Lets say a 360 was flashed over a year ago and we don't remember what firmware was on it, and there is no longer an orig.bin file. Would I be safe to assume that I could simply extract the key from the current firmware that is on that drive with 360 Firmware Toolbox (during which also I may be able to identify the old hacked firmware), load up new firmware, paste the key, and flash up to the latest ixtreme 1.41 without the need to downgrade to the orig.bin in between? I'm thinking yes, but I wanted to get some feedback. Thanks guys.

To word it a little differently if that doesn't make sense:

Unknown old modded firmware on 360, want to flash to latest ixtreme, don't have orig.bin.
Can I extract key from unknown modded firmware currently on the 360, paste key into new ixtreme 1.41 and flash, or do I definitely need to go back to orig.bin? Just want to make sure there is no chance of bricking.

Thanks everyone.

You forgot to mention the most important thing: WHAT DRIVE?

If it's a samsung, then there's no prob, just dump it and create a hacked one with firmtool. Firmtool will automaticly extract the key and put it in the 1.4 firmware

You are talking about the 1.41 firmware which is only for BenQ, but i doubt you have a BenQ since you're talking about "over a year ago". But if it is, then it's the same as for samsung

If it's a hitachi, you will need to restore it first with the included restore.bat file

Thanks for your help. Sorry I should have mentioned that I am not sure what drive it is, I think it's a Hitachi, but I'll find out later tonight when I get it. And you are correct it's definitely going to be 1.4 since it's not a BenQ, my mistake.

I think I understand you now. Upon further inspection of the hacked firmware packs, it looks like the Hitachi package contains all original firmware, so now I understand how the restore.bat function will work.

Based on what you are telling me, both the Samsung and BenQ can be flashed from hacked firmware to hacked firmware, why isn't this the case for the Hitachi? I'm very curious to know this. I mean it erases the flash before writing, so why does the firmware on it matter if it's original or hacked? Again thanks everyone!

whichever firmware you choose it'll have a restore.bat in. run that first, then flash as usual.

Hitachi doesn't work with erasing the whole chip, benq and samsung does

The process of flashing a hitachi is much different since it only changes some sectors of the firmware. Therefore you must restore first (restore.bat) so that the drive is original again, and then change the sectors to the hacked 1.4 firmware with FLASHIX.bat

Some do it without restoring first, but since C4Eva and others always recommend to restore (and they know more about the flashing process then I do) you'd better restore it first

That cleared it up for me, thanks for your help!