Use Old Xbox Hard Drive In A New Xbox Options

[theneighborrkid]

Hello there!

First some background info:

I have a 400GB Segate IDE hard drive that I used on my old softmodded xbox. The xbox broke and I was an idiot and tossed everything but the hard drive...I was able to unlock the hard drive using MHDD and using the master password "TEAMASSEMBLY". Now that it is unlocked I would like to use it again in an xbox.

Now I am waiting to purchase an xbox because I want to make sure this is possible without erasing my old hard drive. I assume the steps to doing this would be:

1.) Obtain original xbox
2.) Softmod that xbox
3.) Get the eeprom file/bin/something (it's been awhile) from the original xbox hard drive
4.) transfer that file to my old hard drive
5.) hot swap the old hard drive with the original one and do something to lock the hard drive?
6.) Success?

Not really sure that is all correct so that's why I am asking here

Thank you

[Heimdall]

Nearly, but no. Transferring the eeprom to the new disk is pointless.

1. Softmod the new Xbox
2. Get the eeprom, and put a copy somewhere safe
3. Build and lock the 400GB disk - see the link in my signature about softmod hard drive upgrades

Basically there are three methods
- xboxhdm - 1.9 (CD) or 2.2 (USB), depending on how many IDE ports your Xbox has
- HeXEn lxhdm
- chimp 2618

Pick the one that best works with the equipment you have available.

This post has been edited by Heimdall: May 12 2012, 01:31 PM

[theneighborrkid]

Nearly, but no. Transferring the eeprom to the new disk is pointless.

1. Softmod the new Xbox
2. Get the eeprom, and put a copy somewhere safe
3. Build and lock the 400GB disk - see the link in my signature about softmod hard drive upgrades

Basically there are three methods
- xboxhdm - 1.9 (CD) or 2.2 (USB), depending on how many IDE ports your Xbox has
- HeXEn lxhdm
- chimp 2618

Pick the one that best works with the equipment you have available.

Thank you for a prompt reply! I really do appreciate it. When I build and lock the 400gb disc, do I lose all the data I have on there? I am trying to avoid doing so if possible. I would most likely use xboxhdm 2.2 (USB). I believe all I need to do is this step

"Finally the hdd needs to be locked to the correct eeprom of the target xbox"

Is there a simple way to do that in xboxhdm 2.2? Or am I misunderstanding this process

Thank you again for your help.

[Heimdall]

There is no need to quote the immediately preceding post. It doesn't add anything to the conversation.....

If all you want to do is lock the disk to the new Xbox then it's simple. Softmod the new Xbox, get the eeprom, use xboxhdm 2.2 with eeprom.bin to lock the 400GB disk, put it in the new Xbox. So long as the softmod you used originally is happy with the kernel on the new Xbox then it will work.

If not, post back and we can work out what to do instead.

This post has been edited by Heimdall: May 12 2012, 07:00 PM

[theneighborrkid]

Sorry I usually quote the previous post to remind myself of what I want to say and make sure I didn't miss anything.

Thank you for the reply (again) and I'll update once I get myself an xbox and try it all out.

[theneighborrkid]

Well I have somehow managed to screw up beyond my wildest dreams

I got a xbox and was going to softmod using this method.

Click

When doing this I somehow deleted the E: Partition in Xplorer360 and something else is messed up. When I try to boot the xbox I got an error 13. So now I am trying to put an unmodified MS Dash in Partition 3 (C:). I thought I did that all correctly, but am still getting error 13. Now I can't get the hard drive to unlock to try again....I am using a IDE to SATA adapter, I have a IDE to USB adapter I may also try...

Will update.

EDIT 1: Well I got back into MS DASH, but cannot get the play the one game I have. I get "Your Xbox requires service. Please call the Customer Care number listed in your Instruction Manual". I am also unable to copy an audio cd to the hard drive, I get an errory saying that I have already copied the limit of 100 soundtracks (even though there are none)....And checking the memory section the dash it says I have 0 blocks available.

This post has been edited by theneighborrkid: May 14 2012, 12:01 PM

[Heimdall]

You probably need an eeprom reader to get the eeprom.

[theneighborrkid]

Do I have any other options? I am currently trying to get xboxhdm2.2 working, I have it booting, but still not getting it totally working. By that I mean I boot into slax and type in xboxhd2 into the console, but cannot get the drive recognized. The one time I did the qemu opened and said the xbox wasn't on /hda (despite me telling the konsole it was elsewhere)

This post has been edited by theneighborrkid: May 15 2012, 03:10 AM

[Heimdall]

If you can get the hard drive to unlock via hotswapping then you can simply rebuild the disk using xboxhdm, but remember that hotswapping carries a small but finite risk that you will brick the hard drive, and the more times you hotswap the more chance you will brick the drive.

[theneighborrkid]

Given that I only have SATA ports is there anything I can do to control where the hard drive is located in SLAX?

Well I have xboxhd2 running under slax and I believe it found my hard drive, but still cannot get it working...

I typed in xbrowser and got "Found Harddrive. We will now search /dev/hda for an xbox partition table... No xbox-partition table found on /dev/hda"

When I type in xboxhd I get "The following drive was found on your primary master: QEMUHARDDISK....." Is that what I want to see?

Apparently yes, but the xbox hard drive doesn't seem to have a great connection, during the building C: phase xboxhd froze.

Rebooted and tried again but got the same problem. I get into xboxhd2 in qemu, can't use xbrowser because no xbox partition table was found, so I boot into the tools and try to make a new drive. This says it formats / partitions the drive, but it froze again during the Building C: phase. I can see the activity LED on the hard drive is stuck on instead of blinking like it was initially during the building C: phase.

This post has been edited by theneighborrkid: May 15 2012, 04:05 AM

[theneighborrkid]

Can't edit anymore...

Is this a viable solution

"02/22/06 WD80EB - I've received this solution many times over the last year or so with reports of it working increasing I have to list it as a solution even though I have been unsuccessful in making it work. Thomas has submitted this solution with a more descriptive step 6 and 7 that make the difference!

1. Connect the hard drive as primary master (remove the jumper)
2. Create a bootable floppy with ATAPWD.EXE on it.
3. Boot from the floppy and launch ATAPWD.EXE select the WD80EB drive and press enter.
4. Select ERASE PREPARE and then ERASE UNIT.
5. Enter the master password: WDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWD
6. It will give you a Busy error, that means it is erasing the drive so please dont turn off the computer.
7. After 30min press F5 to refresh the list and you will see that the drive has become unlocked "

And since it should be unlocked that way can I then use xboxhdm2.2

^ That seems to be a big NOPE. After doing that and using xboxhdm2.2 I got an error code 5 with a game inserted and error code 13 without a game inserted. Yummy.

This post has been edited by theneighborrkid: May 15 2012, 09:43 AM

[Movax]

That wasn't the best idea, since now, the only way to lock the harddrive to the xbox is to build an eeprom reader to obtain the eeprom information. (I don't see anywhere where you have the eeprom backed up..) Your only other option is to install a modchip.

[theneighborrkid]

Yeah...I learned that, luckily I found someone in my local area with an eeprom reader who should be able to fix my nightmares.