Ndure Softmod Through Xboxhdm, The free way to mod the Xbox Options

[dotsyntax]

Hi everyone. Thank you Textbook for putting together this useful tutorial with equally useful links.

I’m certainly not new to computers and computer hardware however this was the first time I attempted to mod a game console. Therefore I did a lot of reading before hand. I also had to do everything possible to prevent my head from spinning and popping off.

Having said that I performed this Ndure mod without a hitch and I’m pleased with the results. Now, I’ve been following this post carefully because I would like to take the next step and upgrade my HDD. But what I’m reading is starting to get confusing and now I’m hesitating. Forgive me, perhaps it is as a result of too much information or something, I don’t know. Is there a clear-cut way, after performing this mod on a stock Xbox HDD to upgrade to a New, Unlocked HDD? By the way I’ve gone to the Xbox Hard Drive Compatibility Chart and confirmed that the HDD I purchased is lockable.

Note: piecing together a few things that I read in this thread I found the evox.rar, unrared it to my (xbox) E:\apps folder, ran it and managed to get create a backup of the eeprom.bin including its supplementary files. But I don’t know what to do with or if I should do anything with this at all – based on this mod. The reason that I mention this is because it seems every other tutorial on upgrading the HDD requires that you have it. I can FTP my xbox and copy all the files normally necessary yet I’m also left wondering about the empty C:\ dir.

[spacemaster]

dotsyntax

You are in the same path as I am, upgrade hdd after softmod. I think logically you can do thru just xboxhdm + epprom.bin + C and E contents.

Look at my thread below.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=500635

[wivenhoe]

for dotsyntax (and any others)

QUICK TUTORIAL FOR UPGRADING HARD-DRIVE AFTER ALREADY SOFTMODDING STOCK DRIVE VIA NDURE

1) Get xboxhdm and extract it.

2) Use ConfigMagic to extract your eeprom. FTP this to your pc, rename it to eeprom.bin, and put it into the /eeprom folder of xboxhdm.

3) Go into File Manager on your xbox, navigate to e:/ndts and run the default.xbe in there. This will load an altered version of unleashx with full access to C and E.

4) FTP your C and E drives onto your pc and put them in the respective folders in xboxhdm.

5) Run make-iso-win in xboxhdm and burn the iso with alcohol 120% or any other alternative image burning software.

6) Place the xboxhdm CD in your cd drive and then shutdown your PC. Disconnect your hard-drive. Connect your new hard-drive to the primary master and then boot up your computer.

7) When xboxhdm loads up choose option 1, then when it's loaded type xboxhd. Choose option 1 again to prepare xbox hard-drive from scratch. Answer Yes to all the questions and when it is finished hit reboot.

8) Now when xboxhdm comes up choose option 3, and then once this is loaded type 'lockhd -a'. This will find your eeprom.bin and lock the hard-drive.

9) Your new hard-drive is now ready to put into your xbox and will be an exact mirror of your existing xbox drive but obviously with a lot more free space.

This post has been edited by wivenhoe: Mar 28 2006, 04:50 PM

[dvdguru]

I try this mod on my XBox PAL with 4304 dash & kernel.
I don't have live. The first time during the step 2 it tells me that there is some problem with the dir but everything is ok.

The secondo time i try, using option 2 of the CD everything is ok.

The problem is that after the initial screen splash xbox doesn't load the dashboard. Blank screen. If i press eject console reboot. No video, no ftp connection, nothing.

Any solution?

[drhendrix]

Hello Everyone,

Textbook, many thanks for your most excellent Ndure Softmod Tutorial. This is a tremendous help to a struggling n00b such as myself.

I took the liberty to transfer your tutorial to a Word doc for use as a reference, once I get up the nerve to give it a try. Anyway, I would be happy to send it to you if you would like to make it available for download. Also, you could make the changes you discussed in the thread to the doc.

Perhaps we could even expand it to proceed into the next logical steps, such as upgrading the hard drive and installing XBMC.

Thanks again.

Dennis

This post has been edited by drhendrix: Mar 28 2006, 08:18 PM

[dotsyntax]

Thank you spacemaster and wivenhoe for your responses.

Wivenhoe, procedure sounds clear to me and exactly what I was looking for. However I have a few questions.

for dotsyntax (and any others)

2) Use ConfigMagic to extract your eeprom. FTP this to your pc, rename it to eeprom.bin, and put it into the /eeprom folder of xboxhdm.

I did something similar to the previous with evox as per my previous post. Can I assume that it’s the same thing?

One more question. I noticed that people say you should unlock your NEW HDD before you proceed to make an Xbox HDD from scratch. Is this true? I assumed that it was already unlocked until you lock it with Option 3 of Xboxhdm.

Thanks for all your help!

[pablo9000]

I try this mod on my XBox PAL with 4304 dash & kernel.
I don't have live. The first time during the step 2 it tells me that there is some problem with the dir but everything is ok.

The secondo time i try, using option 2 of the CD everything is ok.

The problem is that after the initial screen splash xbox doesn't load the dashboard. Blank screen. If i press eject console reboot. No video, no ftp connection, nothing.

Any solution?

I had the same exact same problem after performing this mod on the 4304 dash. This is how I fixed it:
1. obtained the 5960 dash and related files from an extracted slayers disc.
2. create a xboxhdm bootable disc using these C:\ files.
3. restore the hd by hotswapping into xboxhdm. (I had to unlock the drive using one of the error codes, the one where you unplug the dvd drive's ide cable.)
4. re-hotswap and mod the drive as detailed in the original post.
5. (optional) upgrade the hard drive as described several posts above

[Ndure protagonist]

Thanks to Dr Psycho for providing me the info. that led to http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act...dpost&p=3320147 and subsequently re. this...

kingroach, the cause (on his Xbox, at least) was the uppercase characters in:

CODE

xboxdashdata.185EAD00

[wivenhoe]

Thank you spacemaster and wivenhoe for your responses.

Wivenhoe, procedure sounds clear to me and exactly what I was looking for. However I have a few questions.
I did something similar to the previous with evox as per my previous post. Can I assume that it’s the same thing?

One more question. I noticed that people say you should unlock your NEW HDD before you proceed to make an Xbox HDD from scratch. Is this true? I assumed that it was already unlocked until you lock it with Option 3 of Xboxhdm.

Thanks for all your help!

Yes it will be the same thing, as long as it's the same xbox.
No you don't need to unlock your new hdd, you are right in saying it will be already unlocked until you lock it through xboxhdm.

[dotsyntax]

Thanks once again for everyones help, Textbook, Spacemaster and Wivenhoe especially.

Wivenhoe, I went ahead last night and did exactly what you said and worked like a charm.

I have to say that with a little bit of patience and a whole lotta reading I didn't get myself into any trouble and everything worked the way it said it would.

I've been thinking about writing a toot for noobs by a noob. Perhaps I'll submit it to one of the aforementioned for editing, if anyone's interested.

cheers!
dotsyntax

[wivenhoe]

glad you got it all sorted dotsyntax. The people who run into problems are the people who don't read up on what they are doing properly first and end up rushing and do something wrong. I've had 5 xboxes and they've all been modded in different ways but all have worked perfectly.

[Textbook]

Tutorial updated today.

Edits
- Recommended Dash Upgrade
- Deleted a few unnecessary images
- Made most images thumbnails
- Included Backup C instructions
- Added FAQ

Hopefully this will help some people. I tried to cover everything, but I'm sure problems will arise and I'll have to add more to it. Thanks for all the helpers in here, especially Kingroach, Ndure Protagonist, and wivenhoe.

If you have any questions/comments/suggestions, just post them in here. One of us will answer you. Make sure you look in the FAQ first though, I tried covering most of the questions in there.

P.S. - I just tried doing my tutorial again yesterday, haven't tried it in a long time. I also had the invisible/unuseable C drive. When I switched over to hardmod, I could see everything. So I figured, turn off the Shadow C and I should be able to see everything, right? Well, I added the shadowC_off.bin file to the E:/ drive and when I booted, it just went to a black screen, like many in here were running into. So I followed Dr Psycho and Ndure Protagonist's instructions for fixing the Unusable C drive. Now, with the Shadow C disabled, it boots up modded (no more black screen). But I still can't use the C drive, can't even FTP in. So obviously something's messed up with the shadow C. I don't know if it's Kingroach's installer or if it's XboxHDM's fault. I'm sure the smart people (Ndure and Kingroach) will figure it out though.

This post has been edited by Textbook: Mar 30 2006, 02:43 PM

[RMM]

I cant FTP either but my problem could be completely different than yours and totally unreleated to the mod because my buddy just told me he had trouble connecting to Xbox live before I even did the mod for him which he just now told me. Is there a way to undo the mod without FTPing? I would like to go back to the original sw and see what I can come up with

[kingroach]

this is defenately a problem with xboxhdm.. All manual installation with ndure with ftp works perfect.. but copying shadowc with xboxhdm causes problem.. I guess xboxhdm corrupt the file somehow after people get insufficient disk space error..

[flashburn]

Hey guys,
So I have an Xbox that I once used on Live, but never plan on doing again. Do I still need to copy the EEPROM file from the stock hard drive to the new one, or does it not matter?