How to flash your eeprom and change your HDD password to remove a XBL "ban"...
NOTE: I make no warranty on this procedure what-so-ever. There are alot of pitfalls in there, and if you mess up, you can seriously damage your xbox. I did not come up with this procedure, I was taught this from a couple of people and trial and error. You can ONLY procede at your own risk.
I'm writing this document for one reason, I don't like the way MS handled the "banning" of mod users. I agree with them that mods shouldn't ever be used in conjunction with live. I don't like cheaters, and mods open the doors to cheaters. I don't pirate software, and mod open doors to ppl to not have to buy software. But if they would have issued some kind of warning, and hadn't been so clandestine with the checking and reporting of modded units, I would have taken precautions to not get banned like removing the mod completely, I liked the XBL service so much. Instead alot of ppl got banned (including my retarded self), and what happens? Those ppl take other eeproms. Nice corporate strategy. NOW there are alot of pissed off ppl who are hell bent on beating this checking system and getting mods to run Live. I know some of these ppl too, I wouldn't want them hacking my stuff!
Perhaps if enough ppl take this strong of a measure to re-enable their live, MS will rethink the "banning" and just block mods from online use ever with a series of checks, which would be 100% OK with me.So without further interruption...
First of all, this is a mish-mash of 2 write-ups HDD locking/unlocking...
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/lock-hdd.php (much of my doc assumes you have read this document and understand it, I STRONGLY suggest you study it first) and the readme that comes with hddunlock.zip (hosted on xbox-scene btw)
I am only writing this as a courtesy to ppl out there who requested it. If it wasn't for the above 2 docs, I wouldn't have been able to do anything. Greets to imh0, opjose, undead and to Trithe.
Also, I take license that the reader is not an idiot. If you are an idiot, or are not at least mildly technically inclined I strongly suggest you stop reading now, this document makes assumptions of the reader (like being able to run a ftp client, setup static IP/DHCP in evox, etc). This process, if done wrong, can serious damage or disable your xbox to the point of non-usability and you will be putting it up on ebay as "XBOX - looks great, unknown condition". Don't say I didn't warn you.
-REQUIREMENTS-
xbox with old eeprom and mod installed that will allow the booting of evox.
new eeprom.bin file (please make note of the serial and MAC of this new eeprom, use it to verify integrity when the process is complete)
PC that will be bootable via floppy
dos/win9x boot disk (you technically CAN use a bootable CD-ROM, but note the utilities that will be run from DOS need to be able to write to disk, so boot from CD-ROM, but change over to a write-able HDD before executing the programs in DOS)
hddunlock.exe (on floppy disk)
hddlock.exe (on floppy disk)
atapwd.exe (on floppy disk)
hddisabl.exe (on floppy disk)
eepromagic.xbe
evox installed on the xbox's HDD, or evox on CD-RW/DVD-R/RW
a PC you can run cuteftp from
If it's your first time, about an hour of your time. It now takes me less than 20-25 minutes.
OLD EEPROM
1. If you already have a XBL GamerTag stored on the HDD, back it off to a memory card NOW. When this process is complete, the GamerTag stored on the HDD will be unrecognizable to the Dashboard. If you forget to back it off, once the process is complete, you will need to do a "Account Recovery" to get it back. When you do an Account Recovery, assuming you forgot the backup your GamerTag, you need to enter some of your original sign-up information EXACTLY as you did on your initial sign-up day. I missed one "." in my name for my CC during the Account Recovery, and it barfed in it, just added the "." after my middle initial, and I was good to go, Account Recovered.
These are the fields you will be asked for during an Account Recovery...
GamerTag
CardHolder Name
Credit Card Number
Phone Number
Postal Code
I you don't remember what you entered, you must contact 8004MYXBOX and have them help you out. I suggest saying you bought a new xbox.
2. Boot xbox to evox dashboard (HDD or DISC, I care not).
3. Run evox backup from evox's system util menu. Connect via ftp from your PC, and pull down the c:\backup dir to your PC (you might want to read only these files for safety's sake, I burned them off for archival). After the copy is done, rename the dir on the xbox to C:\backup.old or something.
^
^
NOTE: This step is also how you can aquire an existing non-banned "virgin" eeprom image.
4. At this point, you care about hddinfo.txt. Print it out and label the sheet "OLD EEPROM HDD PASSWORD".
5. Via ftp, copy over eepromagic.xbe to any location on the xbox's drive, C:\ for all I care. Also copy the NEW EERPOM image file, eeprom.bin, This file NEEDS to be in the root of C: to work.
6. From your ftp client (flashfxp) open a raw command instance (in command it's ctrl+r, or commands->raw). type "execute (insert your path here)\eepromagic.xbe". You will get in a message in the ftp client that the session is terminted and it's executing your program. Your xbox's screen will change to the eepromagic gui.
7. Proceed thru the UI to write the new eeprom image with eepromagic.xbe. Just follow the prompts. It will first copy off your OLD eeprom.bin to eeprombackup.bin to the root of C:, then write whatever your eeprom.bin file is to the actual eeprom. Proceed until eepromagic.xbe shuts the system down.
NOTE: At this point, your eeprom has been be written to. This means the eeprom is setup to unlock the HDD with a different password than is actually ON the HDD, because the HDD is still setup with the OLD eeprom's password. The next steps will guide you though changing the HDD password to match that of the NEW eeprom.
8. Remove your HDD from the xbox, or leave in the xbox, but get it near enough your PC so you can add the HDD to your HDD's IDE channel.
***** Now some of this step is up to you. I PERSONALLY don't trust hddlock and hddunlock quite enough to have my PC HDD's on the bus, nor do I trust myself much, so I unplug ALL HDD's from my PC while doing this step to assure no damage will be made to my PC's drives. *****
HDD PASSWORD CHANGE
9. Plug the xbox's HDD into your PC's IDE chain, and give it power.
10. Boot off of the floppy drive.
11. First run hdunlock.exe from your floppy disk. It will ask you which drive you wish to unlock. If you followed my suggestion and the only drive in the controller is your xbox drive, select it. You will then be prompted for the HDD password. This password is on the sheet you printed out, "OLD EEPROM HDD PASSWORD". The sheet will look something like this...
| CODE |
HDD Key : 12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef 12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef 12:34:56:78:00:00:00:00 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 |
Note the format of the "HDD Key". You need the first 20 bytes of that data, meaning you don't want the trailing 00 padding and you need to drop the ":"'s to make this one long HEX string. So in this case the HDD password is "1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678". This is the password needed to unlock the drive and to disable locking on future boots.
When prompted by hdunlock.exe for the password after drive selection, type in your password. Double and Triple check your work, then hit Enter. (hdunlock.exe and hddisabl.exe don't check if the password is right, so it will always say "Done").
12. Now run hddisabl.exe and follow the above steps for step 10 again, but with this .exe. Hdunlock.exe unlocks the drive temporarily (it will auto lock after power-down), hddisabl.exe stops it from ever locking again.
13. Run atapwd.exe from the floppy. You will get an ASCI UI that will enumerate the hdd's and tell you if they are locked, set to lock on next boot, or unlocked. At this point, you should see the xbox's hdd to only have a + under "S", the "E" and "L" settings should be "-", meaning disabled. If you have more than 1 "+", you didn't successfully unlock the drive, try again and check your typing.
NEW EEPROM
14. Set the xbox's HDD to boot off the xbox again, and boot up off of either evox on the HDD (if you have it installed on the HDD) or CD/DVD.
15. Issue another "backup" within evox. Connect via ftp again, and pull down this "new" backup directory.
16. This new backup directory has a *NEW* HDDINFO.txt file. Print it out and label it "NEW EEPROM HDD PASSWORD".
17. Once AGAIN, remove the HDD from the xbox and put it in your PC.
18. Boot off of the floppy again.
19. This time, run hdlock.exe from the floppy. It is very similar to hdunlock, except it's function is the opposite, it will lock the drive, and tell it lock from then on. When you run the .exe, select the xbox's drive, then you will be prompted to enter the password...
*** WARNING ***
When you enter this password, it will write the password to the HDD's firmware, and write the password typed to a .txt file on your floppy disk. Back off this file, don't lose it. Like opjose says in his tutorial, print it out and tape it to the drive. IF YOU FAT FINGER THE TYPING OF THE PASSWORD AND YOU LOSE THE PASSWORD, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO USE THIS DRIVE AGAIN FOR ANYTHING. Have a nice day.
Now, the password you printed out and labeled "NEW EEPROM HDD PASSWORD" is the password you want to type in. Once again, drop the 00 padding, and drop the ":"s. Double and Triple check your work and hit enter.
20. Again, run atapwd.exe from the floppy, now you should see the xbox's drive representation showing "+"'s under the S, L, and E. This means the drive is locked, and will be locked for future boots. If it does not have the "+"s, you screwed something up.
21. Take the xbox HDD with the NEW eeprom's password freshly written into the firmware and install it back into the xbox.
22. Boot up the HDD without a disc in the drive, your dashboard (MS dash, evox, or whatever you use) will pop up. Now try to boot up with the mod disabled either by switch or matrix/mode3 with a disc in the drive, it should boot fine to the MS dashboard.
23. With the mod DISABLED, goto "Live" in the MS dash. Under settings you can see the MAC of the xbox, and elsewhere in "Live" you can see your serial, verify that the serial changed to match that of the new eeprom you installed (assuming you noted it before you installed it
) Copy over your GamerTag, or do an account recovery and you should be good togo. Assuming the eeprom image you used WAS not banned in the first place.Congratulations you just installed a new eeprom, and reset the HDD password to match that new eeprom's HDD password.
Written by - Anonymous
i think ill write that all over it in silver marker, ill send in a pick 
) that new prog coming out, will that allow me to skip all the plugging the xbox drive into my pc and stuff because i have a laptop and that wont work.