I've been reading... now I need help

[DMSdummy]

So last year I picked up a 20gb phatbox and made a custom harness to install an '01 VW radio and this new phatbox into my '88 VW Jetta. About a month ago my Laptop HDD crashed so I peeled the drive out of my phatbox and reformatted it to use in my laptop (without doing a full backup on the DMS HDD first). I'm sure you can probably imagine what I'm about to ask next...

I don't want to increase  the size of my DMS... I just want it to work again. My Phatbox isn't "cracked". I ran "rawwritewin" after getting a replacement drive for my laptop it appears as though all of the files made it back, perhaps even the sig. files. When I reinsert the DMS into the player I see 1flash, pause,3 flashes,pause,then rapid flashing for hours if you leave it plugged in that long.

Would anyone be willing to help me resolve this problem. I think I need a bit for bit "image" of a good drive to copy to mine, but if anyone has another idea I'm all ears. Also, I'd be willing to compensate anyone who solves this issue for me.  

[judb]

nope, you need a real unspoiled DMS to hack your box to work with non phatnoise drives.. so unless you have a friend that has a phatbox OR you want to buy someones old original phatbox drive then you are kind of screwed.  Depending on where you live you might find someone to help you out locally.

sorry man.

[DMSdummy]

That's exactly what I didn't want to hear. I'm not aware of anyone in my area (Urbana, IL) that has one of these. I'll go dig around on VWVortex and see if i can scare someone up. In the meantime if anyone wants to sell me a good DMS lemme know... Or for that matter if anyone wants to rent me a good drive I'd appreciate that as well.

[Terry_Kennedy]

That's exactly what I didn't want to hear. I'm not aware of anyone in my area (Urbana, IL) that has one of these. I'll go dig around on VWVortex and see if i can scare someone up. In the meantime if anyone wants to sell me a good DMS lemme know... Or for that matter if anyone wants to rent me a good drive I'd appreciate that as well.

As it happens, I'm vacationing in Urbana right now. I'll be here until the end of the month or so. I can help you with this. Please email me at terry@tmk.com and we can arrange a meet.

[DMSdummy]

Email sent  

[DMSdummy]

Terry- thanks again for your help. It's running swimmingly. I just dropped a donation into paul's account.

Jake

[Terry_Kennedy]

Terry- thanks again for your help. It's running swimmingly. I just dropped a donation into paul's account.

No problem! That "welcome disc... welcome disc... welcome disc... welcome disc..." loop was pretty amusing

[Kat_Daddy]

Ive had my kenwood music keg for almost 3 years now. I never new they had forums devoted to them until today. My cartridge was fu**ed up, so i took it apart to see if i could clean some connectors or sumn. Found out they had a standard laptop hd (mine is crushed btw by luggage in airport), well ive gotta a crapped out laptop with a a 30 gig i can pull. I downloaded the booting software v1.5. Ill start the process tomorrow (after i borrow a friends DMS) and report back.
My question is,
1) once we complete the process and make the first successful boot and load to the h.u.; do we have to keep the first tracks or discs in order for the system to recognize the "improved dms" from then on?
2) could you modify your program with a generic dms code and tracks included, since it doesnt matter which dms we borrow from?
3) If the borrowed dms works in my usb cradle, does that guarnatee it works in my car. And will itmake a difference when i do the hd swap?

[sbingner]

the second post by judb answers you, you need an original DMS drive to apply the hack... ie, you're screwed.  If you know anybody with a valid DMS, you can get them to apply the hack for you then you'll be able to use that drive.

[Kat_Daddy]

Ive got the second DMS, i was just wondering: just wondering after the program duplicates the 1st section (coding and playlists) of the original drive to the new drive. After the drive is completed, can we the delet the unwanted tracks with Media Manager and add or own playlists again. Or will they be needed to identify the drive eveytime it loads.

[markbowen]

When you build the new DMS, what gets copied over from the old one is, most importantly, the drive signature, as well as the phtsys files and folders.  It is the drive signature that the phatbox uses to to identify the new DMS.  

Playlists and tracks are not copied from the old DMS.  So, you can add and delete playlists and tracks as you want on the new DMS.

[sbingner]

actually, once the hack is applied... you should be able to use any drive that's partitioned properly, with or without the signature.  I've verified this on all my phatboxes and on a few other people's boxes with the newest patch applied.  The hack CD still copis the signature just to be safe

[judb]

The next hack CD release, (after we roll a new kernel for drives greater than 127 gig) will stop the whole drive copy process and instead have a seed capability for new drives only.

We need to determine if we'll use a network boot cd or if we'll do it as a vmware player image so we can make sure network support in the kernel is small (less drivers) or if we'll just set the disk up for you and let you download the firmware via pmm or the web.

Sam, we should post a wiki about the new drive parititon / format requirements with the latest flash.