I can imagine this type of thread is redundant, hopefully I'm not causing any waves or anything. I am about to softmod an original Xbox using the IDE hotswap method with the NDURE 3.0 softmod. I am new at this, but starting to understand. This is my understanding of the process thus far after much reading, and I'm just asking for someone to read over this and make sure I'm on the right track here: From what I can tell, the main objective here is to replace the Xbox BIOS with a modified one that allows you to play burned back-ups, boot things from the HDD, replace the dashboard, etc. This modified BIOS can be put into place by a modchip or a softmod. I am opting to go the softmod route. I don't want to buy a memory card and an action replay, so I want to try to do the IDE hotswap method like I mentioned above. Right now, I have XboxHDM 1.9 and NDURE 3.0 burned to a CD, and am ready to open up the Xbox and my PC to begin. Next I am suppose to: -make my PC boot from the CD drive first -make up for a floating ground with alligator clips and wire -switch my PC CD Drive IDE drive to slave setting (or secondary master?), leave primary master open for Xbox HDD -power both my PC and the Xbox Now I need a bit of clarification here, should I hook up the Xbox to a TV while I am doing this? From what I've read, the HDD needs to be "unlocked" by either playing a game or an audio track BEFORE I make the swap, is this correct? This seems crucial. So should I unlock the HDD by doing one of those things, then open the Xbox case up and do the swap? Or is simply turning it on with video connectors plugged in and it going to the dashboard enough? After that: -swap the Xbox HDD's IDE into my PC's primary master IDE -being using the XboxHDM program, chose to "build an xbox from scratch" (option 1) -type xbrowser to open up the directory -enter the ndure folder and press enter on "*ndure" -back up my C:/ drive by picking option 4 A question on this, is this to back up the Xbox's HDD or my PC's HDD? I can't see why I'd need to back up my PC's HDD (then again I'm new at this), and I have over 200 gigs of space taken, so that could potentially take a LONG time. -finally, select option 1 to install NDURE and power down when you get the "Done, now exiting" message So that's pretty much what I plan on doing, am I missing anything? Are there some other things I should be doing in this process? Do you think I'm on the right track? My biggest concern is the whole "unlocking the HDD" bit. Thanks to all that read this. -edit: One more thing, the recommended MS Dash to do this on is 5960 from what I've read. I don't have this one, but I also don't have ones that are specifically mentioned as incompatible. Mine is 1.00.5659.03, do you think that should be fine? Also, my kernel version is 1.00.5838.01 if that matters.
You don't have to buy the memory card or the AR. You can download the AR from the internet free and they memory card can be replaced by a USB drive the only issue is getting a spare controller to get all the things to hook up right.
