I know what this is, it means the xbox drive is not locked. Now, here is my question.

I know that I could fix this as easily as getting a modchip. But what I`m wondering, it can I hook the drive up to my already modded xbox, lock it with that one, then hook it back up to the other xbox?

Or, Could I uninstall my chip, put it on the `box that needs locking, lock the drive, then unistall it again and put it back into the original `box?

I am taking it that you don't have a copy of your
eeprom on your PC.

Have you ever backed up your eeprom?

If so you could get xplorer360 and browse your
HD to get the eeprom. Make a CD with xboxhdm
and lock your HD that way.

Do you think the HD went bad? Or were you doing
something and unlocked the HD yourself?

If you have hardmods, then it doesn't matter if the drive is locked (unless you're running the MS dash with the mod off or going on Live, etc.).

So, I'll assume a softmod. In that case, the HDD has to be locked with the specific key from the eeprom.bin belonging to that Xbox. Locking it in another Xbox will render it unlockable in its original Xbox.

You could, in theory, transfer the eeprom.bin to your chipped box, load it in Config Magic, use CM to lock the drive using the eeprom from that target Xbox, and then use the drive (being sure to restore the proper eeprom.bin to the chipped box afterwards).

If you had the eeprom.bin though, I don't think you'd be asking this though.

Your second idea, if I'm reading it correctly, is feasible. A chip will allow the Xbox to boot even with the unlocked HDD.. so then you could grab the eeprom.bin for safe keeping and lock the drive using its own key. If it has a working softmod on it then it'd boot without the chip as the HDD would be locked (provided no other errors such as dash error, etc.).

Well, considering I am not the one who caused it to get error 5, i wouldn`t know. I`m probably going to end up just chipping it.