3.5" Hdd Motherboard Modification Tutorial Options

[FrostyTheSnowman]

* UPDATE *

I re-sized all the horrible 1600x1200 images down to 800x600, so they should be a lot easier to look at now.

If the images are still huge, try clearing your browser's cache.

EDIT: Nevermind, damn Photobucket, didn't seem to re-size the images properly...

This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 14 2009, 04:40 PM

[LEON007]

Hey Frosty Thanx for the tut. You always do something for scenes and try to help us. Thanx once again for time to wrote this tut.


Of topic:

Frosty can u tell me is DVD drive are still needed for playing games?? I am planing to Dump my 360 DVD drive cause its noisy and old. I want to make a 360 just for Home-brew and for gaming occasionally. (May be for XBMC )

[FrostyTheSnowman]

Hey Frosty Thanx for the tut. You always do something for scenes and try to help us. Thanx once again for time to wrote this tut.

No problem, glad to help.

Of topic:

Frosty can u tell me is DVD drive are still needed for playing games?? I am planing to Dump my 360 DVD drive cause its noisy and old. I want to make a 360 just for Home-brew and for gaming occasionally. (May be for XBMC )

Technically no, it's not required anymore. You can just load all your 360 games on to a SATA HDD (or USB, but the loading times are not the best) and play them with XexLoader.

NOTE: The only downside to removing your DVD drive is that your eject light/power light on your 360 will constantly be blinking, but the console will work and play games/homebrew from the HDD just fine.

I can't wait for XBMC on the 360, it's gonna be sick. However, I would be more excited to see an FTP server homebrew app released, because copying games via my 8GB USB flash drive is getting tiresome...

This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 14 2009, 05:58 PM

[LEON007]

No problem, glad to help.
Technically no, it's not required anymore. You can just load all your 360 games on to a SATA HDD (or USB, but the loading times are not the best) and play them with XexLoader.

NOTE: The only downside to removing your DVD drive is that your eject light/power light on your 360 will constantly be blinking, but the console will work and play games/homebrew from the HDD just fine.

I can't wait for XBMC on the 360, it's gonna be sick. However, I would be more excited to see an FTP server homebrew app released, because copying games via my 8GB USB flash drive is getting tiresome...

But if the DVD drive is not needed then how do people load the games to HDD. is there way to do it from PC?? I am curious

[FrostyTheSnowman]

But if the DVD drive is not needed then how do people load the games to HDD. is there way to do it from PC?? I am curious

Well, at the moment DVD dumping support is not complete, because XexLoader does not automatically patch the XEX files in the game to remove media checks, so dumping games from the DVD drive doesn't really work...

So, this is the only way you can do it for now:

1. Use XboxImageBrowser on your PC to extract the game files from either the DVD (using a Kreon drive) or the ISO of the game you want into a folder on your PC

2. Use X360GameHack to automatically patch all XEX files in the directory that you just extracted your game files into

3. Copy the folder to either a USB flash drive or a USB HDD

4. Boot your Freeboot/XBReboot homebrew-enabled 360, connect your USB flash drive or USB HDD, start XexLoader, and use the File Browser to copy the folder on to your SATA HDD.

NOTE: You can also play the game using your USB flash drive or USB HDD instead of using the SATA HDD, but the loading times will not be as good as the SATA HDD.

This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 14 2009, 06:34 PM

[LEON007]

Well, at the moment DVD dumping support is not complete, because XexLoader does not automatically patch the XEX files in the game to remove media checks, so dumping games from the DVD drive doesn't really work...

So, this is the only way you can do it for now:

1. Use XboxImageBrowser on your PC to extract the game files from either the DVD (using a Kreon drive) or the ISO of the game you want into a folder on your PC

2. Use X360GameHack to automatically patch all XEX files in the directory that you just extracted your game files into

3. Copy the folder to either a USB flash drive or a USB HDD

4. Boot your Freeboot/XBReboot homebrew-enabled 360, connect your USB flash drive or USB HDD, start XexLoader, and use the File Browser to copy the folder on to your SATA HDD.

NOTE: You can also play the game using your USB flash drive or USB HDD instead of using the SATA HDD, but the loading times will not be as good as the SATA HDD.

thanx for answering my question. You are always helpful.

Wish you achive whatever you want in your life. Thanx once again

[gawl4]

No problem, glad to help.
Technically no, it's not required anymore. You can just load all your 360 games on to a SATA HDD (or USB, but the loading times are not the best) and play them with XexLoader.

NOTE: The only downside to removing your DVD drive is that your eject light/power light on your 360 will constantly be blinking, but the console will work and play games/homebrew from the HDD just fine.

Would it be possible to modify the DVD power cord so it doesn't blink?

Also since the power cord has 12v and 5v lines (i think anyway) would it be possible to adapt it to power a 3.5 HDD?

[FrostyTheSnowman]

thanx for answering my question. You are always helpful.

Wish you achive whatever you want in your life. Thanx once again

No problem, i'm more than happy to help where I can.

Would it be possible to modify the DVD power cord so it doesn't blink?

I'm sure it's possible, perhaps grounding the 3rd pin (open/close status pin) on the DVD drive power connector would work?

Not sure though...

Also since the power cord has 12v and 5v lines (i think anyway) would it be possible to adapt it to power a 3.5 HDD?

My gut instinct tells me that the DVD power connector doesn't provide enough amperage to support a 3.5" HDD (since the DVD power connector was only designed to support a 360 DVD-ROM drive's power requirements), you would probably end up damaging the DVD power circuit if you tried...

I have not attempted this though, so I could be wrong.

This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 14 2009, 07:11 PM

[biggyfred]

So the main benefit gained from this is that:

1. It's a f@#$@ rad mod.
2. It's seen and operates as an "internal" drive, increasing read speeds.
3. It's a f#^#% rad mod.

Do I have that pretty much correct?

Another well done in order. I love seein peeps go to it and coming up with cool stuff like this. Thanks for the great pics.

[gawl4]

Ground it to the cord like this:



or to the motherboard?

[FrostyTheSnowman]

So the main benefit gained from this is that:

1. It's a f@#$@ rad mod.
2. It's seen and operates as an "internal" drive, increasing read speeds.
3. It's a f#^#% rad mod.

Do I have that pretty much correct?

Another well done in order. I love seein peeps go to it and coming up with cool stuff like this. Thanks for the great pics.

Pretty much.

Ground it to the cord like this:



or to the motherboard?

Oops, my bad, on second glance Pin 3 is not correct... it would seem that Pin 4 is actually the tray status line, which is the one that needs to be connected to ground...

But yes, in theory, shorting Pin 4 (tray status pin) to Pin 5 (ground) should make the 360 think the drive is closed and make the light stop blinking.

Here's a pinout for reference:



This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 14 2009, 08:47 PM

[gawl4]

Oops, my bad, on second glance Pin 3 is not correct... it would seem that Pin 4 is actually the tray status line, which is the one that needs to be connected to ground...

But yes, in theory, shorting Pin 4 (tray status pin) to Pin 5 (ground) should make the 360 think the drive is closed and make the light stop blinking.

Here's a pinout for reference:

Thanks, as soon as I get my 360 I'll try it out.

This post has been edited by gawl4: Dec 14 2009, 09:07 PM

[FrostyTheSnowman]

* UPDATE *

My 3.5" HDD modified 360 supports a 1.5TB HDD!

Check it out!

[KanZerX]

I did the mod but the box displays E68 if I power on everything at once.

I must boot the console to dash then connect the sata cable to the HDD and everything works fine.

If I turn on the console with the hdd sata connection i get E68.

Console 1921_8955 XBR

dunno if this is a XBR limitation or the drive takes to long to boot-ready state (WD 1TB Model:WD10EADS)

This post has been edited by KanZerX: Dec 16 2009, 07:49 AM

[FrostyTheSnowman]

I did the mod but the bos displays E68 if I power on everything at once.

I must boot the console to dash then connect the sata cable to the HDD and everything works fine.

If I turn on the console with the hdd sata connection i get E68.

Console 1921_8955 XBR

dunno if this is a XBR limitation or the drive takes to long to boot-ready state (WD 1TB Model:WD10EADS)

I actually have this exact same problem with my WD15EADS drive...

I have also found that turning the machine on, then off, then on again will also make the E68 screen go away.

Also note though that only my WD15EADS randomly causes E68 on bootup (sometimes it starts up just fine first try), but not my WD10EADS drive... (works perfectly every time)

Either way though, once the machine is booted up the drive works perfectly.

Did you make sure to connect the SATA ground wires on your machine?

This post has been edited by FrostyTheSnowman: Dec 16 2009, 07:42 AM