![]() To keep things as simple as possible, and to allow for others to make the same changes, our engineer developed a workaround method using open source software. Plus, y’know, it’s more MacGuyver-y that way. That’s the method we’ll focus on here, since our engineer did not have access to the original DVR hardware. The other method does not require the DVR box. One includes using the original DirecTV or Dish Network box to allow for the drive to power on and spin up. The tricky part is gaining access to issue commands on the drive. The key to allowing regular usage of these hard drives is to disable Power-up in Standby. Feature: 0x07 (Spin up drive after power on).The relevant ATA Commands for PUIS feature set include: Most importantly for us, it details how the PUIS feature can be disabled using the SET FEATURES command. This document describes interactions with a device that implements Power-up in Standby and the related commands. ![]() You can read more about it here in the working draft of the ATA standard (see section 4.16 on page 38). This made sense, as how else would the drive know if it were in a DirecTV DVR system? Communication requires the drive be powered on.Įquipment manufacturers use this feature as a power management method to save a little energy and to avoid power spikes when multiple components are powered on at once. It would only spin up later, when issued an ATA command. As a result, the disk does not automatically spin up when power is applied. Our engineer found the drives had the Power-up in Standby (PUIS), or power management 4 mode (PM4), enabled in the hard disk configuration. ![]() Curious, we had an engineer investigate ways to unlock DVR hard drives. The owner just wanted to reclaim or re-purpose them for another use since he no longer used the DVRs (he had since upgraded to a fancy new DirecTV box). When put into a normal computer, they would not spin up or power on. However, the drives’ owner told us that they still worked fine in their original DirecTV DVR. There was some aspect of the drives that required the host to be the DVR for them to work. ![]() We recently came across something we hadn’t seen before with a couple hard drives, both from DirecTV DVR/receiver systems. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |