How To Upgrade HDD On Softmod Xbox And How To Upgrade HDD On Hardmod Xbox.

so i just bought a DuoX 2 ModChip online, once it is installed, i can just switch that drive and insert my auto installer and be good? if so how do i go about formatting it?

 

hopefully this thread is still alive: This is my first time modding So my problems is as follows:
Problem:
My hard modded xbox died and I successfully softmodded using SID5 and installed the 250gb drive in the new xbox. Great tutorials and reading lots of this forum thanks. However, The F partition that has all the applications and games is showing as 0 mb free on the xbox. I cannot see the files in IPSwitch WS_FTP or any of the other FTP/tools, all showing no files. But I know the files are there because when I disconnect from xbox and connect to PC (have to go through the unlocking/locking process) and use the linxus xbrowser I see all the files there. I tried to copy them over to the E partition but only got one Game copied since I got a message that the drive is full. I though maybe I could format the G partition in xbox and hook up to PC & use xbrowser to copy F to G. Wrong, I could not see the G partition which has 107,376.94mb free.
Question:
1. Is there anyway for me to get the F Partition to show the files (I have the F drive enabled in the UnleashX dash). or
2. Is there a command for me to use in linxus xbrowser to link to the G partition that I made in Xbox. or
3. Is there a tool/software for me to copy F over to PC?

I want to make a backup of the F partition files and then restore it but I don't want to have to do it one file at a time and I don't want to erase the files or my boyfriend will be really heartbroken. Please help if there is a solution. I am going to try erasing the E Cache after I finish backing the drive up to my PC.
thanks,
~M

 

Alright try to use boxplorer to see if you can see the files. If not i would backup the drive and reformat using the auto installer deluxe disc.

Boxplorer with G drive

- download the file
- unrar the file
- ftp the boxplorer folder to e:/apps
- reboot xbox
- go to apps
- select boxplorer

When boxplorer starts press start and you should be able to see every partition you have. If you don't see F or g it's time to reformat the two partitions.

 

C4RN1 thanks for the quick response. I only saw C so my fear that I had to reinstall is true. Ok I did backup the hard drive before I started messing with it but I backed it up to a 350mb drive and when I used xbrowser to look at F, it had ??? 000 as the file names then when I went back in it only showed an *x. Does that mean that the backup was bad? I used the linxus made cd to do the backup which took like 1 1/2 days to complete. Is there another Program that I could use or do I have to go get a 250mb disk to do the backup? Or could I use the 350mb disk to do the softmod and get the F drive that way? I don't know at this point but really glad for your assistance.
thanks,
~M

 

can some one tell me if the bios.bin under ndts in my xbox is the eeprom
i used the hotswap method and have unleash x dashboard. i want to change out my hard drive to a 40 gb one. but i'm not sure if the bios.bin file is the eemprom or not. thanks for any help

 

noop, it is not the eeprom.bin file. i should be in the folder backup (somewhere) or if you backed it up during evox/softmod, you might find it in (T/U)data. you should fine eeprom.bin and bios.bin and a few other files in one folder.

 

Josh the eeprom.bin file gets written when you back it up with a program. use sid to backup your eeprom and it will ask you where to save it when you do. Usually the eeproms on all other programs will get backed up to that specific game saves folder. For Bond AUF it's 4541000d, for Mech Assualt it's 4d530017, and for splinter cell it's 5553000c.

These are all folders located in E:/udata.

------------------------------------------------------------
mistery if i were you i would unlock the hdd with the eeprom.bin in xboxhdm and then use xplorer360 to transfer the files to your computer. It will be a lot quicker this way and you won't have to worry about the hard drive relocking.

Then when you rebuild the hdd using xbox hdm just format your F drive and then throw all your games back on the drive. You may have to hook up the hard drive to the xbox and format the new partitons with aid before throwing all your games back on the drive via xplorer360. I wouldn't suggest ftping the games to the xbox because it would take longer but that's also an option if you choose.

So the instructions would be

-Unlock hdd using xbox hdm
-Boot computer with windows and use xplorer360 to gain access to xbox hard drive.
-Click and drag all the information you want backed up to your computer.
-When this is done disconnect any other hard drives and insert xboxhdm cd. Select build new hard drive from scratch.
-Restart xboxhdm and lock hard drive using eeprom
-Insert hard drive into xbox and boot dash.
-Format g drive using AID disc
-Either restore your files via ftp or disconnect hdd from xbox, unlock with xboxhdm and use xplorer 360 to restore files.
-Remember to relock your hard drive with xboxhdm before attempting to put it back in the xbox.

Obviously i'm trying to write two sets of instructions in one but i hope you can get the just of it (you sound like you know what you're doing). I've provided you with everything you need, if you have any questions that aren't answered let me know.

 

My problem is a little bit wierd and awkward

ok now i wanted to upgrade my xbox hdd with a seagate barracuda 160gb hard drive with 7200rpms on it.Well i went through the process of softmodding my xbox sucess but after i formated,and did all the stuff with the xboxhdm cd when it came time to lock/unlock the hard drive on the cd it wouldnt let me lock saying the primary master is frozen ..it cant lock /and unlock on the frozen hdd . now i dont know i never heard of a frozen hard drive and the drive worked perfectly at first when i had movies and backup ps2 games on it. i also tried slayers,configmagic,unlockerx, please help me out here

 

It's a Seagate Mn st3160812a Sn 5LS4PZR4
Parallel ata(pata)
capacity 160 gb 7200RPM
firmware 3.adh

 

and yes it could definatly be locked for the hard drive i even checked the the compatability chart. i also tried to use it in the xbox and it would not play it says error 5 and i dont have the money to get a chip

 

the bad part is thats 2 drives i had tried and they both do they same thing... my computer specs is :Compaq presario sr1603wm model
1.5 mb ram
amd 35000+ chip

and it also said to disable automatic detection the thing about that is when i do that nothing will show up as primary master just secondary

 

C4RN1 I decided to build from scratch the 320 GB disk using xboxhdm. The only problem I ran into was that I got an error message that it could not build the F drive, but it built the C & E ok. I was able to use the SID Installer to softmod & then I used the AID Installer to format the F & G drive. All seems to be working well. The only issue I have is that if I use xboxhdm / xbrowser to view the F drive, all the contents on it appears in characters like ????? and if it's a directory ????/ which has more ???? instead of the file names. I can't delete it as it keeps reappearing even after deleting. Then when I exit, it will say chmod: F drive is read-only. When I plug it back into the x-box, I am able to see the file names in English on the F drive via FTP & using File explorer on xbox and the games play ok (I only did a few to test). Should I worry about file corruption or is this due to the formatting in 32 clusters in AID as opposed to the 16 clusters in xboxhdm? I am going to start the installation from scratch again in xboxhdm and skip the format F drive option and then do it all in AID to see if this works. I will then clone it using the clone software that comes with the Western Digital disk to clone it to my spare 320 GB disk. I've definitely learned a lot reading the forums, just haven't seen a solution or answer to the weird file question. I have the locking/unlocking part and re-building part down. Just need to know if I should worry about the files getting corrupted or if I am doing it wrong somewhere.

thanks for your help,
~M

 

n4rut0: I'm new to this but just last night something went wrong in the locking process & my drive locked and would not let me in (I was using option 3 on the linux menu - not typing in the password). After figuring out how to unlock with a master password using (MHDD) burned iso to cd and got it unlocked the drive was then showing Frozen.

Here is what I did: using xboxhdm v1.9 tools:
1. Shutdown the computer & unplug the hard drive from ide cable (put the jumper pin back to factory select)
2. Plug back in the hard drive with ide cable. (don't worry about showing up as master or secondary)
3. Reboot to the Linux menu.
4. Select option 4 (to boot to dos mode).
5. At a:/ prompt, type atapwd. You should see your hard drive with the + under F for frozen.
6. I selected the hard drive and then hit enter to select the first menu option in the pop-up window of atapwd. Then select unlock with master password. I just clicked ok without entering anything a password, got the error message and then hit Esc button to exit to a:/ prompt.
7. Shutdown computer again & unplug the hard drive from ide cable (put the jumper pin back to master)
8. Plug back in the hard drive with ide cable. (don't worry about showing up as master or secondary)
9. Reboot to the Linux menu.
10. Select option 4 (to boot to dos mode - assuming you already have your dos disk made with your locking/unlocking password - if you don't you should make it).
11. Once you get to the A:/ prompt switch to b:/ (type b:/) - I do this because I was having a hard time having it stay unfrozen on reboot so I used the tools from Dos instead of rebooting and going back to use option 3 on the linux menu.
12. At b:/ prompt, type atapwd. You should see your hard drive with nothing under F for unfrozen.
13. hit Esc button to exit to b:/ prompt.
14. Type in lockhd -f input/hdpass.txt (again assuming you made the lock/unlock dos disk from the linux menu ) It should take you through the options to select your hard drive, just select whichever number pertains to your hard drive & it should automatically find the file and apply your password.
15. You can run atapwd again to check to see if you have the + under E and S.

If it's locked just shutdown and put in your xbox.

I had to do mine a couple of times & if at step 12 it's still frozen in atapwd. I shutdown the computer took off the ide cable, boot up to the linux menu and then plug back in the ide cable quickly and then selected menu option 4. This seemed to do the trick too.

Hope that helps. BTW: My drive is a magnetic data technology 250gb 7200 RPM ATA 100 disk. Figured out the master password was: WDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWD ( i guess because it is a Western Digital refurb ) none of the other master passwords would work. I'm learning so much.
~M

 

If i were you i would nuke that hard drive and rebuild it from scratch yet again. It sounds like there's a virus on the mbr corrupting your f partition. Dban is the program i normally use to nuke and reformat computers in my spare time. I suggest you do the same to your xbox before you have more problems and have to do it after you restore all your data again.

http://www.dban.org/download

Just follow the instructions and make sure you only nuke your xbox's hard drive. Just remember the drive has to be unlocked to work.

 

nvm guys i found a new tutorial that works flawless ly let me show youand its from xbox scene...





*No Modchip Hdd Replacement Tutorial (v0.1) *

Tutorial written by : BaD_HeX (from forums.xbox-scene.com
<http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act=ST&f=44&t=98806>)
Last edited: September 22, 2003

*Get the following programs from the usual places:*
/atapwd
Hdlock
Hdunlock
Hddisabl
007 gamesave exploit (or mech assault)
liveinfo
hdprepar
HDD_Driver
Windows 95/98/ME bootdisk maker/



*Step 1: Making our ?tools? disk*
Use a Windows 95/98/ME bootdisk maker to format a blank floppy disk
<http://files.frashii.com/%7Ebootdisk/bootmec.exe>. This will be our dos
bootdisk used for unlocking our xbox harddrive.

After that has completed copy the following files to the new bootdisk:
atapwd.exe, hdlock.exe, hdunlock.exe, hddisabl.exe.

Take the disk out and label it xbox tools disk and set it aside.



*Step 2: Getting our xbox drive key*
Using another tutorial
<http://www.sbeyer.netfirms.com/gouki/index.html>, load evox up using
the 007 gamesave exploit on your xbox.
/It is important to not use any bios loaders, font hacks, sound hacks,
or anything like this as we need a pure key generated for your xbox
harddrive./

Once you are in evox run the backup option in the settings menu. This
will create a backup folder in your evox base directory (not your c
drive). To find it, if you used the 007 hack, simply FTP into your xbox
and go to the following folder: //E/UDATA/4541000d/000000000000//

There you should see the backup folder created by evox. Copy that folder
somewhere to your computer where you can access it easily.

Once copied open up the folder and there should be the following files
inside it: /bios.bin, disk.bin, eeprom.bin, hddinfo.txt, hddkey.bin/

Open up the file /hddinfo.txt/. In this file is three lines and by now
you should notice it contains one called hdd key. This is the Key that
will be used to unlock your xbox harddrive. Either print this file or
write down the group of numbers. The key will be used without the :?s or
trailing 00s when entering it in the unlock programs. (ie. 157560ab? not
15:75:60:ab)



*Step 3: Unlocking the xbox harddrive*
Shutdown your PC and remove all drives except for a drive that contains
your OS and is bootable. This drive should be set as secondary master
(use jumper).

Open up you xbox and remove the xbox hardrive. If you are not sure how
to open your xbox and remove the harddrive, look for another tutorial on
how to do it. Set up this drive on your computer as primary master (use
jumper).

Insert your xbox tools disk and turn on your PC. You can skip any
harddrive detection that your bios does, as it will not correctly detect
the xbox drive. Once you are at a DOS prompt run the following tool from
your bootdisk: /atapwd.exe/

The program should detect your two drives and you should notice that the
xbox drive is flashing (if not refresh the list using the shortcut
displayed). Also check out the SELFXV and notice that the xbox drive has
a few more + signs then the normal PC drive. In the next steps we will
unlock the drive (the L column) and then disable drive locking (the E
column) on the drive which in turn will make those two columns display
??? signs. Press ESC to exit the program.

Next run the following program from the xbox tools disk: /hdunlock.exe/
Here is will display a list of drives where you can choose which one you
wish to unlock. Usually the xbox drive will be choice 1, but verify that
that is correct. If so press one to select the xbox drive.

Now you will be asked to enter the key the program will use to unlock
the drive. Enter in the key that we printed in step 2. Remember you
should not enter in ?:??s or any trailing 00?s in the key. An example
key will look will end up looking like: 112233445566778899aabbccddeeff

When you press enter it should pause for a moment and then say ?done?.
To verify that the unlock key worked correctly run the file: atapwd.exe.
You should see under the L column of the drive there is now a ?-? sign
meaning the drive is unlocked. If for some reason it still has a ?+?
under it you did not successfully unlock the drive and you should start
over from step 2. For those of us who did it correct the first time, we
now need to disable the locking on the drive so when we restart it
doesn?t relock.

Run the following program from the xbox tools disk: /hddisabl.exe/
This should bring up a similar selection menu where you can pick the
xbox drive. Just choose choice 1 (or the one that you believe is your
xbox drive). Then you will have to enter the xbox drive key again. When
finished it should say ?done? again. Verify that you disabled locking by
running: atapwd.exe. Under the ?E? column you should now see a ?-? sign
meaning you disabled locking of the drive.



*Step 4: Backup the xbox harddrive*
Now that we have completely unlocked our drive we can reboot the
computer without the bootdisk to get into windows. It may take a bit
longer to start the OS as you have moved your drives around in the
process of this tutorial. Be patient! Once in windows we will need to
run /HDD_Driver/.

When you run /HDD_Driver/ you should get a message box that says it
detected an xbox harddrive (your primary master drive). Then when you
hit OK it will give you an invalid filesize error. Don?t press ok, but
instead go to menu system of the program and select backup the hdd.
Don?t do this unless you get the invalid filesize error or you know for
sure it detected your drive. Select a safe place to backup your drive,
but remember you need aprox 8gb of space to hold the xbox drive image.

Go get something to eat, pee, whatever as it will take some time to
backup the drive.

When finished you will need to shutdown your PC and remove the xbox
drive. You can now set it aside for use as a paperweight or clock
<http://www.gtojon.com/harddriveclocks/>.



*Step 5: Prepare the new hardrive*
Connect the new drive as primary master (use jumper) and start up your
machine. Once in windows you may need to refresh the system under device
manager to detect the new drive.

/I?ve noticed in all other tutorials that you need a lockable drive;
however, I have yet to encounter a harddrive that was not lockable. You
should be safe with a newer drive./

First load up the liveinfo program and click load eeprom. Then select
the file /eeprom.bin/ from the backup folder you got from evox. The
program will display some information regarding your xbox system.

Go to the second section of the program where it has a list of
harddrives. Select you xbox replacement drive (make sure you know it is
the replacement drive) and the program will generate a key that we will
use to lock the drive with. Print this key or write it down *EXACTLY* on
a piece of paper as we will need this while we are in dos.

Now we need to prepare the drive to look like an xbox drive. Use the
program hdprepar to zero the first 4096 sectors. * BE VERY CAREFUL* to
select the correct replacement drive to zero as you could destroy your
OS partitions if you select the wrong drive. Once finished close the
program as we?re done with that.



*Step 6: Hex the Replacement Drive*
Load up your favorite hex editor that can hex edit the clusters of a
drive. I use hex workshop, but you are free to use anything else. What
we need to do is hex edit the xbox replacement drive so that
/HDD_driver/ thinks it?s an xbox harddrive. Browse to the offset of
0x600 on the drive.

/Here is how to do it using Hex workshop:/
Go to the disk menu and select open drive. Select the drive you believe
is the replacement drive. You will know it is the correct one by a
screen full of 0000?s or mostly 0000?s. Now hex worksop lays everything
out in sectors? there are 200 offsets in a sector so you need to hit the
-> button on the toolbar 3 times to get to the correct offset. At the
beginning of this page you must type in the ASCII values BRFR. So to do
this you simply go to the right of the line and at the beginning of the
page type the letters. On the left side you should see the Hex values
4252 4652 in red. That?s it, save the changes and exit the program.



*Step 7: Restore the backup of your original xbox drive*
We now have a drive that HDD_driver will think is an xbox harddrive.
Start up HDD_driver and you should get the successfully detected message
followed by an invalid filesize error. Don?t click ok when you get the
invalid filesize error, but instead go to the menu and select the
restore xbox hdd option. Select the image file we created in step 4 as
the restore file. You will then be given the option to restore specific
parts of the image file. For a complete restoration of the xbox
harddrive select the last option in the right column to restore the
whole drive. Wait awhile while the program does all the copying and when
it is done you have an exact replica of the xbox harddrive. From here we
need to lock the drive like the original one was.



*Step 8: Lock the replacement drive*
Place your boot disk back in the drive and restart your computer so it
boots from the floppy.

Once in dos run the following program from the disk: /atapwd.exe/
You should see the replacement drive and your OS drive here. We can also
see from the SELFXV that the replacement drive does not have locking
enabled and is currently not locked. We need to change that so the xbox
believes it has a legit drive installed. Press ESC to exit atapwd and go
to the dos prompt.

Run the following program from the xbox tools disk: /hdlock.exe/
Now you should see a screen that looks much like the unlock tool. This
time select the drive that you believe is the replacement drive. Most
likely it will be choice 1 if your drives are configured the way they
should be.

You will now have to enter in the key that was generated from liveinfo
in step 5. Make sure you enter the key *EXACT*. Go over what you typed
in 2 to 3 times to make sure that this is the correct key. After you hit
enter you should see the ?done? message. A file will be created on your
xbox tools disk containing the key information if you should ever want
to change the drive again. To be safe you can lock the drive again using
the same key from step 5 again. To verify that the drive will lock run
atapwd and there should be a ?+? sign under the E column. There will be
no + under the L column, but that is normal as it will lock itself the
next time it is powered up.



*Step 9: Final Setup*
Now that our drive is setup set the jumper on the replacement drive to
cable select and place hook it up to the xbox like the original
harddrive was. Upon starting up the system you should get the
MSdashboard , evox, or whatever else that loaded like the original.
Congradulations!

There is 1 more thing that some of you may need to do though. My xbox
required me to format my partition6 drive F to unlock the extra space on
the 120gb drive I installed. You can do this rather easy through the
evox?s FTP server. Connect with FlashFXP or another good FTP program and
send the following raw commands:

/Formatpath \Device\Harddisk0\Partition6
FormatDrive (number)
Make sure you type it in exactly as the wrong "\"'s can cause the wrong
drive to be killed./

Replace (number) with the number you get from Fromatpath. This should
then format the drive and give you your remaining disk space.



*Step 10*
Done and Done!

Tutorial written by : BaD_HeX







and it worked but it didnt on the seagate because it was a pata drive they said that pata drives are not security locking compatable with locking features but it did format my 500gb wd hd though and it fixed the original hard drive i just skipped some steps cause i had already backedup my eeprom from previous xbox hdd.Also If you see the features that says that the hard drive is frozen well no need to worry because when you reboot the hard just let the bios load without the ide of the hard drive plugged in but after the auto-detection is done when the screen goes blackplug it back in fast so the drive wont freeze on xboxhdm is loading and then you can lock any drive you wish as long as its not a pata drive

 

and i tried that too but that nvr worked.so i stayed up till 7 in the moprning googling how to take off auto detection on award bios then i found it so everything is fixed now

 

I had this at the weekend with a frozen HDD. I just plugged the HDD in with the molex, started the PC, loaded xboxhdm, then once the menu loaded, plugged in th IDE cable and it locked it first time! With no messing around in the bios which didn't work for me anyways. This was with a 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS SATA drive using a SATA to IDE adaptor, it's working great in a softmodded 1.6.

 

Hello All,
I am looking to upgrade my original Xbox HDD. And I have a query about this: I have a cord that pugs into my Xbox's controller port and has a USB slot on the end, so i can plug a thumb drive into it...if i went and bought a portable (external) hard drive and plug it in the cord going to Xbox would it act as another memory device? I would just have to put up with having the external hard drive next to it?? Right?
Thankyou very much.

Sam