Hi, I managed to make my xbox impossible to boot in any way, always comes up with an error. I had evoX on it through the softmod (boot with drive empty), and an emergency back-up linux system (boot with disk drive open), as well as the normal boot (disk in drive, it loads the game). It has a 320gb hard drive. I bought this used, and had some fun with it for a while. The first night, however, I was reading the options, trying to figure out what they do and I overwrote the emergency ms recovery with a new one (realize now what that did... butchered the original file). Yesterday, I started up the system and it didn't seem to be loading (was taking abnormally long) when I wanted to show it to my friend. So I decided to try the emergency recovery system. Then I booted it up, and told it to overwrite the current MS with the backup... I realize now I should have used the MOD option instead of MS... but yea. Then, it brought up an error screen at which point I shut down the system... and tried booting it up again... it would boot with a game in it. So then I thought, "Hey, maybe I can get the one file on again if I were to switch hard disks." For some reason there were no screws in when I bought it, so I just popped off the top to look at if it would be hard or not... and then put it back on without touching anything. After this it quit loading games completely, just does the green x and then an error screen. I was wondering if someone has any recommendations on how to get it running again? Thanks in advance.
Ya man your in trouble deep. At this point you have two viable options. One is to buy or make an eeprom reader and try to read your eeprom file from the eeprom chip on the xbox's motherboard. You see the thing about softmodding is the fact that you're tricking your console. Your console matches the HDD to your motherboard through a key code in the eeprom. you'll need that to rebuild a HDD. you can't just swap HDDs, they are locked uniquely to the motherboard. The other option and easier (maybe) is to pick up a chip and then the HDD rebuild is real easy. Decide which way you want to go and then post back. In the mean time read here and do a knowledge upgrade because either of the 2 options will need that. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/536595
Thanks, I have an eeprom reader I believe, I have been working on it... Just need to find a CPU with the right port now. Then I can test it. As long as I didn't do anything wrong it should work. Also need to get the external power supply. Otherwise I have a friend who used to hardmod systems, might see if he would be willing to try something. Anyway, thanks for the help. I will be reading through that thread a bit later.
tip for the eeprom reader if you're going to make it. Make the wires long, and use a bit bigger wire. If you use that small wire it says they'll start breaking when all your soder connections are still holding, then you have to resolder that wire and it's just a pain... so yeah get bigger wire and make them long.
Thanks again for everything, making the wires long was a good idea. I found a CPU, got my xbox working, then since I have already reformatted everything, I decided to see if I can use it on my old home CPU to recover something. Thanks again.
Ok I'm a major noob.... I modded my first xbox and I think I have the same problem...Games in drive still run, still boots to msdash when no game is in drive but the softmod wont load and i get the error code 21 when I try to use my Splinter Cell SID game save.......I just want to be clear if I have a backup of my eeprom and copy of retail msdash I should be able to just build a new harddrive....I'm stupid new at this and lost in a sea of data. thx
If you have the eeprom, then all you need to do is rebuild the harddrive, correct. Assuming it is the same thing mine was. Also, you could rebuild a larger hd if you feel like it.
