Found Footage: Apple TV booted from external USB HD
The Apple TV has now been hacked to boot off of an external USB HD. This means, simply, that we're well on the way to seeing full access without cracking the case and thus obviously voiding the warranty. Apparently, this is done by booting into recovery mode using a modified disc image on the external drive. Now this is not a completely worked out hack yet, and there's still much left to do, but this is a significant milestone as it shows that, in principle, the Apple TV is bootable from an external hard drive. Further it shows that the USB port which Apple claimed "is only used for service and diagnostics" and unable to recognize USB devices is, in fact, live and can be used.
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Source: http://www.awkwardtv.org/?p=9
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The Apple TV has now been hacked to boot off of an external USB HD. This means, simply, that we're well on the way to seeing full...
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I checked my mail, even when Quicksilver didn't pop up to tell me that I had a new message.
March 27 2007 at 6:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySo let me get this right, when the Mini came out, it was used as an AppleTV-like device in home theaters. Now that the AppleTV is out, it is being modified to be a Mini?
March 27 2007 at 11:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI share the skepticism of #9, but for different reasons.
The iTV may be designed to search for an external HDD when booting into recovery mode, and boot off the recovery partition on said external drive (in case someone manages to mung up their whole drive, the geniuses can still restore).
I would be more impressed if they turned on the iTV normally and still managed to boot off the external drive, using the external drive's normal partition, not the recovery partition as stated in the video.
Still, this is one step closer, as they say.
I'm currently working on attaching an iSight to my Roomba which I control with a Wiimote and watch the video stream on my AppleTV.
March 27 2007 at 10:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHow many people checked their Mail when the message tone went off in the video? LOL
March 27 2007 at 10:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHow do we know that they 'actually' did this? he enver boots off of the non-external drive to show that the logo is correct. In fact he even admits that the drive inside the APPLTV is not the original one. Sure we see the blinking lights on the external drive but is it really booting from it or just accessing it as part of a normal bootstrap? IE: looking for upgrade files etc... Why whenever someone make a video like this does the camera always pan around, be our of focus etc. Why not place the components together in such a way that everything could be seen and then no questions will arise?
March 27 2007 at 8:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIf someone manage to put windows / linux / Mac OS X 10.3 on it, i will buy...
March 27 2007 at 6:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyto #1 and #6 :
not everyone can afford both an Airport Extreme and an AppleTV. if i can buy an appletv and hack it to work as an Airport Extreme, then i'd be happy ;)
i'm with #1 here,
i have got an itunes server capable NAS and i would like to know if anybody manages to get it running with that library to stream from.
I'm really exicted about the tv as a media hub and hacking is fun too! I can't wait til I get one in 2 weeks. Birthdays rule!
March 27 2007 at 2:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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