Basics? Please?

[Btravelen]

I have a Phatbox in an '05 Passat. It's worked well until a few months ago, when it stopped. I brought the DMS in and checked it out and I fear it has failed. There are no files on the drive, which I may have help to do. 

I've read through the forum and I still don't have a good idea what needs to be done. I purchased a new, in the box, DMS (on Ebay) that hasn't arrived yet. When it arrives it looks like I need to hack it to preserve the future function of the unit.

Basic questions I have are:

Does the 'phathack DMS tools' work to do this? Is there a step by step procedure posted  that is easilly followed to accomplish this? Does this procedure prepare a new drive to be used in the phatbox? Does the size of the drive that is hacked make a difference in the size of the new drive you can use?

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

[VorTechS]

If you look at the DMS Tools thread, you'll see there is documentation. 
If you read the documentation it has a step-by-step walkthrough of how to apply the hack.  (Perhaps I'll make this a post one day...)

The size of drive used to apply the hack makes no difference to the size of drive you can use in the PhatBox once hacked.
Some of us have 250GB drives, others 120/160GB drives.  Some 250GB drives have problems in the PhatBox.

[S80_UK]

If you look at the DMS Tools thread, you'll see there is documentation. 

Here... (just in case you couldn't find it)

http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/topic,1641.0.html

[Btravelen]

Thanks. I downloaded the tool but I guess I need an original (working) DMS to use the tool to hack the box to allow replacement of the original faulty drive?

I appreciate the work put into this effort by all those who contributed. These units weren't cheap and it would have been a shame to just throw them away. I actually like the way they work and am looking forward to resurrecting mine with your help. Is there a way to contribute to the site/effort?

Thanks again