Author Topic: Could it be so simple to hack a DMS?  (Read 9287 times)

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Offline rgb

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Could it be so simple to hack a DMS?
« on: August 27, 2010, 11:31:37 am »
Hello from a new member. For some years I have a Kenwood Music Keg with the original 10 Gb HD. I was interested in increasing the capacity, but after weighing the inconveniences of the hack, I decided to keep the 10 Gb unit and replace the songs every now and then.

Just recently I had to replace my 80 Gb laptop HD drive, because I have been struggling for a long time with only 2 Gb remaining space, and therefore I have had to move files to an external USB unit to make room in the internal drive.

Long story short, I wanted to change the internal HD drive without having to install everything, just wanted a way to copy everything in the small HD into a bigger unit, in such a way that once I swapped the drives, my computer would start just like everyday, with everything in its place, but only with much more remaining space.

I was recommended HDClone by a friend. That piece of software can make a physical copy, sector to sector, or partition copy, whatever you want. You create a bootable CD, boot the laptop, choose the source and target drive -for target I used a USB case with the new drive inside. After the copy was made, I swapped the disks and voila! my laptop started with no issue whatsoever. You can choose whether the remaining space is assigned to the same partition, or create a new partition, or leave it unused and create a partition with the OS.

That's when it dawned on me that maybe we could use HDClone to clone the 10 Gb DMS HD. It will copy the physical structure of the disk into another one, and the remaining space in the bigger one can be assigned to any partition you want, in this case, where the music is stored.

So, the question, would it be that simple? Seemes that the issue with upgrading the unit is some info written by Phatnoise in some sectors, but if the HDClone makes a physical copy, then the Phat unit wouldn't be able to tell one drive from the other, isn't it?

In any case, now I have an 80 Gb drive laying around, so I will probably give it a try. Will keep you all informed.

Offline S80_UK

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Re: Could it be so simple to hack a DMS?
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2010, 11:18:55 pm »
Sorry, rgb, but it won't work.

Please read the many similar discussions in the past on this forum.  The special data on the hard disk can easily be copied - that is not the problem.  The problem is the fact that there is a relationship between the special data area and the hard drive flash memory based serial number and the fact that the two are checked that they belong to one another by the Phatbox firmware.  That is why the firmware has to be patched - to remove the checking process (or at least to ignore it).

Regards,

Les.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2010, 10:03:30 am by S80_UK »

Offline rgb

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Re: Could it be so simple to hack a DMS?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2010, 06:36:33 am »
Damn! I knew it couldn't be that simple....

Furthermore, the DMS HD is IDE (opened it the other day) while the HD units I have laying around are SATA....

Guess I'll buy a 40 Gb cartridge and live with it. After all, I don't use my car that much so it will be at least one year between changing files.

The only thing I don't like about the music Keg is the Phatnoise music manager software. It seems it hasn't be fully tested, it has lots of unexpected behaviour, like terminating while changing the way songs are displayed, and it is slooooooow when it comes to create discs or update database. File copying is slow because of the interface shortcomings, but processing should be much faster when compared with other types of software that also perform file processing.

S80_UK, thanks for the info!

Offline S80_UK

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Re: Could it be so simple to hack a DMS?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2010, 07:33:28 pm »
If you have not yet hacked your box then I would still recommend that you do so.  Sure you can buy new old-stock DMS cartridges, but the benefit of hacking the box is that you can also put much bigger discs in, which comes in handy if you have lots of files or if you use higher bit-rate formats.  The biggest compatible drive is 320GB from Western Digital, although it has its quirks.  I currently use a 160GB drive.

You mention Phatnoise Music Manager - you may find that Phatnoise Media Manager works better for you - you can get it from www.phatnoise.us as a free download once you've registered.  I find that the Phatnoise Media Manager is easier to use, but I guess some of that is also down to personal preference.