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Larger Hard Drive in AppleTV? 500gb?

Sean Dempsey

Sean Dempsey

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 7, 2006
1,622
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My cousin claims he can flawlessly put a 500gig hard drive in an AppleTV, but I can't find any guides or resources on the net to do so.

Without going into details, is it possible to swap the apple TV's drive for something much larger without effecting it's operation?
 
Sean Dempsey said:
My cousin claims he can flawlessly put a 500gig hard drive in an AppleTV, but I can't find any guides or resources on the net to do so.

Without going into details, is it possible to swap the apple TV's drive for something much larger without effecting it's operation?
Click to expand...

Unless he's somehow managed to squeeze in a PATA to SATA bridge, there's no way he has a 500 gig drive in there. Besides, the first one just shipped out to OEMs last week (Samsung Spinpoint M6). He's yanking your chain, I suspect.
 
Surely the ATV has some sort of OS on it - so when you replace the HDD, how does it know what to do and how to do it?!
 
suburbiton said:
Surely the ATV has some sort of OS on it - so when you replace the HDD, how does it know what to do and how to do it?!
Click to expand...

It's in the guide that's posted on the forum (and I think there's a link to engadget in this thread).. basically it involves cloning the drive already in there and then copying it to the new drive (The OS)... I'm sure that there is a better explanation, but yes, there is an OS and it has to be copied to the new drive.
 
suburbiton said:
Surely the ATV has some sort of OS on it - so when you replace the HDD, how does it know what to do and how to do it?!
Click to expand...

The short answer is that the ATV doesn't and hence will not work if you just put a new drive in. You have to do a little work with the drive connected to another computer. The link is at the top of the forum page, but also:

Original thread with directions:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/589208/

MacRumors Guide:

http://guides.macrumors.com/Apple_TV_250GB_Hard_Drive_Upgrade
 
Think I found a valid converter...

Unfortunately I don't have the ability to test it yet...

But I found this:
http://www.cooldrives.com/2sahadrtoide.html

That's a 44pin -> SATA converter... since it's 44 pin IDE, it doesn't require any external power source. So, I believe that what would work would just be:

AppleTV PATA Cable -> Converter -> SATA 500GB Drive (such as http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=506)

The only thing I'm unsure of is the PHYSICAL size of the adapter... it's small, (69x14x17.5mm), I don't know if it's small enough to fit in the AppleTV, and I'm a little hesitant to spend the $120 (Drive+Adapter).

Any souls out there braver than me? (Or any souls out there w/ $20 and a spare 2.5" SATA drive?)
 

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Any specifics as to why? Not enough power over the cable, or just a Mac OS incompatibility?
 
Sorry I should have explained a little more. If you click on the link in my last reply, I'm detailing what's wrong there (to save me having to write it twice......as these posts are pretty similar).

My Apple TV is working fine, in fact I'm exactly half way through syncing 361Gb, the problem I have is fitting it into the Apple TV enclosure.

Here's the post where I have gone into a little more detail.......https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/683178/
 
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