C++Talk.NET C++ language newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Ulta Low Level Hard Drive Access:          C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ language (comp.lang.c++) View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Erich Keane Guest Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:15 am    Post subject: Ulta Low Level Hard Drive Access: Ok, first a quick background: I, along with a small group of diehards came up with a way to disable the EU volume cap protection on the european ipods. Unfortunately, this way never caught on, as it is a VERY difficult process for people used to apple products to handle. Now, to solve the problem, and possibly make it more mainstream, i would like to create a C++ (or java, altho i hate the language, i also know a little about it) application to accomplish the task for the user. Herein lies the problem, i cannot for the life of me find any API or class file that will allow me to accomplish the specific tasks required. I believe it would require Very Very low level hard drive access, and some way to determine which drive is the ipod on everyones computer (ipod is treated as a standard Hard Disk by linux, only as an SDA device, if that helps), and accomplish the following processes (first on the win 2k/xp platform, then possibly on the osx platform): 1) Completely repartition a hard drive, including hidden partitions. The way the ipod is set up, there is 3 partitions, only 1 of which is viewable to the OS. AS read in osx #: type name length base ( size ) 1: Apple_partition_map partition map 62 @ 1 2: Apple_MDFW firmware 81920 @ 63 ( 40.0M) 3: Apple_HFS* disk 29215536 @ 81983 ( 13.9G**) Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=29215536 DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0 *can also be FAT32 for windows formatted ipods ** Can be anywhere from 10G(advertisers gb, not a real one, the 13.9 is supposedly a 15gb) worth, to now 40G worth. The 3rd partition is unimportant at the moment, only the first 2. 2) Write back a firmware image onto the MDFW partition from a binary file previously captured. EAsy enough. Basically, what needs to be done is the MDFW partition needs to be resized from 32 mb to 40mb and a new firmware file written back to it. If anyone has any information whatsoever on something that you think will help me with my task, i would be very gratefull. Thank you all, Erich Keane Back to top David White Guest Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2003 4:14 am    Post subject: Re: Ulta Low Level Hard Drive Access: Erich Keane <erich.keane (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote [snip] This is a long way from a C++ question. What you need is the relevant hardware or OS information, and once you get it you can write your code in any sufficiently capable language. This newsgroup is for _standard_ C++, so your question is off-topic here. DW Back to top Christian Gollwitzer Guest Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2003 10:03 pm    Post subject: Re: [OT] Ulta Low Level Hard Drive Access: Erich Keane wrote: Quote: 1) Completely repartition a hard drive, including hidden partitions. The way the ipod is set up, there is 3 partitions, only 1 of which is viewable to the OS. AS read in osx #: type name length base ( size ) 1: Apple_partition_map partition map 62 @ 1 2: Apple_MDFW firmware 81920 @ 63 ( 40.0M) 3: Apple_HFS* disk 29215536 @ 81983 ( 13.9G**) Device block size=512, Number of Blocks=29215536 DeviceType=0x0, DeviceId=0x0 *can also be FAT32 for windows formatted ipods ** Can be anywhere from 10G(advertisers gb, not a real one, the 13.9 is supposedly a 15gb) worth, to now 40G worth. The 3rd partition is unimportant at the moment, only the first 2. 2) Write back a firmware image onto the MDFW partition from a binary file previously captured. EAsy enough. Basically, what needs to be done is the MDFW partition needs to be resized from 32 mb to 40mb and a new firmware file written back to it. Although being Off-Topic here, it can be done on Linux within a shell-script, since you state the drive works the standard drivers (usb- mass storage, I suppose). So you can use the sfdisk program from a shellscript to create the new partition table, and then dd or cat or simple redirect from gzip to write the image. No problem with that. Creating an empty filesystem (="formatting") can be done using standard mkfs command. Since OSX has BSD kernel and UNIX-Tools installed, it should be possible to write similar program for OSX. BTW: Do you know about the legal consequences of what you are planning to do? -- Vale ! Christianus Auriocus Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         C++Talk.NET Forum Index -> C++ language (comp.lang.c++) All times are GMT Page 1 of 1   Jump to: Select a forum C/C++----------------C LanguageC Language (Moderated)C++ Language (Moderated)C++ language (comp.lang.c++)C++ language, library and standards Non-English C/C++ Newsgroups----------------C++ (German)C++ (French)  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2006 phpBB Group SEO toolkit © 2004-2006 webmedic.