JP
One of the reasons I often see people giving in their feeble justifications for treating themselves to a new iPod (come on, admit it, you’re just in lust) is that they can use it as an external hard-drive to transfer files. Up until now Microsoft has prevented potential Zune owners from using that same excuse, as their DAP doesn’t show up as a drag-and-drop drive. Thankfully, where a manufacturer bows out, the hackers step in – hence we have this step by step guide to setting up your PC to use the Zune as an external drive that connects either by USB or WiFi.
To do so you have to tweak some of the settings in your computer’s registry, and as they’re careful to point out modifying it incorrectly can lead to your PC playing the old doorstop game. You should definitely back at least the registry up (and preferably the whole PC) before you try. Unfortunately, for anyone wondering if they’ll be able to bypass the DRM on music files using this method, the answer is no. Still, it could be a useful addition to the Zune’s repertoire.
Zune Mass Storage Mod [Zune Scene; thanks to Nate for the tip]
2 Responses to “Zune hacked again: Mass Storage via WiFi”
Francis January 8, 2007
The problem with this hack is this; the whole reason to use the devise as a mass storage is to transfer files from one pc to another via plug and play. This hack is not plug and play. You have to do this to each pc that you connect the Zune to when using it as a MSD. This kind of defeats the purpose. We need a hack of the Zune itself, or a firmware upgrade to fix this so it can be a MSD without changing the registry on every pc you want to tranfer files on. Comon hacker! Get to it!
+1The BlueMonkeyFish June 26, 2007
If the zune uses wifi, it adheres to the IEEE 802.11g standards. This means that the zune has a ssid it looks for, most likely via adhoc mode. if someone were to go and hex edit the firmware, im certain that the ssid and wep (if there using any encryption). then all that’s needed is the username and password (again if MS is using it) to access the zune.
Just my theory…
Neutral