I softmodded my xbox using the xbhdm tutorial stickied here and I had screwed up. I was sure that all of my xboxes had been updated to dash version 5960, but apparently I was wrong and it was on 4034. Now whenever it boots it goes immediately into the 'return your xbox for service' screen and apparently wont unlock to let me restore a backup via xbhdm.

I tried unplugging the DVD drive power/audio cable to no avail.

I did read about a suggested method of unlocking by flashing a new HDD firmware. Do any of you know if this unlocks the drive on a temporary or a permanent basis?

More to the point, is there any way of restoring the drive without hardmodding the console?

Any help is appreciated.

Totally illogical. Either it will or it won't. If you've tried to hotswap using all of the available methods then it won't unlock - there's no "apparently" option.

What error number are you getting? When you hotswap what error message do you get from xboxhdm?

Flashing new HD firmware removes the lock totally, so you'd then have to build an eeprom reader or fit a modchip to get the Xbox to boot again.

Sorry I fixed the problem, it's a lesson not to do techie stuff when you have a head cold.