Possible to replace hard drive with SSD?

I know it is only a matter of time before our nn3d drive fails, and the unit is noisy and slow because of the hard drive. Is it possible for a user to replace it with a SSD?

I'm not asking about the mechanics of doing so - that is easily within my abilities. Instead, is there something "blessed" about the original Furuno drive that precludes a user from cloning and replacing it?

This has already been discussed on this forum in the past. The operating system for the NN3D already runs from solid state memory called Cfast. Replacing the drive (that holds your charts) will not result in any system speed increase. In theory the replacement might be possible but we highly recommend staying with the stock unit.

When I move to a different region of chart, select a photo chart, switch between raster and vector, select an object for information, or do several other normal operating things, the hard drive spins up and there can be a long delay before the unit responds. From all appearances, this delay is due to drive access. Decreasing this access time would significantly increase the apparent operating responsiveness. The spinning drive also makes the unit very noisy and noticeable.

And as others have experienced, the "stock" unit will eventually need replacing.

I recommend you send the unit into the service center for evaluation. It sounds like you might have a cooling fan or some other issue dragging down the unit performance. Bottom line is Furuno doesn't offer a SSD drive option so any direction down that path wouldn't be supported.

I have looked at this problem too. Personally I have not had any speed issues that would move me to action. My interest is primarily in avoiding a very expensive hard drive replacement at the Furuno Service center when the hard drive fails (which at some point it will, as drives have a limited life). For a small fraction of that it is possible to buy a larger SSD and the necessary adapter to connect the (non-PC standard) drives to a PC for cloning. Of course that can only be done while the current drive is still operating - once it fails it could be a problem for properly formatting.

Alternatively one could buy the adapter (cheap) and temporarily remove the drive for cloning to an image so as to be prepared for an eventual failure, but at that point most of the work is done so an SSD replacement makes sense.

ColemJ: If you decide to proceed please PM me either here, or better at cruisersforum.

Greg