yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Shield Android TV General] grizzlema:
So i got this error when i tried to write my lastpart.bin file from the shields hdd. it still wrote a 5K file but i dunno if its safe or not. Any thoughts?

F:\Downloads\Shield\TV\dd>dd if=\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0 of=lastpart.bin skip=976773158 bs=512

rawwrite dd for windows version 0.6beta3.

Written by John Newbigin <jn@it.swin.edu.au>

This program is covered by terms of the GPL Version 2.

skip to 500107856896

Error reading file: 27 The drive cannot find the sector requested

10+0 records in

10+0 records out

Also when i dd -list my Samsung EVO drive i get this

\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition0

link to \\?\Device\Harddisk3\DR8

Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512

size is 500107862016 bytes

\\?\Device\Harddisk3\Partition1

link to \\?\Device\HarddiskVolume15

Fixed hard disk media. Block size = 512

size is 500107827200 bytes

Windows only sees it having one partition in the device manager and even in disk part. I wonder why its showing up with 2 with the DD command.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Well in this situation, the only thing I can think of is that you didn't choose the right device to read from.

With the dd --list output you have to look for a device with the size of 500107862016 bytes and choose the one that fits.

The reason why the dd command lists your disk as having two partitions is not because it has two partitions.

The partition0 is the whole disk, whilst the one with partition1 in it, is the disk without the disk headers.

So it's really a "virtual" partition0.

When you want to read or write the headers then it's the partition0 you should address, ignoring the other "partitions".

If you can't get it to work using dd for Windows I really suggest you try a Linux setup instead. It can even be done using a live CD/DVD/USB.
[Shield Android TV General] papo72:
Hi guys, I have a question, I swapped original disk with an sad samsung 840 EVO 250GB. I used my firstpart.bin file and I used the secondpart downloaded from here.

When I turn shield tv on, I see android logo and boot animation (colored circle), I waited for about 20min but nothing happens.

Power button don't work so I must disconnect power cable. And when I reconnect it, I see only black screen.

I've tried to boot in fast boot mode but without success.

I need some help, what can I do? what is my mistake?

Sorry for my bad English Papo72
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Try write the firstpart.bin to SSD again.

Then run fdisk -l to determine the accurate size of your SSD in bytes.

Use this tool from post 3 to patch your original lastpart.bin, and write that again as well.

Try boot it up after that, it shouldn't take long to do.
[Shield Android TV General] papo72:
I'll try it.

I think I can use lastpart250.bin from this site because my HD is the same and have the same number of bytes as Marski1969 ssd. (https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=69422304&postcount=78)
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Well, that sounds reasonable. Please report back your results. :)
[Shield Android TV General] jdmst7101:
Thanks for all those who contributed to this project. You have helped me revive a dead shield.

I have a dead drive and dead shield.... But I have been able to get my shield working with tilators files but no Netflix is a little annoying.

Does anyone have a source for a firstpart.bin file that will work in the US for Netflix?

I tried ddrescue to pull my first part and lastpart file in Linux but wasn't able to get it.

Thanks, John
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
I don't think it matters that you live in the US. Mine is imported from the states, but I live in Europe.

What matters is that your Netflix has to have a Unique ESN. It resides somewhere in the partition layout, but unfortunately I do not know where.

Maybe if you know about someone who has a SATV, but don't use Netflix, you could clone it from there.
[Shield Android TV General] gutter:
Thanks for the guide...does anyone know the max height of the 2.5 drive that will fit? Will it fit the larger 4TB 2.5 drives?
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
No, unfortunately only the "slim-fit" drives fit in the SATV.

I tried with an only slightly larger 750 GB HDD, and that didn't fit.
[Shield Android TV General] se1000:
Wrestled with this for a while yesterday on a 2017 Shield TV Pro and a 256GB Crucial SSD. Couldn't get it to work. :(

Kept getting stuck at the google animation (four dots) and wouldn't go past.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Did you unlock the bootloader beforehand?

Please attach your modified lastpart.bin for the 256GB SSD.

Please also attach the output from fdisk -l on the SSD, then I'll try guide you through a solution.
[Shield Android TV General] jdmst71:
Update for anyone struggling and how I got this running.

My hard drive was failing but I was able to pull the start file off the old drive in Linux after a disk repair process. I first got tilators available start and end files to boot on my shield as a test and this worked. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to boot with my start.bin files and the publicly available last.bin file for a 500gb drive. So I installed tilators files again for start and end and I got the shield booting. His start file is 7.7 gb where mine is 3.5 (maybe the extra data was interfering with my start.bin file booting properly since my file wax smaller) but i am not really sure how that affected all this. No Netflix and Amazon annoyed me so I decided to play some more.

I installed my start.bin file again but it wouldn't boot beyond the loading screen dots even after a 2nd cold boot. I went into recovery (you have to plug the shield into your computer usb with a micro usb cable to do this process but drivers and any pc input are not needed). Instructions to boot recover kernel are found with a quick Google search about shield pro recovery boot. From there I cleared the cache and did a factory reset despite I never got a boot. When I then restarted the shield it booted up quicker than ever and I got my files working and have a shield better than ever with regards to speed.

Long story short. Try a cache clear and factory reset in recovery if you can't boot. My shield was not and has never been bootloader unlocked so this was all factory settings.
[Shield Android TV General] somo67:
please help

hello

i have samsung ssd 830 512 gb

sectors : 1000215200

size : 512110182400

i dumped the first part like this : dd if=/dev/sdc of=firstpart.bin count=6899870

and the last part like this : dd if=/dev/sdc bs=512 skip=976773158 of=lastpart.bin

then i used anchung.chen method to generate the last part

then i used this command to format my ssd dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc

finaly i placed the first part like this : dd if=firstpart.bin of=/dev/sdc

and the last part like this : dd if=new_lastpart.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=512 seek=1000215190 (my sdd sector count -10)

i pluged the nvidia shield and waited for 15 min, then unpluged the power then plug it again. nothing happened, just the green light is on. no boot nothing :(
[Shield Android TV General] Ichijoe:
As I have read this thread, and you should have too! That would have been the expected out outcome or? I suspect you have to first create the correct Partitions on the new SSD first. Barring that at least One proper ext4 Partition? What I'm fairly sure is a stock SSD that has been formated in some M$ Format or other probably won't do jack, as Android / Linux as a rule doesn't read NTFS.

---------- Post added at 10:51 ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 ----------

One other thing it's NOT the (Netflix), ESN that'll be the problem here. As this is usually, randomly generated anyway. What is IMHO is the loss of the unique Device Keys needed to enable Widevine L1. Installing this presumably overwrites these keys, and will cause the Shield to drop down to Widevine L3 (e.g. The lowest Field Set). Apperently L2, and L1 Can only be setup at the Factory.

As such it's not only Netflix that'll land on the bad side of this if you either can't, or won't be able to backup those Keys. Cause Amazon also refuses to work as well. I'm not exactly in a position to test it. But, it's to be presumed that other services such as HBO Go will probably also not work. Unless you have a 1:1 copy of the SSHD.
[Shield Android TV General] somo67:
you mean i should format the ssd to ext4 ?!! then write the first part like this : dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=firstpart.bin count=6899870

and the second part like this : dd if=new_lastpart.bin of=/dev/sdc1 bs=512 seek=1000215190 (c is my ssd, and c1 is the first partition after format)
[Shield Android TV General] Ichijoe:
Ok I was wrong you apperently don't have to partition the Drive first. I thought that you had to. But, apperently dd will make a 1:1 block transfer.

So the next question is are you using A 500Gb flat HDD/SSHD/SSD? Or a slightly different sized one? On this I am way more confidant that you will need to hex edit the correct LBA Address of the Drive in question. You can review this Thread again for more info.

Just be careful to not overwrite the Original Drive if you wish to continue to use DRMed OTT Services.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Well, to me it definitely looks like you did all the steps correct.

It should at latest boot up, and give you the Nvidia splash, and maybe the animated android logo.

You do not have to do any partitioning first. This procedure writes the partition array and the GPT header.

If I were you, I would l begin by opening the shield again, and check if the sata cable sits correct in the connectors. Or worse, something could be damaged or a plug that you forgot maybe.
[Shield Android TV General] jdmst71:
Check all the internal connectors to make sure all is plugged in. Let the shield boot up and then play with the hdmi cable by moving it around slowly and see if you get any image on the screen. I had the same issue and it is either my hdmi cable or the shield connector is getting loose. Once I got that sorted as the blank screen problem I finally got a boot by doing the procedure I mentioned a few posts back because I wasnt getting past the loading dots.
[Shield Android TV General] somo67:
the original sshd is working perfectly, i tryed again the ssd and checkd the connection but nothing happened. i also run the shield without cover to see if the fan spins, but its not spinning at all (wheni connect the sshd its spins 3 minutes after booting) also no heat near the cpu.

i think its something with the new update, my original sshd is updated to the latest software and i didnt want to make reset.

dont know what to do else, maybe i should plug the network cable also !!

thank you all for the reply
[Shield Android TV General] Ichijoe:
If you not using an exact 500Gb SSD, than you might have to fix a few checksums to make it work. it's a bit late for me but, if we can use any size HDD now. Than I might try installing it on a spare 250GB that I have laying 'round somewhere. Just for kicks.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
If it just works when you plug in the original SSHD, then I'm stomped.

Have you tried hooking the SSD up to a computer afterwards, to see if it's still working?

It shouldn't matter that you updated the Shield. At any point you should see the splash screen at least. It really sounds like the shield refuses to start when you connect the SSD.
[Shield Android TV General] jdmst71:
Did you test the hdmi cable by jiggling it around and bending the wire up down and around to see if you get anything to show on the screen? I had the same thing as you and no fan spinning so I thought it was dead. Turns out I probably have affected the hdmi plugging and unplugging so many times. The fan doesnt spin until heat builds up which doesn't happen if the case is open. It could be booted already and you won't know it of there is no picture present on the screen.
[Shield Android TV General] somo67:
yes the shield refuses to start when i connect the ssd, and the ssd is working perfectly.

i have a question just to be sure : do i have to do step 3 in the guide (Hex-editing) or what i did is right by using the software from anchung.chen in the third comment !!

---------- Post added at 04:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 AM ----------

am using 512gb samsung ssd
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
The tool from anchung.chen does exactly the same as the hex editing.

I am not sure what else to tell you unfortunately. Maybe the shield just can't deliver the juice to drive that particular SSD.
[Shield Android TV General] Ichijoe:
It does? Cool I didn't know that. That should simplify things very much then! But, the question remains had he remembered to use it or no?

Is the Power Supply really that finicky on the Shield TV? Seems to me that it shouldn't be though. Has nVIDIA ever mentioned just which version of SATA is inside the Shield TV? My guess would be whatever was cheapest to grab hold of. Which would be SATA II @ 3Gb/s. That would likely explain some of the bottlenecks some here have reported.

Not sure if it even applys on SSDs but, I wonder if they sometimes have the similar Jumper you sometimes find on older HDDs that allow you to switch between SATA I & II? Perhaps presuming such a Jumper existed on that Device it would be able to work in that mode?
[Shield Android TV General] Altaman:
If you don't mind losing 12 GB off the SSD you could just DD clone the original drive to the new one and you would have 500GB instead of 512 and it is sooo much easier to do this way.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
I think that was exactly what he did.

That cannot work due to the way the GPT layout works.

The header and partitionarray sits at, very last part of the drive, and that's the only place it can possibly be.
[Shield Android TV General] Altaman:
I thought when you do a 1:1 clone the destination drive has to be as big as or bigger than the origin drive and you would just lose the last 12 gb.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
You probably could do that with a disk using the MBR layout.
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
I'm about to migrate to a 1TB SSD but should I unlock the bootloader before or after? or is it necessary?

Thanks
[Shield Android TV General] yahoo2016:
Has anyone tried SATV 2017 Pro? Does anyone have a photo of inside SATV 2017 Pro showing the HDD?
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
In theory, you shouldn't have to do anything.

But, if your SSD had data in it, it can give you trouble booting the SATV. Many have had to do a bootloader unlock after migrating, only to re format the data partition.

Essentially I would prefer to unlock the bootloader first, then migrate to the new SSD.

Then you should be able to boot right up in the first try.

I helped another user in this thread, who had a 2017 model. He might be able to provide a picture?
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
I just opened it. Here's an attached picture.
[Shield Android TV General] yahoo2016:
This photo seems same as SATV Pro 2015 model.

New 2017 16GB model does not show HDD bay as 2015 model:

https://xdaforums.com/shield-tv/general/teardown-shield-tv-2017-controller-t3549963

It seems SATV 2017 Pro has different size as SATV 2017 16GB.

What are the differences between SATV 2015 Pro and SATV 2017 Pro? Only the free controller?
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
Yep SATV 2017 Pro is bigger than SATV 2017 16GB due to internal HDD. I think only difference is free controller (redesigned)
[Shield Android TV General] somo67:
ok i think my samsung 830 ssd will not work due to the lake of power, its written on it 1.6A and sshd is 0.7A
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
I have successfully upgraded my SATV 2017 Pro with Samsung 850 PRO 1 TB 2.5 inch SATA III Solid State Drive - Black - MZ-7KE1T0BW using Windows only

Thanks a lot to everyone in the forum, specially [MENTION=7386697]Tilator[/MENTION], [MENTION=2163004]Luxferro[/MENTION], [MENTION=2890402]hallydamaster[/MENTION] and [MENTION=7254357]anchung.chen[/MENTION]

Specifications:

Windows 10 Pro

Windows 10 Ubuntu bash - Instructions here https://msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl/install_guide

Samsung - 1TB 850 PRO - MZ-7KE1T0BW

dd (ddrelease64.exe) for windows downloaded from http://www.chrysocome.net/download

[MENTION=7254357]anchung.chen[/MENTION] shield_pro_new_disk_gpt_calculator-0.3 downloaded from his post https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=68300570&postcount=44

Steps:

- Before doing this please read original post on this thread for windows which explains how to use dd to get your SSD size in bytes and pick the right HDD.

- To make everything easier just create a folder e.g. c:\shield and copy both ddrelease64.exe executable and shield_pro_new_disk_gpt_calculator-0.3 to this folder.

- Rename ddrelease64.exe to dd.exe

- Remember then numbers below are for this specific SSD if you use a different one please read the posts carefully to get your number

Factory reset

fastboot oem unlock (although I am not sure if this step is necessary, it needs to be confirmed)

replace HarddiskX with your corresponding for SATV HDD, open your standard cmd as an Administrator and run

dd if=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 of=firstpart.bin count=6899870
dd if=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 of=lastpart.bin skip=976773158 bs=512
dd if=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 bs=512 skip=976773158 of=lastpart.bin

Open bash on ubuntu for windows

Assuming you have everything in c:\shield then do

cd /mnt/c/shield
./shield_pro_new_disk_gpt_calculator-0.3 lastpart.bin 1024209543168 lastpart4k.bin

This tool gives you the commands you need to run afterwards so make sure you take note

Now you should have everything to start copying into your SSD

for SSD run using your standard cmd as an Administrator

dd if=firstpart.bin of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0
dd if=firstpart.bin of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 bs=512 count=69888
dd if=firstpart.bin of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 bs=512 skip=69790 seek=69888 count=6830080
dd if=lastpart4k.bin of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\Partition0 bs=512 seek=2000409254

That's all I did. I didn't have to do reboot in fastboot to do any factory reset or unlock or format, perhaps because I did a factory reset before. Don't know.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Great that you got it working out of the box!

I actually just just migrated to a 256GB SSD as of today. And I had trouble booting the SATV up afterwards, it was just hanging on the animated android logo.

So I put it into fastboot mode and did fastboot format userdata, and it would boot up.

At the moment it's updating, and after that I'll set it up with root, and load my apps again.

I think the trouble that many has, is that the SSD sometimes has bogus data in it. That might be the case when someone is using a drive that they used somewhere else.

Mine was actually brand new, but not from a premium manufacturer, so I think the eBay seller might have run tests on it beforehand, thus placing bogus data on the drive.
[Shield Android TV General] fexnok:
That might be the case. Is good that many other people share their experiences as well so we all get the shared knowledge.

Just to make a point here my HDD was brand new, not formatted, just straight to dd.

Thanks again!
[Shield Android TV General] armitagebron:
Guys, thank you for your work, discovers and further investigations.

I'm just a bit of curious. I saw, that even fastest SSDs shows average speed up to 300 Mb/s. Someone suggested that it is because of lack of power, but for me it's rather the problem with internal interface in SATVP. It seems it's a SATA II type.

How could we know for exactly? Is there any tests that shows the speed above that?

I don't have too much money for an upgrade, so if it's SATA II I would rather buy some good, but not the latest "super-fast" SSD. It would be more rational choice, I might think.

Please, men who have SATVP with proved fast SSD, show your scores. It should be very helpful for the people in my situation and in general purpose of interest. Thanks!
[Shield Android TV General] se1000:
I had an old SSD I had laying around, and after some quick testing, I'm of the opinion that any SSD will work great for this conversion. You're correct, the max throughput is around 300 Mb/s, regardless of max SSD performance. Another thing to consider however, is that's just max throughput, IOps are also important, although again here I think the limiting factor is the SATA controller/chipset.

Otherwise, the SATV Pro FLIES after a SSD conversion, I have zero regrets and highly recommend it to anyone if they have the technical skill to go through with it.
[Shield Android TV General] armitagebron:
Hi, guys! I have a really problem.

I've got a SanDisk SSD PLUS 120GB (SASSDP120G26 {0.7A}) for this. SSD is working. I tested it after the second failure, I formated it to ext4 -- it's writable and readable.

After doing the instructions I puted SSD to the SATV, then powered on and the led turns on. But nothing happens. No loading, no boot, there is even no nVidia logo. Nothing. The TV says: There's no signal.

I've tried few methods to enter into bootloader, but no one worked.

Console is starting normal, when I put back original SSHD. But it wouldn't do anything with the SSD.

I've done these:

user:~/Downloads$ sudo -s
rootuser:~/Downloads# fdisk -l
# ...
Disk /dev/sdd: 465,8 GiB, 500107861504 bytes, 976773167 sectors # the original SSHDD
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes

rootuser:~/Downloads# dd if=/dev/sdd of=firstpart.bin count=6899870
6899870+0 records in
6899870+0 records out
3532733440 bytes (3,5 GB, 3,3 GiB) copied, 116,458 s, 30,3 MB/s

rootuser:~/Downloads# dd if=/dev/sdd bs=512 skip=976773158 of=lastpart.bin
9+0 records in
9+0 records out
4608 bytes (4,6 kB, 4,5 KiB) copied, 0,00316972 s, 1,5 MB/s

rootuser:~/Downloads# fdisk -l
# ...
Disk /dev/sdd: 111,8 GiB, 120034123264 bytes, 234441647 sectors # target SSD
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 33553920 bytes

rootuser:~/Downloads# dd if=firstpart.bin of=/dev/sdd
6899870+0 records in
6899870+0 records out
3532733440 bytes (3,5 GB, 3,3 GiB) copied, 163,511 s, 21,6 MB/s

rootuser:~/Downloads# ./shield_pro_new_disk_gpt_calculator lastpart.bin 120034123264 ssd120.bin

Shield-pro-500G gpt-calculator for new disk, ver. 0.1
Thanks to Luxferro and hallydamaster at xda-developers nVidia-Shield-Android-TV Shield-Android-TV-General
See 'Guide: Migrate to SSD/HDD of any size, only for SATV Pro 500GB'

new_disk_byte_size = 120034123264
new_disk_sector_size = 0xDF94BAF
new_disk_current_LBA = 0xDF94BAE
new_disk_last_usable_LBA = 0xDF94B8E
new_disk_start_partition_array_LBA = 0xDF94BA5
new_disk_data_last_LBA = 0xDF94B8D
crc32_partition_array = 24FBEFCF
crc32_gpt_header = 6649066B
Done!!!
rootuser:~/Downloads# dd if=ssd120.bin of=/dev/sdd bs=512 seek=234441637 # 10 sector minused
10+0 records in
10+0 records out
5120 bytes (5,1 kB, 5,0 KiB) copied, 0,00101069 s, 5,1 MB/s

I've done all the steps from the start 3 times. But every time the results stills the same.

Help plz!
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
It doesn't look like you did any errors. You should at least see the Nvidia splash screen. There was another user here recently that had problems with an older Samsung ssd. It's most likely a problem with the power draw. Unfortunately there is no solution to that problem!
[Shield Android TV General] armitagebron:
TY, friend!

Yeah, it seems, that SanDisk's SSD at most are unsuitable for this operation. I must point out nevertheless, that later in common use with windows 10, this SSD bricked and became corrupted. So I posted it to the store and wait for another one. This time -- it will be Samsung 750 EVO SSD 120GB. I'll try to do instructions with it, if it wont suite, I'm going to use it like usb ssd with Linux only.
[Shield Android TV General] hallydamaster:
Well, hopefully it'll work this time. Good luck with the migration.