Partial Success

[Wigan]

Well, after a few tries, I was able to get one of my phatbox's to patch.  I have been able to copy my AAC plugin from one of my DMS's and have it work on a hacked DMS.  The Kenwood SSA pluging worked fine also.

I did have a problem with the replacement drive I purchased.  One of the new 120 GB Boxed Segates from Best Buy.  (only $179)

The problems started with the copy to hacked DMS part of the process.  It failed on two attempts.  I was able to succesfully back up and patching an original DMS, then patch my phatbox.  I replaced the old drive with the new segate and wend through the partition and format processes successfully.  Then the copy failed.  Any ideas why this might happen?

I figured I would just copy the filed in windows, so I booted into windows, mounted the original hacked DMS, copied the contents of sys and dta, then replaced and mounted the segate DMS.  Windows recognised it fine.  I copied the hacked DMS files to the new segate DMS and performed a DMS doctor to confirm everything was set up fine.  It passed.

But, I then started to have problems when copying or editing the contents to the drive from PMM.  I could create playlists and seemingly be able to copy music files, but any attempt to change the firmware properties or upgrade the firmware through PMM would lockup the PMM and windows explorer.  Eventualy I would get write cache errors from Windows.  Multiple attempts produced similar reactions.  Sometimes I could edit the firmware properties two or three times, but eventually it would always fail.

I tired the segate DMS and dock on two computers thinging that there could be a driver problem, but it did the same thing on both machines.

Anyone have any ideas?

I have two additional questions also:

Is there a way to revert the bootloader back to the original one on the phatbox?
Can I use the hacked DMS drive to patch a different Phatbox without going through the Hack DMS process again?  Or do I need to restore the original DMS files re-hack the DMS from the Hack Disc?

Thanks  

[judb]

i would run the seagate diag tools on that drive as it could be something wrong with the drive or your cradle.

try that and get back to us

[Wigan]

As far as the Segate diag tools, are you refering to SeaTools Desktop Edition?  I just tried what the ISO in a Vmware VM and didnt have much luck getting it to recognise the drive in the DMS dock.  Can it be tested this way?  I dont have a laptop or a 2.5 -> 3.5 inch IDE adapter to test with.

The SeaTools Online seem to be the only ones that support USB drives.  The SMART tests all failed as unsupported through controller.

File system check on PHTSYS and PHTDTA reported no problems found.
I tried the 90 second surface scan and it reported no errors found.
Im currently performing the full sector scan.

Earlier, I just the DMS only hack again and the same problem occures on a win2k3 box with an older USB 1.0 Dock.  It will copy quite a few tracks... then hang for a minute... then copy more... then hang.

So I have tried two XP machines, one 2003 machine, and two docks... an old USB 1.0 and a newer usb 2.0.  The only think the same with all the tests in the drive.  Odd though that all of the drives and DMS tests seem to be fine though.

[Wigan]

Its seems that just copying a large number of files from Explorer also fails.  Im going to try one last thing and partition and format the drive under windows to see if it even works then.  If not, I guess Ill return the drive and try another Segate Momentus 120gb.  The price is just too good at the moment.


BTW, the actually error Im getting is a "Windows - Delayed Write Failed"

[Wigan]

Welp, that was a waste.  Formatting and partiting under windows also produced the same locking when copying files with explorer.  Disabled the write cache for removable devices didnt make a difference.

Unless performing the DMS hack on a drive does something that would survive re-partitioning with disk manager, this seems to have nothing to do with the PhatHack.

Either the drive is bad or both my docks dont like this drive.  Has anyone had sucess with the 120gb Segate drives?

[judb]

you need to make sure that delayed writes are disabled for removeable storage for one thing..  its a check box for the disk in device manager if you open the disk's property page.

I am going to bet its USB / Cradle related.

You need to run the seatools against the drive hooked directly up IDE I think.

[Wigan]

you need to make sure that delayed writes are disabled for removeable storage for one thing..  its a check box for the disk in device manager if you open the disk's property page.

I am going to bet its USB / Cradle related.

You need to run the seatools against the drive hooked directly up IDE I think.

Returned that drive and bought another one.  Still the same problems.

I tried all that stuff found on google earlier today.  No difference.  It still locks up when doing any writes.  

The only thing I can think of now is that its an UltraATA drive and that might be the problem.  There was a Hitachi PATA on teh shelf right next to it.  Could that make a difference?

Since my two 40GB and one 10GB DMS's still work fine with either dock. on multiple machines, Im guessing there is something about this drive.

Oh well.  Maybe I can find a lap top laying around.

[Wigan]

When Im lucky, I can get the Seagate DMS to load in PMM.  But usually it lockes up when it tries to initalize the Playlists on the DMS.

after a few tries, I did manage get the firmware downloaded and a few playlists on the new cart and it does indeed work on my phatbox.

Now if I could only figure out why I get all these disk errors when using the Seagate Hacked DMS in the music or media manager.

[Wigan]

Ok, it seems to be working fine now.  The only thing I can think of is somehow PMM didnt work very well when the data directory was messed up.  Once I was able to get a working music database on the partition, it seems to be working fine.