Failed But Not Dead Hdd / Recovering Data / Tips Please Options

[gazah]

Hi

I'll try to keep this simple, hoping somebody smart has some input.

v1.6 / DuoX2 / Booting straight to XBMC without issue for years.

No recent issues
Watched a vid / Deleted a couple of media files
Turned off / Connected to new router [first net access in a month or so] --> Don't think it's relevant, just being thorough
Booted / Straight to MS Dash

Re-boots gave a mix of... MS Dash / Error 13 / All VERY slow / No FTP access

Booted to Slayer 2.7 on DVD
Exceptionally slow, like 3 minutes to fade from X logo
Menus super slow to respond, ie. frame per second or less
No FTP access [brief appearance of device on router, then disappeared]
* Interestingly, Dash said F drive = 0 [previously this was my stash of apps & media, now C&D only]

Threw in an old PC HDD
Slayer booted normally / Fresh build onto HDD without issue
All booting fine now

My issue is...
I didn't have a full backup, & would love to recover files from the old drive

My thoughts...
C is recognised, but not F etc...
Hence is this partition data that's been corrupted, rather than my 2 yr old WD 200Gb having died

I'm currently extracting a [hopefully] 185Gb image file using WinDex, but I'm unsure whether it'll actually be of any use... ie. will I be able to see the partitions, or only C drive. The same goes for Xplorer & Fat-Xplorer etc if the partition info has been corrupted.

Thoughts please? Where do I head from here if the image extraction doesn't give results?

[gazah]

WinDex says I have 3001 minutes left 'til it's finished extracting the image... so it seems I've got some time to plan my next move!

[1hotjob]

You can try Xplorer360 to read the HD.

[gazah]

WinHex image extraction failed after 3.5Gb, so I gave Xplorer360 a go.

I can access the drive, but only the following...

Partition0
~empty~

Partition2
filemanager.ttf
telnet.ttf
irc_font.ttf
irc.ttf
menu.ttf
main.ttf
-weather
curWeather.xml

Partition3
evox.ini
default.xbe
-skin
-media
-bios
-xodash
xboxdash.xbe
-xboxdashdata#
xbox book.xtf
-audio
-fonts
xbox.xtf

Partition4
itunes.pls
screendump.bmp
info
-youtube_downloads
-bios
EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.txt
EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.cfg
EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.bin
-UDATA
-SCREENSHOTS
-TDATA
-CACHE
-SAVES

All this seems like basic system stuff, but is not confined to that which would have been on C drive only [TDATA etc are there]!? It seems like info from across a couple of partitionc, but my media [and other apps & config data] from F drive aren't showing up.

I'm really not up with XBOX Partitioning etc, but what can I deduce from all this?

Is my data still there somewhere? How can I repair the partition info [if that's the problem]?

Can I edit any of these accessible files to help it reboot properly?

Can I boot my Xbox with the old HDD in the DVDs place [presuming I power it externally], then boot & access the data??

I'll give WinHex another go, but I'm unsure whether an image extraction will give me access to anything more than Xplorer360 did!?

Any other fancy ideas?

This post has been edited by gazah: Oct 1 2007, 02:15 AM

[Bomb Bloke]

Partition 2 looks to be either drive X:, Y: or Z: (with some files from XBMC cached there). Partition 0 could also be one of those three.

Partition 3 is your C:, while the contents of E: are displayed on partition 4. Can't see F: in that lot but older versions of Xplorer360 didn't support that one (the latest version apparently supports them all), so that might be the problem there...

I've heard of people using the Cromwell BIOS to boot a console with two HDDs at once. However, you'd also need to run Linux on the system...

If you stuck your dash (XBMC) to the root of C: then a lot of files are missing! I reckon if you were to extract a fresh copy there your console should at least boot up (even if you originally had it stored elsewhere, eg. somewhere on F:).

If you weren't already using the latest version of Xplorer360 I'd recommend trying that first. You really want to back up as much data as you can before you start messing with the drive contents.

[gazah]

Thanks for the reply...

So it seems the partition data does represent the original partitions/drives, which clarifies that. [although may mean F: is gone for good]

That data was derived using the latest Xplorer360, b6... so it looks like my luck may have ended there.

I didn't do the original setup, but XBMC did run off F:

When I've given up all hope, I'll try putting a copy of XBMC onto C drive [? renamed as default.xbe or xboxdash.xbe], & see if 1. it'll boot, & 2. if I can access the older F: drive?

Any other ideas MOST welcome

Thanks so far guys

Partition 2 looks to be either drive X:, Y: or Z: (with some files from XBMC cached there). Partition 0 could also be one of those three.

Partition 3 is your C:, while the contents of E: are displayed on partition 4. Can't see F: in that lot but older versions of Xplorer360 didn't support that one (the latest version apparently supports them all), so that might be the problem there...

If you stuck your dash (XBMC) to the root of C: then a lot of files are missing! I reckon if you were to extract a fresh copy there your console should at least boot up (even if you originally had it stored elsewhere, eg. somewhere on F:).

If you weren't already using the latest version of Xplorer360 I'd recommend trying that first. You really want to back up as much data as you can before you start messing with the drive contents.

[Bomb Bloke]

Best not to rename the XBMC executable to "xboxdash.xbe" (as you'll break your MS Dash by overwriting that one). A direct copy of a fresh build should be fine.

Alternatively, you can use Qwix to create X-Box ISOs out of most dashboards, perhaps see how well it boots those.

[gazah]

Thanks again for the input

I had thought about booting to EvoX or XBMC on a DVD, but when I booted to Slayer's [? it's based on EvoX] I still couldn't see F: drive, so wasn't sure how much benefit there was to be had there.

What do you mean by "a direct copy of a fresh build should be fine"? I presume my BIOS is set to look for the dash on F:, but as a fallback looks to C: - if so, isn't the only way to boot something other than MS Dash to replace the xboxdash or default executable? If I get to this stage, I'lll have all but given up on getting thihs HDD to work in it's current form anyways.

I'm primarily mac-based, had to get the old Athlon out of the garage to run Xplorer360 etc... means Qwix is out of the question. Just not sure how much mileage I'll get out of creating an ISO

[Bomb Bloke]

I presume my BIOS is set to look for the dash on F:, but as a fallback looks to C: - if so, isn't the only way to boot something other than MS Dash to replace the xboxdash or default executable?

I saw the "default.xbe" on the root of your C: and assumed your console was booting off that (many people use a shortcut to boot XBMC as dash when they aren't storing it on that drive). My bad!

But if that file has nothing to do with XBMC, then it looks like you've got a complete install of EvoX on C. In that case you can reflash your modchip to boot off that, and then the console should boot off the drive without your having to change it's contents.

[gazah]

Thanks for your info [& patience]

I can't be 100% sure there's no shortcut from default.xbe, it's just how I thought it had worked all this time [& why it was now booting to MS Dash]

Unfortunately I'm not well read on flashing my modchip to change where it looks for the dash, might need to look into this.

[quattros]

Hi

I'll try to keep this simple, hoping somebody smart has some input.

v1.6 / DuoX2 / Booting straight to XBMC without issue for years.

No recent issues
Watched a vid / Deleted a couple of media files
Turned off / Connected to new router [first net access in a month or so] --> Don't think it's relevant, just being thorough
Booted / Straight to MS Dash

Re-boots gave a mix of... MS Dash / Error 13 / All VERY slow / No FTP access

Booted to Slayer 2.7 on DVD
Exceptionally slow, like 3 minutes to fade from X logo
Menus super slow to respond, ie. frame per second or less
No FTP access [brief appearance of device on router, then disappeared]
* Interestingly, Dash said F drive = 0 [previously this was my stash of apps & media, now C&D only]

Threw in an old PC HDD
Slayer booted normally / Fresh build onto HDD without issue
All booting fine now

My issue is...
I didn't have a full backup, & would love to recover files from the old drive

My thoughts...
C is recognised, but not F etc...
Hence is this partition data that's been corrupted, rather than my 2 yr old WD 200Gb having died

I'm currently extracting a [hopefully] 185Gb image file using WinDex, but I'm unsure whether it'll actually be of any use... ie. will I be able to see the partitions, or only C drive. The same goes for Xplorer & Fat-Xplorer etc if the partition info has been corrupted.

Thoughts please? Where do I head from here if the image extraction doesn't give results?

I don't have anything helpful at the moment except that the exact same thing just happened to my xbox two days ago.

The slayer disc even booted slow like you reported.

The only difference is my partition3 (c: drive) is the one that is missing. Everything else is ok. I'm hoping I can just rebuild or restore the lost partition rather than start over from scratch. I havent been able to find a utility for this though.