AppleTV gets hacked for USB storage

Written by Dave Horvath @ 30 Jul 2007 10:05 User comments (7)

The group over at AppleTVhacks.net in conjuction with FatWallet.com offered up a prize for anyone who could effectively hack the AppleTV software to allow the use of an external USB hard drive as its main storage. This hack would then allow users to have much more storage without the need to crack open the AppleTV device itself.

Armed with the 1.0 version of the AppleTV software, an Intel based Macintosh computer or Intel based Linux machine, an external hard drive and a little gusto, users can follow instructions on how to enable an external HDD as the primary source for storage. Since Apple is constantly on the verge of not giving an easy method for copyright infringement, its easy to see why a feature such as this wasn't enabled from the start.

Source:
AppleTVHacks.net

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7 user comments

130.7.2007 11:26

Unfocused

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This is great! Added storage without having to crack the case open. Does this still leave the warranty intact?

230.7.2007 12:32

vinny13

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What exactly is the Apple TV? Is it like a recorder or something?'

330.7.2007 12:52

Davedough

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Quote:

vinny13 (Member) 30 July 2007 16:32
What exactly is the Apple TV? Is it like a recorder or something?'

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

430.7.2007 15:12

cascadeuk

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Originally posted by Unfocused:
This is great! Added storage without having to crack the case open. Does this still leave the warranty intact?

Whats the point, its only 40 gig

530.7.2007 16:39

DarkJello

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These leads to much easier access to putting the files onto your computer, so you can do whatever you'd like with them.

630.7.2007 22:06

borhan9

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AfterDawn Addict

This is music and fuel to the fire for all hackers around.

74.8.2007 03:21

plazma247

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Maybe its just me but personally i think its easier for a noob who has a working knowlage of a screwdriver to take out the 8 or so required screws to swap the 2.5" drive.

Instead of the noob having to make sure that they have:

An ssh-enabled Apple TV. If you don’t have that enabled yet, you can refer to this post to get it enabled. For instructions on how to enable ssh without opening the case, refer to this wiki page.

An Intel-Mac or Intel-based *nix. This is needed to run the script to patch the kernel on the Apple TV remotely. It maybe possible to run the install script under Windows using cygwin. However, we have not tried this.

An installed version of Mac OS X 10.4 Intel. Or a full copy of the contents of the “/System/Library/Extensions” folder from one.

An original, unmodified copy of the ‘mach_kernel.prelink’ file from the Apple TV. If the kernel on your Apple TV has not been modified yet, you can just tell the script to get it from there. Otherwise, you can obtain the file from Apple TV Software 1.1 update available here.

An external USB drive formatted using “Journaled HFS+” with the Apple Parition Map option (which is the default). This is the format the Apple TV expects.

Anyway thats what i think.

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AppleTV gets hacked for USB storage

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