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Apple TV 250GB Hard Drive Upgrade Success - with instructions
- Thread starter paduck
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Can you send exact specification of your HD so I can find exact the same one in UK please? Having a trouble to find good website where I can order 320 gig anyway.
Thanks
Have any of you updated to 2.3.1 yet? My bigger drive ATV doesn't want to update (from 2.3).
See my other thread in this forum for details.
Scott
See my other thread in this forum for details.
Scott
I suppose you could get an IDE to SATA cable/adapter and put a 500g SATA HD in there. At least that would make sense to me since people have been putting SSD in AppleTVs
er, well of course, but then why stop at 500 GB ?
I think because 2.5" SATA drives stop at 500GB right now. That is for an entirely internal modification.
There are several posts here about adding large SATA drives as external drives to Apple TV. You could go to 1.5TB easily. Honestly, with a SATA enclosure and RAID0/5 you could go much higher.
I think because 2.5" SATA drives stop at 500GB right now. That is for an entirely internal modification.
There are several posts here about adding large SATA drives as external drives to Apple TV. You could go to 1.5TB easily. Honestly, with a SATA enclosure and RAID0/5 you could go much higher.
er, I know. I was kidding.
There are several posts here about adding large SATA drives as external drives to Apple TV. You could go to 1.5TB easily. Honestly, with a SATA enclosure and RAID0/5 you could go much higher.
You might want to look at who made those posts
er, I know. I was kidding.
Dynaflash, I'm a friggin moron. I almost posted:
"Guys like Dynaflash and Caveman have a thread called My 750GB Apple TV..."
So I guess it could have been worse. My real bad... have a laugh at my expense, you guys were the ones who inspired me to get an Apple TV in the first place!
clicking two weeks after upgrade?
So I have had my 320 GB drive installed about two weeks now and i am starting to notice a slight click every 5 - 15 sec. This seems to happen when on or in stand by mode. The Apple TV seems to work fine. the clicking is new and is indicative of drive failure in my experience. (not the same as the slight sound of the drive being accessed.
Just wanted to post this. the 320 GB drives may not be up to the task for use in an apple TV
So I have had my 320 GB drive installed about two weeks now and i am starting to notice a slight click every 5 - 15 sec. This seems to happen when on or in stand by mode. The Apple TV seems to work fine. the clicking is new and is indicative of drive failure in my experience. (not the same as the slight sound of the drive being accessed.
Just wanted to post this. the 320 GB drives may not be up to the task for use in an apple TV
That's what I was thinking. My home stays cool. no more then 70o most days. but the Apple TV is always quite hot. and with it running basically 24/7 i think the drive cant take the heat.
In any case i'll post again in this thread if anything happens
Are there different versions of the 40GB ATV? I see some on eBay, some high and some much lower priced. Does it matter which 40GB to get for this upgrade to work?
hey is there some way to download the software from the internet directly to the new drive so that all i would have to do is transfer the software to the new drive from my computer and physically install the drive rather than having to copy the old one?
500 SATA GB Drive in apple TV - WORKS!
hey guys, just wanted to share some info to upgrade your ATV drive with 500GB SATA drive. it was very painful finding the right IDE to SATA card that will work, i read a lot of posts and none of them had working link to a seller of such bridge, after ordering 4 different cards, some are so nice and small but only one worked.
i used samsung SATA 5400 RPM 500GB drive or you can buy any other sata drive - they are much cheaper than IDEs nowdays. They supposed to release 1TB 2.5" drives soon so i will try that once on market.
Anyway, you will need 500GB drive and small 44PIN IDE to SATA bridge, i tried few and the only one that worked for me i bought here >>>> http://usb.brando.com.hk/2-5-ide-male-to-sata-adapter_p00856c032d015.html
it took about 10 days to arrive but was worth the wait. i plugged it in - MAKE SURE you connect cable correctly!!!!!!! if you don't you will destroy this card, lucky me i bought two of those and of course i killed one but then flipped the cable and everything worked like charm.
when you insert this card in your 2.5" sata drive, then keep drive label down and your cable should nicely fit in this card. Oh, you will need to make a little hole on the original ATV drive cable since this card has all pins.
anyway, here's what i have >>>
hey guys, just wanted to share some info to upgrade your ATV drive with 500GB SATA drive. it was very painful finding the right IDE to SATA card that will work, i read a lot of posts and none of them had working link to a seller of such bridge, after ordering 4 different cards, some are so nice and small but only one worked.
i used samsung SATA 5400 RPM 500GB drive or you can buy any other sata drive - they are much cheaper than IDEs nowdays. They supposed to release 1TB 2.5" drives soon so i will try that once on market.
Anyway, you will need 500GB drive and small 44PIN IDE to SATA bridge, i tried few and the only one that worked for me i bought here >>>> http://usb.brando.com.hk/2-5-ide-male-to-sata-adapter_p00856c032d015.html
it took about 10 days to arrive but was worth the wait. i plugged it in - MAKE SURE you connect cable correctly!!!!!!! if you don't you will destroy this card, lucky me i bought two of those and of course i killed one but then flipped the cable and everything worked like charm.
when you insert this card in your 2.5" sata drive, then keep drive label down and your cable should nicely fit in this card. Oh, you will need to make a little hole on the original ATV drive cable since this card has all pins.
anyway, here's what i have >>>
Attachments
Can you post pics of the internal connections? I'd like to know if this is something within my skill set.
hi denlesko!
that's exactly what i wanted to d but wasn't sure about the adapter!
didy you have to set a particular voltage for the new drive?
were you able to close the box? why did u have to make a hole in the atv?
that's exactly what i wanted to d but wasn't sure about the adapter!
didy you have to set a particular voltage for the new drive?
were you able to close the box? why did u have to make a hole in the atv?
Apple TV with 500GB SATA Drive
Hey paolo.sereni,
i didn't make a hole in ATV but rather in the IDE cable - card has all 44 pins while cable is missing one hole in the middle so i just took the smallest drill i could find and made a hole in it so card fits in the cable.
Yes drive fit in ATV but you will need to reorganize cable and drive, with this card you won't be able to screw drive back to where it was originally but there are plenty of space in ATV to fit everything. My box closed very nicely, looks like nothing changed.
one advice, i heard that IDE cables are very weak, so be careful with it. i read a lot of posts where people damaged their cables, if you'll be careful you'd be fine.
i didn't do anything else including voltage mods, etc... i just plugged the card in and it worked.
one thing i did after i closed the box - i installed boxee - go to boxee.tv they will have instructions on how to install it and you will love your apple tv more than you think! some sites charge for this free soft $50, not sure why they do it but anyway... it was really easy to install, follow their install directions.
Boxee comes with Hulu and bunch of other stuff i didn't know about - you will get pretty much all Episodes of all TV shows, MTV videos, Pandora radio, Couch surfer to browse internet from your ATV, etc...
one warning - you may never leave your couch ever again - i spent entire weekend watching as much southpark as i could, then MTV videos, then all i could - i turned out to be a tv or should i say ATV junkie... then browsed some internet, then when i got hungry i ordered pizza from my apple tv by going to papajohns.com without leaving the couch, i spent all saturday night a front of my tv and then slept on a coucch - what a nerd! LOL
oh btw, i followed engaget instructions first but after not having much luck i followed these directions - it is much faster if you do it this way >>> http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Prepare_a_Hard_Drive#Preparing_the_partition_table
have fun hacking it!
Hey paolo.sereni,
i didn't make a hole in ATV but rather in the IDE cable - card has all 44 pins while cable is missing one hole in the middle so i just took the smallest drill i could find and made a hole in it so card fits in the cable.
Yes drive fit in ATV but you will need to reorganize cable and drive, with this card you won't be able to screw drive back to where it was originally but there are plenty of space in ATV to fit everything. My box closed very nicely, looks like nothing changed.
one advice, i heard that IDE cables are very weak, so be careful with it. i read a lot of posts where people damaged their cables, if you'll be careful you'd be fine.
i didn't do anything else including voltage mods, etc... i just plugged the card in and it worked.
one thing i did after i closed the box - i installed boxee - go to boxee.tv they will have instructions on how to install it and you will love your apple tv more than you think! some sites charge for this free soft $50, not sure why they do it but anyway... it was really easy to install, follow their install directions.
Boxee comes with Hulu and bunch of other stuff i didn't know about - you will get pretty much all Episodes of all TV shows, MTV videos, Pandora radio, Couch surfer to browse internet from your ATV, etc...
one warning - you may never leave your couch ever again - i spent entire weekend watching as much southpark as i could, then MTV videos, then all i could - i turned out to be a tv or should i say ATV junkie... then browsed some internet, then when i got hungry i ordered pizza from my apple tv by going to papajohns.com without leaving the couch, i spent all saturday night a front of my tv and then slept on a coucch - what a nerd! LOL
oh btw, i followed engaget instructions first but after not having much luck i followed these directions - it is much faster if you do it this way >>> http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Prepare_a_Hard_Drive#Preparing_the_partition_table
have fun hacking it!
Thanks Paduck!!!!
Paduck,
With the combination of your posting here and along with the Apple TV hacks book which I highly recommend, I upgraded my Apple TV about a couple of months ago. First to 160GB and then to 250GB. I also did the Boxee Patchstick thing and have really enjoyed having Boxee on it as well.
Your write up is EXCELLENT!!! I know you can buy an upgraded hard drive on ebay, but who wants to pay for someone else's profit to do it when you can do it yourself, if you invest the time.
I wanted to do this before, but never had a Mac so I had to learn how to build a Mac clone before I could tackle the task. The first time I did it I tried it with Linux and blew away my EFI partition... OUCH!!!! I ended up having to buy another Apple TV and backup the EFI and recovery partitions first thing with the Mac Clone. My system runs on a retail install of Leopard 10.5.6 on a Gigabyte board and it worked quite well with the upgrade process. I know have them on a CD tucked away in a safe place for the Apple TV upgrade should my drive crash.
Anyways, this forum is GREAT.
One quick quesiton, my next project is to go up to a 500GB hard drive, however the PATA drives stop at 320GB at Micro Center now. You can't get one larger than that. Does anyone know where you can get a small compact adapter that will convert a SATA drive to a PATA interface and be compact enough to fit into the Apple TV with minor modifications and work transparently with the Apple TV OS. If so, please post it here!!! I am sure there are others that would like to take advantage of the large 2.5 SATA drives.
Thanks again to everyone!!!
Paduck,
With the combination of your posting here and along with the Apple TV hacks book which I highly recommend, I upgraded my Apple TV about a couple of months ago. First to 160GB and then to 250GB. I also did the Boxee Patchstick thing and have really enjoyed having Boxee on it as well.
Your write up is EXCELLENT!!! I know you can buy an upgraded hard drive on ebay, but who wants to pay for someone else's profit to do it when you can do it yourself, if you invest the time.
I wanted to do this before, but never had a Mac so I had to learn how to build a Mac clone before I could tackle the task. The first time I did it I tried it with Linux and blew away my EFI partition... OUCH!!!! I ended up having to buy another Apple TV and backup the EFI and recovery partitions first thing with the Mac Clone. My system runs on a retail install of Leopard 10.5.6 on a Gigabyte board and it worked quite well with the upgrade process. I know have them on a CD tucked away in a safe place for the Apple TV upgrade should my drive crash.
Anyways, this forum is GREAT.
One quick quesiton, my next project is to go up to a 500GB hard drive, however the PATA drives stop at 320GB at Micro Center now. You can't get one larger than that. Does anyone know where you can get a small compact adapter that will convert a SATA drive to a PATA interface and be compact enough to fit into the Apple TV with minor modifications and work transparently with the Apple TV OS. If so, please post it here!!! I am sure there are others that would like to take advantage of the large 2.5 SATA drives.
Thanks again to everyone!!!
Forgive me....
Guys,
A big 'forgive me'.... I failed to see where denlesko posted an excellent article on upgrading to 500GB. I was looking for the specific adapter and see that along with the excellent pics that denlesko posted. I mainly posted because I ran across some of my documentation and wanted to thank Paduck for kickstarting the thread.
As far as my redundant request for the adapter, please ignore my post. Anyways, I think this is the best post I have run across on this topic. Engadget is good, but I thought it left out some details. When you go to do these hacks your documentation as to be as detailed and clear as possible. That's what is great about those of you that invest in this site.
Thanks again.
Guys,
A big 'forgive me'.... I failed to see where denlesko posted an excellent article on upgrading to 500GB. I was looking for the specific adapter and see that along with the excellent pics that denlesko posted. I mainly posted because I ran across some of my documentation and wanted to thank Paduck for kickstarting the thread.
As far as my redundant request for the adapter, please ignore my post. Anyways, I think this is the best post I have run across on this topic. Engadget is good, but I thought it left out some details. When you go to do these hacks your documentation as to be as detailed and clear as possible. That's what is great about those of you that invest in this site.
Thanks again.