New guy here. I need help with my music keg. might be a bit long

[Guitarman_tt]

Wow, Great site!!   Very helpful. But i'm still very confused with this thing.

First of all i bought this from a friend a few years ago, and now am trying to get it to work just for fun. Anyway I notice a few things that seem to be a big deal on here.  Hacking a phatbox, upgrading a hard drive, and dead drives. I have a few questions of thing i could not find in my searches... probably simping things.

Is a music keg and a phatbox the same thing? Whats the diff?

Can i hack my Music keg?

Can i upgrade my music kegs' hard drive?

If i formated the drive does this destroy the chance of using it as a keg anymore?

My computer shows drive partitions (n)+ 2gig and (m)9gig.. which one is the phtsys partition?  do i need to name it that? how?

This might be a bit weird to ask. cuz i've seen a thread on it but i didn't really understand the computer talk used so. And take into mind i'm starting with a black 10 gig drive with no names on the partions.

When i look in my computer at my keg i get two drive partition N and M. What should they come up as and what sub folders i have in them?

Can i just drop my music files in there folders into the keg? (rather then use phat noises software) If so do i put them in a folder or just on the drive?

Thats about it. yeah!!!  lol

Hopefully someone will be bored enough to respond to all of these. I did look for a while but i couldn't really differ the keg from the phatbox. So yeah!!!


I dont care if your mean as long as you leave really good answers to my questions. lol

[VorTechS]

Weloome to the community!

Is a music keg and a phatbox the same thing? Whats the diff?

It's the same principle hardware underneath, and the DMS storage is the same regardless.
All that's different is the look of the boxes.

Can i hack my Music keg?

Yes you can   You can run the scripts in the hack thread, or if you are able to exercise patience you could wait for the new replacement wizard to be available, which should be ver the next few weeks.

Can i upgrade my music kegs' hard drive?

Essentially you just asked the same question twice

If i formated the drive does this destroy the chance of using it as a keg anymore?

No.  We have a number of utils that can rebuild a drive dfor you.  However, in order to apply the hack you must have an ORIGINAL PHATNOISE disk in the DMS cartridge.
Once the box is hacked you can use any [supported] disk you like in the box.

My computer shows drive partitions (n)+ 2gig and (m)9gig.. which one is the phtsys partition?  do i need to name it that? how?

I'm assuming from this, you have the 710?
The PhtSYS drive will be the smaller partition, and will have the volume label PhtSYS when you look at through windows explorer.

This might be a bit weird to ask. cuz i've seen a thread on it but i didn't really understand the computer talk used so. And take into mind i'm starting with a black 10 gig drive with no names on the partions.

When i look in my computer at my keg i get two drive partition N and M. What should they come up as and what sub folders i have in them?

Hmm the penny is starting to drop.If you have the PhatNoise Media Manager software, try running the Disk Doctor utility, it should patch things up for you.
We also have a number of other tools available, keep hunting round the forums or take a look at the WIKI.

Can i just drop my music files in there folders into the keg? (rather then use phat noises software) If so do i put them in a folder or just on the drive?

No, the phatbox makes use of it's own playlist format, and databases [although we're still working out what the minimum is needed to make it work].  In a windows environment most of us are/have used PhatNoise Media Manager to transfer the files onto the device [as it's the easiest way of doing so].

If you are using a MAC, you could use PhatHac.
I'm working on a community based replacement for Windows.

Thats about it. yeah!!!  lol

Hopefully someone will be bored enough to respond to all of these. I did look for a while but i couldn't really differ the keg from the phatbox. So yeah!!!

There's only so many nappies a bloke can change on a Saturday  so I hope my answers have been useful.  Apparently I'm beginning to sound like I know what I'm talking about.
Others will correct me shortly I'm sure

BTW... I'm thinking something like this post would make a good FAQ.

[S80_UK]

No.  We have a number of utils that can rebuild a drive dfor you.  However, in order to apply the hack you must have an ORIGINAL PHATNOISE disk in the DMS cartridge.

And until your box has been hacked it is OK to reformat the DMS but not to delete the partitions and create new partitions.  After the box has been hacked you can do pretty much anything.

Apparently I'm beginning to sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Definitely getting there....  have another fish....

[Guitarman_tt]

Wow thanks guys!!!  Very helpful.

I feel smarter 


I dont have the cd with all the cool tools on it so, i guess i'll look around.

[sbingner]

PMM is a free download from the phatnoise website... that's all you need

[Guitarman_tt]

Last one...   What utilities do i need and where on this site can i find them?

[S80_UK]

This should do it to at least get you started...

http://www.phatnoise.com/downloads/download_pmmsw.aspx

[Guitarman_tt]

WOW!!! ok i have that!! But i cant find the DMS doctor on it- or repare it butten. I downloaded a tool to restore it and it wanted to format the drive agian ( it was allready formated )  but it did change drive n to now me called phatsys.  COOL!!!  but when it formated drive M it made it to 92% and stopped. then it filled my screen with jibberish. lots of 0000000 and ##### and things of the sort. windows format just froze. 

So i thought sense one side was good i would put firmware on it. So i did and desiced to see if it would do anything in my car. It didn't, except it made the green light flash a lot, and forever. shich means something isn't right from what i've read.   


So if i cant even format the drive all the way is it a dead dms. 

[sbingner]

... no, the green light flashing alot probably meant it was updating your firmware.  It depends on how it is flashing alot

[judb]

If the drive doesn't format it could be bad..

[Guitarman_tt]

Its a slower flashing.  how long does it take to update the firmware?

[judb]

5 minutes or so.

[sbingner]

continuous slower flashing should = firmware update

continuous crazy fast flashing, followed by reboots (all the lights turning off then starting again) = bad stuff