Booting the Apple TV from a USB drive

by editor @ AppleTVHacks.net on March 26, 2007

Ozy from AwkwardTV has managed to get his Apple TV to boot from an external USB drive into the recovery mode.

It appears if you attach the USB drive with a duplicate of Apple TV OS, boot the Apple TV normally, attach the USB drive, and then do a recovery reboot (holding ‘menu’ and ‘-’ keys on the remote) that the machine will begin to boot from the USB drive.

You can see his video here.

This opens the possibility up for booting off a USB drive to make modifications to the Apple TV without having to open the case. Good work guys!

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  • Nick
    you guys know that I suggested this idea the day it came out?
    i should be the one being hornored here
  • D. Dantzler
    I'm not buying one until you guys come up with a simple way to just plug-in an external USB for the sake of additional storage. That way I can put my entire library on it. A 40 GB HD was the worst idea of all time. I'm not interested in replacing the HD with something else internally, there's no telling how that will effect the unit heating, and the long-term life of it. External USB for additional storage is the way to go, and I'm not sure why Apple didn't include this feature and make their own stackable HD enclosures.

    I want to convert every DVD movie that I own and have it on the device as well.
  • as a Low Cost PC, or network appliance -

    If the AppleTV can run Linux or Windows, they would sell millions of 'em.

    If AppleTV can run regular OS X:
    1. Apple TV
    2. USB Hub
    3. New Low Cost Kids Computer (all peripherals hooked to USB 2.0 Hub).
    (keyboard, mouse, printer, CD burner, external flash drive pen.)
  • CAN YOU EXTERNAL DRIVE BOOT :

    1. NORMAL OS X ?

    2. MS WINDOWS XP (any version)?

    3. LINUX (any distro)?
  • Joe
    The one thing that I need to see before I buy one of these is the ability to connect an external DVD ROM to this thing and play DVD movies.

    Anyone had any progress on that front?
  • stoic
    You can activate ssh without opening the drive (assuming you have access to an image of the drive - now becoming available).

    Instructions: http://phoem.com/appletv-without-open.html
  • Can this boot from a usb stick?

    If so, a small utility could be made with only the necessary file to make it boot that could activate ssh and we would be golden.
  • Less
    I'm wondering what we can do with our Apple TV in a month! :)

    I'm waiting for my Apple TV! It should be here in a few days...
  • It's amazing what people have done with the Apple TV in just a few days! Pretty soon we're going to have the Apple TV booting on our Microwaves.

    http://www.switchingtomac.com/
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