Why don't we just...
This page is dedicated to collecting answers for all of the solutions that have been posted to the forums, but which have not (yet) panned out... may we learn from those who went before us.
- ... add a second hard drive, and mount it?
This would probably work, assuming you could
- make the cable for it
- pull enough power from the unit's power supply to power the drives without causing voltage dips or burning out the power supply
- alter the startup sequence enough to execute a mount command
- make the Windows PMM software understand the drive layout that the PhatBox will see
- ... change the drive's "8-digit hex serial number" (er, volume-id)
The system ignores this. The real issue for the drive authentication is the model id string and serial id string returned by the "Identify Device" IDE command.
- ... use some arcane utility to change a drive's serial id string or model id string?
This is believed to be a valid approach, but will only work for certain drives and requires software that is not generally available.
- ... take a new drive, partition it correctly, name the partitions correctly, and then just use that?
This will work inasmuch as the windows PMM software will recognize it, but you will never get the PhatBox to boot the drive without having the right signature on the drive.
(Please edit me and add more items as you think of them!)