I originally modded my box with fonts about a year ago this time, then did audio soon thereafter. Anyway, the audio exploit worked fine for almost the last year, but I was getting really sick of the disc swapping and button combo. So, I came back and saw the UDE, decided to give it a try. Long story short, in the readme for the package I dl'ed, it said to delete xboxdash.xbe, but I never replaced it. I turned off my xbox, turned back on, and of course it now will not boot to the msdash. Ive been trying for the last few hours to hotswap the hdd to my pc, and im using the secondary ide channel with nothing else on that channel. I can't get the hdd to unlock properly. If I get a modchip, flash it with a new bios, i can replace the hdd without locking it, can't I? I dont have live, and have no intentions of ever getting it. Accessing the original dashboard is unimportant to me, but somehow getting back to pbl and evox is.

Here's my suggestion as I was in the same position before. As long as you backed up your files, including your hdd key, there is a way out.

Option #1
If you saved the MechAssault / Splinter Cell / 007 exploit to your hard drive you can get out of this, by simply putting in one of those games than running the exploit and FTP in than put back your original xboxdash.xbe.

Option #2
If for some reason your didn't save your exploit on to your hard drive and leave it there, than your other option is XboxHDM. You can use XboxHDM, as long as you have your hdd key. You can read more on it, and it is actually really easy to use. Just as long as you backed up your C & you have your hdd key, your fine.

With your Xboxdash.xbe missing, no games will boot. So I suggest to keep trying to hotswap, or rebuilding the HDD (assuming you have your EEPROM)

You should even be able to pull off a hotswap even though xboxdash.xbe is missing. Just have to time the cable pulling. Maybe try booting with the DVD ide cable removed (xbox boots to error 12 with HDD unlocked).

If you didn't backup your C I guess you have and old enough kernel to allow dashboard downgrades (well you did have the audio exploit - so yes!), you can get Slayers xiso and use the C-drive from this package.

P.S. A retail game should still load if u have locked hard drive without the msdashboard for the xbox looks in the D:/default.xbe first before loading c:/xboxdash.xbe !!!!!!!!! so if u have the hack installed then think about it... but I didn't cause I accidentally had wiped the e:/Tdata folder
I've been there and it took me almost 6 hours to unlock the drive (w/o eeprom or any backup / No gamesave hack (couldn't enter MSDAShboard to enter the save from memcard - error 13) and guess what I did. The pc hotswapping did not work for me I was upgrading the hard drive and was still able to use the old drive. I hacked the old drive and loaded Configmagic Final on it.
Then I Booted the locked drive with my pc's power supply, and hotswapped default hard drive with the corrupt new hard drive at the "press start to read hard drive" screen. Voila! Config magic read the upgraded hard disc and I used it to unlock the drive. (that proves that the old eeprom can still work on the new hdd ur installing)
1) Then you could use xboxhdm with the unlocked drive and eeprom from the first drive lock it properly to that xbox.
or
2) I just used a modchipped xbox and changed the contents then hotswapped configmagic on both xbox (vbox and chip box) running at the same time. Load the unlocked hard drive w/ correct files and backup to pc! on the chip box with configmagic final. Load configmagic on the vbox (007 hack, etc...) with the default xbox drive locked) and just swap the drives as the LED is flashing orange and it says "press start." then lock the upgraded hard drive to the box (make sure u have a backup first!)
It should load fine aslong as u fixed the files, and watch the slayers 2. 5 Evox installer cause it places evoxdash and msdahboard.xbe and screws up the loading as it did to mine....
This is if u screwd up the upgraded hard drive by not backing up and your old xbox hard drive still works.

Thx for the help. I think I still have my agent under fire save on the box, but I lent the game to a friend... really need to get that crappy game back. I thought I had the splintercell savegame also, but I tried loading that to no avail, and I figured that maybe I couldnt do the savegame exploit without an xboxdash.xbe.

Thx again! Hopefully my box will be up and running again soon.

P.S so much has changed since I used to come here often. I remember how excited everyone was when morden released his auto installing font exploit... that was pretty damn cool.

Damnit sry typo... hehe