Hi,
I might be posting in the wrong section but the whole thing is pretty new to me. I've been reading and reading, trying to find out what exactly needs to be done to get my xbox flashed, but all that's happening is me getting more and more confused every minute. So I still had to do the most hated thing and ask the most basic questions in a new thread - I know, this sucks.. Sorry.

What do I need or which method should I look at?

I have a fat xbox, Xenon motherboard, Samsung-Toshiba drive and Dashboard 2.0.14699.0

I'm really looking forward for your (not agressive) posts.

Thank you in advance,
joh123

As far as kernel hacking goes- if you have a Xenon motherboard, and that high a dash version- you're screwed. You can't RGH a Xenon as it just doesn't work. You cant JTAG it either at that dash version.

If you're looking at drive flashing- just check the stickies and it will tell you exactly what to do for your drive model.

I did an update today, probably it updated the dash :S I just needed to get it recognizing USB flash drives.. so I screwed myself :S?

You can flash the dvd rom drive that's it at this point. Read the tutorial over here.

Screwed in the sense, that you cannot flash your 360 with two methods, but you still got one more option.

From what i've read, it seems there are 3 methods of flashing/hacking and each has its pros and cons;
Dvd-Drive Firmware Flashing = Basic technique to play backups via DVD Drive
Reset Glitch Hack (RGH) = Ability to play games via Drive and/or HDD, use homebrews etc (?)
JTAG = Ability to play games via Drive and/or HDD, use homebrews etc (?)

Since both the RGH and JTAG need you to have certain dashboard or below, I did not look into them much (as i am on the latest dashboard)

So in summary, you can only do the DVD-Drive FW flash/hack.
I learend what i needed and what i needed to do from;
this thread @ team-xecuter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52147
and from going over the Jungle Flash PDF (on their site)

(since I power my drive thru my computer and connect thru my VIA Sata card, i did not need the CK Pro/Lite or anything else except Probe 3 which you only need for updated LiteOn drives)

Hope that helps and hope i was correct in what i said above

Hi again, thank you for your replies. I totally have no problem having to flash the DVD drive..
Been reading the threads you linked here and the Jungle Flasher Tutorial.. and googling alot.. and I'm a bit confused. I have a Sammy drive but I can't find any info on how to determine if I have MS25 or MS28? Could anyone help me with that? :/

Second question - on those tutorials ppl advise to use Xecuter CK3 Lite / Pro to power the drive and SATA connection to connect it.. I wouldn't wanna buy too much crap I will never use again, so.. can I use the XboX itself to power the DVD drive and PCI SATA card to connect it to the PC?!

If you only intend on modding the 1 drive then yes, use the xbox to power the drive, hook up sata in your pc. MS25/28 don't think it matters anymore, but if I remember it should say on the label of the drive. If not hook it up to Jungleflasher and it will tell there.

When you open the xbox 360 and are looking at the top of the DVD drive, you will see a bunch of stuff, one of the things you can find, is
F/W: MSxx (xx=25/28)

I agree if you are only going to flash the 1 drive then use you Xbox to power the drive but personally i would use the ck3 mini using a spare molex connector from inside your pc case, if you brick your drive without the dump it will end up costing you alot more than £20 or so to buy the ck3 mini.

I might be wrong but i dont think you can just hook your ms25/28 up to a spare sata port in your pc. you would either need to buy a via pci or the X360USB Pro which is easier and a lot less messing about.

If you need any help ask this guy on eBay that sells the stuff he helped me with mine and i also bought the stuff from him the link is below.

Hope i have helped you answer a few of your questions

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/xecuter-ck3/m.ht...p;_trksid=p3686

Yes, you did, but you also raised one question:



Could you rephrase that? Since I'm not a native English speaker..

i think he is saying that sammy drives are easy to break. he may also be alluding to the cost of retrieving the key after the drive is dead. if you are sure to follow the tutorials and continue to ask questions about anything you do not understand, it will work out fine...

fyi, the main thing to worry about with your sammy drive is how you power it up. if you insert power plug upside down and turn it on, that will be the end of your hacking career. however, if you intend to use the console to power it up, you only need to remove the sata cable and NOT the power plug. if you do not remove it, it will not go back in upside down.

most of the tutorials for sammy drives will spell this out for you with pictures. check out a few youtube videos as well.

Wow. I have read a few tutorials but none of them mentioned that before. Thank you very much for that info. Should order the PCI SATA card now Get the stone rolling..

-edit-
Oh, I have one more question. Have I understood it right, that if I flash my DVD drive, burn a game to a DVD, install it to the HDD from the DVD, I can play without the DVD spinning in the console (less noise). I understand that I need the DVD to be in the drive for the game to work but it will not spin while I'm playing. Is this correct? Also, can I use my 500gb external HDD instead of xbox's own HDD, while doing this?