I've noticed that most Ndure softmod installers give you the option to create a "shadow C" drive. What exactly is it, and what is its purpose? Is it something to do with backing up the original retail C drive?

this question would probably get an answer over in the exploit section.. Although you could just hit the search button, since it has been answered many times.

Shadow C is a backup and virtual copy of the standard MSdash so that it is possible to toggle the softmod on/off and use xbox live without loss of any files.

no.. its a virtual c:

when nkpatvher loads and finds a file in a specified location "shadowc.img" then it hides the real c: and replaces c: with the shadowc.img file ...making alteration of the real c: impossible.

So that functionality in Ndure was designed so you could enjoy both "worlds", so to speak? Is is confirmed that if I turn the mod off, restoring from the shadowC, I can safely access XBL without worrying about being banned?

It is more a way to keep newbies to screw up their rigs. (They do that enough anyway) (Oh, and to allow you to use the MSDash)

How does it work?

A untouched copy of the entier c: is made into a img file when you run the exploit installer (befor any files are added to it) and placed on one of the xbox partitions.

The exploit files ,that is what makes the softmod work, are then copied to the REAL c:\

So, when the xbox is turned on, it executes the EXPLOITED files on the REAL c:\, and the exploit then loads (mounts) the c:\ img file as c:\.

Why all this work?

Its so when you ftp in and go to c:\ you dont see the real c: (the one with the exploit files) You see whats in the img file and you cant delete anything that would make the exploit to fail to boot.

Nifty aint it!

I hope i explained it well enough

But in that case, how would I go about installing a different dashboard such as XBMC, etc.? If you only see the contents of the img file as your box's C drive, wouldn't it make that impossible?

I didn´t say that the dashboard files where on c: did i?

I know that Krayzie´s UXE installers make the nkpatcher.xbe (the file that do most of the work) look for a default.xbe in e:\dashboard

In those installers you can choose from evo-x and unleash-x, (due to the small size of them they both fit on a 8mb memcard), but i wrote a small tutorial about changing dash HERE.