Code 6/atapwd Failure?, Trying to unlock a hard drive for transplant... Options

[Plautus]

OK, I have an old, beloved xbox which I had modded with a solderless Chameleon chip and a bigger hard drive which suddenly developed the orange/red blinking problem a while ago. I tested continuity on the points mentioned in this tutorial and it didn't look like I had the same problem.

Recently I got an xbox from eBay that works, and I really want to use the drive I had been using from my old xbox (by which I mean the old data, gamesaves, purchased content, etc.). My first thought was to simply install the modchip in the new machine and swap in the old hard drive. Got an error Code 06, and did a bunch of research on how to unlock the drive. Since it doesn't work in the old machine (so I couldn't retrieve the EEPROM code), and since I remembered that I set up the hard drive with Slayer's XBE autoinstall disc, I used atapwd.exe from a DOS boot disk to "Unlock with Master Password" (using "TEAMASSEMBLY"), and "Disable with Master Password" ("TEAMASSEMBLY" again). Each time atapwd said that the command was accepted, and for each one, the flags next to the drive listing changed. I put the HD back in the xbox, hit the power button and Code 06 came up again. I put it back on the computer with atapwd, and the flags were set up the way they were before, and this time the drive wouldn't respond to commands using the TEAMASSEMBLY master password (or XBOXSCENE or WDCWDC... for that matter).

Any ideas on my next move here?

[steveo1978]

I dont know what caused the problem you are having but the only sulotion I can think of is if you have the old mother board you may be able to built an eeprom reader and get the eeprom.bin and use that to unlock the hdd.

[Plautus]

Ugh. I guess it'll be a learning experience, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to bust out the soldering iron for this job. Also, now that apparently the Master Password has been changed/obliterated (I'm unsure how to interpret atapwd's behavior), I'm wondering if the key on the drive has been changed so that it no longer matches the one on the eeprom. I'm hoping I won't have to give AFF Laboratory $50 to unlock this thing (my only other idea after this one).

Thanks for the suggestion (I'd welcome others before the license-buying stage), and I'll keep the board posted on what happens.

[ldotsfan]

You can try MHDD or HDAT2 as alternatives to ATAPWD. In maximum security, only user password can be used to unlock the hdd.

[steveo1978]

If you have to pay them to unlock it will there be data loss if there is you could try the erase prepare the format options in atapwd that may unlock it but it has the draw back of losing all data

[1hotjob]

The PC may be preventing you from keeping it unlocked. I read something about this, but don't have time to look it up right now. It is in the BIOS setup on the PC I believe.

[Plautus]

Idotsfan: atapwd was reporting the security level as "high"; in any case I was using atapwd because I had a master password and not a user password; when I finally get the user password, I'll probably use one of those programs, since it looked like the drive won't respond to the master password anymore.

steveo1978: keeping the data is my aim here; and AFF claims that their product will not affect the data on the drive.

1hotjob: I had a suspicion that this might be the case, and might explain why the master password doesn't work anymore; could anyone report on whether the HDD would lock with a new user password without being given one in such a case? I'm just hoping once I pull the eeprom data it'll be the same on the drive when I try to unlock it. When I do, I'll be sure to change that BIOS setting before I hook the drive up to my wife's computer again (mine doesn't have any ide sockets! I guess the days of my xbox really are numbered).

[Plautus]

OK, back with an update. I did get out the soldering iron, built a reader, and got a good read off the eeprom of the old xbox. I didn't see any option in the BIOS of the PC relating to drive security, so I booted to my floppy and tried unlocking with hdunlock.exe and the user password I got from the eeprom read. It said "Done", I tried hddisabl.exe and it came back with "drive not ready". I tried atapwd after that, and it was reading the same way as before (locked but not frozen, high security). When I tried unlocking in atapwd with the user password generated from the eeprom, it said the drive did not accept my command.

Any other suggestions? It would appear that sometime in the middle of my first attempt the master password was rendered useless and the user password was changed to something I don't know (maybe I rebooted the pc while the unlocked xbox drive was still attached? I don't think I did, but it's possible). I'm at a loss as to how to proceed.

[ldotsfan]

rmathiot came up with this: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s=&...t&p=4631133

I hope this helps.

[Plautus]

I was not optimistic, but I had a last go at trying xboxhdm on a different machine than I had been using with the eeprom.bin I read from the old xbox, and the linux unlocking tool worked just fine, no fuss no muss. Not sure what the problem was with unlocking it before.

Next step: saving an eeprom.bin from the new machine and backing up the C and E partitions so I don't have to go through this (at least all of it) again.

Thanks for all the help!

EDIT: Actually, I need more help.

I lied about the next steps. After saving the new eeprom.bin and before backing up C and E, I decided to do a test--Karaoke Revolution Party had been copied onto the hard drive, so I tried to run it, but when I went to the list of songs, none of the Live content (downloaded songs) were there. That was what I was mainly concerned with in my mission to keep the data from the old drive, since getting the Live downloads had been a bit of an investment, and I couldn't redownload them now anyway. Any ideas on how to access Live content purchased on another xbox to work with the same hard drive but a new machine? I didn't have the network cable plugged in when I did that little test.

This post has been edited by Plautus: Mar 9 2010, 10:07 AM

[Bomb Bloke]

Certain bits of saved data (starting with everything you download from Live) are locked to the system EEPROM. Basically, to get access to those songs, you'll need to flash the new console's EEPROM chip with the backup you took from the old system.

However, different consoles have slightly different EEPROM versions. ConfigMagic can safely write any 1.0-1.5 EEPROM to any 1.0-1.5 console (or it can write 1.6 EEPROMs to other 1.6 consoles), but it can't write 1.0-1.5 EEPROMs to 1.6 consoles (or vice versa).

It should be possible to use LiveInfo to hack together an EEPROM that's compatible even if you have console versions that aren't, but you might as well check what you've got first before worrying too much about that.

Note that certain games will outright delete any badly-signed saved content they see (eg Halo 2). For all I know, your Karaoke game has already wiped your songs completely. Or maybe it's just ignoring them for now. Either way, I'd recommend backing up your UDATA/TDATA folders to your PC before playing any more games with this drive installed, so that you've got a backup in case things go much further wrong.

You'll also need to re-lock the old drive to use the old EEPROM's key again, of course.

If you stuff up the EEPROM write process, the new system won't boot (it'll give no A/V output and instead just blink a red LED at you), but your EEPROM reader can be used as a writer as well, so that's not all that much of a problem. Assuming you backup the new system's original EEPROM first.

[Plautus]

Certain bits of saved data (starting with everything you download from Live) are locked to the system EEPROM. Basically, to get access to those songs, you'll need to flash the new console's EEPROM chip with the backup you took from the old system.

Doh! Well, at least I've got the old and new eeprom.bin files backed up, and neither console is a 1.6. Hopefully one run of ConfigMagic is all I need.

Note that certain games will outright delete any badly-signed saved content they see (eg Halo 2). For all I know, your Karaoke game has already wiped your songs completely. Or maybe it's just ignoring them for now. Either way, I'd recommend backing up your UDATA/TDATA folders to your PC before playing any more games with this drive installed, so that you've got a backup in case things go much further wrong.

Did follow through with the backup after my little experiment; I dont think KR is one of those games, hope that's not just wishful thinking.

You'll also need to re-lock the old drive to use the old EEPROM's key again, of course.

Really? It isn't enough to have it unlocked with the security disabled (with a modchip)? I guess I'll see if I get a Code 6 or whatever when I try to run it, and won't put away the computer that works with xboxhdm till this is sorted.

If you stuff up the EEPROM write process, the new system won't boot (it'll give no A/V output and instead just blink a red LED at you), but your EEPROM reader can be used as a writer as well, so that's not all that much of a problem. Assuming you backup the new system's original EEPROM first.

My eeprom reader only existed for a couple of hours on a breadboard, so there's more incentive to avoid messing it up.

Thanks for the advice!

[Plautus]

Success! Just had to use the old eeprom.bin with configmagic and it worked fine. Guess Karaoke Revolution Party doesn't obliterate mismatched content, at least not for me in the two times I tried it. Also, with my modchip I didn't have to relock the drive.

Thanks so much everyone for all the help.

Now I just need to spend the few extra minutes making new xboxhdm and autoinstall discs from my backups and the eeprom.bin files.

[Bomb Bloke]

Also, with my modchip I didn't have to relock the drive.

Indeed, I'd forgotten you'd thrown a modchip in there.

Well done.

This post has been edited by Bomb Bloke: Mar 10 2010, 01:40 AM