eSata AppleTV Mod

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:32 pm

Hmm not sure tbh, the gpt drive formatting looks correct. I never tried it using iPartition though I do think that engadget had a tutorial up that used it.

What does gpt show disk give you?

For instance, I just did another 500 GB drive and this is what you should get from gpt and diskutil (assumes /dev/disk1)

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diskutil list

... gives this (again, its disk1)

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/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *111.8 Gi   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         200.0 Mi   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            111.5 Gi   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *465.8 Gi   disk1
   1:                        EFI                         34.0 Mi    disk1s1
   2:             Apple_Recovery                         400.0 Mi   disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS OSBoot                  900.0 Mi   disk1s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Media                   464.3 Gi   disk1s4

Then ...

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diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
sudo gpt show /dev/disk1

Should give you this:

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      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40      69632      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      69672     819200      2  GPT part - 5265636F-7665-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
     888872    1843200      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
    2732072  974041063      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header

That bridge looks like it should work, though I know there are some that do not for whatever the reason even though the description is the same.

mmclary · Post by **mmclary** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:12 am

Thanks Dyna,

Did the other steps and everything on the imaging checks out. I reloaded the image and have the same problem so I will order the same card you used.

I mocked up the prefab enclosure case for the AppleTV box I mentioned in my prior message. Take a look and let me know what you think...it will take about two weeks to get them to create a sample so I want to make sure all the functionality is included.

Key features:
1. Internal Holder for 3.5" Hard Drive with SATA to SATA connector
2. Internal Fan
3. Separate 100-240 power adapter with external power connect and on/off switch
4. Power connector socket to the AppleTV with separate on/off switch (so you can turn the drive on first and then the AppleTV
5. Front transfer light

mmclary · Post by **mmclary** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:50 am

I'm going to order another controller card.

Dyna - which card do you use now? The cheaper version from Caveman or the original one listed in your instructions?

Thanks in advance

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 1:46 pm

One of each (I have two of these setups) the first on is the one in the guide, the second is the syba cave man tried which I believe is the same as the original one I ordered, at least upon visual inspection. Both seem to work brilliantly.

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:22 pm

mmclary wrote:I mocked up the prefab enclosure case for the AppleTV box I mentioned in my prior message. Take a look and let me know what you think...it will take about two weeks to get them to create a sample so I want to make sure all the functionality is included.

Hmm, would look nice. Two thoughts though, one is how low the cost could be vs. an external triple interface drive (example a mybook usb,fw,eSata) including the drive. Though from a visual standpoint of course you're enclosure would be much nicer. Second would be heat, in other words given a fan, where would you have the venting for that enclosure you show ? The fan of course has to have an air intake as well as output. I know my wd external hd's give off a fair amount of heat during heavy use on the atv.

I guess a third consideration would be more than just the eSata interface, one inherent advantage to the external drive described above is simply the use of the usb or firewire interfaces for prepping the drive. Avoids the need for some kind extra usb interface card to hook up to your laptop or whatever. Very versatile.

Just food for thought. Would look nice though.

Cave Man · Post by **Cave Man** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:49 pm

yoyo007 wrote:i also found this adapter it would just need a 44pin cable which would come with the apple tv and it may even be short enough to fit.
i just don't know anything about the online store.

http://www.cooldrives.com/2sahadrtoide.html

I've tried that bridge and it does not work.

mnkiboy · Post by **mnkiboy** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:57 am

Okay.......
I have spent the last 48 hours doing the research on this project and executing it.
Here is what i have
http://www.cablesonline.net/44pinto40pin.html
http://www.cablesonline.net/644fetomaide.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... _-22998001

I have an external eSATA drive with a 1 TB drive. (WD Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB 32MB SATA 3.0Gb/s)

I have tried the DD and all variations of cloning the original disk. The original disk work fine. When i go to boot off the external esata drive, i get the "?" and the apple tv logo.

I have tried the Reset from the remote = no luck (While plugged into the eSATA Drive)
I have tried to use different IDE to SATA and SATA to IDE adapters.

Something tell me it must be a communication issue.
The system doesn't ever boot from the external eSATA drive.
HMMMMMMMMMMMM??????
I am pulling my hair out on this one. Very little sleep.
Any thoughts.

Oh yeah, i did the dd from the terminal.

Thanks,
mnkiboy.

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 2:08 am

I wrote an app for properly formatting an atv drive called AtvCloner, you can get it here http://dynaflashtech.net/atvcloner/. That should rule out an issue with you're drive formatting.

mnkiboy · Post by **mnkiboy** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:02 am

UPDATE!!!
I have got the Apple TV to Boot off the external Hard Drive.
BEWARE, there are two IDE to SATA adapters from cables unlimited. The correct one has a product code of FLT-7100.

Now i cannot get the apple TV to do the factory restore.
I have run the diagnostic and all systems are fine.
I can reboot from that menu as well.
It just won't preform the factory reset. It tells me to contact apple support or try again.

Any suggestions????

All works fine off the original 40gb HD.

I also updated the disk image to the latest software before I used Dynaflash's ATV Cloner (THANKS DYNA!!!!!!)

HMMMMMM?????

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:04 pm

As I said previously, there are a few wd drives which, for whatever the reason will not allow a factory restore. I do not know why. I have one which is the 750 GB Studio edition and no matter what I do it will not allow a factory restore.

My other three WD external drives work flawlessly. A 360GB a 500 GB and a 1 TB ( all home editions). There is a technote at WD concerning issues with the mac os and the Studio editions having some issue's where WD blames Apple of course ( I do not know if other wd drives have issues as well ). I might also note that the same 750GB drive that is wonky in the atv also has periodic issues when used a an external firewire drive on my mbp. It will intermittently freeze up. I cannot explain it and have found nothing definitive as to the cause.

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:19 pm

One other note. Whether using AtvCloner or the terminal app method, did you see this in the output window:

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newfs_hfs: /dev/rdisk2s4: partition size not a multiple of 4K.

Typically this is accompanied by this in the final readout which shows a failing to format the Media partition correctly:

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   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *698.6 Gi   disk2
   1:                        EFI                         34.0 Mi    disk2s1
   2:             Apple_Recovery                         400.0 Mi   disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS OSBoot                  900.0 Mi   disk2s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS                         697.3 Gi   disk2s4

Note partition index 4 is not named "Media". However it is properly formatted as Apple_HFS . Research on the GPT utility shows that this is typically caused by wonky firmware for the drive.

The readouts above are from my 750 GB Studio Editions that will not perform a proper recovery in the atv. However note that it will boot and work just fine and also will update just fine. I have no idea how to work around this and only experience it on 1 of six test drives.

mnkiboy · Post by **mnkiboy** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:23 pm

Hey Dynaflash thanks for the info.

I had seen those command line errors when i did the DD in the terminal.

I will go out today and purchase a WD My book Home (eSATA) 1TB.

Just out of curriosity, what version software are you running.

I am currently running 2.4. With the original hard drive I can only restore back to 2.3.

I will update later today.
Thanks again.

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:33 pm

Actually it should have been when you formatted the media partition with newfs_hfs.

I have a description of the issue here http://dynaflashtech.net/2009/08/18/atv ... -children/ though it has no existing workaround at this time.

I am running 2.4 as well, the atv will restore to whatever system was on the atv when you bought it afaik. My oldest one restores to 1.0.

I will keep looking into a way around the issue.

mnkiboy · Post by **mnkiboy** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:44 pm

UPDATE!!!!
After much frustration, Dynaflash and I have come up with a solution to my problem.

I purchased the WD My Book Home 1TB (w/ eSata).
I cloned my 40gb original HD with ATV Cloner 0.1.4a, a version that Dynaflash is working on for some problem HD's
I then put those DMG's onto the WD 1TB.
I tried to install the drive with the Apple TV. No luck.
Here is what would happen when it would not boot correctly.

*boot time to recovery menu was about 7-10 minutes

*Only three option from the recovery menu

Restart

Diagnostic

Factory Restore

Restart would eventually restart the machine, and Diagnostic would say all was working.
The Factory restore would get about half way through and crash/ stop. It would give the error message about contacting apple support, blah, blah, blah.

After trying to load the 2.3 DMG's and the 2.4 DMG's, we decided to load 2.4 and remove the ribbon cable.
SUCCESS!!!.
It appears the crossed over 44 pin cable was an issue for this drive.
It also appears that the new ATV Cloner helped in the way it spaced out the Media Partition.

SUMMARY-
I just cloned the drives with ATV Cloner and tried it without the ribbon cable.

Hmmmm?

Thanks to Dynaflash for all your help!

mnkiboy

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:52 pm

AtvCloner Version update to 0.1.4b

This version addresses the dreaded:

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newfs_hfs: /dev/rdisk2s4: partition size not a multiple of 4K

error accompanied by a failure to properly format the media partition. It uses a different formatting scheme which is an alternate to AtvCloner's normal formatting scheme. It has worked well with problem drives (typically > 500GB in testing).

You can read more about it here:

http://dynaflashtech.net/2009/08/21/atv ... 4b-update/

let me know if you have any issues.

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:20 am

New AtvCloner release, compatible with Snow Leopard. http://dynaflashtech.net/atvcloner/

WooBah · Post by **WooBah** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:47 am

mnkiboy wrote:UPDATE!!!!
After much frustration, Dynaflash and I have come up with a solution to my problem.

I purchased the WD My Book Home 1TB (w/ eSata).
I cloned my 40gb original HD with ATV Cloner 0.1.4a, a version that Dynaflash is working on for some problem HD's
I then put those DMG's onto the WD 1TB.
I tried to install the drive with the Apple TV. No luck.
Here is what would happen when it would not boot correctly.
*boot time to recovery menu was about 7-10 minutes

*Only three option from the recovery menu

Restart
Diagnostic
Factory Restore
Restart would eventually restart the machine, and Diagnostic would say all was working.
The Factory restore would get about half way through and crash/ stop. It would give the error message about contacting apple support, blah, blah, blah.

After trying to load the 2.3 DMG's and the 2.4 DMG's, we decided to load 2.4 and remove the ribbon cable.
SUCCESS!!!.

What ribbon cable? In the external wd drive or apple tv? Also for a patchstick hacked apple tv, do you lose boxee?
It appears the crossed over 44 pin cable was an issue for this drive.
It also appears that the new ATV Cloner helped in the way it spaced out the Media Partition.

SUMMARY-
I just cloned the drives with ATV Cloner and tried it without the ribbon cable.

Hmmmm?

Thanks to Dynaflash for all your help!

mnkiboy

mnkiboy · Post by **mnkiboy** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 7:38 pm

We removed the 44 pin crossed ribbon cable and plugged the adapter directly to the APTV mother board.
I ordered a straight male to female 44 pin cable and all worked fine.

mnkiboy

janmanzer411 · Post by **janmanzer411** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:19 am

dynaflash wrote:As I said previously, there are a few wd drives which, for whatever the reason will not allow a factory restore. I do not know why. I have one which is the 750 GB Studio edition and no matter what I do it will not allow a factory restore.

My other three WD external drives work flawlessly. A 360GB a 500 GB and a 1 TB ( all home editions). There is a technote at WD concerning issues with the mac os and the Studio editions having some issue's where WD blames Apple of course ( I do not know if other wd drives have issues as well ). I might also note that the same 750GB drive that is wonky in the atv also has periodic issues when used a an external firewire drive on my mbp. It will intermittently freeze up. I cannot explain it and have found nothing definitive as to the cause.

Thanks for this info. I'm trying to fix the compatibility issue on mine.

Best Regards,
Jan Manzer
Jan Manzer

dynaflash · Post by **dynaflash** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:46 pm

if the issue is you're drive formatting AtvCloner should work around the drive formatting issues.
http://dynaflashtech.net/

Stork · Post by **Stork** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:14 pm

mmclary wrote:...On another note... Does anyone have an interest in the prefab enclosure?

I have an interest. Have you received any feedback? What is the status of the enclosure? TIA.

rcjordin · Post by **rcjordin** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:01 am

mnkiboy wrote:We removed the 44 pin crossed ribbon cable and plugged the adapter directly to the APTV mother board.
I ordered a straight male to female 44 pin cable and all worked fine.

mnkiboy

Where did you order the straight male to female 44 pin cable from?

Thanks!

Robert

Stork · Post by **Stork** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 7:56 pm

@Mmclary, what's the status on the prefab enclosure. I take it that no news since Nov 09 isn't good news.

I've received all the parts (from the first page tutorial) and I'd like to have a compatible ATV setup as I have with my Mini & NewTech V3 miniStack.

TIA.

Stork · Post by **Stork** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 12:23 am

I now have an external case with an eSata interface as well as all the parts & pieces to perform this ATV mod. The Western Digitals Greens - WDxxEARS/EADS are good price for sizes. However, from dynaflash's last info on his external Western Digital Studio, 7200 rpm 3.5" drives give the best performance. So, I'm looking at the Western Digital 1TB (WD1001FALS) or the 1.5TB (WD15EVDS) drives at ~$100 and $120, respectively.

So, for those of you with experience with external eSata drives on your ATV, what's your recommendation? TIA.

[Moderator, let me know if I need to start a new threat for this inquiry.]

Stork · Post by **Stork** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 1:07 am

Dynaflash, I have the external drive working - it's fast with the WD 1TB 7200 RPM external drive. Unfortunately, I, too, couldn't get the configuration working with the 44 pin crossed over ribbon cable. The plugging and unplugging, along with trimming the cable to fit, has resulting in the cable coming apart. I've ordered another crossed cable along with a straight through F-M extender cable <http://www.cablesonline.net/644fetomaide.html>. One of the cables will work...I hope.

Oh...yeah, it's fast with the WD 1TB 7200 RPM external drive.

HandBrake

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