I deleted too many files when updating XBMC on my softmodded Xbox and ended up with a 21 code. I didn't have anything backed up and I understand that's my fault. Anyway, I used Chunkhead's hotswap tutorial (excellent, by the way) but no matter what I did, the hard drive always was always read as locked.
Later I read that if you have another modded Xbox, you can move its hard drive IDE cable after booting from Slayer or AID and then do what you need to do on the other Xbox. I used AID 4 to format and prepare the bad Xbox's hard drive and was able to get to the point where I could FTP files over to it. I was actually able to get it to the point where my bad Xbox booted to MS dash! I knew I was getting close, but never was able to boot XBMC or another dashboard.
As I tried other AID installations on my bad Xbox hard drive, I screwed things up some more and my bad Xbox now has an error 06, which I understand is a locked hard drive.
I read that I could possibly use ConfigMagic to access my bad Xbox's hard drive, so I tried that. First, I just used ConfigMagic on the good Xbox to see its status. It said the hard drive was unlocked and I wrote down the unlock key.
Afterwards, with ConfigMagic running, I moved the IDE cable of the good Xbox to the hard drive of the bad Xbox (which was powered on, of course) and had ConfigMagic query the hard drive. It returned a status of "locked" and a different unlock key, which tells me it was indeed "seeing" the bad hard drive's info.
I tried xboxhdm, atapwd, and even hdunlock to unlock my hard drive, but none seem to unlock it. I do wonder if my unlock key is too long. What I have for the unlock key is:
F5F390256C10CD3E893B06B7D8C68F3DC7F2F419 (the good, unlocked Xbox has a different key of the same length)
Just so you know, the "good" Xbox I've been using to access the bad one is hardmodded. I do have another good softmodded Xbox. Not sure if the softmodded Xbox is the one I should be using the access the bad softmodded Xbox.
What should my next move be? Can I look into cloning the other good softmodded Xbox's hard drive? Any suggestions?
When using Chunks guide, for hotswap/xboxhdm rebuild, did you invoke eror 12 and see if that unlocked your HD? This method almost always unlocks the HD during error 12 the HD. You seem to have tried everything, but that might also be the problem. My only suggestion is try to unlock your xbox via error 12, hotswap then use xboxhdm and rebuild the HD to a clean factory point. Get the latest kernal off google, and leave the eeprom folder blank. You should be able to get your HD to boot like it is the first time ever. From there, re hack.
Error !2 hotswap
Step 1 Power on Xbox, unplug DVD drive IDE cable, power off Xbox. Power on Xbox, error 12 should appear. Your HD is now unlocked.
Step 2 (I suggest pressing pausebreak on your PC when you see the splash screen) Hotswap Xbox HD to PC IDE cable. (press pausebreak after swapped, PC continues to boot from linuxCD)
Step 3 Rebuild HD with Xbox HDM
You already have seen the guide I am sure, so good luck =/
Thanks, Demonix. Yeah, I probably tried too many things which typically leads to disaster.
I'll give it a go again later this week or during the weekend. Sometimes it's better to step back and clear my head before trying again. I'll post my progress later. Thanks again.
