HOW TO: Upgrade your Xbox HDD (Super Tutorial)

I tried to backup my eeprom with EvoX and when I did Liveinfo says it's not a valid eeprom and that it could not be decrypted.

 

Make sure you pay attention to where EvoX saves the eeprom. There can be a few lying around!

Did you use the new LiveInfo from my software page? The older versions can't detect some of the newer Xbox eeproms!

 

i'm having this problem as well, but even though I rename the file to lower case letter it still creates the iso with all caps. how can I change this?

 

What do mean "still creates the iso".

The program may save the file as 'EEPROM.bin', but prior to clicking the 'make-iso-win.bat' file, rename the file in the eeprom folder to 'eeprom.bat'

Also, try to keep your issues in one place...

 

i have done everything to the "T" on this tut i went through and created the CD and when i put it in the computer to boot i unplugged both the IDE cable and the Power cable from the (pc)HDD turned it on and when it tried to boot in the top CD tray i got

ISOLINUX 2.05 2003-07-16 isolinux: image checksum error, sorry...
boot failed: press a key to retry...


then the computer would freeze i had to shut it off but when i put it (the CD) into the bottom tray i got this message



ISOLINUX 2.05 2003-07-16 isolinux: Disk error 20, AX = 4276 drive EF
boot failed: press a key to retry....

i pulled the CD back out plugged in the (pc)HDD and rebooted again when i got on the desktop i looked at what was on the CD and it showed this


CDROM (F
___C
_____+AUDIO
_____ Fonts
_____ XBOXDASHDATA.185EAD00
_____+XODASH
___E
_____ TDATA
_____ UDATA
_____ EEPROM
___F
___ISOLINUX
___XBOX



now what do i need to do now btw i was following the upgradding your HDD tut did i need to follow the hotswapping tut instead?

 

You must of made a bad image with XboxHDM. Using a CD-RW, try again and ensure there are no errors!

 

ok i made a new CD and that corrected the problem i was having of not being able to boot when i connected with new HD but now i have another problem, i connected the new HD to my computer, restarted with disk in i got to the XBOX main screen where i press "1" at and it goes along then it goes to type "xboxhd" to start tool i do that then it goes to a page that says build from scratch and i press "1" again and it go to a screen that says
"this script assumes /deu/hda is the device to be used
for creating or rescueing an xbox harddrive
No disk drive found on /deu/hda (primary master)!
shutdown, connect a drive, and reboot.
root@xbox-HDM:/2"
now what do i need to do? do i need to also connect the disk drive from my xbox to the computer or no? i want to do this the right way the first time so i don't want to make a mistake which is why i keep asking all the questions, thank you

 

I'm assuming the drive you are trying to prepare is a new blank drive?

You also already have the eeprom on the CD?

If it's giving you that issue then the drive isn't connected to the Primary IDE port or the jumpers on the drive are set wrong!

Whilst preparing the drive, set it to 'Master'. When you put it back in the Xbox, make it 'Cable Select'.

 

yeah it's a brand new 320 gig western digital, yes eeprom is in the E folder, now how do i change or check the master or fix
"Whilst preparing the drive, set it to 'Master'. When you put it back in the Xbox, make it 'Cable Select'?"

 

The eeprom goes in the 'Eeprom' folder, not 'E'...

I'm referring to the jumper on the back of the HDD

 

yeah i realized what you were talking about after i posted that, but i went through the setting up of partitions and when i went back to type otion 3 to lock the hd it said that the hdd was frozen, i went ahead and plugged it into my x-box and it said error 05, on same jumper setting, then i changed the jumper settings after that and i got error 09 what do i need to do about fixxing the error or locking the hd?

 

You need to lock the drive, there's no way around it!

Keep trying, just the locking bit!

 

ok i'm not sure if this will do anything or not but when i opened my eeprom on my computer through LiveBata on the bottom where it says hdd status under HDD info it says that my hdd is locking, not locked, and frozen i'm not sure if that will change anything but how do i make it unfrozen? so that i can lock it when i work my way through the building from scratch it goes fine and when i type option 3 it says it can't because the hd is frozen to check my boot option and disable auto-detection or something like that what do i need to do?

 

Frozen drives tend to be a motherboard feature!

If you followed the guide correctly you would have seen this process...

Do not plug you hdd in.

Start the XboxHDM CD, when it gets to it's first screen, THEN plug the drive in!

Wait a minute or so and then continue as normal

 

hi, i've followed the guide and get to the point where i'm trying to lock it by pressing option 3, but i keep getting an error message of boot failed?! anyone know what's going wrong?
thanks!

 

Did you read my above post?

Have you got the eeprom in the correct folder on the cd?

Which HDD do you have?

Are you aware that the command is 'lockhd -a' (**Note the space between**)

 

Chunkhead, thanks for your tutorial, I've followed it all the way to the end, but when I try to use xboxhdm to lock the drive, I get the following error message:

kernel BUG at drivers/ide/ide-iops.c:1003!
This is followed by a long string of error messages and numbers/letters, then at the bottom it says:
<0>Kernel panic: Fatal exception in interrupt
In interrupt handler - not syncing

The pc just freezes and I have to manually reboot. I have no idea what to do from here, have spent hours trying to find an answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

Thank you very much for the tut/faq chunkhead! I am now enjoying a 320 GB Western Digital HDD installed in my xbox. Your tut made it very easy. Also thank you for listing all the tools/apps necessary...most tutorials I have seen don't go the extra mile like your's.

Thanks again and Happy Halloween!

 

@ moody2001

If you have had no issues with the reformat, I'd suggest that you build another XboxHDM CD, but this time only build it with the eeprom (don't include the contents of C + E folders), it should be about 13MB.

Use that to lock the drive.

Don't forget the space in the 'lockhd -a' command!

Also try another PC...


@ Yamurru

Thanks for your kind words, they are much appreciated and makes my time feel worthwhile!

Cheers!

 

hi again guys,
solved my minor problem by burning xboxhdm to a new disk - works now!
so now, i have a 500gb disk that when i put into the xbox, boots up the ms dash... if i follwo the guide this is the point where i softmod it, is there any other way to change the dash though? i dont have anything to softmod with (my xbox came softmodded) at the moment, i was thinking some kind of copying from the stock drive?
or what about using an evox dash rather than 5950 when building the xboxhdm iso?
thanks!