Thursday, January 11, 2007

Detailed Zune Hard Disk Files

A member at zunerama.com, ZunePet, has recently discovered that the "Access Zune filesystem in Windows" hack that was unveiled a while back that it doesn't contain all of the files that are actually on the Zune. If you are just storing files on your Zune, than this doesn't concern you, but if you are trying to hack the Zune and put on your own firmware, than you might want to read his post.

If you want direct access to your Zune hard drive, you need to take out the Zune hard drive and connected it to other hardware like an iPod or special adapter
Then it will appear as TWO different partitions. The system partition (~150MB) which contains the real NK.BIN firmware and other stuff, and the data partition.
The data partition contains the media content.
The actual media info and data is stored in a database on the Zune hard drive (Microsoft SQL Mobile) and in other non-obviously named files.

"\Hard Disk\" (152MB partition, only 9% of space used)
Code:
02/03/2003  10:21 PM           262,315 eboot.bin
02/03/2003 10:21 PM 11,154,839 nk.bin
02/03/2003 10:22 PM 80 pmcver.dat
02/03/2003 10:22 PM 1,373,735 recovery.bin
[current date/time] 57,344 pmcstore.edb

The 3 BIN files are exactly the same as the ones on your computer. Typically "C:\Program Files\Zune\Firmware\Zune01010322.cab". Don't trust the dates in the listings (2003?)
The pmcver.dat file is a short file. The pmcstore.edb is a little database ("EDB" SQL mobile format). This stores user specific settings (many string values like "SyncPartner" and "EnableWifi").

-----
The media partion, "\Hard Disk2\" contains raw media data, with fake names and a big database. It is a little under 30GB in size.

Code:
[------------------]              Content
02/03/2003 10:23 PM 5,656 devcert.dat
[current date/time ] 1,347,584 drmstore.dat
[current date/time ] 160 MediaItems.dat
[current date/time ] 167,772,160 MediaLibrary.edb
[current date/time ] 131,072 MediaLibrary_thumbs.edb

Under 'Content' are the media files with synthetic names you aren't supposed to see, examples:
Code:
\Content\0100\00\0b.wma
\Content\0100\00\c3.wma
...
\Content\0600\00\0f.jpg
\Content\0600\00\12.jpg


Files sizes and layout under Content will be different on your Zune.
The Windows Explorer (using the MTP) formats the file names into a more user friendly format (eg: "\Storage\Music\blahblahblah) using info in the database. As mentioned, this is fake filtered view.
Click here to read more about his topic.

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