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harddrive upgrade questions

Discussion in 'Xbox - Hardware mods' started by johara97, Jan 17, 2005.

  1. johara97

    johara97 Member

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    I had my roomate's Xbox modded for him a couple of years ago, by X-Gen modifications. Finally, I'm getting a chance to play around with it...however, I'm not sure what kind of mod it has...software/mod chip.

    Here's what I know. There's a toggle switch on the back. In one position the XBox boots to the Microsoft Dashboard. In the other position, it boots to an Evox dashboard. The Splash Screen says Xecuter2. Is Xecuter2 a software mod? or a mod chip?

    I'm considering upgrading the harddrive in this XBox. Will it work if I simply install the new HD, and use Slayers AutoInstaller 2.6? Will that work with my mod? Any other steps I need to take? Thanks in advance.
     
  2. sniffin

    sniffin Member

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    It's definitly hardware, could be a TSOP mod if it's a v1.0 or 1.1, definitly a mod chip if its' a v1.2 or newer. Either way, xecuter2 is the bios thats loaded. Just slap a new drive in, strap it as MASTER, and run the slayer 2.6 (I've seen 2.7 beta also). If you get and error 13 or something it saw the harddrive before it saw the disk and crapped out. just leave the disk in and cycle the power, it should hit the disk first that way. then just do the complete, large HD install. you may also want to flash to latest bios, I recommend 4983.67 or .06

    .67 gives you f: out to 137gb g: past that (1 extra partition)
    .06 gives you a big f: drive

     
  3. johara97

    johara97 Member

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    OK the more I remember about this install, the more I realize that it's a TSOP mod. The switch allows me to switch between the Xecuter2 Bios and the MS Bios. I'm planning on putting a 160gb hd in the XBox. Can I get away with leaving the Xecuter2 bios there, or should I flash to the 4983.67 or .06 like you suggested? What are the advantages/disadvantages?
     
  4. sniffin

    sniffin Member

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    You can get away with it yes. If your going to use Live though, I would upgrade to the 4983 because it has a feature that disables live from connecting when using the hack bios so your machine doesn't get banned.(if you forget the switch) Also, depending on your current bios, it may not yet have the LBA48 support that you'll need to utilize the full 160gb. if not you'll get 137gb max avalible.
    Slayer's disk has a test program that will tell you if your bios is a chip or TSOP. If it is a TSOP then some work is involved in flashing, basicly you'll need to find or build a multibios flash. normal bios is 256k. xbox v1.0 & 1.1 are 1mb with 256k x4 as the image. Thats how you can have a TSOP mod on an older box with multiple bios.
     
  5. johara97

    johara97 Member

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    Thanks for all the help. I'm a little new to all of this. XBox live is not important to me. I've never used it and don't intend to. I used Slayer to determine what mod I have and it reported back that there are 4 256k bios:

    1 unknown
    2 4034 retail (or EliteXEnigmahX)
    3 4034 retail (or EliteXEnigmahX)
    4 Xecuter2 4973 (1.0)

    Will this recognize the full 160 gb hard drive. If so, I'll probably leave things the way they are. If not, how would I go about updating the bios? I have a toggle switch that switches between the Microsoft original and the Xecuter2 that I'd like to keep in place.
     
  6. johara97

    johara97 Member

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    Also, why are there 4 different bios versions if I only have 1 toggle switch. Wouldn't I need 2 switches to switch between the 4 bios versions?
     
  7. punqewe

    punqewe Active member

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    First I'd upgrade the bios to at least the 4981 or 4983 series. Or if you want you can goto the evox M7 or M8 bios sets. I'm more a TSOP guy,but most people only flash certain banks on their chips for backup purposes. If the flash goes wrong,they can just switch banks and try again....but I would recomend updating the bios though.
     
  8. sniffin

    sniffin Member

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    Yes, two switches would be needed for accessing all 4 bios. 4973 wont support lba48 so upgrade for this reason. I think you'll need to learn to use 'raincoat' to flash certain parts of the bios. evox can flash the whole thing with a multibios.
     
  9. smac19

    smac19 Guest

    I want to upgrade my xbox HD and bought WD200g HD,and i wanted to format or it by useing softmod is there anything special i need to do to it? partition/formating?
     

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