Notes For Upgrading From A 20gig To A 120gig Drive Options

[Reaper527]

I upgraded my harddrive this weekend, and hit a few stumbling blocks along the way. i just wanted to share my experiences with all of you, so that the information would be centralized and will hopefully help others in the future.


Guide

for starters, here is an EXCELLENT guide that lays out the basics
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=660096

Making the bootable thumbdrive

the guide talks about using a floppy, and as many computers don't have those anymore, i figure i'll mention that i personally used my thumbdrive that iprep configured for me, and just put the hddhackr tool on that. i then said no at the "do you agree to the terms" screen to get dropped to dos.

if that doesn't work for you, try this link that loggan26 found.
http://csd.dficlub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1136

Why isn't hddhackr finding my harddrive?

when i went to use hddhackr, i quickly found that the program picked up my ide harddrives (2 western digitals and a seagate), but it didn't pick up my 360 drive. upon reading the read me that came with the tool, i found the following

Ifthe hddhackr does not autodetect your SATA controller (if you have an nForce
chipset for example), then you can manually edit the hddhackr to support it.
To do this:

1. Find the two ports that your SATA chipset uses for data communication (see the
MTKediting thread ( http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=514126 ) for
more detailed info on how to do this), basically, you need to run 'msinfo32',
then go to storage/scsi or storage/ide, depending on your SATA chipset and then
look for the two adress lines that have a difference of 7 between them.
For example:

I/O-port 0x0000EFE0-0x0000EFE7
I/O-port 0x0000EFAC-0x0000EFAF
I/O-port 0x0000EFA0-0x0000EFA7
I/O-port 0x0000EFA8-0x0000EFAB
I/O-port 0x0000EF90-0x0000EF9F
I/O-port 0x0000E800-0x0000E8FF

In this example the two port numbers you are looking for (with difference of 7) are
0xEFE0 and 0xEFA0.
2. Open the hddhackr.com in a hexeditor and search for the string 'port=MPRT'
(it is at the end of the file). Now, that 'MPRT' string is 4 bytes long:
0x4D 0x50 0x52 0x54. You have to replace these four bytes with the 2 port numbers
(which are each 2 bytes long, so you replace the 4 bytes in total), so in the
example above you replace these four bytes with: '0xEF 0xE0 0xEF 0xA0'.
3. If you then start the hddhackr, it will automatically detect that you have edited
that string, so it will skip the SATA autodetector and instead use the port numbers
you've supplied.

this is very useful information, and it solved my problem. the I/O port info that you are seeing in that description can be obtained by choosing start -> run, and typing in msinfo32.exe . when you find your sata card, the lines you are typically looking for will be the first and 3rd i/o port line. (the important thing is the difference of 7 that the specialist mentions). once i overwrote the MPRT section in a hex editor, my harddrive was detected and flashed perfectly.

small tip for after the flash

i noticed that after formatting the drive in the 360, if i popped it right in my computer, xplorer only showed partition 1, instead of 0,2 and 3. when i formatted the drive in my 360, then made a new offline profile, the problem was alleviated.

moral of the story: make an offline profile after your format

complications with games

this is the part that kind of sucks, because it shouldn't be necessary. some developers put special protection on their gamesaves to make it difficult to copy. some games have potential workarounds to get the data onto your new harddrive. i'm going to start a list of games that lock the saves, and in cases where a workaround has been found, i'll put it

locked games, no solution
Dead or Alive 4
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2
Viva Pinata
Perfect Dark Zero
The Last Remnant

locked games, solution found

Fable 2
same fix as rockband 1

Rockband
if you copy the data from one harddrive to another, the data won't load. it complains of an unknown error. fortunately, from the dashboard, you have the option to move the rockband save data to a memory card. you MUST choose move, and not copy, otherwise it will give you an error and refuse to transfer.

Rockband 2
same fix as rockband 1

My movie won't play


Solution:

I did run into the issue where a downloaded movie wouldn't play because it said something about doesn't recognize that format. I deleted the Rights Database in System Items under Memory in the System Settings blade and immediately played right away.

If anyone has anything they would like to add to this thread, just let me know and i'll incorporate it in.

This post has been edited by Reaper527: Mar 23 2009, 06:53 PM

[Reaper527]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...25205139AAvQ41m

Open your guide button and go to the right to profile. Select that and go down to auto sign-in. Enable it and the next time you turn on your 360, it will sign you in automatically.

that should do the trick. the old guide button menu didn't have the ability to go left and right, so he must be talking about nxe. i'd say check there.

what is obvious to one person isn't going to be to another. ms really should put options like this in multiple places so that it can be found easier :/

[Ruiner13]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...25205139AAvQ41m
that should do the trick. the old guide button menu didn't have the ability to go left and right, so he must be talking about nxe. i'd say check there.

what is obvious to one person isn't going to be to another. ms really should put options like this in multiple places so that it can be found easier :/

I took another look at this again last night and low and behold, It was as I hoped; I was just being a dumb ass. It was right where you said it was, and after looking at the two options (auto sign-in to Xbox Live and Messenger) and setting the Xbox Live to enable, I remotely shut the box down and after powering it right back up it logged me in right away like it always did before the little mod I did. Now I'm back up to full speed thanks to the both of your patients. IT savvy or not, I still make bone headed mistakes sometimes

If anyone else is having this problem don't be afraid to just look again like I did because it is there, it's just a little buried. Now I've got 120 GB's of faster load times to fill up! L4D, FarCry2, Fallout 3, and Gears 2, Here I come full force!
Thanks again X-bros!

[iCEEMAN]

can I upgrade my 20 GB to a 250 GB WD2500BEVS