I accidentally dropped a candle on my xbox and my current 8gb stock HDD is completely dead, no error code or anything. I'm about to go on down to best buy or something and buy a new one thats 120gb. What method do I need to use to install this new HDD? I have an xecuter 2.3b lite BTW. And the only need of the hard drive is that it is lockable, correct? How do I tell that?

Can anyone link me to some regular hard drive replacement tutorials? All the ones on xbox scene main seem very specialized for certain situations. Thanks in advance

Any help? I'm waiting here to see responses I go buy a new HD. And I dont think I've backed anything at all up from the old hard drive, I never got around to it

Ah, my young friend. You appear to be in a sticky situation....

(Or should that be waxy situation.... )

Obviously you dont need to unlock your other HDD cos its dead.
Great.

I would advise you to get Slayer's disk (I didnt use it myself, so dont stand on me, but it seems to be the weapon of choice around here.)

Alternatively, put your new HDD in, and make an EvoX boot disc and then gain FTP access to the xbox.
Grab the MSdash out of the slayers disc, and put that on, and then all the other things you need.

Unfortunately, Im not sure if it has the E: folders you need (TDATA and UDATA), although Im sure it would as its used to reformat drives.
Sadly, instruction number one is ALWAYS to back up your old files.

Cant be of any more help myself. Anyone else?

bobjim17

(P.S - All the details of this you need IS available in the tutorials. Keep looking.)

I believe you CAN'T do anything without the original hard drive key or a modchip. I don't think anyone has devised a method to date to grab the HDD key without the original one intact. From what I've read the motherboard and the original hard drive are "married" and without this key you can't upgrade to a new one without a modchip. I think you're only option is if you want to save your current xbox is buy your new hard drive and then get an applicable modchip. Some are solderless and easy to install. (I think a hardware mod is easier than a software mod personally.)

I'm curious to know if anyone has an unchipped solution to this. Hey what about buying a cheap used or salvaged xbox hard drive from E-bay and then opening it up removing the actual hard "disk" itself and then exchanging it with the old one in the working drive?

Lastly are you sure this is a hard drive issue? These things are mildly protected by a metal casing.

Im no genius, but im pretty sure that doing that would expose the actual disks to a speck of dust/dirt/hair and then your screwed.

I have a modchip, as I said in the first post. But anyway, my situation has changed. I got a deskstar 160gb HDD at best buy today and tried putting it in with a HDD installer found off the usual places. I get error 13 when trying to run the installer disc (CDRW) with the modchip on, and my DVD trey makes horrible noises. When I try and run a burned or retail game I get error 21 with the chip on, and error 5 with the chip off. I think I just need a better cdrw, right? If my xbox is making those noises it just means it cant read it. Though error 13 is strange if that were the case, as it means that the dashboard could not be reached, not the dvd. Anyone have any input?

I just tried a different brand CDR (ridata) and I got error code 14 instead of 13 with a huge black line across the bios screen! what the hell is this?

Error 13 and 14 are both MS dash error that you get when:

1) You have no MS Dash 2) It busted/missing files 3) Patched and thus won't boot with the mod disabled

Slayers 2.6 doesn't need the MS Dash present to run. You *do* need a HDD in there though, and and any IDE drive will do. It only needs to be lockable to go on Live, or to boot the MS dash with the chip off. If you want one that locks, here's a decent resource: http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list

If you burnt the disc properly, according the manual on good media and at slow speed, it should boot just like a game would even with an empty HDD installed.

Since you're getting Error 13, I'd say the Slayers disc is not actually booting, but the mod is working (otherwise you'd get an Error 5 because the HDD isn't locked).

SO: Focus on getting Slayers to boot properly. Note: If you're using Auto-Installer Deluxe 2.0, get Slayers. AID has a bug in it that won't allow it to boot with an unformatted HDD in the Xbox. There's a fix, but Slayers is more reliable for HDD prepping.

true. you cant open your hard drive and remove the disk, thats build into the casing
and you have to be careful with some hard drives
some need to be airtight b4 to work

and how did you mess up your hd with a candle?

If it was one of those Yankee candle style in a big glass container i could see how dropping it might do something. Or he let the candle fall and burn while inside somehow....I think my first idea is more likely.

ok its all resolved now, I reformatted the HD with slayers. The problems I talked about before and have been dealing with for the past few hours were a mix of bad softwere (not slayers) and bad media. It took a while to get the right combination (slayers and a TDK CDR)

Thanks all of you for your help

I would still like to know how you messed up the HDD w/ a candle? Wax on the HDD "shell" shouldnt harm it, and certainly you didn't let it sit there and burn the HDD unless you were high on something.LOL.

it was one of those 1 pound scented candles in a jar. It fell off the top of my TV right onto my xbox lol. It broke my Halo 2 disc inside the DVD tray as well. oh well