in all likelihood the most common ailment I ’ve hear about the Apple TV in its thus - far - short life is that the included laborious drive is too small . With movies from the iTunes Store consider in at around 1.5 GB , and hour - long TV bear witness around 500 Bachelor of Medicine , the Apple TV ’s 40 GB hard drive — which gives you only 33 GB or so of actual storage space — occupy up quickly , especially if you also desire to salt away music and photos on it .
As it turns out , and as I mentioned earlier this workweek in my “ Hacking Apple TV ” article , upgrading the Apple TV ’s hard effort is n’t all that difficult — severalWebsiteshad written about the procedure within Day of the first units undulate off the assembly lines . The processlikely voids your warranty , and need some computer hardware disassembly and a few trip through Terminal , but unlike , say , dismantling a MacBook Pro , upgrading the Apple TV ’s drive is a reasonable labor for most people . ( If you are n’t the adventuresome case , two company havealready announcedfor - fee drive - swapping services . )
I had hope to do this storage operating theatre as soon as I receive my Apple TV , but when I first open it up , I come across that the drive inside was n’t a 2.5 - in SATA drive , like those used in all recent Apple laptops ( and of which I had several sit down around ) , but rather an ATA drive — make this the only Apple product , other than the 5th - genesis iPod , still using ATA . So I had to get a novel campaign . I ended up ordering aHITACHI Travelstar 5K160 , a 160 GB drive ( 5400rpm , 8 MB cache , as compared to the stock drive ’s 4200rpm , 2 MiB memory cache ) that ’s advertised as downcast - power and cool - running play ( the latter being a desirable feature film given that the Apple TV can get hot while in use ) . The price was a sane $ 110 .
The following how - to adopt your Mac is course Tiger ( Mac OS X 10.4 ) , as some of the Terminal prick used are n’t present in earlier version of Mac OS X.
The takeapart
As I noted in my early clause , Apple has n’t made it hard to get inside the unit . The openhanded obstacle — and it ’s more a psychological one than a physical one — is that the large pencil eraser “ foot ” that cover the entire bottom of the Apple TV is attach via adhesive ; once you remove it , it does’t re - adhere very well , so it will be obvious that you ’ve tinkered with your novel plaything ( hence my warning about voiding your warranty , above ) . Functionally , though , this is n’t much of an issue ; when you ’re done with the upgrade , the Apple telly remain utterly on top of the rubber metrical unit , even if it ’s not permanently attached . ( And if you ’re careful , you ’ll peel it back only about halfway during the process . )
To perform operose - drive surgery on the Apple TV requires removing eight screws on the bottom of the unit ; you ’ll need a couple Torx - trend screwdrivers to do so . The first four are at the four niche of the base ; you simply peel each corner back slightly and then remove each fuck with a Torx 10 screwdriver ( you may also practice the more - common Torx 8 size , necessary for removing the hard drive , in a touch ) . This detaches the bottom of the Apple TV from the rest of the social unit ; if all you want to do is peek at bottom , you’re able to now lift up the bottom to look . ( Two tips : First , put a towel or likewise - soft bed under your Apple TV to fend off damaging the unit ’s easily - scratchable top surface . secondly , keep track of which screw goes where , since the two closest to the front of the Apple TV are long than the two near the back . )
To issue the hard cause — it ’s connected to the base — you’ve bring four more screws to remove and , unfortunately , they ’re not in the street corner — which signify undress back more of the adhesive foot . However , the drive is locate flush against the front edge of the Apple TV , so you do n’t need to murder the entire foot ; just peel it back three inches or so until you see all four hard - effort screws . A Torx 8 screwdriver will get you remove these .
hoist up the bottom of the Apple TV and you ’ll find that the hard drive , despite being unscrewed , is still “ attached . ” That ’s because there ’s an adhesive pad keeping it in property ; a patrician tower should release it .
You ’ll also need to polish off a small adhesive digs from the front of the drive . Both are reusable , so you’re able to put them on your new drive when you ’re ready to install it . disconnect the ATA connexion cable from the parkway and you ’re ready for the next stage .
Preparing the new drive
The process of upgrading your strong drive imply make the new private road look — to the Apple TV — just like the original one . This means that the first thing you need to do is connect the original effort to your Mac so you may copy its capacity . Since the drive is a standard 2.5 - inch ATA drive , any external hard - drive inclosure or cable transcriber ( such as Newer ’s Universal Drive Adapter ) will cultivate . I opt to purchase MacAlly’s2.5″ USB 2.0 Mac External Storage Enclosure , which was only $ 12 when purchase with the new drive from NewEgg.com .
Tip : When you connect your Apple TV crusade to your Mac , Spotlight will require to index its volumes ( distinguish below ) , which creates Spotlight index files on each loudness . I do n’t roll in the hay if these file will do any harm , but you probably do n’t want them . I used Spotless to disable public eye on these volumes — for both the onetime drive and the newfangled one — and to delete any Spotlight files that might have been make on either drive between the sentence I plug that drive in and the time I disabled Spotlight for it . ( You could isntead drag each book to the Privacy inclination in the Spotlight pane of System Preferences , which should preclude Spotlight from indexing those loudness , but this feature film does n’t always work well . )
Note : While you ’ve got the Apple TV ’s hard drive link , palpate free to do some exploring — just do n’t make any changes or add or delete any file . You ’ll find that the OSBoot partition is really just a Mac OS XTC volume , with slight modifications for the Apple TV . Inside the Media partitioning is a Media folder , where all of your media is hive away , and a Scratch brochure that contains , among other things , the user history , frontrow , that ’s automatically lumber in when you start up your Apple TV . ( You ’ll even find odd legacy files in here , such as Internet Explorer ’s nonpayment bookmark data file ! ) Dive down into /Volumes / OSBoot / System / Library / CoreServices / Finder.app — which is in reality the Apple TV ’s Front - Row - corresponding interface — and you ’ll incur /Contents / Screen Savers , which hold back the three screen - saver plugins offered in the Apple TV ’s options screen door ; how long before someone make new screensavers you could drop in here ? . You ’ll also determine , by spy through various preferences filing cabinet , that the Apple TV ’s project name was apparently “ Riptide . ”
Once the Apple TV ’s private road is touch base to your Mac , you ’ll see two new volumes in the Finder , OSBootandMedia . But the drive actually has other partitions . If you launch Terminal and typediskutil listand then scroll to the Apple TV drive ’s itemization , you ’ll see something like this :
The above partitioning listing presents a piece of a problem : multiple partitions means you ca n’t just “ clone ” the descent ride to your newfangled driveway using a utility such as SuperDuper and then instal the young one in the Apple TV . ( Well , you could , but you ’d have to first repartition the new driveway to match the partition layout of the original and then clone each sectionalization separately — a mussy process . )
Instead , we ’ll use theddcommand in Terminal . This utility can twin an entiredevice(such as a hard drive ) , including all partitioning information . It can also copy a phonograph record or gadget to a local file , which is helpful if you have only a individual drive enclosure or cable . In fact , that ’s the process I ’m run to trace here : to copy the original Apple TV driving to an image file on your Mac ’s gruelling movement and then later copy that trope to the raw Apple TV severe drive . Here are the steps ; note that you ’ll need around 37 GB of devoid blank space on your Mac ’s grueling drive for temporarily put in the range file cabinet :
notice : As I mentioned , the above function can take a long time , since you ’re copying every block — twice ( once from the original drive to the disk image , once from the phonograph recording image to the new private road ) . For lesson , the copy from the original drive to the simulacrum file on my Mac claim just over eight hours ; the copy from the image file to the new disc learn just as long . A must faster procedure , though one that ’s much more technical in nature , is also available.(An even shorter adaptation , which require a bit more proficient knowledge on the part of the drug user , ishere . )
take down : If you happen to have two drive enclosures or cable television service , so you ’re able to connect both the sometime and young drives simultaneously , the above function is a bit simpler , since you may copy the old movement directly to the new one . After usingdiskutil listto see the machine number of each crusade , expend the following Terminal command : Doctor of Divinity if=/dev / disk # of=/dev / disc # bs=1 m , where the firstdisk#is the machine bit of the original Apple TV thrust and the seconddisk#is the number of the new campaign . This should swerve the overall transcript time in one-half .
At this power point , you may delete theAppleTVImage.dmgfile from your Mac ’s hard drive if you wish . However , if you’re able to dispense with the space , you might want to keep the image around for a while , just in case something goes wrong during the next few steps . The figure of speech file can also be useful if you design on experiment with your Apple TV ; at any meter , you could touch on your Apple TV back to “ new ” status by erasing the new Apple TV backbreaking drive and restoring it from the image Indian file .
The joys of repartitioning
You might believe you ’re ready to adhere the novel drive into your Apple TV at this point , but there ’s one job : The novel drive ’s partition are precisely the same size of it as those of the original . In other words , correctly now , your new driveappears to be a 40 GB drive . ( Go forward , do a Get Info on the new Media partition and you ’ll find that it ’s only 36 gibibyte . ) Where did all that extra infinite you compensate upright money for go ? It ’s there , but it is n’t ( yet ) being used . You require to repartition the drive — meaning rearrange the drive ’s segment — so that the Media sectionalisation let in the superfluous space .
I advocate using Coriolis Systems ’s $ 50iPartitionfor this stone’s throw if you ’ve arrive some cash to spare ( or already have the public utility company ) . After launch iPartition and choosing the new drive from the app ’s list of drives , you ’ll see a Proto-Indo European chart of the drive ’s divider , including all unused infinite in greyish . You simply drag the edge of the Media “ art object ” of the Proto-Indo European so that it encompasses all that gray surface area and then click the Commit clitoris in the toolbar . In a matter of seconds , your Media partition is its rightful size . And because there was no data on that free space , you do n’t even have to care about fall behind datum — generally one of the risks of repartitioning a driving force . ( If you ’ve already got a transcript of Prosoft’sDrive Geniusor Micromat’sDiskStudiositting around , these utilities also rent you repartition a drive without reformatting it . )
If you do n’t already have a partitioning public utility , and you do n’t finger like springing for one , the outgrowth is still doable , but a snatch more complicated ( and perhaps a bit intimidating if you ’re not comfortable with Terminal ) . Here are the steps ; if at any time you see the Finder ’s “ unrecognized bulk ” error , tap Ignore :
1 . In Terminal , typediskutil listyet again to be trusted you ’re working with the right parkway and partition ; once you ’ve found the drive , look for the partition on that drive that says “ Apple_HFS Media . ” notice the gimmick issue ( on my campaign , disk4 ) and the partition number ( the number furthest to the left , 4 on my parkway ) .
2 . Typediskutil eject disk#(where # is , again , the equipment identification number ) . This eject the new Apple TV drive so you’re able to function with its partition .
3 . Typegpt remove -i # # disk # , where # # is the partition routine and # is , again , the twist identification number . For deterrent example for my disk , the instruction would begpt remove -i 4 disk4 . This control delete the current Media partition . ( If you ’re curious , gptis the GUID partition table utility . )
4 . Typediskutil eject disk#again . ( You need to eject the disk before using thegptcommand each meter . A fuss , but necessary . )
5 . Typegpt show disk # , where # is , again , the gadget telephone number of the effort . This control show you the current partition layout of the drive ; here ’s the output for my driving force :
You ’ll notice one very large empty area ; that ’s the space that ’s currently unused . On my drive , it starts at block turn 2732072 and is 312581775 blocks in size . ( In the output above , I ’ve expurgate thecontentscolumn for index number 1 , 2 , and 3 to fit this Thomas Nelson Page ; you ’ll see much longer strings of characters there . )
6 . Typediskutil eject disk#to eject the saucer again .
7 . Typegpt MBD -b _ scratch line _ -i 4 -s _ SIZE _ -t hfs /dev / phonograph record # , whereSTARTis the start stoppage of the free infinite ( 2732072 for my phonograph recording , above ) andSIZEis the size of that quad ( 312581775 for me ) . This mastery tellsgptto produce a fresh partition , partition # 4 , start at block numberSTARTand ending afterSIZEblocks .
8 . Typediskutil eraseVolume " Journaled HFS+ " Media /dev / disk#s4 ( # is the gimmick act , 4 is the young partition number ) . This command formats the fresh , magnanimous Media segmentation so that it ’s ready for use .
Whew ! Your Media partition should re-emerge in the Finder ; Get Info on it to see its new , more spacious size . In my case , nigh 148 GB . ( The free space is less because I performed my upgrade after having synced data from iTunes to the original drive , and I used iPartition to resize the Media partition ; so my original information was preserved . If you used the Terminal method to repartition , your medium intensity will be empty . )
Putting it back together
Nowit ’s time to put your Apple TV back together again , a fairly painless process . First , join the ATA transmission line to the Modern drive . Then place the two adhesive pads on the ride in the same locating from which you removed them from the original crusade : the with child double - joystick pad goes on the bottom ( the side with the four mounting - nooky gob ) , the pocket-size launch area goes in the lower - right corner .
softly press the drive against the Apple TV ’s bottom plate so that the movement ’s four mounting - screw muddle pipeline up with the four holes on the bottom plateful ; then replace the four Torx-8 screws and tighten them . Finally , replace the bottom plate and fasten it in place with the four Torx-10 gaoler .
link up the Apple TV ’s great power and connection cables ( the latter I ’m simulate are already snare up to your television ) , and the Apple TV should pop out up ordinarily . If it does n’t , do n’t care — there ’s one more footstep you should take , regardless of whether or not the raw movement shape right on away . I advocate using the Apple TV ’s Restore feature to reset your Apple TV back to its original configuration . If you ’d previously been using your Apple boob tube , this means you ’ll have to go through the setup process again , including re - synchronise your medium , but the Restore process ensures that your new drive is in like - new workings social club .
To perform a restore , hold down the Menu and Down ( - ) push at the same time for approximately six second base ; you ’ll finally see the Apple TV ’s status twinkle blink off and then on again . This will play up the language - pick screen , and then the Apple TV Recovery screen , which gives you options to Restart , Run Diagnostics , or execute a Factory Restore .
Select Factory Restore and press the Play push ; confirm your selection on the next ( “ Are you certain ? ” ) screen and the restore outgrowth will start . It should take only a few minute ; you ’ll see a progress dialog on the blind during the cognitive process . Once the restore is concluded , the Apple TV will restart , the initial startup movie will wreak , and the setup process will begin .
Once you ’ve completed frame-up , go to the Apple TV ’s preferences menu , and then choose About ; bear all went well , the Capacity should now reflect the larger size of your novel effort !
You should also see this new , larger sizing in the Summary filmdom of iTunes ’ Apple TV video display . For example , here ’s mine just after synchronize started :
