Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Some members have reported having problems removing the hack from bogus memory chips. I have been experimenting with TestDisk to find an easier way to restore the chips correct size. Please read the guide completely before starting so that you understand the full process.

Using TestDisk you can delete the partition table completely and then create a new partition with Windows Disk manager. In over 20 tests on 5 different players the firmware remained intact. I have had no problems with this process but as all my players are legit I have not tested the process on a hacked chip so feedback would be appreciated.

You can download TestDisk HERE


Run TestDisk and select your player from the drives listed.
"BE VERY SURE YOU HAVE SELECTED THE RIGHT DRIVE BEFORE PROCEEDING. I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DELETE THE WRONG PARTITION BY MISTAKE"

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5554/td1hv5.jpg

Select the partition table type

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6721/td2tb4.jpg

Select the delete option

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1104/td7nd7.jpg

Press Y to confirm

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/2297/td4xq3.jpg

Then Y to reconfirm

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/5267/td8yf9.jpg

Then select OK and exit TestDisk

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1018/td9wk9.jpg

Disconnect your player then reconnect it. Now when you try to access your player Windows will give the following message.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/630/td15ph1.jpg

After deleting the partition and reconnecting the player open the Disk Tool and go to the Partition Encrypt tab. Move the slider all the way right then back all the way left and press the start button.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/854/peoe7.jpg

This will create a new partiton on your player and then format the drive and the hack should be removed and your chip reading the correct size.


Revised 12\10\2006

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

the correct link to download TestDisk is Here :)

OOOP's thanks ok1 :)

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

You are wellcome tadad1 :) thanks for my new name! :lol:

You put the link for TestDisk 6.4 and i put the link for TestDisk 6.3!

Here is the link for TestDisk 6.5 WIP for people wanna download it.
theses links are all for http://www.cgsecurity.org/os/win.pngwindows NT/XP/2000/2003

For other peple who want TestDisk for other systemes (http://www.cgsecurity.org/os/linux.png Linux, http://www.cgsecurity.org/os/macosx.png Mac OS X,....etc) you can get it from Here

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hello,

This tiny tool is amazing and free!
BTW, tested against my fake 4GB that is a 512 Mb Ram and here are results...

Before following the above advice, it was stating 474 MB, after the use of this tool it states... 470 MB... :/

Have any other people had encountered same problem or is it normal ?

Thanks

Gerome, The player locks off a certain amount of space for the firmware but the fact that you lost 4MB is interesting, I have not had this problem. Did you format the chip in fat or fat32?

Gerome, Could you do me a favour and use TestDisk to delete the partition again. unplug then reconnect the player, then open the MP3 Player Disk Tool and set it to do a Low Level format and tell me what results you get.

Thankyou.

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hi!
I tried this tool on a normal flash memory ( simple 128 Mb flash memory ) , well it works good but i had the same probleme as Gerome its when i formatted it usin FAT32, but its fixed when i used FAT :) , no chrged space its 0 Mb, but the memory volum its about 125 Mb, i think that 3 Mb is for the Boot sector! :)

ok1, I think you may be right. Fat32 seems to consume more space.

Hello,

I followed your path and then after partition deletion + unplug + replug my player, opened the MP3 Player Disk Tool i could not format it to low level 'Unable to format encypted...' messagebox error...
So I've been obliged to follow the entire description at the top of this topic, recreate a FAT partition and low level formatting it via MP3 Player Disk Tool, but it recognized it as a 470 Mb capacity this time... versus 474 MB before...
Is is normal ?

Gerome, There are a couple of reasons why this could be happening. Either your previous partition table had errors and the size was misread or the new partition table and bootsector are using more disk space. I have noticed that when I use Windows to Partition a harddrive it will leave a small amount unpartitioned. I will see if I can find a way to fix this. Thankyou for helping with the test though.

Gerome, I have repeated the process to delete the partition but then instead of partitioning it with Windows I have used the MP3 Player Disk Tool to add the new partition. After deleting the partition and reconnecting the player open the Disk Tool and go to the Partition Encrypt tab. Move the slider all the way right then back all the way left and press the start button.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/854/peoe7.jpg

Before doing this my player read as 2,039,545,856 bytes after it read as 2,045,247,488 bytes an extra 5 MB so I would say the problem has to do with Windows inefficient partitioning method. Can you try it and let me know if this recovers your 4MB?

Thanks Gerome.

Well my player was buggered anyways so I figured I would give this a shot before I returned it. It was supose to be 8GB and turned out to be 1GB. You can get more info on what player I had as well as pics at http://www.mympxplayer.org/viewtopic.php?p=10432#10432

Hello,

No :cry:
BTW, i wouls know if it is possible to find a tool that would recover or redo the MBR as it has be written but i think it'll be difficult to find sucha tool... :/

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hi!
I olso owned a 4GB Player, wich turned out to be an 512 MB one :( .

I ran testdisk on Ubuntu/Linux, but the hack was not removed, before i used the option
[ MBR Code ] Write TestDisk MBR code to first sector

After that I formated with "gparted" and there were 470MB left!
Tomorrow I will call my seller :twisted:

xandl12

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hello,

My seller is MARSDIGITAL.DE and it did not repond to me after several mails...

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

mine too!!

did you call them?


xandl12

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hi tadad1 :)

Have a question, its " is the boot sector related to the firmware?? "

I have an new mp4 player which has some problemes in booting, but i have some fears from osing the firmware!! :(

please tell me more detailes about that!

thanx!

ok1, What problems are you having?

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

tadad1 my probleme is that i have a new mp4 player, well when i connect it to the computer, computer detect it but then when i wanna browse or open it to see the files in the memory, computer shows the message " refused access! ".

Well when i connect it to computer its detcted so i can browse it, then when i close the browser window, then if wanna browse the mp4 player again, it shows that message!

What i understood from that message is that the boot sector has some problemes, and what i wanna do is to rebuild this boot sector!

But my fears is if i rebuilt that boot sector will i lose my firmware???
Is there any relation between the boot sector and the firmware???

Thanx!

[/u]I am giving a try..[b].

ok1, I have used testdisk to write a new boot sector to all of my players and it has had no effect on the firmware on any of them. I am not sure what is causing this problem for you but I my first thought was the disk may be encrypted so I suggest using the MP3 Disk Tools Partition Encrypt feature to rebuild the partition then give it a format.

Hi Iam probably being a bit thick here but I bought a hacked player off ebay and have followed your instructions. Where do I find the MP3 player disk tool?

thanks for any help

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Hello.
Yesterday I formatted the player using Disk Utility Tool and set the encryption disk capacity to MAXIMUM (and the clicked start).
This was probably a mistake.

Now I have only 46 MB available.
How can I fix it (the player is actually 4 GBIT or 512 MB) ?

PLEASE help me, cause I badly need the player with its actual capacity?

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

my player has the following chip

K9WAG08U1A

reported as without a doubt 2gig

when i tryed to recover it using these instructions to-2gig from its incorect size 4gig

it now thinks its actually 474.93meg

can i recover it to 2gig

i think a few people have had this /similar problem and a step by step is needed

dubiousjake, The MP3 Player Disk Tool is part of MP3 Player Utilities along wiyh the AMV Converter you will find several versions in the Downloads>Tools section.

alxndr, In the Partition Encrypt tab move the slider all the way left and press start.

dailyroach, The K9WAG08U1A is definatly 2GB so I am unsure what has happened. Could you run testdisk and use the Analyse option and take a screenshot of the information displayed and post it.
As for step by step I have included an image and outline for each step in the walkthrough there is nothing else I can add.

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

tadad1: Thank you for replying, but my problem seems to be unsolvable.

Yesterday I set the Encrypt capacity to MAX and clicked START, then again to MIN and formatted again.
And now my memory remained 46 MB, I tried different format methods, but its always detected as 46 MB, and so many are available for uploading Mp3s... :(

I cant handle this, yesterday the player was detected as 4 Gbit (512 MB) and now always as 46 MB.

How is it possible, obviously its not a hardware issue? :(

alxndr, What size does testdisk read your player as?

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Thank you tadad1 :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Here is a screenshot, the marked device is the player:

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/137...tledke1.th.jpg

It shows even less than 46 MB. Cant believe my eyes, how is it possible to reduce the memory via software, and to become a hardware change???

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

Found it and fixed it :)

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/dail...s/testdisk.htmheres a screenshot

Re: Wanted : Hacked chip recovery testers
 

sorry anyway the link is good im still umshure of posting images

alxndr, I can only suggest that there may have been a failure in the chip which is rare but not unheard of.

dailyroach, Sorry I can not make the link go anywhere.

i checked the link it works
heres the link again

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/dail...s/testdisk.htm

dailyroach,

Your chip is reading only 60 cylinders where a 2GB should read 248 cylinders.

You can try the following.
Go to the backup.log in the testdisk folder and open it with Notepad. Delete any entries that may be there and paste this

#1159608335 Disk /dev/sdd - 2039 MB / 1945 MiB - CHS 248 255 63
1 : start= 63, size= 3984057, Id=06, P

Then save the file.

Open Testdisk and go to the Geometry feature and press enter scroll left to Cylinders and press enter then change the setting to 248 press enter. Then scroll back to OK and then go to the Analyse option, when it is finished select quit and on the next screen enter L to load backup.

You should now be shown the partition information that you saved in the backup log highlighted in white. Press enter again you should now see the same info highlighted in green.

Press enter again then scroll right to highlight the write option at the bottom of the window. Then press enter and y to accept and then quit Testdisk. Unplug your player turn it off then back on then reconnect it.

Provided that your memory is not damaged and you have written the partition information for a 2GB chip to your player.

Let me know if this helped.