M500 n00b

[EggZenBeanz]

hi,

Having just purchased my M500 today im a noob to all things magician and m500!

Looking around this interesting site i notice a lot of talk about big storage. Sorry if this question has been asked before, but what is big storage?

Lets say i di the big storage thing......would i then loose my current orange rom on my device?

Is it easy to do? I've updated the rom on my c500 and that was straight fwd, can sombody explaain to m500 noob, but is willing to learn!

luvin the site.

[Impossible]

I have a m500, and i have changed the original rom (as suplied with the m500) to bigstorage.

It wipes out the hidden partion that is used to brand the phone and increases the "storage" partion (which as default is around 7mb) to 27mb, the only downside is that the branding apps that are hidden are no longer on your device.

This means that when you hard reset the device you will have to manualy choose the files to install.


Imp

[EggZenBeanz]

Thats a great explanation, thanks.

I've been messing around so far, and i think i understand the whole process. Coudl you just confirm this for me?

I have downloaded the big storage rom WWE.111 from the ftp and swapped the first 416bytes in hex editor with the first 416bytes from my rom which i've got from my ohone. i then load the edited WWE.111 big storage rom back into my m500 using the sd card method. An that will give me a bigstorage rom?

[dutty]

could somebody post the extrom of the m500 please ?

thanks

[vz7]

I have been trying to upgrade it to 1.12 ROM, however when I used ntrw to write it onto my SD card, it said parameter incorrect, then when I flash my M500, it said Check Sum error. Any remedy? Also has anyone tried the Radio 1.13?

[Impossible]

EggZenBeanz, thats right. should give you bigstorage....remember to ignore the error messages on your phone after you copy the rom from your sd card.

Dutty, there is already the orange m500 ext rom on the ftp site.

vz7, they are the same errors that i got when i big rom'ed mine (even tho i am still on rom 1.06 (not worried in upgrading the rom as yet)

as i said in the other post, i upgraded to 1.13 radio rom last night with no problem.

EDIT
if anyone wants my desciption of the orange ext rom (what each cab files do) give us a shout. i went though them one by one and isntalled them, to see if i wanted them or not.


Imp

[EggZenBeanz]

Thankyou for clearing these things up. As the post suggested im a noob to all this, so i wanted to get it clear in my mind on top of reading all the tuts i could find.

So, when the rom hack has been applied and is working. i get 25mb extra storage, and i should loose all the clearview stuff etc.. Thats cool cheers. :D

[clinteastman]

EDIT
if anyone wants my desciption of the orange ext rom (what each cab files do) give us a shout. i went though them one by one and isntalled them, to see if i wanted them or not.


Imp

I wouldn't mind a discription of the cabs on the rom as im just about to "Go large".

[dan13l]

I wouldn't mind a list of what each file does either - I'd thought about doing a big storage hack on my m500, but there wasn't anything available last time I checked.

Presumably I can copy all the files for the storage area onto my SD card, and save them for later?

Where abouts is the ROM on the ftp site? I couldn't see anything that specifically mentions the m500...

Edit - OK, I think I understand now...I found a useful guide that I followed.

The only problem is, I've only got a 1gb sd card, so the hex editor won't open the rom image after I've dumped it! Is there any way around this, or do I need to get 128mb card?

[Impossible]

The file of the descriptions is a bit scruffy atm, i will tidy it up and post it again soon here. (scruffy file attached to this post, you need to be logged into the forums to dl'ed it)


the path to the m500 ext rom is ..... i cant connect to the ftp atm.

I backed up the ext rom on my desktop pc, and put the vital cabs on a sd card that i have spare and keep in my wallet, just incase the rom resets.

I had a similar problem to dan13l when i dumped the rom, the ntrw.exe app is a bit of a pig, as it dumps a image of the sd card, and not of the actual rom.... i used a 256mb card, i suppose you could partion the 1gig card to around 256mb then try it out?

something that i didnt read was, when performing the rom dump, is that the sd card will be fully erased during dump. So back it up if you need the data on it.

one word about one of the cabs in the ext rom, OrangeUK_ActionE_Connection.cab is a odd one. It encloses some apps that i didnt like installed on my m500 but it has the gprs settings inside it, i have managed to pull these out and put them in there own cab. This helps prevent installing the annoying "action" programs


Imp

[dan13l]

Thanks for that Impossible.

I noticed you've mentioned another MMS version in that text file, is there an updated mms app somewhere?

I found the ext rom on the ftp - that'll come in handy I'm sure.

There appears to be three ways of applying the big storage hack:
1) Apply a rom with Big Storage already hacked into it. This involves copying the first chunk of the standard rom using a hex editor and pasting it over the new rom. Correct?
2) Manually edit two bits of hex on a dumped rom, and reflash using the modified version.
3) Run a tool against a dumped rom to make the changes for you.

Now, I was working towards 2 until I had my sd card problem. I'm going to buy a 256mb card on my way home tonight and try with that. Am I right in thinking that if I dump my m500's rom, then apply the hex changes, that rom could be used for all m500's? As I understand it, option 1 is only relevent if you're applying a rom from one device to another (so a Jam to an M500, for example)?

So, in theory, once one of us has managed to modify the m500 rom (as you've done already, Impossible) then that rom image could be uploaded and used on all m500's? Also, if someone uploads an unmodified m500 rom, that could be used to revert back later if needs be...

Is all this correct? I think I'm starting to get my head around things.

[Impossible]

the comments in the cab file description are a bit funny, its my own personal scrall that i found out over the test i did on the cabs, i think i found newer vesions on the ftp and installed these apps instead of the ones that orange comes with, and the "about" on the app confirmed this.

I will revisit the file soon and tidy it up making it more helpful.

i dumped my m500 rom (with the intention of keeping the 1.06 version that came with my m500) then i used mksBigStoragerENG.exe to patch it to bigstorage.

If anyones intrested in me uploading the 1.06 rom with big storage i will, but you have to remember that this has not got any orange branding on. the next step if you did use this rom would be to apply the choosen cab files to apply the settings/apps you want.

Also, i dont mind uploading the original rom (complete with the ext rom) but i think that was on there when i last looked at the ftp.

dan13l, i did just realise, even if you formated your 1gig card to a smaller size, the dump will clear that out :(

prehaps you could find a different hex editor? or even use the mksBigStoragerENG.exe (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=22582) app that I used to patch mine, instead of a editor (which reverts the rom file from your storage card size, back down to its original size of around 62mb)


Imp

[dan13l]

Yay! It worked :)

Now I just need to reinstall everything.

I'll post everything I did later, got to go and eat something now!

Impossible - thanks for your help. Do you have the GPRS settings you extracted? I don't want to have to install the whole action engine thing...

Thanks again all.

[dan13l]

All sorted - I managed to extract the gprs settings myself and create a cab.

FYI - the latest MMS app I found was dated May, and doesn't appear to work on the m500. I've not tried the March version yet.

[vijay555]

GPRS settings etc are available on buymobilephones.net

V

[Methanoid]

Noob alert

Is there a nice HTML guide which tells a muppet how to do this? How to keep any Orange apps copied somewhere else and re-install after the hack IF wanted? A list of the additional Orange apps and what they do?

Thanks.
Meth

[ajhard]

can someone post the link to the orange extrom - i can't find the ftp....

cheers

al

[sporkguy]

ftp://ftp.xda-developers.com/Magician/Extended_Roms/M500_WWE1.06.175/

[dan13l]

Noob alert

Is there a nice HTML guide which tells a muppet how to do this? How to keep any Orange apps copied somewhere else and re-install after the hack IF wanted? A list of the additional Orange apps and what they do?

Thanks.
Meth

Go to the link posted by sporkguy and download everything - that's the contents of your extended rom.

Next, go here: http://tinyurl.com/dhgoc

That's about the best guide I've found (although there are a couple of good ones on this site). Follow the steps on there to use the mksBigStorager executable to patch your rom.

I think it would be possible to upload a pre-patched rom image for the m500 to the ftp, and simply write that to an sd card (using the last section of the guide linked to above).

[EggZenBeanz]

Please can you take a loo at this screen grab. What do i stand to gain from the storage hack? This piccy is pre storage hack.

[vijay555]

EggZenBeanz - on that same screen, click on the tab that says storage card. In the drop down options, choose the one that says "storage".
It should show about 7mb of storage available.
BigStorageRom hack will turn that into 27mb.

That's it. If you want a free 20mb, it's your call, but isn't it obvious :wink:

Do the bigstorage rom. Do it carefully, follow the instructions word for word, because there are various "errors" that are expected! Don't fret, just follow the guide.

Then, reboot and smile.
If you've spent a long time setting up your system, do a backup first with Sprite backup or something, and restore the backup when you've upgraded to bigstorage.

V

[EggZenBeanz]

Cool thanks for the reply, v helpful.

Excuse me for thick! the storage area is where the programs get installed or the my documents area?

[vijay555]

The PocketPc is made up like this:

ROM - some selected files in the \windows\ folder are from ROM - this means they can't be edited, deleted etc.

RAM: Everywhere else on the Mobile Device "root" (ie not going into any other folders) is part of "Storage". Theoretically: using the slider in Control Panels > System > Memory you can alternate between "Storage" and "Program memory".

External memory (ie "storage card"): your SD card.

Now, you want as much "Program Memory" as possible, because this is the space used to run programs (like RAM on your PC, say 512mb when you've got XP?). The more "RAM", the smoother everything runs.

NOTE: Pocketpcs don't close programs when you click the X in the top right, so use a program like wisbar, SmallmenuPlus or any number of "task managers" to properly close them. The more programs running at one time, the slower EVERYTHING else becomes.

So, you want more "program" memory, and less storage really - one balances the other using that slider. So, do the bigstorage rom hack, then decrease "storage" down to as small as is reasonable - i keep about 7mb of stuff in there only.

"Storage" is like a hard drive in your PC.
"Storage card" is obviously the SD card stuck in your PDA (like an external hard drive).

Ideally, install everything onto your storage card. Don't install it into the default folder if you can help it, because that takes away from the program memory, remember? Use "cabinst" to install to non-default folders.

So:-
More Storage=good.
Program memory is for the PDA, not for you.
Install programs on Storage Card, or Storage!

Now, bigstorage can become particularly useful because if you need to take out your SD card for some reason (i have a wireless card, which requires me to remove it occassionaly to put in the wireless), I've now removed all my programs - they're on the SD card remember?

So, i install JUST my wireless software in storage. eg Newsreader, browsers etc that I need to use with the Wifi card.
Now i still have access to those programs, even without sd card in, and I'm still not using much of the "program" memory the PDA needs.

Make sense?
Oh - documents go in \My Documents\ (ie on the PDA), OR in the storage card, if you specifically choose to do so. It's best to do that, so that you don't fill up your "Program Memory" with documents.
Also make your camera save onto SD card for more memory efficiency.

Whoo. Hope that helps!

V

[EggZenBeanz]

thank you very much. what a great post, you've cleared it up for me. :D :D

[EggZenBeanz]

Firstly let me thank users in this post who have been more than helpful.

I've taken the plunge and uploaded my big storage rom with 100% success.

This is how i did it:

1. I used this guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=23391&highlight=bigstorage

to get my rom backed up. This is the most important thing to do just in case it goes wrong.

2. I then used mkbigstorage to patch my rom file. ftp://xda:xda@ftp.xda-developers.com/Magician/Tools/mksBigStorager.rar

3. I then added the first 416 bytes from my orange rom to the patched mkbigstorage rom with hex editor - This is very important too.

4. Using the guide i uploaded the mkbigstorage rom to my m500 and updated. I got a message saying checksum failed, but did a reset and it work!!

5. Using the cabs from the ftp uploaded the important bits again.

Complete!

If any other noobs need help plase pm me i'd be glad to help as much as i can.



One question though.......

I no longer have IE in my progs window. Its in the start menu, but not progs window. How can i get a shortcut in the progs window again?

[ambro]

hi there,

could you send me the first 420 bytes of the orange rom, i dont have a way of backuping up my rom because i dont have the card reader.
is there any other way to backup my current rom before doing the upgrade?


to change access the start menu and programs folder goto your phones folders,
My Pocket PC\Windows\Start Menu
in there you can move the internet explorer icon to the programs folder!

i've rearranged my whole programs menu into 5 folders and 1 icon orange plus its much more user friendly!

Folders
Camera
Games
Internet
Office Tools
Orange Tools
Pocket Players
Remote Control Software
System Tools

Orange Plus Icon (Not moveable as its a system shortcut when you move it the next time you reboot it places it back again!

[EggZenBeanz]

hi there,

could you send me the first 420 bytes of the orange rom, i dont have a way of backuping up my rom because i dont have the card reader.
is there any other way to backup my current rom before doing the upgrade?


to change access the start menu and programs folder goto your phones folders,
My Pocket PC\Windows\Start Menu
in there you can move the internet explorer icon to the programs folder!

i've rearranged my whole programs menu into 5 folders and 1 icon orange plus its much more user friendly!

Folders
Camera
Games
Internet
Office Tools
Orange Tools
Pocket Players
Remote Control Software
System Tools

Orange Plus Icon (Not moveable as its a system shortcut when you move it the next time you reboot it places it back again!

i can send you the complete rom file, but you still need to write the image file to the sd card rather than through active sync. You may need to purchase the sd card reader to complete.

thanks for the tips. IE Gets loaded into prog folder with the ext cab files.