Hard Drive upgrade....need a hand here....

[xperton3]

Hey guys, so I thought I did the hard drive upgrade correctly but my Atv just keeps blinking orange, showing me the apple logo and then rebooting. What did I do wrong? I followed the directions here http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/23/how-to-upgrade-the-drive-in-your-apple-tv/

I did get an error message while prepping the new drive here is the error message:

******-******-macbook-pro-15:~ *****$ diskutil eraseVolume "Journaled HFS+" Media /dev/disk3s4

DiskManagement setuid-tool failure


I kept going and then did this:

******-******-macbook-pro-15:~ *****$ diskutil eject disk3
Disk disk3 ejected
******-******-macbook-pro-15:~ *****$ diskutil eraseVolume "Journaled HFS+" Media /dev/disk3s4
Started erase on disk disk3s4
Erasing
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk3s4 with name after erase
[ + 0%..10%..20%..30%..40%..50%..60%..70%..80%..90%..100% ]
Finished erase on disk disk3s4


What did I do wrong?

Thanks for the help !!!

 

[gr8tfly]

According to my notes, last time I used the method from AckwardTV - except for the following:

create all 4 partitions, in order, copy the EFI and REcovery images to partitions 1 & 2, then initialize partitions 3 & 4 (OSBoot & Media).
​

It looks like AckwardTV wiki on this has been modified, since I last used it, and apparently addresses the above (haven't tried it - my tv is happily humming along with a 250GB, which seems to be fine for now).

I seem to remember trying the Engadget method, when I did my first upgrade [to a 160GB], but settled on the AckwardTV method.

Hope this helps.

 

[xperton3]

According to my notes, last time I used the method from AckwardTV - except for the following:

create all 4 partitions, in order, copy the EFI and REcovery images to partitions 1 & 2, then initialize partitions 3 & 4 (OSBoot & Media).
​

It looks like AckwardTV wiki on this has been modified, since I last used it, and apparently addresses the above (haven't tried it - my tv is happily humming along with a 250GB, which seems to be fine for now).

I seem to remember trying the Engadget method, when I did my first upgrade [to a 160GB], but settled on the AckwardTV method.

Hope this helps.

Ok so i followed the wiki....now the appletv boots but when i click on Recover, it fails and tells me to contact apple for support.....what could be wrong at this point?

 

[gr8tfly]

Ok so i followed the wiki....now the appletv boots but when i click on Recover, it fails and tells me to contact apple for support.....what could be wrong at this point?

I'm no expert on the tv's system architecture, but here's the dump of the GPT and partition list I saved after successfully rebuilding my drive. Make sure the partitions have the correct start and size and order(for GPT 1-3). GPT 4 is the media part - that's where you have to use the correct start/size from your drive after adding the others. Your drive will show different start/size for that part, and the start for Sec GPT table and header, since they come after the media (part 4):

[Macintosh-2:~] user% gpt show /dev/disk4
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6         
         40      69632      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      69672     819200      2  GPT part - 5265636F-7665-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
     888872    1843200      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
    2732072  485665063      4  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  488397135         32         Sec GPT table
  488397167          1         Sec GPT header
[Macintosh-2:~] user% diskutil list /dev/disk4
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *232.9 Gi   disk4
   1:                        EFI                         34.0 Mi    disk4s1
   2:             Apple_Recovery                         400.0 Mi   disk4s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS OSBoot                  900.0 Mi   disk4s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Media                   231.6 Gi   disk4s4

You still will need to resync with iTunes, I don't know if there's any way to copy the library and have it work.

 

[richyscot1]

Ok so i followed the wiki....now the appletv boots but when i click on Recover, it fails and tells me to contact apple for support.....what could be wrong at this point?

I've performed quite a number of hard drive partitions for Apple TV, and have never managed to get anybody else's method to work for me. Most other peoples tell you not to copy over the OSBOOT, and just copy over EFI and Recovery, then carry out a reboot, which in essence copies the OSBOOT from the recovery section of the drive to the OSBOOT section. I personally, could never get this to work. The only way I could get it to work is by manually copying the OSBOOT.

If you want me to send you my "idiots" guide to sorting out the hard drive just let me know and I'll post them. It works for me everytime......in fact I even have a 500Gb Apple TV now

 

[xperton3]

I've performed quite a number of hard drive partitions for Apple TV, and have never managed to get anybody else's method to work for me. Most other peoples tell you not to copy over the OSBOOT, and just copy over EFI and Recovery, then carry out a reboot, which in essence copies the OSBOOT from the recovery section of the drive to the OSBOOT section. I personally, could never get this to work. The only way I could get it to work is by manually copying the OSBOOT.

If you want me to send you my "idiots" guide to sorting out the hard drive just let me know and I'll post them. It works for me everytime......in fact I even have a 500Gb Apple TV now

awesome that would be great!!!

this is as far as i get :
diskutil eraseVolume "Journaled HFS+" Media /dev/disk1s4
Started erase on disk disk1s4
Erasing
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk1s4 with name after erase
[ + 0%..10%..20%..30%..40%..50%..60%..70%..80%..90%..100% ]
Finished erase on disk disk1s4

Do you think that my hard drive could be defective?

 

[richyscot1]

This is what I do, and it seems to work for me. Any problems let me know.........

To get the data off the existing AppleTV hard drive use this for efi (where # is the disk number):
dd if=/dev/disk#s1 of=/"location you want disk image to go"/efi.dmg bs=1m

Use this for recovery:
dd if=/dev/disk#s2 of=/"location you want disk image to go"/recovery.dmg bs=1m

Use this for OSBoot:
dd if=/dev/disk#s3 of=/"location you want disk image to go"/OSBoot.dmg bs=1m

When partitioning the apple tv drive, partition as follows:
Create 4 partitions:
efi = Disk1s1 = 34Mb
Apple_Recovery = Disk1s2 = 400Mb
OSBoot = Disk1s3 = 900Mb
Media = Disk1s4 = Whatever is left over

Create all four partitions and copy across efi, recovery, and OSBoot data. DO NOT listen to the guides that just copy over efi and recovery and tell you to carry out a restore as soon as you start up Apple TV......it does not work!!

Before creating the partitions, ensure that there are no partitions currently on the drive.....it must be completely blank. This means carrying out plenty of partition erases. To erase partitions use gpt remove -i ## disk# where ## is the partition number and # is the disk number. I found that 2 partitions usually existed, 1 & 2.

Make sure you unmount the disk before each step, using: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#

To create the partitions on a blank disk use this for efi:
gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 69632 -t efi /dev/disk#

Use this for recovery:
gpt add -b 69672 -i 2 -s 819200 -t 5265636F-7665-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk#

Use this for OSBoot:
gpt add -b 888872 -i 3 -s 1843200 -t hfs /dev/disk#

Once the first three partitions have been made, unmount the disk, then carry out a gpt show /dev/disk# which should tell you how much free space there is. Use this for Media:
gpt add -b "Start" -i 4 -s "End" -t hfs /dev/disk# where start and end is the free space on the disk (see attached picture. The numbers you are looking for are, "Start" = 2732072 and "end" = 974041063 on the picture I have attached)

Then copy the volumes ripped onto the new partitioned drive. Use this for efi:
dd if=/"Location you saved it to"/efi.dmg of=/dev/disk#s1 bs=1m

Use this for recovery:
dd if=/"Location you saved it to"/recovery.dmg of=/dev/disk#s2 bs=1m

Use this for OSBoot:
dd if=/"Location you saved it to"/OSBoot.dmg of=/dev/disk#s3 bs=1m

Once I'd done this, go into disk utility and carry out an erase on Disk#s4 (Media partition) and rename it "Media", as Apple TV can get a bit funny about this.

One last note, don't forget the drive MUST be GUID partition table, not Master Boot Record!! If it is Master Boot Record, you cannot delete the master partition.

 

[esoh]

awesome that would be great!!!

this is as far as i get :
diskutil eraseVolume "Journaled HFS+" Media /dev/disk1s4
Started erase on disk disk1s4
Erasing
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk1s4 with name after erase
[ + 0%..10%..20%..30%..40%..50%..60%..70%..80%..90%..100% ]
Finished erase on disk disk1s4

Do you think that my hard drive could be defective?

I don't know if you HD is defective, but you could probably run some diagnostics to see if it is.

FWIW, I used the instructions at this site:

http://diyspirit.com/2008/06/easier-way-to-upgrade-your-apple-tv-hard-drive/

It's a bit different from some of the other sites but it seemed fairly easy and the instructions weren't as long as some other sites. I tried the instructions from some other sites and couldn't get them to work.

Also, see my post (#13) if you run into problems with the partitions. Hope this helps.

 

[paduck]

Did you try these instructions? A lot of people have had success with them:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Apple_TV_250GB_Hard_Drive_Upgrade