Currently Kingroach's Ndure script is dependant on xboxhdm to deliver its functionalities which include:
1. The installation of Ndure softmod.
2. Setting up of shadow C with msdash files.
3. Setting up of UDDAE if the option was selected during the ndure PC installer steps.

With the accidental discovery that xplorer360 can open shadowc.img in shadowc folder as a FATX image file, we can now do all of the above with xplorer360.

1. Open xbox hdd with xplorer360. Backup contents of C drive (partition 3).
2. Close the drive in xplorer360 and open shadowc.img in shadowc folder of ndure C folder with xplorer360.
3. Copy backup files from step 1 over to partition 0. Close the image.
4. Open xbox hdd with xplorer360 again. If you want ndure to coexist with existing msdash, copy over contents of ndure C folder over to partition 3. and take care ernie.xtf is copied before xbox.xtf. Otherwise delete away contents of partition 3 and copy over Ndure C folder contents over.
5. Copy ndure E folder contents to partition 4.
6. For setting up of UDDAE,
a. Copy xboxdashdata.17cdc100 folder in ndure C folder to partition 3.
b. Copy settings_adoc.xip from ndure C folder 's xboxdashdata.185ead00 folder to same folder in partiton 3.
c. If on partition 4, under TDATA/fffe0000/music folder , ST.DB exists, rename to ST2.DB.
d. Copy ST.DB from ndure E folder TDATA/fffe0000/music folder to same folder on partition 4.

Thus hotswapping with xplorer360 to install the softmod will be the equivalent of running the ndure script/htm from pressing enter in xbrowser.

Delete xbox.xtf and xbox book.xtf in partition 3 root in step 4.

Great and simple guide!
I wasn't able to properly run Xboxhdm 1.9 + Ndure 3.0. I got always "This machine is no xbox.", I tried several hotswap methods, no success.
Finally I just made Error 12 (unplugged xbox dvd) + hotswap and normally boot up windows, then just copy few files according this guide and it works perfectly.. THX

Thank you, glad to hear that it worked for someone else as well after so long

I got this to work by using FTP rather than Xplorer360 (aside from building the new shadowc.img). Working to the point that UnleashX loads, that is. shadowc.img would not get past 89.7% transferred using FileZilla. I can't load the MS Dashboard from UnleashX's main menu.

I'll try a few other ways to get shadowc.img loaded.

I couldn't get past that 89.7% because the drive was full...I'm in the process of upgrading the hard drive to a 160gb Samsung. I hope to solve the shadowc.img problem with that.

Have you deleted the filler files which are in the same folder as the shadowc.img file.
Create a file with a size of 88% of the original shadowc.img file. Try to ftp that one to the xbox C partition.
If it succeeds, reenable the shadowc partition and reboot.

Ensure that the shadow c is empty. If it is, format it from within your unleashx dashboard.

Copy or ftp the unmodded M$dash files over to the shadowc you just formatted.
(I hope it will still be large enough.)

If that's not possible, you will have to look at some stuff that can be deleted on the real C partition, so that the space becomes available for the shadowc.img file. 2 of those are the filler files I talked about.

It's even possible to move the shadowc.img file to the E partition, but I had to recompile the nkpatcher for that, so that it looked for the file on the new location.

regards.

I think my problem is that when I boot the xbox, the C drive that's visible from FTP is the shadowc.img. Is that how it works? That would explain why I couldn't fit another 300+MB shadowc.img on the drive.

I think I'll just try ldot's tutorial from scratch tomorrow.

There are a couple of methods to turn the shadowc off. Have you tried those?

The shadowc.img file is the shadowc partition.
How can it be active when you aren't succeeding to ftp that file over.
When it is active, why are you trying to ftp that file over?

I can't follow your procedure very well. Since you can ftp, I assume your xbox is modded already.
What are you trying to do with it?

regards.

thanks original poster

i've modded three xbox 1's previous to this using xboxhdm 1.9 with ndure and hotswap method but i recently upgraded my computer and I no longer had a IDE cd/dvd drive (Just sata)

I tried running xbrowser and would receive a linux not found type error so i was at a loss of what to do with no ide CD/DVD drive around...found out about xboxhdm 2.1 and booted into slax via usb but i was a lot loss of what to do

FINALLY found this post 4 hours later and got it to work within 30 minutes, probably easier than running xboxhdm through CD but maybe its easier to screw up in xplorer360

reference for myself

1. went through standard procedure of installing ndure 3.1, picked proper kernel version

2. hit pause break on PC before auto detection bootup

3. hotswap method on xbox was pausing copied song from hard-drive

4. booted windows xp and followed rest of your guide no sweat

Thank you for reporting back on your results.

Idots... I'm totally straight, but I love you man. I had to register on the forums -just- to thank you for this. I tried for countless hours to get your xboxhdm2 to work. I think I finally chalked it up to not hotswapping at the correct time during pc bootup/running.

I did one last search and pray, and came across this thread. Gave it a go, and what do you know, worked like a charm first try. Had Unleash X up and kicking in less than 10 minutes. Thank you so much for this.

You're welcome.

3 hours of research and I find this, then install UnleashX in 5 minutes after 30 secs of reading.
Why is this so hard to find?! It's by far the easiest way of doing everything...

Thank you so much!

Well, you did find the post and got your xbox modded.

Hi, sorry to necro a defunct topic, but I’ve run into a snag trying to softmod and feel the answer could be in this thread! I have a couple of old Xboxes just collecting dust and thought this would be a fun project. The boxes have not been modded in any way before.

I have a good grasp on the process and am pretty computer savvy. Unfortunately, my computer only has one IDE slot on the mobo, everything else is SATA, so the CD I made using Ndure and xboxhdm following this guide (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=496263) didn’t work. Xboxhdm would boot off the disc but gave me a “no linux CD found” error when I would enter the xbrowser command, even though it had just booted from that very CD. *facepalm*

I found that 2 IDE channels are necessary, so I might be SOL since my computer only has one and no IDE CD-drive, but then had the wild idea of using the drive off my second Xbox since it’s IDE. I’ll plug the IDE slave into the disc drive of xbox#2, hotswap the master into the hard drive of xbox#1, and maybe I won't get the no linux found error. The only problem I forsee is the xbox disc drive might not read a burned CD, or running the 2 different devices into one channel. I’ll give this a try when I get home but I know it's a long shot.

If it doesn’t work, I’ve read up on ways to use a USB flash drive in the same way as the CD, but haven’t found a step by step guide for total linux dummies. I've read and read and read but don't know what files to put on my USB flash drive. Would I just put the ISO on there with a bootloader? Step by step would be a huge help, can anyone point me in the right direction? Or maybe there's a better method than the USB drive, like the one in this thread?

Finally, trying to do what was done in this thread: I unplugged the disc drive to get error 12 on xbox #1 and hotswapped the hard drive while my computer was in windows and scanned for new hardware. Windows detected it just fine and I was able to see it in disk management under device manager. Xpolorer360 couldn’t detect any FATX drives however, and I also tried Filezilla but still couldn’t find the xbox hard drive. Even if I were to access the drive, Idotsfan’s instructions in the first post are still a little difficult for me to understand. Can anyone help clarify or tell me why Xplorer360 won’t detect the drive?

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!

Make sure you use Xplorer360 beta 6. You also have to be really accurate with the timing of the hotswap - if you haven't unplugged the disk before the error message appears then you're too late because the disk will relock again.

First, Thanks for this guide. Saved me a lot of time and trouble. Second, thanks
to the LDotsfan. Third, Thanks to Jangaboo for this:




I did something similar. Here is what I did using an IBM ThinkCentre with 1 IDE slot and running XP:

1. I followed step 1 from Jangaboo: "1. went through standard procedure of installing ndure 3.1, picked proper kernel version"

2. I started up my xbox and played a song for a few minutes and then paused it. I then disconnected the IDE Cable from the HDD and hooked it up to my PC that was ALREADY in windows XP. This is the Hotswap.

3. I went to device manager and had it scan for new devices.

4. I followed the rest of Ldotsfan's original guide.



Works fine. Can't wait to test it all out and see what I can make it do.

Thanks for the tut, but i can't get the HDD to detect correctly.

I booted up my comp and pause/break's before hdd detection

performed hotswap by pausing a song which was playing from the hdd

booted into windows 7

it found the hdd

but i cant get device manager to pick it up

it just says "I/O error"

anyone have any ideas?

thanks

The Art of Hotswapping

My bad, i managed to successfully hotswap this time (showed up in xplorer 360) however, after following your original post, it asks me to transfer files onto partitions 3 and 4. About half way through xplorer360 became non responsive and crashed, now the HDD is only showing 4/5 partitions and the other partitions are empty.

Have i broken the hard disk now? I get a red flashing ring when i tried the hdd in the xbox.

Any error no on the screen?. Xplorer360 takes a long time to copy shadowC file so when you think it is irresponsive, it may just be busy.

Is partition 3 and 4 accessible? List the files if possible on pastebin.

No, what happened, was that xplorer360 was copying the shadowc file to the HDD and the program went from "not responding" and suddenley crashed with a windows error report.

Partition 4 does not exist at all. All the other partitions are literally empty. (I did make a backup, as you suggested in the first post, but that also crashed xplorer360 and there is only one file in there)

Ok, I'm slightly confused. By backup do you mean click DRIVE>Backup

or do i need to just copy files over to a folder... I did both.


Also, when I try to inject the backup into shadowc.img it says it cannot write cluster.

writing shadowc.img is not really that important. You can transfer it after you get the exploit running. Its much faster to do it by ftp. You will see real c drive on first boot and after you copy shadowc.img all subsequent boot will load shadowc.

I know this is old and long out of date for many of you, but it worked exactly as advertised. I found an xbox in a bag in the parking lot at the local grocery store, and with this tut and a little more research I now have a working XBMC set-up that fits my cheap-ass budget.

Thanks to all of you.

Yes, this method has its fans

i made the backup image. and i ficked up the installation....
now i cant get the drive to unlock in order to restore the image.....
what do i do?
im screwed

Thank you for this great tutorial. It works fine with modern PCs (SATA, only one IDE cable..). I had one problem using Xbrowser360: First it only had 3 Partitions. Solution: Backup the whole disk, and restore it- thats how i get my e partition back.
Another Problem using Windows 7 (64bit in my case): UAC does not like the tool, drag and drop does not work. You have to use the Administrator Account and nothing else ("run as" simply does not work!).

I have been trying this on my unmodded X-Box for almost 3 days now.. My problem seems to be slightly different from others on this forum. Everything goes smoothly: the xbhd unlocks; the laptop installs the driver; and it reads the xbhd in the Disk Management. But, Xplorer360 (also tried extreme 1&2) will not detect the xbhd.
I have tried it in XP SP 1,2,&3 compatibility modes run as administrator each time (my os is Win7 Ultimate). As I stated earlier, everything works with the xbhd except for the Xplorer360 programs.
Could it be the IDE/SATA to USB 2.0 adapter I am using? It is the same adapter I used on my X-Box 360 a couple years ago (same laptop, too).

In all likelihood, the hdd hasn't unlocked yet. What technique are you using to unlock?

And are you using Xplorer360 beta 6?

I have used the error 12 and play/pause song method.


Yes. Plus, I have also tried Xplorer360 Extreme 1 and 2 with the same end results.

This has been more frustrating than when I first started modding game systems all those years ago. This is my first attempt at a original X-Box. So far I suck at it, lol...

Okay, I think I found the problem. I was using an external power adapter that came with my IDE/SATA to USB when it wouldn't work. The external adapter got misplaced and I decided to use the actual X-Box to power the xbhd and it works perfectly now. Thanks to ldotsfan and Heimdall for their quick replies to a solution.

But...., as with almost anything in life, a new problem has arose. When I try step 1 (backup content in c drive) by highlighting "Partition 3", clicking "File", and choosing "Backup Image", it gets about 3/4 of the way (7.12 gigs) and stops. It does not freeze or anything like that (task manager shows Xplorer is running normally). I let it set for nearly 7 hours yesterday with no progress made on the last 1/4 of the process, about 2.5 gigs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: The xbhd works just fine while in the X-Box.

The C partition is only 500MB, so something has gone wrong somewhere.

You might want to use HeXEn (Google Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disc, burn the iso to DVD-R at 4x or slower) to reinstall the softmod, just to be certain that you have a clean installation.

Should I use the "Extract" command instead of the "Backup Image"?


The system has not been modded yet, that's what I'm hoping to accomplish. Also, can HeXEn be burned to a CD-RW?

You don't want a backup image, you want to copy the files.

When you said "The xbhd works just fine while in the X-Box" I assumed that you meant that the rest of the procedure went well, and that the Xbox was modded.

Xboxes only read DVD-R reliably. Everything else is a huge gamble, and you can end up with parts of the disc readable and parts not, which is a disaster when you are halfway through an installation and the disc can't be read. It's your choice, but I wouldn't recommend it, and you might end up with an unmodded Xbox again.

I finally got it to work! I couldn't copy/paste, so, I had to drag/drop everything. Thanks to everyone that replied. And a big thanks to you Heimdall. I also bought a DVD-R and downloaded/burned HeXEn for future safety.

The hd I modded is the original and I was just wandering a few things.

1. What is the extra memory in drives C(308.91mb), X(749.88mb), Y(626.02mb), and Z(749.88mb) used for?

2. In the Disk Management on my pc, it showed 9.52 gb Unallocated, but, the 'Harddisk Settings' only shows a total of 7.29 gb being used among all drives. Is there any way to get the other 2+ gb back?

3. All the emulator tuts I can find say to open C: drive of the xbhd and place the emulator + roms in the 'Emulator' folder. The problem is that I only have 308 mb of memory in the C: drive. Most of the memory was placed in the E: drive of the hd (roughly 4.5 gb). Can it all be placed in the E: drive?

1. C: nothing - leave it empty.
X,Y,Z are game caches, you can't use them.

2. Enable then format the F partition from UnleashX. You will get a ~2GB F partition

3. Yes, and you should always put games etc. on E, F or G.

Thanks for all the information on each partition Heimdall.
Everything is working perfect except for the F: partition. I made sure F: is enabled, used the Format option from UleashX, and rebooted the system. But, it still shows 0.00 MB of memory available. I even tried FTPing a very small file (2 kb) into it with no luck.

Idotsfan, major major thanks to you for writing this.

I spend 6 hours playing with xboxhdm trying to get things to work. I got as far as xbrowser but since my drive is located at /dev/sda it wouldn't get much further.

You pown

Now if only we could have this tut come up first in Google....

Thank rmenhal, since your post was on the same day as rmenhal's day

xplorer360 tells me could not find fatx drive i know the hard drive is unlocked i was playing halo when i did the hotswap plz help im at wits end with this xbox ive tryed xboxhdm and it just tells me it cant find linux cd wich is funny it just booted from the cd my computer only has 1 ide connection so i put it down to that for reason xboxhdm dont work thanks in advance for any help

@mrbunz233: Try running xplorer360 with Run As Administrator in Windows - assuming you are using Windows 7.

im running vista and running as admin dont help it still says cant find fatx image for xbox and usb thats formated from xbox

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=680173

thank forthe link but it didnt help i dont know what the problem is i do have one question though why does ms dash flicker at bottom of my sceen when i play some of my games this is the reason i was doing the mod i was hoping it would fix that problem i have v1.6 xbox

is there any other way i can install ndure on my xbox its a 1.6 has 2 usb ports installd in back my computer on the other hand has 5 sata channels and 1 ide channel and the ide is third master so xboxhdm1.9 is out i have tryed useing xboxhdm 2.1 but cant get computer to boot from sd card or usb my computer supports booting from sd card and usb and when i try to make_iso.bat in slax folder of sd card to make a boot cd it tells me a parramiter is requied-target iso file. example: "F:\make_iso.bat" c:\target_iso press any key to continue the it goes back to slax folder or is there any other method of softmoding my xbox i dont have 007 or spinter cell i cant get a hold of them i have mhecassult but it dosent have the lunix profile on it so i dont think its the right one plz help



ok i got computer to boot into slax how do i install ndure i dont have the eeprom for my xbox and i dont want to destroy the hd