ChkFlsh method (revised)

[frozensoda]

Creds for original post go to skinski Here

NUMBER ONE MOST IMPORTANT CHECK YOUR DEVICE WITH H2TESTW.EXE BEFORE PROCEEDING.

download here and run the test. The only number your concerned with is how much is "OK"

sample:
The media is likely to be defective.
1.8 GByte OK <|-- this is the "Real" memory and this is the number you will be using in this tutorial.
58.6 GByte DATA LOST (122921617 sectors)
Details:710.5 KByte overwritten (1421 sectors)
7.6 MByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 15630 sectors)
58.6 byte corrupted (122904566 sectors)
710.5 KByte aliased memory (1421 sectors)
First error at offset: 0×000000003cef8470
Expected: 0xeb7ac43a237c5170
Found: 0xeb7a843a237c5170
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 9.24 MByte/s
Reading speed: 10.8 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4


This is a method of unhacking memory that has been very successful for me. I don't know who came up with it but i first read it by skinski.
With recent models of hacked players some of the old methods are no longer good. Such as MP3 utilities method. however i believe this method will always work.

Step one:
Download ChkFlsh here and extract it.

Step two: Open ChkFlsh you should see this:



Step Three: Choose the letter of your drive in the dive box, Then choose "As physical device".



Step Four: Now scoll down in the actions box and click on Low level initialization.



Step Five: Now here's where it gets debatable. I'm going to show you the method i use. I do not know if it is the correct, or if its the only way. But it always works for me. Click Start! You will see this:



Step Six: If there is any partitions on the list delete them. Now, Create a partition in slot 0 and make it around 1800 MB and FAT32. (this is if the hacked player is a 2GB the idea is to get as close to the real memory, without going over, as possible.



Step Seven: Now click OK. Then in slot 1(not slot 0) make a new partition that's FAT16 and as low memory as you can make it without hitting 0.



Step Eight: Almost done! Now click on slot 0 again and click activate on the menu.



Step Nine: Now that you have activated partition 0 click OK and you will get this message:



Step Ten: Click yes and wait for a few seconds until you get this message:



Step Eleven: Now DO NOT CLOSE THAT BOX YET first unplug the device from the usb and plug it back it. When you hear the sound of windows recognizing the device, then close the box. Your done with ChkFlsh. Just one more step.

Step Twelve: Now open my computer and find your device. Right click on it and click format. Then switch the type to FAT32 if it isnt already. It should look like this:



Click Start, wait for the OK message, AND your DONE! yay.

tutorial made with print scrn and paint by me

P.S. I just want to clear a few things up, 1. I am not an expert and my knowledge is limited to experimentation. 2. I don't think the small fat16 partition is necessary but what it does is put the real memory at the end of the chip so it cant go beyond. and 3. I think this is just for AK2025 type players but I may be wrong.

[meerkat8472]

Hello frozensoda
I have tried your method but there is a problem. After selecting Low Leven Initialization and clicking Start I get the following error appearing in a dialog box.

This device is formatted as "big floppy" drive and not contain partition table. Do you want to generate black partition table for manual filling?
This change is DESTRUCTIVE and will be written to disk only after you complete process of partitioning.
Yes No

That is exactly the message that I get, bad grammar and all. I have twop questions.
1. What is a "big floppy"?
2. What the smeg can I do about it? I mean will this method work or is something about my player incompatible?

[frozensoda]

Yes, I have encountered this message before. When I got it i pressed yes and it went to the partition table. Have you tried clicking yes? or am i missing something?

[meerkat8472]

Hello frozensoda
Yes I tried that. It does indeed bring up a blank partition table. I then follow all your instructions from there on in. It does nothing, everything appears to happen as you describe but the fake memory size remains after the unplug/replug part. Once again any help you (or anyone else) could provide would be most appreciated.

[frozensoda]

Sorry if I sound condescending but you didn't close the box before you replugged it did you? also what kind of player is it? can you upload a picture?

ALSO after this process is done chkflash and any other program will still see the full 8GB hacked memory, however what this process accomplishes is to unformat all the space except what you want. So to tell if it really worked format in windows with a right click like the last step if that still has the unhacked number then something went wrong.

one more thing to try is reverse the order in which you make the partitions, in other words put the small partition in slot 0 and the full one in slot 1. Then replug and you should see a drive pop up witha very small amount of memory after this run chkflash again and move partition 1 up to 0 and activate it. Then finish replug and format.

[meerkat8472]

Hello again frozensoda
Something has gone wrong alright. Firstly, no I didn't close the dialog box before replugging the device and making sure the system could see it, but I don't mind you checking these things, I think it's important to be thorough. Secondly, I tried your suggestion of putting the small partition first then running chkflsh again and switching them, it didn't work. After the first time through I ran chkflsh again and got the same "big floppy" error and the partition table was blank again (doesn't matter whether I click yes or no). It's like it never copied the data to the drive in the first place even though it reported no errors. As for my player I don't have a camera handy but here is the codes written on the three chips that are on its board:

Chip 1:
ATJ2137N
ZA600BB 18P

Chip 2:
SEC KOREA 807
KM416S4030AT
UZK593BB

Chip 3:
SAMSUNG 949
K9GAG08U0M-PCB0

[frozensoda]

Download HP usb tool here and just format in fat32 and try the process again. But don't use the usb tool to do the last step in the process or it wont work use right click format.

note: formatting will destroy your device for now, but wont ruin the firmware, just format in fat32.

[meerkat8472]

Hello again frozensoda
I tried your idea of using the hp format tool first and got some interesting results. Firstly, when I got to the low level initialization part the error message was different. It read:

Current Master Boot Record (MBR) may be corrupt. Do you want to replace it?

I said yes and proceeded as normal from there. I then did the right click format on the drive but the number was still the same, I formatted it anyway. I then went back to chkflsh to see what it thought was there. I got the same "big floppy" error as before but this time I answered no so I could see the partition table as it was without chkflsh erasing it. this is what the partition table showed:
partition table.jpg
So now I'm really confused. Should I just start over or what? Oh, and thank you very much for trying to help by finding a similar device and trying to figure it out, do you have a lot of these type of players? Anyway thanks again
meerkat8472

[frozensoda]

I almost want to say try doing it without rebuilding the MBR but Idk what will happen.

p.s. if you can find a way to get a pic of your mp4, even if you grab it from ebay, that would be great.

[meerkat8472]

Hello frozensoda
I tried it again without rebuilding the MBR, didn't work. Anyway here are two pictures from the ebay listing that I bought it from. I think it adequately shows all major sides of the player.
mp4pic1.jpg
mp4pic2.jpg
Thanks again for all your help.