I got a xbox from a auction and it has a mod chip in it. It boots to a screen and says your xbox needs service. I opened the unit and found the hard drive missing.

I have a blank 120gb hdd and put it in the xbox and got the same message but I assume because there is no info on the hard drive.

How is it possible to fix / image the hard drive so the xbox boots to a dash?

I have another working xbox.. is it possible to backup that hdd and put it on the other drive? if so how?

i downloaded slayers boot disc but the xbox boots to the service screen before reading the dvd.. so confused

Did you remeber to set the drive to master before placing into the xbox. I would aslo try a different hdd first before continuing. Also what type of modchip is it? And are you cetain the xbox is booting from the modchip and the onboard bios. I would also test to see if the dvd drive in this specific xbox works, I would swap out the dvd drive in tested in my working system.

If you have a modchip that works and is enabled, you should not be getting an error message... What is the code in the top corner that comes up?
MiKe

You would totally get an error message if hdd is not set to master, or if you unable to boot from dvd drive cause it's malfunction and the only hdd you have is blank without any dash at all, even if the mochip is working.

I thought that the chips bioses didnt have error numbers and they just kinda froze? O well, sorry for the mistake, im just learning!
MiKe

No don't be sorry, and you are right they usually do freeze and it really depends on the flavour of the bios he is using. My apologies since 95% of bios available do freeze. It is only a small percentage that show the actual error screens.

The hard drive has to be set to cable select not master. Make sure that the xbox is booting off of the chip and not the stock bios. Once it is booted off of the chip you can just stick in the slayers disk format the drive and install a dashboard. What was the error code that it was giving in the top left corner of the error screen. What chip does it have in it?