can original DMS be recovered?

[jboy751]

Hi Guys,
good that you exist!

So my orginal 40gb dms started failing but it was recognisable by both the craddle and the phatbox. Then I had the obvious idea to replace the drive inside the dms by 120gb drive. Then I entered a sequel of adventures that led to the loss of my innocense. To cut a long story short I managed to delete the PHTSYS partition of the original dms. Then I recreated a new partition on top of it and formatted that partition. I did not touch the PHDTA partition. From what I am reading here if I deleted the 1MB of special content, I can no longer use the original DMS to hack the phatbox.

Is this correct?

However as it stands, the CRADLE does recognise the DMS and I am able to download songs to it using the music manager.

Does that mean that I did not delete the critical 1MB section?

Reason I'm asking is that when I place the new hd in the dms and create two partitions of identical size to the original, the cradle does not recognise that dirive at all. The green light on it doesn't flash even once. So since the cradle does see the original hdd it seems to mean that it can read something special on it.

If in the end I did delete the 1MB sector, the question would be, can a sector by sector disk image copy create an image that I can download and recreate a workable original?

[jboy751]

one additional info is that I do have a backup of the contents of the phtsys partition (simple file copy on my local hd). I did ofcourse paste back the phtsys contents to the newly formatted phtsys partition on the dms. However the phatbox did not recognise the dms. So I plugged it back to the craddle and tried to run the repair tool from the mm. It produced an error: PHTSYS not a FAT32 partition! However I could not find a way to format a 260 mb partition with fat32. Administrative tools do only FAT16 on such a small partition. And there I got stuck.

[markbowen]

As long as you did not resize the partitions, the 1MB drive signature should be intact.  If the signature has somehow been lost, there is nothing you can do without another original DMS.

The fact that the software and cradle recognize the DMS does not mean the signature is still there.  Depending on the software version and the hard drive model, non-original drives with properly formatted (FAT32) phtsys and phtdta partitions can be recognized, but it still doesn't mean they will work in the box.

You need to download the Phathack DMS Tools (see http://forum.phathack.com/index.php/topic,1641.0.html), and use the software in DMS Tools mode to run a repair on the DMS.  You can start with a phtsys repair, and then try a full repair if necessary.

[S80_UK]

If in the end I did delete the 1MB sector, the question would be, can a sector by sector disk image copy create an image that I can download and recreate a workable original?

Sorry - but no.  You cannot take image of that first megabyte from another drive.  It is keyed to serial number data which is contained within the flash memory on the disk drive and therefore the key that is held within that first megabyte is unique to each DMS.  Although the key itself is actually much less than 1MB, 1MB is the amount of space generally reserved in front of the PHTSYS partition.  It is that area that can become lost if you repartition using Windows for example.

[jboy751]

thanks for the info guys,

I have installed dms tools and did "repair phtsys" with bmw v8.01 (this is the version which I read from an xml file in my phtsys backup). I had checked "install unhacked firmware" and "flash phatbox with new firemware" just in case. The repair went fine. Then I downloaded a couple of songs to the phtdta partition using mm, this went fine too. Then I plugged the dms into the phatbox and the dash pannel went "CD 1-" and frose there.R From past experience this is not too bad, it means that it knows that there is a DMS inthere. In other irrelevant occasions I had "CD 0-" which I think means "no dms", or the dash was reading "NO-DISK" which is even worse.

While it was in the "CD 1-" state I observed the leds on the box. They seemed to follow a periodic sequence. The red went on and stayed on. Then the green started flashing slowly, then quickly. Then both the red and green went off. And then the cycle was repeating. I left it like that for 15 minutes to make sure it was not downloading the firmware anymore and then I unpluged the DMS.

Any ideas, does that mean I lost the signature or is it something else?

[markbowen]

The flashing lights you describe probably was the firmware flashing (which probably was not necessary).  To properly do the firmware flash, you are supposed to turn off the radio (the procedure is on page 46 of the Phatbox manual, if you have it).  I think if you don't turn off the radio, it could stay in a firmware flashing loop, which could be why the cycle was repeating. 

You can try it again according to the procedure, or put the DMS back in your cradle, and open the phtsys partition (don't start the MM software).  If there is a file called "foreceupdate," delete it.  Then take it back to the car and see what happens.  If it still doesn't start to work, disconnect and reconnect the cable from the back of your phatbox.  That will reinitialize the connection between the box and your radio, and if your DMS is good, it should be recognized.

[jboy751]

Ok I've tried this too. Tried switching off the radio. It blinked (while the radio was off) and did one full blinking cycle for about 10 secs and then switched off. Then I removed forceupdate and no change. Unplugged the cable-same thing. This is it I guess, the DMS is kaputt.

If anyone of you lives in London England or will be around here at any time, would there be any chance in hell that you can spare 10 min to flash my phatbox with your original DMS? My email is jboy751 'at' yahoo.co.uk.

Many thanks

[S80_UK]

jboy,

Just modified your email address in your last post to make it less copyable by the 'bots.

Where abouts in London (it's a big place).  I am in Cambridgeshire but do get down to the M25 occasionally.

Les.

[jboy751]

Hello,
thanks for the offer. I live in Richmond (SW near the M4), however if that's not convenient I can come and find you whenever you are vaguely near...
The M25 (junction with M4,M40) is close, but even other places I don't mind.

[S80_UK]

Not sure when I'll next be down - office is in Weybridge, Surrey, so can get to Richmond quite easily.  I will drop you an email - it will probably be within the next couple of weeks.

[jboy751]

Excellent!

[jboy751]

S80_UK

just a reminder, when you plan to come by London and have some spare time, pls dont forget to let me know.

Thanks

[S80_UK]

Hi - I haven't forgotten - but with the weather the way it is I have not been down to the office lately. 

I will send you a private message with contact info so that we can stay in touch.

Les.