BigFloppy said:

So, did you get a ghost image backup of the actual drive?

If so, I'll send you ftp information (that everyone can use to d/l and "play" with)

Andy

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: I always wanted to know who owned that URL!!!

Bigfloppy, 3 files uploaded.

Thanks to Jake for ripping open his buddies new unit. Good to know they ship unlocked.

I see

so pulp fiction ur saying that you to were also able to read the drive i take it and not just jake?

gerard143 said:

so pulp fiction ur saying that you to were also able to read the drive i take it and not just jake?

Yeah, I had it professionally unlocked. That's why I'm not putting it back in for now.

BigFloppy, you have a PM.

Is that unlock the $47 deal from ?????

Get a GHOST umage of the drive... Do you need to borrow software (after I uninstall it from my machine if course)

Andy

Pulp a suggestion if you can get a ghost image of the drive see if you can burn the image to a larger HDD.

If that can be done then we should be able to reszie the partitions to take advantage of the larger size allowing storage of more media. :) Which is what I really want as 10G would only hold a third of my MP3 collection.

Also you mention you had it professionaly unlocked? Did the ppl who did it for you give the PW if so might be worth while to have someone else try it on their drive for shits and grins. Like you I would guess that each unit has its own PW but they may have been lazy and only used 1 PW for all drives. Anyway wouldn't hurt to try.

googalash said:

Pulp a suggestion if you can get a ghost image of the drive see if you can burn the image to a larger HDD.

Ghost WILL ALLOW you to put the image to a different size drive (we may have to use some other tools like "Partition Magic" to resize after the fact BUT definitely worth the $100 to give it a try

BigFloppy said:

Is that unlock the $47 deal from ?????

Get a GHOST umage of the drive... Do you need to borrow software (after I uninstall it from my machine if course)

Andy

Yep.

I have ghost 2003 no problem there.

googalash said:

Pulp a suggestion if you can get a ghost image of the drive see if you can burn the image to a larger HDD.

If that can be done then we should be able to reszie the partitions to take advantage of the larger size allowing storage of more media. :) Which is what I really want as 10G would only hold a third of my MP3 collection.

Also you mention you had it professionaly unlocked? Did the ppl who did it for you give the PW if so might be worth while to have someone else try it on their drive for shits and grins. Like you I would guess that each unit has its own PW but they may have been lazy and only used 1 PW for all drives. Anyway wouldn't hurt to try.

I did resize the partitions before copying (not ghosting) it to a larger drive. 32gig will be the max since more than that is not possible with FAT32. I'm just looking for a way to protect this drive from being locked before I stick it back in. Any ideas?
They could not give me the password. They just remove or overwrite passwords on this model drive.
My next plan is to use an older drive than can have the password retrived instead of overwritten and let the Z1 lock it and see what happens or see if I can disable the ATA lock feature all together on a drive and use it instead.
I cannot find a drive that is large enough that doesn't have this damn ATA locking ability.

Pulp_Fiction said:

[I did resize the partitions before copying (not ghosting) it to a larger drive. 32gig will be the max since more than that is not possible with FAT32. I'm just looking for a way to protect this drive from being locked before I stick it back in. Any ideas?
They could not give me the password. They just remove or overwrite passwords on this model drive.

WRONG... Windows will only format a drive to 32Gig using fat32.... I have other tools that will allow for drive formtting MUCH bigger than that! (I believe 100GB is largest it can handle... a tool supplied by PhatNoise for the Kenwood Keg)... need to find it, then I'll post to the FTP. It's a bootable ISO image that formats up 2 partitions to a hard drive... 1st = 512mb, 2nd=rest of drive

Could you get a copy of the first sector of the drive to see if they're using the same algorithm as the X-BOX... u know... editing the first sector to allow access to the drive... might be worth getting into some of the other tools as well

Andy

it looks like 3 of the 4 partitions are only data partitions so I only need to ghost the primary. The rest shouldn't have anything important that a plain old copy won't catch so resizing will not be an issue. What I think is the primary was originally 512 meg I think (I set my copy partitions all larger). Even it looks rather bare when it comes to what I've grown to expect from a Microsoft OS. Now I need to brush up on what CE uses I guess.
I found a bunch of .dll's and some .exe's. None run under XP of course but they do have the "not for dos mode" message in them.

Also found an .exe named download.exe. Maybe this is the primary for copying the music?

This is starting to get REALLY INTERESTING... pity it's poker nite tonite OTHERWISE i'd be going for it with ya (I'll try and get that drive formatting software up there for ya)

BigFloppy said:

WRONG... Windows will only format a drive to 32Gig using fat32.... I have other tools that will allow for drive formtting MUCH bigger than that! (I believe 100GB is largest it can handle... a tool supplied by PhatNoise for the Kenwood Keg)... need to find it, then I'll post to the FTP. It's a bootable ISO image that formats up 2 partitions to a hard drive... 1st = 512mb, 2nd=rest of drive

Cool info. I never bothered to look into this. We would need 4 partitions though to keep the unit happy.

Pulp_Fiction said:

Cool info. I never bothered to look into this. We would need 4 partitions though to keep the unit happy.

And this is difficult how??? LOL.. we're also going to need partition names etc etc (not sure whether Ghost stores partition names)

BigFloppy said:

Could you get a copy of the first sector of the drive to see if they're using the same algorithm as the X-BOX... u know... editing the first sector to allow access to the drive... might be worth getting into some of the other tools as well

Andy

After I clone the drive and have the Z1 working again off the clone I go open season on the original.

BigFloppy said:

Pulp_Fiction said:

Cool info. I never bothered to look into this. We would need 4 partitions though to keep the unit happy.

And this is difficult how??? LOL.. we're also going to need partition names etc etc (not sure whether Ghost stores partition names)

:)
LDATA
SDATA
MSV
USER

any thing else?

what about using a cable with another connector and tapping into the ribbon cable while the drive is in the Avic at power up and down.

a knowledgable person could capture the data and then deciper it and maybe pull the password.

or perhaps a mod chip of some sort?

BigFloppy said:

Pulp_Fiction said:

Cool info. I never bothered to look into this. We would need 4 partitions though to keep the unit happy.

And this is difficult how??? LOL.. we're also going to need partition names etc etc (not sure whether Ghost stores partition names)

Only said that because your post said the tool you had did only 2 partitions.

gerard143 said:

what about using a cable with another connector and tapping into the ribbon cable while the drive is in the Avic at power up and down.

a knowledgable person could capture the data and then deciper it and maybe pull the password.

or perhaps a mod chip of some sort?

Very doable with a logic probe. Many have talked about this idea for other applications. Just not the direction I wanted to go. This would have to be done for each and every Z1 as we assume the Pwords are all unique to the units.

Pulp_Fiction said:

any thing else?

Not yet!

Pulp, What TimeZone are you in?

BigFloppy said:

Pulp_Fiction said:

any thing else?

Not yet!

Pulp, What TimeZone are you in?

Pacific - Los Angeles.

Here, every night is poker night. :lol:

is the lock/unlock feature really the problem anyways i guess.

i mean.... even after that it seems there are numerous more important issues anyways, like simple dumping mp3's on the drive won't seem to work as the format is wrong. then we gotta figure out folder structure and how to get it to recognize the files with a playlist....

damn. i was real happy about this z1 until i found out you cant simply copy your mp3's onto the avic. hope to hell we can figure this out.


anyone try to save one of the song files off the avic hd and simply rename it .mp3 extension and see if it plays on a computer?

that would be sweet then we could rename our mp3s with the avic file extension and put them on the avic and be set in that aspect atleast. after we figure out file folder structure,etc of course.

gerard143 said:

is the lock/unlock feature really the problem anyways i guess.

i mean.... even after that it seems there are numerous more important issues anyways, like simple dumping mp3's on the drive won't seem to work as the format is wrong. then we gotta figure out folder structure and how to get it to recognize the files with a playlist....

damn. i was real happy about this z1 until i found out you cant simply copy your mp3's onto the avic. hope to hell we can figure this out.


anyone try to save one of the song files off the avic hd and simply rename it .mp3 extension and see if it plays on a computer?

Yes, the ATA lock is the problem. Even if unlocked the unit relocks itself by design. The lock must be turned off.
File format structure easy. There is however a playlist file that will need some decyphering.
Yes, renamed as mp3, aac, wma. Any you would like tried? The files can be downloaded. go for it!

http://unix.phatnoise.com/bootdisk.php

This is the formatting code... formats the drive to fat32
I'm not sure whether you actually NEED a phatnoise DMS caddy and cradle (luckily I have two of those on hand)

SHOULD work with just a USB connector but I don't know.

basically, boot the CD (making sure there's only 1 USB drive connected) It ignores your C and D drive(s) if available. then goes off and formats the disk.