How to install a new Hard drive in your Xbox

Black_Knight

Firstly, follow Longfields excellent softmod and install of XBMC here

Follow the guide until installing the XBMC in step 11. Before XBMC is installed its best to change hard drive. It saves FTPing lots more data then needed.

You will obviously need all the parts mentioned in Longfields guide. Also you will need the EvolutionX (Evox) dash to create a backup of you Xbox drive.


Step 1:
On your xbox's evox dashboard go to system utils and select backup.
While this is working away, extract the xboxhdm_v1.9.zip you already have from Longfields guide.
Now, run your prefered FTP program and connect to your Xbox. Go to your E:\apps\evox\backup and download a file called eeprom.bin to the xboxhdm\linux\eeprom folder on your PCs hard drive. This is where my eeprom.bin file was located. Dig about if yours isnt there.
Then go to the root of your xbox and download the full contents of the C:\ and E:\ to the xboxhdm\linux folder and overwrite the ones already there.

Step 2:
Now in the root of the xboxhdm is a file named 'make-iso-win'. You must run make-iso-win and wait for it to finish. Now burn the .iso which was created to a blank CD using whichever burning software you prefer. When it finishes, turn off the PC.

Step 3:
Disconnect all hard drives from your PC and connect the hard drive which you wish to become your new hard drive to the primary master. Boot up the PC with boot from CD enabled and boot to the CD. You will be given a list of options.

Step 4:
Choose option 1 and press enter to boot VGA console with xbox-drive utilities. Type 'xboxhd' when asked for a login. Again, choose option1 - Build a new Xbox HD from scratch. It will now begin to format and write the partition table etc. When asked about C:\ E:\ and F:\ type yes, its pretty self explanatory.

At this moment in time you only have an xbox with a different hard drive. It is not softmodded yet.

Step 5:
Type 'reboot' to reboot the PC. At the moment your hard drive is unlocked so the playing and pausing music technique is unnecessary.
(im not too sure whether the second CD will suffice here but if it doesnt use the first CD burned at the beginning of Longfields guide)
When rebooted, choose option 1, and type xbrowser and choose ndure and ndure.txt. Choose option 1 to install ndure. As before this will take about 10-15 mins.

Step 6:
Now to lock the Hard drive. Reboot the PC and select option 3 to boot linux with locking/unlocking utilities. Type 'lockhd -a'. Type yes to lock it.

You can now continue on to step 11 in Longfields guide and install XBMC on your xxxGb xbox.

Ive tried this on 3 xboxs now and have had no problems at all.

Much credit must go to Longfield for without his guide, id have alot more typing to do, and probably alot harder time modding.

Nick_oliveri

Nice, thanks. Ill be doing this muchly in the footure!!

mgsrocks

Just to mention, theres a program called chimps which allows you to install a new hd in a softmodded xbox without having to connect it to a pc. Its all done from the xbox and is very handy if you only have a laptop or your pc has no ide connections.

witnessmenow

That chimps thing looks awful handy to do!

LINK

Black_Knight

Might try chimps out on my last Xbox. Couldnt find the program itself so thanks witnessmenow.

mgsrocks

Black_Knight wrote: »

Might try chimps out on my last Xbox. Couldnt find the program itself so thanks witnessmenow.

You need to use something called xbins to download it, just google it, or you could use a torrent site. Some stuff you need to know before you do it, for some reason it only works with the offical xbox controller (dont know why) and secondly it only really works on an xbox thats NOT v1.6. If you have a 1.6 xbox you need to use telnet (i have no idea what this is though).

Black_Knight

And i thought you said it was easy! It just seems to be getting harder and harder as the seconds tick by.
Actually, its possible as I dont think ive an original Xbox controler.

mgsrocks

Black_Knight wrote: »

And i thought you said it was easy! It just seems to be getting harder and harder as the seconds tick by.
Actually, its possible as I dont think ive an original Xbox controler.

Probably should have said its relatively easy, so long as its not a v1.6 xbox and you can get your hands on an offical controller.

If your pc had no ide connection like mine then this method is still the easiest because the only other alternative is to get your xbox hard modded which is expensive and could fry it.

weeder

13 euro for a duox2 isnt expensive tbh

witnessmenow

Where?

The only thing about modchips is you cant buy them with paypal.

Supercell

Excellent stuff Black_Knight, just saw this post now, thinking of popping a bigger drive in now myself and following your tutorial

witnessmenow

I think you can skip the putting evox on your xbox. If you modded your xbox using longfields guide you can do this either.

On unleashX or XBMC go to file browser/manager.

Go to your E:\ndts\ and select default.xbe

An unleashX menu should load up, go to "Backup/Restore"

Hit "Backup eeprom", when thats finished you'll find the eeprom.bin file in E:\NKP11

Then follow the rest of black knights guide

tetsujin1979

Thanks for the guide Black_Knight, have a new hard drive in the XBox now with XBMC on it.

Getting a strange bug though, when I create a folder on the F drive, either in FileZilla or file Manager in XBMC, it recursively creates a subset of directories, all with the same name.
ie I create a folder called F:/videos. This creates a subset of directories all called videos, so the directory structure looks like F:/videos/videos/videos/videos/videos/videos/ etc
If I copy a directory over from a PC on my network it's fine, but creating a new directory always causes this to happen

Anyone experience the same thing?

Black_Knight

Thats a good one now... never come across that. I would of suggested trying a different FTP browser but youve covered that.

Im stumped... Maybe try FTPing from a different PC or laptop. Eliminate your variables.

weeder

www.modchipstore.com
13 euro plus feck all delivery payable through paypal

or flash the TSOP which basically is having a modchip.
cant be done on a 1.6 though

tetsujin1979

Black_Knight wrote: »

Thats a good one now... never come across that. I would of suggested trying a different FTP browser but youve covered that.

Im stumped... Maybe try FTPing from a different PC or laptop. Eliminate your variables.

got it sorted, there's a thread on afterdawn about replacing a hard drive on a softmodded XBox (not sure about linking so I'll leave it out)
anyway, from that thread

if your HD is OVER 137 gigs, you'll need to format the remaining space with UnleashX for it to be available once you're finished the upgrade.

The new hard drive I installed is a 500GB one from komplett.
So I took XBMC off the XBox, and restored UnleashX from an earlier backup. Used the Format menu to format the F drive, and it seems to have done the job. When I create a folder now, only one folder is created.

Black_Knight

Ive see the thread, and ive seen the "if your hard drive is over 137Gb then format it" thing. But each hard drive ive installed has recognised all Gb of it.
2 250Gb maxtor hard drives, and a 500Gb Maxtor hard drive.

Theres a list of hard drives uses and how they fair out somewhere, but ive not the time to go thrawling through my history to find it.
Maxtors seem to be generally a good choice.

mgsrocks

tetsujin1979 wrote: »

got it sorted, there's a thread on afterdawn about replacing a hard drive on a softmodded XBox (not sure about linking so I'll leave it out)
anyway, from that thread

The new hard drive I installed is a 500GB one from komplett.
So I took XBMC off the XBox, and restored UnleashX from an earlier backup. Used the Format menu to format the F drive, and it seems to have done the job. When I create a folder now, only one folder is created.

I think you still need to use xbox partitioner (i dont think im allowed post links to where to download it). If you dont then as soon as you go over 250GB the data becomes corrupt.

ongarite

You are correct. You need to format your F:\ partition with XBpartitioner with 32K cluster size.
As you approach filing data up to 250GB, stuff will just randomly disappear off the drive.

witnessmenow

You can run Unleashx as an app of xbmc , put UnleashX in your apps folder and navigate to it in xbmc.

Just aswell if anyones Iso is too big for a cd you dont actually need all of your E drive, Just a folder called "TDATA" and "UDATA". They dont even need to contain anything. If you want to keep your game saves there contained in these folders.

Black_Knight

Way ahead of ya there witnessmenow. Its just the .xbm (if memory serves me right) file you need to copy isnt it? You can also find the Xbox dash in there somewhere and do the same thing to load up the xbox.

Its very handy, my last xbox wasnt allowing me to enter a static IP in XBMC so i couldnt FTP it. It was freezing everytime I tryed to edit it. So i loaded up Unleash from my Apps folder and its a quick fix.

If anyone has any ideas on a solution other then this im all ears. I might have a minute to try something this weekend but im pretty swamped with moving house at the mo.

Black_Knight

ongarite wrote: »

You are correct. You need to format your F:\ partition with XBpartitioner with 32K cluster size.
As you approach filing data up to 250GB, stuff will just randomly disappear off the drive.

So lets say ive put 50Gb of stuff on my Hard drive and all is working fine... when i reach about 250Gb its all gonna start falling to S***?
Oh shucks!
Best I found this out now then when ive loads more on it and I start pulling my hair out.

Formating the F: this weekend so.

ongarite

Correct. better to backup your stuff and run xbpartitioner. Its one of the reasons why I used to only install 250GB HDD in XBOXs.
FATX, which is the XBOX file system protocol only supports 256GB HDD. It can't address any data above the 256GB limit correctly without bad stuff happening to the data already there.
XBpartitioner fixes this by formatting the partition with 32K cluster size to let you use 512GB partition, 64K cluster size lets you use 1TB partition.

Black_Knight

ongarite wrote: »

Correct. better to backup your stuff and run xbpartitioner. Its one of the reasons why I used to only install 250GB HDD in XBOXs.
FATX, which is the XBOX file system protocol only supports 256GB HDD. It can't address any data above the 256GB limit correctly without bad stuff happening to the data already there.
XBpartitioner fixes this by formatting the partition with 32K cluster size to let you use 512GB partition, 64K cluster size lets you use 1TB partition.

Well if thats the case, 2 of my Xboxes are 250Gb hard drives, so by that logic, they should be ok. I dont need to format them?
A 3rd one is a 500Gb hard drive, that definatly needs to be formated.

Thanks

Edit: How do you run Xbpartitioner? Through the Xbox as a new dash or application, or from your PC via IDE cables?

ongarite

They will be fine. No single partition (F:\) is over 256GB, no need to re-format it.

On the 500GB one, you use xbpartitioner to correctly format F:\ so that its 440GB?? size can be addressed correctly as single partition.

The alternative is to have 2 250GB partitions, F & G:\

witnessmenow

Black_Knight wrote: »

Way ahead of ya there witnessmenow. Its just the .xbm (if memory serves me right) file you need to copy isnt it? You can also find the Xbox dash in there somewhere and do the same thing to load up the xbox.

Its very handy, my last xbox wasnt allowing me to enter a static IP in XBMC so i couldnt FTP it. It was freezing everytime I tryed to edit it. So i loaded up Unleash from my Apps folder and its a quick fix.

If anyone has any ideas on a solution other then this im all ears. I might have a minute to try something this weekend but im pretty swamped with moving house at the mo.

TBH im not sure, i know the default.xbe (.xbe i think) is the thing you use to actually launch it anyways, prob best to put all the files of the dash in it, not that big anyways.

netscan.exe is very handy too to have , its a free single executable program that scans ip ranges. Great when your trying to ftp an xbox to see if your actually connected to the xbox at all! The best thing to do if your using a router is to click options and then autodetect local ip range, then select your lan cards ip address.

Is it just me or can you not connect to a wireless and a lan connection at the same time? Kinda of annoying!

mgsrocks

witnessmenow wrote: »

Is it just me or can you not connect to a wireless and a lan connection at the same time? Kinda of annoying!

Same thing happened with me a while ago, i could never ftp to my xbox when i had wifi on, turned out the LAN and wireless were using the same ip, so just had to change 'em.

Black_Knight

@ Ongarite

Black_Knight wrote: »

Edit: How do you run Xbpartitioner? Through the Xbox as a new dash or application, or from your PC via IDE cables?

Does quoting myself have similar consequences to dividing by zero?

ongarite

WOW you BSOD my PC by quoting yourself!!

It runs on your XBOX as an app like UnleashX or XBMC.
Copy it to E:/ and run the XBE.
First 5 partitions are A: - E:\. DO NOT MESS WITH THEM
6 and on are the ones you can modify and format.
Press BACK for options/instructions

jazzyk

Hi, I just get a blank screen after following this guide.??
My original xbox HD is softmodded with ndure, unleashX.
Any ideas???
No chips installed

Black_Knight

jazzyk wrote: »

Hi, I just get a blank screen after following this guide.??
My original xbox HD is softmodded with ndure, unleashX.
Any ideas???
No chips installed

When do you get the blank screen? After the whole guide?

Can you FTP your new hard drive?
Yes: Change the dash it default loads to the UnleashX dash and see does it load.

No: If you connect the HDD to your PC again and load xbrowser you can change it from loading the XBMC dash to load the Unleash dash. (copy and paste the unleash dash)
Note: In xbrowser the screen on the right is your Xbox, the screen on the left is the CD in your PC itself. As far as I can remember.

Let me know if you can boot up to the UnleashX dash, if so, it sounds like its a problem with XBMC.

As a last option, you could always do it again.

jazzyk

Hi Black Knight
I get the blank screen after installing ndure and locking hard drive and installing into xbox -- > switch xbox on and blank screen?
I tried installing the hd before ndure and i keep getting error 21.
The hdd is 120GB
I originally tried jonbtrini's guide on afterdawn forum. error 21??

I copied the contents of my softmod C and E drives over to my Pc. Does this contain all the files for softmod or is the bios in the xbox modified during lonfields tut?

witnessmenow

Do you get the green x screen and then its blank?

I'd say you made your boot cd wrong

Did you get your eeprom and lock the second drive?

If you did already lock it use this iso

Burn it to a cd.

Boot it up the same way as the cd from longfields guide.(cd drive in the secondry IDE slot , with all other hard drives plugged out)

Turn on your xbox, when it gets to the green X screen Unplug the hard drive.

Plug it in to your pc when you have the xbox hd tools screen on your pc and chose option 1

Then type "xboxhd"

then select option 1

Then just keep typing "yes" at every option after that.

After a few mins it will say its done, then you should have your xbox working as standard again, remeber to plug the hard drive back into the xbox before powering the xbox down.

See how you get on

Black_Knight

jazzyk wrote: »

Does this contain all the files for softmod or is the bios in the xbox modified during lonfields tut?

The copied C and E drives are the required C and E drives for your kernal xbox. Copying them over just gives you a 2nd xbox HDD for your xbox. It will contain Unleash etc because these were installed in Longfields guide and were copied over when you copied the C and E drives.

Id try burning your 2nd CD again. Put the original xbox HDD into the xbox and FTP the C and E drives to the linux folder again then burn your 2nd CD again. Could of been some files lost during the FTPing.
Unfortunatly, this is basically starting again.

Does it load anything at all?
Or is it: press power button, screen stays blank. Dare I ask, is the video cable plugged in? No offence intended.:o

witnessmenow

The status light flashes orange and green if the video cable isnt plugged in so it probably aint that or he would have said.

One of my xboxes doing similar for a while, would load the green blob and then the green x and then just have a blank screen. It was due to the files on the hard drive being wrong. That iso i uploaded should sort it out if he has the hard drive locked with the right eeprom.

He'll have to go through longfields guide to softmod it though

Black_Knight

witnessmenow wrote: »

The status light flashes orange and green if the video cable isnt plugged in so it probably aint that or he would have said.

Should I go a step lower? Make sure the monitor is turned on. I feel like a tech support guy talking to an American.

witnessmenow wrote: »

It was due to the files on the hard drive being wrong. That iso i uploaded should sort it out if he has the hard drive locked with the right eeprom.

Thats my thinking too. Bad files *wags finger!*

jazzyk

Yo
I am in work at the moment, so cant really do much but will try later tonight?
Everything is connected ok and switched on:rolleyes:, it all works fine with the original xbox HD in it.
I will try again from scratch this evening and see how I get on??
Thanks

tetsujin1979

jazzyk wrote: »

Yo
I am in work at the moment, so cant really do much but will try later tonight?
Everything is connected ok and switched on:rolleyes:, it all works fine with the original xbox in it.
I will try again from scratch this evening and see how I get on??
Thanks

Did you run the lockhd -a command? I missed that at the very end, and had to go back and run it on the hard drive. Everything worked fine after that

jazzyk

Yeah locked HD ok. I'm just gonna start from scratch now:
Copy C and E and eeprom.bin from softmod harddrive to xboxhdm folder and make iso.

jazzyk

When I try to ftp all of the C drive from my xbox to my pc 169 files form xodash will not transfer, Are they necessary??

Nick_oliveri

Im not seeing filenames the folders just end on \xodash\media\xbx.
What are the filenames? I believe this is the xbox online/live dashboard.

witnessmenow

what error are you getting when its failing?

Just try the cd i upped, it has all the files you need! Use it on the new hard drive after its been locked and it should do the trick

Black_Knight

witnessmenow wrote: »

what error are you getting when its failing?

Just try the cd i upped, it has all the files you need! Use it on the new hard drive after its been locked and it should do the trick

Would that CD not only adhear to you Xboxes kernal and not the OPs? Unless the OPs kernal was the same as yours.

Am I right in thinking this, or is my brain not working propperly this early in the morning?

witnessmenow

No(i thought it might be myself at first) , after reading a good bit about it the only time cds need to be kernel specific is when putting on ndure and even then the author reckons the generic kernel one works 95% of the time(but its much slower).

All the cd contains is the latest version of the MS dash and an empty E drive

Its worked for me on 2 diffrent boxes with 2 diffrent kernels.

Black_Knight

Fair's fair. Good to know.

jazzyk

Hi
I downloaded witnessmenow link to iso and followed the guide again,
(As i was having trouble copying xbox live dash from xbox to pc.)
Extract contents to xboxhdm folder and make iso? yeah?
Burn to CD.
Option 1- build xbox from scratch -- completed ok
Boot with Ndure CD
type xbrowser -- all contents seem to be there on right side of mc
install ndure
all complete no errors

lockhd -a -- completed ok
installed new hdd into xbox

Same thing Blank screen
Green Xbox splash screen appears hdd starts to spin then blank screen(hdd is confirmed to ok)
Cant FTP
Constant green light

(Would take pictures but dont have usb cable for camera here)

I think step 5 is the problem??
Softmodding the new HD
What are the two cds when i followed the original guide i only had on cd??
Any help would be great
Thanks
p.s. I tried the chimp method but just realized I don't have an original xbox controller

witnessmenow

That iso is ready to go. just burn it and should just work.

Stick it into the pc and perform the hotswap using the hard drive you just locked. type xboxhd and build the hard drive from scratch.

Is it now working as an original xbox?

If it is follow longfields guide to mod it. The reason there is two cds is because one is rebuilding your hard drive and the other is modifying it.

mgsrocks

jazzyk wrote: »

Hi
I downloaded witnessmenow link to iso and followed the guide again,
(As i was having trouble copying xbox live dash from xbox to pc.)
Extract contents to xboxhdm folder and make iso? yeah?
Burn to CD.
Option 1- build xbox from scratch -- completed ok
Boot with Ndure CD
type xbrowser -- all contents seem to be there on right side of mc
install ndure
all complete no errors

lockhd -a -- completed ok
installed new hdd into xbox

Same thing Blank screen
Green Xbox splash screen appears hdd starts to spin then blank screen(hdd is confirmed to ok)
Cant FTP
Constant green light

(Would take pictures but dont have usb cable for camera here)

I think step 5 is the problem??
Softmodding the new HD
What are the two cds when i followed the original guide i only had on cd??
Any help would be great
Thanks
p.s. I tried the chimp method but just realized I don't have an original xbox controller

You dont need to have the original controller to use chimps, you can control it from your computer by telnet, so you'll need a crossover cable. I could never get telnet to work but hopefull someone here can help.

jazzyk

I'm sorry if i missed something, but i didn't realize to hot swap drives, what stage should you hot swap? Maybe thats were i'm going wrong?
Should the hdd be locked when building hd from scratch, if so why unlock it?
I was building with hdd unlocked?
After step 4 of black knights tut I should be able to put hdd into xbox and have original xbox?? before i was getting error 21.

ongarite

Did you follow the other guide here to softmod your XBOX?
Do you have your eeprom.bin?
You need the eeprom when building a new HDD as this file has a locking code for each individual XBOX.
If your didn't lock the HDD with the eeprom.bin, it will not work when you plug it in

jazzyk

Hi
Sorry was just re-reading the guide and soft modding on this forum and see where i'm going wrong (i think).
I have the eeprom, got it from unleashX - backup eeprom option,then ftp'd to pc.
I can lock and unlock hd no problem but i was not hot swapping drives?
Will try again tomorrow night 'tis getting late now :eek::eek::eek: