This patch, by Patrick Walton, is the first entrant to the $1000 USB Bounty offered by AppleTVHacks.net and FatWallet.com. Be aware, that the patch is incomplete - it will transfer your data to a USB drive, but will break syncing with iTunes. Use at your own risk!

It includes prelink_tool by Paul Bartholomew and the USB whitelist patch by Turbo.

Under Unix, use "install-atvrhd.sh" to install. This has to be done from a machine on a network with the Apple TV - preferably an Intel Mac.

To use this, turn on your Apple TV without the USB drive inserted. Wait until the intro sequence (the one with all the flying TV screens) appears. Then insert your USB drive. The Apple TV software will restart automatically after several seconds, using the USB drive.

Be sure that the USB drive is formatted for journaled HFS+, which is the type of partition that the Apple TV expects. Also note that, when you first insert a blank USB drive, the current contents of the Apple TV's internal hard drive will be copied to the USB drive. This is normal. If you do not desire this behavior, erase the contents of your Apple TV before setting up the USB drive. 

Have fun!

- Patrick Walton <pcwalton@uchicago.edu>

- AppleTVHacks.net team