standard jumper because the head unit uses all hard drive/solid state drive pins. I actually removed the SSD case and soldered the primary pins together. Install the drive in the unit and the unit into the car. Connect the battery and sSwitch the car into the ACC mode.


Jumper settings for SP SSD-I20 (source)



Soldered pins to enable the "Primary" mode.


The head unit is initializing the solid state drive and setting the ATA password.



On-board diagnostics is not available for the SSD. All other functionality is available and works.

PS:
1. I used an IDE/PATA solid state drive for simplicity. It is possible to use mSATA to IDE/PATA 44 pin enclosure, however, I did not try it. Chips used in such enclosures tend to get hot and can cause some damage. There is no benefit in speed of using mSATA drive over IDE/PATA drive in this case.
2. IDE/PATA hard drives with ATA password support should work, however, you need a vibration resistant drive like Hitachi Endurastar. I used Histachi TraverStar on a test bench and it worked. Regular hard drive do not require shortening of pins.
3. Majority of cloning software for Windows should work, I had issues cloning the drive under Linux.
4. You have to use an IDE/PATA adapter to unlock the OEM drive, however, you can use an USB adapter for the destination hard drive.
5. I tried a 64GB KindSpec SSD off Amazon and lacks ATA password suppport.
6. Cost 64GB IDE/PATA disk $60, IDE/PATA 44 pin to SATA adapter $7, everything else I already had.
7. Thanks to @Boykie and @swfla for the support.

PATA SSDs with ATA password support:
1. SP SSD-I20 32 and 64GB versions
2. Transcend TS32GPSD330 32GB (64GB?)

PATA SSDs without ATA password support:
1. PATA KindSpec SSD 64GB

*The cloning method should work for various Lexus models made in 2010-11 (probably before 2010 as well): ES 350, GX 460, IS 250, IS 350, IS F, LS 460, LS 600 and LX570.

 

Great writeup.
Can add to 1: if you don't have a computer with ATA security support, you can use HDAT2 utility (free download) to remove the password from original drive.

 

Nice addition to our knowledge base.

 

When you install 64gb one (already done?) - can you check the available space for CDREC function? It's in one of the menus. Did it expand too?

 

Yes, the post is about 64GB drive. Yes, I did expand it, check partition sizes displayed at the step 4. Can you provide me with a screenshot where I can find CDREC function?

 

Sadly turns out it's not a user friendly capacity readout.
I guess one way to verify is to REC a known CD into original unit, see how much % does it take, then swap in 64gb and repeat and compare. But taking HU out and putting in again just for that isn't something I'd be asking _anyone_ (those two bolts etc).

AFAIK CDREC takes one of partitions or it also may hold Gracenote CDDB files. What I do know for certain - Navi and CDREC are separate partitions.

PS. Yea, my old HU was YE-LLO-W. This one is better.

Add: There's an idea. Find a CD we both own, I cdrec it and check the percentage reduction (hopefully 1 CD takes more than 1% of space) then you cdrec it and we compare?

 

I don't even have the "HDD" option (with a CD present) in my car! So I couldn't answer your question anyway.

 

Well, if there's no CDREC system in US spec - that would be a one heck of a curveball. But first let's compare something.
Perhaps all is needed for HDD to appear on top is one recorded song/album.
Here's my SETUP->AUDIO screens.

 

I don't have any options related to copying CD/DVDs or HDD settings.

 

Hmm. Okay. Thank you for this information. New to me. I thought all 10-12 in all regions have this (seen it on japs for sure and on uk rhd ones). Okay.
In that case disk size is mostly static and 32gb should be plenty enough.
But of course when I'll get my 64gb I will experiment with CDREC functions regarding extra size available.
Thanks again!

 

Great write up. Been thinking about cloning my 2007 hard drive just in case it fails. Tried this today. Don't have a desktop computer, I tried connecting the hard drive to my laptop via usb enclosure which didn't work, I suspect to remove the hard drive password without additional software it must be directly connected to the motherboard. Will try again in the future. Appreciate your taking the time to document this.

 

I don't believe, you can't do anything about the ATA password over USB.

 

If I recall correctly the CDREC feature was dropped starting with 2010 MY, at least for US/CAN cars.

 

Although Lexus used WMA to rip CD to it's hard drive I'd be curious if manually copying mp3 to hard drive would work. If it work I guess you could build some kind of switch/bridge that would allow you to quickly connect the hd to an external source (unlock the disk) and copy some file before switching the disk back to the car without having to remove the radio. Or even easier by running some IDE cable extension from the radio to the disk that would allow the HDD to sit outside the radio so you won't have to dismantle everything again if the drive need to be replaced or music copied to it.

 

Interesting that the 2010 uses a Hitachi Endurastar. That's what I expected to find when pulling my 2011 AWD's drive, but instead it was a Toshiba MK1060GSC (100GB). I would have thought there would be uniformity across 2010-2012 models.

Thanks Anfanger for taking the time to write this up and congrats again on your success. Props to Boykie too as always for his behind the scenes wizardry!