i recently softmodded my xbox with aid 3.1, i've got a load of stuff i wanna put on it and eventually stick a bigger hdd in there. my only problem at the moment is i have a samsung 605f drive (stock) and thought the softmodding would allow it to read cdrs but i was wrong. i wanna shove a new drive in there that'l read absolutely 'everything'; dvd (-/+) and rw's and cd (-/+)rs. understand what i mean? ie. all formats. supposedly it is meant to read cd-rws, i've got a bunch of 'tuffdiscs' but so far it only read one burn, my guess is that these 'tuffdiscs' are overprints and that the drive isn't compatible with all brand of -rws. if someone can shed light on this also i'd be truly grateful.

matt

You won't get one that reads everything. Some may claim they do but in reality, ability to read discs depends on Brand of disc and quality, Laser condition and calibration and in some instances the burner used to burn the discs.

My favourite stock drive is the Philips J5 3235C, which is what i use. I've tried every stock drive available and found these to be the most reliable and most compatible with different media. They were introduced sometime in 2004 and can be found in many U.K crystal xboxes. Next is probably the samsung 605b (for media compatibility), but i'd stay away from samsung altogether because of their tray sticking issues.
Still listen to what chancer says though. Xbox DVD drives are known to be picky, and there are many variables when it comes to a successfull read.
There are also a couple of P.C drives out there that can be modded for xboxes, these are apparently the best for different kinds of media.