ok so no one replied to it in the technical dvd-rom forum, so i'm moving it here. delete it if u want mods.
Post:
360dvd drives works, or what the capabilities of the SATA connection are. But, i have an idea.
Ok. so from what i know, in order to access the firmware M$ has to send an electronic message through the sata connection, and it has to be the right order of high and low pins in order to tell the drive it wants a firmware dump, right? Now, since we have basically complete access to the firmware, we should be able to figure out which pin set (which pins go high and low) in order to dump the firmware (the request and the actual process). So...wouldn't it be possible, to have an extra chip or two: one with the original firmware written on it, or at least a place to store it, and one to check for the correct pin settings from teh sata connection? This way, if you put this (just with like an extended sata connector with some extra wires out of it, and a breadboard to mount the chips obviously) i think somebody could program the extra chip (not storing the firmware) to detect when a dump is requested, and then just send out the original firmware. This way the xtreme firmware would be untouched, and you could not only stay on live but keep the firmware w/o M$ interference....
its just an idea mind you.
EDIT:
also, with this extra sata connection in there would it be theoretically possible to put a sata->usb adapter in there, and extend it to either replace one of the m$ usb ports, or case mod it so there's an extra one, so that you could now easily access the firmware (for dumps and for updates) without constantly taking apart your xbox?