yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
If you are certain the disk is exactly the same size, then you did it right.

Does it boot up the logo in any way? Or is it just black screen?
[Shield Android TV General] manny71:
Yes is the same size! When I connect it to the TV it is as if it does not connect anything, the TV stays as if it did not connect anything, previously with the damaged hard disk it was the black screen. Maybe, as it's a sshd drive, need have to leave it longer

My question is- What kind of format is used on that hard drive for Android I guess ext4?
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
It should at least boot to the splash screen or even to the animated logo.

This means that the SATV does not detect the disk. Look for loose connections or damage to the ribbon cable or board inside.

The format is proprietary GPT and a mix of different partition types. Some are indeed ext4, but some are just raw data I suppose.
[Shield Android TV General] manny71:
It's the second time I've tried, but Nvidia does nothing

This is what you see in the linux terminal when I run the commands, I think it's fine, right?
[Shield Android TV General] manny71:
In the terminal you can see that you have done the process, but on the other hand you do not see anything copied on the disk, I think I did not copy anything. Which gives me to think that it does not work on sshd hard drive
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
You did not do the writing process wrong. But you have to understand that, you can't see the contents of the disk yourself.

The partition layout is unique to the Shield, so only the shield can read it.

You have another problem, and unfortunately it's most likely hardware related.
[Shield Android TV General] manny71:
Yes it's true! I'm going to check the SATA cable. Because before with the damaged disk made the attempt to boot and now does not want to do anything. It is possible that the movement has been damaged
[Shield Android TV General] allcius:
Hi all,

I somehow lost access to Widevine L1 and now i am at L3. (no Netflix and Amazon).

By using the files at the first post do you guys still have Widevine L1 or are you able to have Netflix HD.
[Shield Android TV General] Altaman:
One strange thing I have discovered and this is with migrating my sdhd to ssd.

With ssd I can not get 3840x2160 resolution but with the original sdhd I can in kodi 17x. Anyone have any thoughts, ideas or can you get the above in kodi 17x.
[Shield Android TV General] fr500:
I'm on the same boat, I bricked my shield somehow so I used this image to restore it but now I have no netflix at all or amazon video...

Seems I lost my ESN, any ideas on how to restore or maybe get the ESN from another device?
[Shield Android TV General] armitagebron:
Can I make it with non-500GB drive? I want to put a Kingston's 240GB SSD. Could I replace it with this or others volumes?

Thank you!
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Read my guide:

https://xdaforums.com/shield-tv/general/guide-migrate-to-ssd-hdd-size-satv-pro-t3440195

It'll get you in the right direction!
[Shield Android TV General] bradleyw801:
I have tried to search the thread, but can't seem to find an answer. Maybe I am oversimplifying this, but can't I just put both the original Shield hard drive, and the new (same size/capacity) SSD into one of these(https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...=1492809151&sr=8-3&keywords=hard+drive+cloner), hit clone, and then put in the SSD into the Shield?

Do I have to go through the process with Linux commands and use the image from the OP? Or can I just clone it? I happen to have this exact cloner at work. Thanks in advance.
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
In theory yes you could try a standard cloning, some have had luck with this and some others don't.

I would suggest using dd to clone from disk to disk
[Shield Android TV General] Altaman:
That is what I did, I made an image of my drive with dd then dded the image to the ssd and it works like a charm.
[Shield Android TV General] bradleyw801:
Thank you for the info. I don't have access to a Linux box, and I am honestly pretty unfamiliar with Linux, but I think I will try the cloner/duplicator, and worst case scenario, I end having to put Linux on my PC and do the dd thing. Thanks!
[Shield Android TV General] bradleyw801:
For anyone interested, I was able to use an external hard drive duplicator. (this one https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...=1492809151&sr=8-3&keywords=hard+drive+cloner)

I cloned it to a 500gb Samsung Evo 850 SSD. It worked perfectly. Things that may be relevant:

The SSD was brand new, I had never formatted it.

My device was unlocked, with stock recovery, no TWRP or anything.

The two drives were the exact same size.

I did nothing at all to the original SSHD after removal, never plugged it into anything but the cloner.

I didn't use a computer of any kind for anything.​

After cloning, I turned my device on, and it booted up immediately! In fact, this first boot illustrated how much faster it boots than before. I immediately tested Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu, and all were in tact and working exactly as before. Aside from the usual "it feels much snappier", which could be placebo, there are some clear improvements in speed. I notice dramatic improvements in boot up time, loading movies that are stored locally is faster with no pause at all, (even large files) and I have seen a slight, (but still measurable) improvement in frame rate with dolphin emulator (and less crashes). Apps and games that would crash seem more stable, and native apps that had long load times load faster.

In addition to all that, I am glad I did this because I have a first generation pro, and I never knew how long the spinning disk would last. It's nice to know if something ever goes wrong with this drive, I have an image and I can restore and replace with a simple clone.

I learned a few things with removing the drive, and put together a YouTube Video. Make sure to turn on CC, so you can read my advice since I removed the audio. Here are some photos, and a link to the video. https://youtu.be/LLPyPAgnaFA
[Shield Android TV General] hennessy1:
Is there a particular way I need to format the drive before putting the files at the beginning and end?
[Shield Android TV General] KingOtto:
Unlocked bootloader

It's necessary to unlock the bootloader, before cloning and swapping the sshd to a ssd? If, why?
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
If you clone it 1:1 it shouldn't be necessary.

If you can't boot it afterwards for some reason, then it's not a problem to do the boot loader unlock after that.
[Shield Android TV General] KingOtto:
It worked. I just cloned it 1:1 on an 850 Evo and it booted immediately. Great primeday wharehouse deal, 335€ for the pro and the evo :)
[Shield Android TV General] Sub-Negro:
I am about to buy one right now
[Shield Android TV General] nex86:
I'm about to clone the original 500GB drive to a 1TB WD10JPVX.

Also, Is there a way to extend the data partition without root?

or do I have to do this on a PC under Linux using parted?

And the blocksize would also always be 4M does it matter?

I'm thinking of doing the cloning like "if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4M"

whatever the drives name will be...
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
The procedure to clone the drive to any other sized disk is not just plug and play.

You have to hex edit the GPT header to make it recognisable in the SATV.

Follow my guide to make it work:

https://xdaforums.com/shield-tv/general/guide-migrate-to-ssd-hdd-size-satv-pro-t3440195
[Shield Android TV General] fr500:
Hi

I used this method to recover my ATV pro that I killed doing... something I don't remember. I used a german image someone posted.

But I haven't figured out a way to restore widevine / DRM keys...

Any assistance?
[Shield Android TV General] mikty:
Hi, Since bradleyw801 post this, I have bought a shield tv pro 500 2017 and samsung ssd evo 850 500g with duplicator Sabrent.

must I have to clone the hdd before the first start of the shield (never power on) or clone after the first start and settings are done ?

Can you confirm if the boot unlock is necessary ? or if I could clone it without nothing else.

thanks for your answers

regards
[Shield Android TV General] mikty:
So I manage to clone hdd on samsung ssd with a sabrent duplicator but no luck. Original hdd boot but ssd nope.:(:(

I will try using linux and dd copy

edit: so with these instructions below

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luxferro

source_hd to image

Code:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/folder_path/shield.img

image to new_hd

Code:

dd if=/folder_path/shield.img of=/dev/sdX

it does the trick and work nicely so the solution is Linux to be sure to make and exact copy of the hdd.

thanks to all
[Shield Android TV General] Sandman1210:
Can't be more specific? I'm trusting you.

My Shield Pro 2015 HD crashed. It had unlocked bootloader, achieved root, custom recovery / pure Android OS, and SU. I have an external 256GB SanDisk Ultra Pro and 128Gb micro SD. Recently found a new Shield Pro 2015 on Amazon. I have yet to tamper with it. I wish to resurrect the non functional Shield Pro and change to a SSD on the new Shield Pro. I believe that you changed to the Samsung Evo SSD. Could you contact me with perhaps a Pastebin or Gdrive link. I have Linux as a boot option or perhaps could build a machine while still in Windows. I am however, very limited in Linux. Thank you very much. I'm trusting you.
[Shield Android TV General] werpu:
No absolutely not, I yesterday did the ssd swap on my untampered Shield Pro 2015. The bootloader was never unlocked, all you basically have to do is to make a byte by byte duplication of your hdd into your ssd via dd. Also do yourself a favor and store a disk image for recovery purposes as backup, if something fails in the future while you are at it.
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
Please give detailed instructions

Hello

I have an Ubuntu VM running within a Win 10 host. The 500GB SSD is connected to the Win10 (USB to SATA adapter), just initialized (its status is raw, it is not formatted). Despite searches I've done, I could not find the way to make this physical disk mounted within Ubuntu. Could someone show me the path to achieve that?

Thank you
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
So after much digging I finally succeeded to transfer the binaries to the SSD.

1/Connect the SSD once the Guest OS is up and running (and not before).

$ sudo lshw -class disk -short will list all connected disks. Write down the name of the SSD logical disk, mine was sdb

2/ Install VMWare tools within Ubuntu in order to access the binaries that have been downloaded in Windows.

I had to install ifconfig command prior to that

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install net-tools

3/ In VMWare, set a shared folder where the binaries are sitting

4/ $ cd /mnt/hgfs/shared_folder

5/ Then

$ sudo dd if=start.bin of=/dev/sdb bs=4M

$ sudo dd if=end_976574630.bin of=/dev/sdb seek=976574630

End
[Shield Android TV General] jasonr1023:
Easy way to migrate to the SSD

I picked up a 2 bay hard drive duplicator:

Sabrent EC-HDD2

I plugged in the original drive to slot 1.

I plugged in the 500gb EVO into slot 2.

Hit the button to clone the disk...

Took about 1hour.

Popped the SSD into the shield, it booted right up!

Netflix works.

It even brought over all of the changes I had made to the original disk (apps, netflix login, etc)

Have fun!
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
Failed to get Google cast working

I managed to install the SSD into the unit. Booted Ok, made all updates up to Shield Exp 6.0. Everything went smoothly albeit quite long (two 1Gb updates to download). Anyhow I was very happy to see everything working as expected, until I discovered that Google casting did not work. I spent hours to try to fix, no success.

So I decided to go this route, with another brand. I hit the clone button, forgot it for a few hours (so I can't report how much time it took). Bingo!! Works like a charm. Looking back, when I think to the time I spent to set up the VM machine, etc. etc. I wish I would have tried this solution first that took just 5 minutes of my time.
[Shield Android TV General] vission1:
Do you think this version would also work?

https://www.sabrent.com/product/DS-2SSD

Thanks
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
Cloning disk

On the paper yes. As some have already reported, it is key to have a target disk of the same size as the source disk
[Shield Android TV General] stephenharrington:
Newbie Questions

Hello All,

New here, please be kind! :)

Have just acquired nVidia Shield TV Pro 500GB 2017 model a couple of weeks ago, now have it all nicely setup for TV/Plex/Netflix etc.

Don't intend to use it for games. Bought 500GB model mainly for the additional Plex database etc storage, content is on Synology NAS.

Anyway, all good, but it worries me that I have no system backup, goes against my practice! :)

Have been trying to digest this thread as I would love to put in a 500GB SSD both for the speedup/reliability and to have a backup drive/image backup if anything fails.

I can see some fantastic work has been done and I commend you all!

I don't need bigger drive so happy to go with the "proved" 500GB Samsung EVO 850 and to just clone my current setup to avoid problems with Netflix ESN, Google Cast etc.

Have ordered a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD and a Sabrent DS-2SSD USB Dual Dock/Duplicator.

Wish to just do a straight bit-for-bit "clone", but I see varying reports here about whether using the Duplicator function of the Sabrent Dock, or doing it in Linux using the DD commands mentioned in these threads will give success? I see reports of both working, and also reports of them not?

So I'm slightly confused about which I should try?

Also, I seem to be seeing conflicting advice about whether one should attempt to remove the SATA flexi-cable from the mainboard end, or just leave it alone and get the drives out/in leaving it still connected, which I assume must be possible?

Does anyone who has done it have any sage advice to help me?

Any tips about the physical side of the drive removal operation etc ....

Any opinions about why some people get the "DD" clone and the Sabrent Duplicate to work, and others don't?

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Stephen Harrington
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
Cloning

As said in my posts 367 and 368, taking the path of a unix copy is quite a long road, and despite the fact it seemed to be working, at the end I noticed that no matter the efforts I did, no way to get Google cast working. The second path, with the cloning hardware, hit copy, go for a walk, install the cloned SSD. Working.

Not difficult to chose the easiest and successfull path, isn't it?
[Shield Android TV General] stephenharrington:
Thanks for the confirmation, and that is certainly what I intended to try first based on your posts. It doesn’t give me an image file that I could restore to another SSD in case of failure as the DD Linux copy would as it would have no working Google Cast, but at least I’d have the original SSHD spinning rust as a working backup I guess, which goes a long way to achieving my aim.

Any comments from you or anyone on the disassembly/removal of the drive and the best way to deal with it? I thought I’d be able to find an iFixit Guide or similar but so far can only find a fairly uninformative YouTube clip. I’m wary of breaking the SATA Flexi-cable in particular based on the odd tidbit I’m reading here and around the place.

Thanks Again,

Stephen Harrington
[Shield Android TV General] number8.1:
Once the plastic back cover is removed, I removed the two black tapes ( be gentle), and then I had no issues removing the two small connectors and then the sata connector. There is a small as well to unscrew.
[Shield Android TV General] stephenharrington:
Thanks for all that, will have all the bits on hand within next couple of weeks to attempt this and will report back once I've given it a go.
[Shield Android TV General] vanzan:
Is it absolutely necessary to use the Sabrent Cloning device? Could I not remove the SSHD, stick it in an enclosure and clone it with regular drive cloning software?
[Shield Android TV General] vanzan:
Right I purchased a disk cloner (an Inateck one as the Sabrent isn't for sale in my neck of the woods). I also purchased a 500GB Samsung 850 Evo. To the guys that did it this way did you do a factory reset before doing the clone on the drive? I read the full thread here and it's not quite definitively stated. Obviously I'd like to keep all my settings etc but not if it will affect performance of the SSD. Thanks.
[Shield Android TV General] JeffDC:
500GB or larger, if cloning the drive via Sabrent 3.5in HDD, SSD with Hard Drive Duplicator/Cloner Function?

Is the connector on the internal hard drive SATA connector?

---------- Post added at 04:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:06 AM ----------

I'd think that would work if the software is doing a byte by byte clone, something like Casper, for Windows
[Shield Android TV General] aramadrian:
Is CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) OS X Software usable to do the same job?
[Shield Android TV General] JeffDC:
I haven't used a backup/CCC in a while on my Mac, but my poor memory says yes.

... but confirm that with someone or the site.
[Shield Android TV General] stephenharrington:
As promised, I'm reporting back, but with bad news at this stage.

I used a brand new Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD and a Sabrent DS-2SSD USB Dual Dock/Duplicator.

Cloning took around 1 hr 40 minutes, all appeared to proceed OK.

Put SSD back in Shield TV and powered it up, nothing :)

No boot, no messages on screen, not even a flicker of output.

Double-checked connections, tried again, still nothing.

Put original SSHD back in, powered back up and running as per normal.

Any clues or thoughts as to what is going on and what I should try next?

Maybe that particular model Sabrent doesn't cut it?

StephenH
[Shield Android TV General] retroben:
Is the SSHD a really crappy one or something,what's the specs of the SSHD?

I read that SSHD is only 1-2 seconds slower than a standard SSD.

Edit: BTW why does the info lie halfway with it saying HDD?

Is it really a full HDD or the proclaimed SSHD? (SSHD is supposedly faster)
[Shield Android TV General] AndroiderM:
Not really sure on the specs, just like to get rid of mechanical drive without needing a 16gb w adoptable storage
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
That's the point in my opinion too.

I made a new torrent and I'll put it available with an other means. I suppose my ISP does not want to support torrents and is the reason to these difficulties.

You need to download this new attached torrent, because first one is not valid any more.
[Shield Android TV General] AndroiderM:
Can you post on mega or Dropbox? Are you sure it won't work on a 256gb ssd? What are your steps did you just clone the original drive? Nobody is going to seed this cause they have no idea what it is to download it in the first place.
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
I did try myself to make 320GB HD without luck. It has to be 500GB to make it boot.

I'm going to put it on my own FTP server if the torrent will not work in next 12 hours.
[Shield Android TV General] AndroiderM:
Well I give up on your torrent at 0kbs, if you decide to upload to mega or Dropbox I'll give it a go. The Samsung Evos are relatively cheap now compared to when I bought my 840 pro. If it fails I can always return to Amazon. Is there a huge difference in load times, android games are relatively lite anyway compared to consol or pc titles.
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
There seems to be some hope now, because at least one of you managed to download it and an other is on it's way.

Let's hope this will give much more bandwidth as there hopefully will be others to seed it too.

B.T.W. Remember, it's the second torrent that will work. First one is not valid any more.
[Shield Android TV General] polve72:
Ok, downloaded 3.3GB file. Now I'm waiting ssd from amazon and then I'll try.

One simple question: 2 bin files for 2 partitions, is it possible to know how do you make it or extract this partition from the original hard disk?

Sorry for my bad english, Polve
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
The binaries are not partitions. There is more than 10 partitions on the disk. The binaries will make them all. That's why the binaries must be put exactly to the location I tell in the instructions and that's also why this method does not work with smaller disk.

After booting twice as the instruction tell you to do, you will have a normal genuine Nvidia Shield TV Android on the disk and you can do with it everything you can do with original device. You can put a custom ROM on it if you will and there is not a risk of making a brick because you can always start again with these files and instructions.

The next step would be trying if this works for a bigger 1TB or 2TB drive as well. I suppose Nvidia Android can take extra space in use by itself while it boots up. But this is yet only a guess. I do not know yet if it really will do it.

B.T.W If you have any 500GB 2,5" SATA drive, you can give it a try. It has not to be SSD but a normal HDD will do just fine.
[Shield Android TV General] polve72:
Thanks of the info, another question, I don't understand where exactly I must copy the 2 bin files before run the DD command in the instructions.

Inside the new SSD? and if it's so which file system I must use on the ssd?

Thx a lot, Polve
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
You need a computer with enough storage space on it. Then you put the files on the computers own HDD (or similar media) and write them to the SSD from computer HDD.

SSD must be connected to the same computer with some means so that it can be written to. If you have spare SATA port, you can use it. If you can connect SSD through USB adapter, it will also do. Only important thing is that you can write the SSD from this computer.

I wrote the instruction to Linux because I dont know if there is any Windows software to write the end binary on the SSD. Linux can do it just fine.
[Shield Android TV General] evilracer123:
It doesn't matter where you put them except they can't be on the SSD. They can be basically anywhere else in your PC.
[Shield Android TV General] polve72:
As I supposed

Polve
[Shield Android TV General] NiHaoMike:
It is possible to add SATA to the 16GB version. It just takes some rather intricate soldering and a little hacking of the device tree file.

http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/teardown-nvidia-shield-tv/msg944285/#msg944285

I added a 2TB HDD to mine, but I'm waiting for the 3.2 update before I make a guide on how to do it and have Android mount the disk automatically.
[Shield Android TV General] Tilator:
That's great news for Pro version users too, because knowing which wire is used to SATA transfer makes it possible to make a custom SATA cable. Nvidias own "stripe" does not look like a long lasting version if it was taken out and put again in multiple times.

Pro version boots from SATA and 16GB version of cource from EMMC. Do you know if this can be changed? The device must have some kind of first/second stage boot method which is independent of whether there is HDD or not. It will be those stages to determine where OS booting is made from. It might be so, that this early stage booting process is something we still can't change. Pro version has an emty EMMC. That's why it's sure it boots from HDD. I did flash Pro version EMMC with 16GB EMMC image but still it does not boot from EMMC. This is why I suppose it has early stage boot method to determine where OS will be found from. Of cource other possibility is simpy I got something wrong in flashing EMMC.

Anyways my goal was to make it possible to prepare a hard disk "from scratch" to boot Pro version. With this ability you are more free to try different configurations. If you end up with a brick unbricking is just reflashing HDD to start from the beginning. This process is independent of disk type. That's why it works with SSD as well as with HDD.
[Shield Android TV General] polve72:
I can confirm, IT WORKS; I used same HD of Tilator (samsung 500GB).

Now it's downloading Geforce Experience 3.1.

Thx a lot

Polve