The only thing my xbox has gone through is 2 rrod fixes fixed by ms and then my cd drive quit reading disk. I got it locally fixed, he changed the cd rom drive and I guess when you do that you have to flash the bios? Well what does this hold for future games coming out? Well I get the "disc unreadable" or just play it safe and get a new console?

He had to flash the key from your old drive to your new drive for it to work. As long as it is the same model drive that he replaced as the original there should not be any issues.

Do you know if he flashed the drive to play backup or just a replacement to play original games?

Different drive. He couldnt find the same drive in stock. All my games are legit. Paid for all my games. But of course the new xbox update has put me into the same box as modders I guess...

Depending on which drive you had originally to which drive you have now, you may or may not have an issue.

Do you know those two pieces of information?

Old one was a hitachi that completely went out my box is an '05 model. New one I am not sure. I will see if I can find that information. Any quick way for checking to see what drive I have?

Thanks for the help

easiest way is to open the console up, but you can tell which brand drive it is by the drive tray.
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/Xbox_360_DVD..._Comparison.htm
(If it looks like a benq, it could be a Lite-on. Opening the console up is the easiest way to know for sure. And since it went to the repair center twice, odds are it's a Lite-on)

Since it's such an old console, I am going to guess that it was an older revision Hitachi which cannot do AP2.5 checks, does everyone agree?

So the replacement drive brand isn't going to be an issue.

However, since the original drive (potentially) couldn't do AP2.5 checks, does that mean any iXtreme firmware will be ok (assuming this is an offline Xbox) since the Xbox won't be expecting any responses to AP2.5 challenges?