What Just Happened?, Rescued wiped HDD with no eeprom. Options

[Israelr]

Having successfully modded my original xbox using the xboxhdm/ndure method, then successfully upgrading to a 400gb hard drive, I was feeling confident enough to buy a second xbox and mod it as well. I planned on using the xboxhdm/ndure method again but thinking I was clever, I swapped out the unleashx file that Ndure dropped in the linux folder for the most recent version, then I put XBMC in the app folder and replaced the dash folder contents with the tools to direct to the XBMC default.xbe file. Pretty much exactly how I have my original xbox set up. My thinking was that Ndure would install xbmc as my dash instead of unleashx and that the unleashx version would be up to date.

Well, to add stupid on top of stupid, once I had hotswapped and was ready to do the deed, I typed “xboxhd” instead of “xbrowser”. I then proceeded to build a hard drive from scratch. Now my understanding is that when doing this, everything is wiped from the drive, it’s then formatted and partitioned, and then xboxhdm takes whatever information I’ve put in it’s C and E folders onto the new hard drive. So anything originally on the hard drive is lost.

Well, halfway through building the hard drive, I realized what I had done, but it was too late. I let it finish and plugged the xbox IDE cable back in knowing it wouldn’t work since I had lost my original C: files and the matching eeprom code on the hard drive. The box booted up past the flubber screen to the green XBOX screen and stopped. A couple hours spent on the internet brought me the knowledge that I would need to build an eeprom reader and then use the eeprom.bin file to build a new hard drive the right way using slayers original C: files.

Then I stumbled across a thread where a guy swore you didn’t need the eeprom.bin to rebuild a hard drive, but just needed a copy of the retail C: files. So I started over with xboxhdm dropping the C: files into the linux folder and created empty TDATA and UDATA folders in the E: folder. I hotswapped again and selected to build a new hard drive from scratch… again. After finishing I threw it in the xbox and to my dismay, it booted to the stock xbox dash! I then created a new xboxhmd/ndure CD and tried softmodding it the right way (without screwing with Ndure’s files). It worked! I’ve now FTP’ed XBMC into the xbox and played a couple original xbox games and an emulator. I’ve rebooted it and started it up cold several times now with no odd results.

What the hell just happened? I thought the hard drive and the motherboard were married meaning once I wiped the original files from the hard drive, the motherboard should have freaked out when it realized the hard drive it was connected to didn’t have the secret password it wanted. I’m very happy, but also very confused.

By the way, the first thing I did was backup the eeprom with unleashx, then FTP’ed it to my PC. Then in installed EvoX and backed up the eeprom again.

[ldotsfan]

You already hotswapped so the hard drive is unlocked. The eeprom file is only needed for people whose hard drive is dead or are upgrading to another new hard drive. The eeprom file is just a means for xboxhdm to calculate the hard drive password to lock/unlock with. A new hard drive will need a new password to be calculated but since your 2nd xbox is being soft modded with the stock hard drive, the hard drive password stays the same EVEN when the contents of the hard drive has been wiped out.

This post has been edited by ldotsfan: Apr 4 2008, 08:59 AM

[obcd]

Hi,

the eeprom is not a file on the harddisk. It is a small memory chip on the motherboard of the xbox.
the eeprom.bin file you need to unlock your xbox harddisk is just a copy of the contents of that chip.

if a harddisk security is enabled, the harddisk locks automatically when you disconnect the power from it.
Even if you totally reformat and repartition the disk, the security settings including the unlocking password will remain the same.

So, nothing changed to your xbox eeprom.
And nothing changed to the harddisk locking password.

They remain married to each other.

regards.

[Israelr]

Hi,

the eeprom is not a file on the harddisk. It is a small memory chip on the motherboard of the xbox.
the eeprom.bin file you need to unlock your xbox harddisk is just a copy of the contents of that chip.

if a harddisk security is enabled, the harddisk locks automatically when you disconnect the power from it.
Even if you totally reformat and repartition the disk, the security settings including the unlocking password will remain the same.

So, nothing changed to your xbox eeprom.
And nothing changed to the harddisk locking password.

They remain married to each other.

regards.

That makes sense. Thanks for the help!