Now this is a hell of a thing. My original XBOX HDD is softmodded just fine, and is running EvoX, but fo course, we always want more. I found a Samsung 300GB HDD at CompUSA for $120 (refferred to as the Sammy from now on) and pulled out a old P4 PC to run XBOXHDM on it. So, I copy all of the original's C and E drives to the Linux folder, like you should, made the XBOXHDM disk, and went to it. What I did with XBOXHDM: 1. option 1, option 1, copy c (yes), copy e (yes) 2. reboot 3. option 3, "lockhd -a" 4. shut down and remove note: during step 3, XBOXHDM said "master password is 'XBOXSCENE'" -- what's that used for? Anyway, I pop the Sammy into my XBOX and the MS Dash comes up. I find this confusing, I was expecting EvoX... So, I copy the SC saves to the Sammy from my memory unit, and the linux profile loads up UnleashedX (UX) just fine. FTP access and everything, no sweat. I tell the UX loader to Softmod the XBOX and I get an error every time, when it ties to copy to the E drive that it has "rar error 0" trying to move the "UDATA\25555353(whatever)\apps.rar" to "e:\apps\Dvd2Xbox\acl" (or something like that). So "screw this" I say to myself, and copy the 007 save to the memory unit, and boot up the Jimmy Bond game. I try to load the save both ways (just loading when the game starts; starting a new game, quitting to the menu and then loading) and both times I get the big green error 21 message. Now I'm thinking maybe the partition's somehow write protected but since I was able to copy the SC saves (and 007 for the hell of it), that's pretty unlikely. Can anyone help me out with some advice/suggestions? Maybe unlocking the Sammy and popping it back in the XBOX? Thanks in advance... lates.
Instead of copying the C and E files from the disk, I suggest you select the CLONE feature. It takes about 3 hours but the results are worth it! Using this feature transfers everything including the always hidden shadowed partition of the C drive. Then just go back and enable the F drive after you confirm everything loads ok.
Thanks for the suggestion man. Unfortunately, that Sammy drive is bricked (won't even power up) since I accidentally dropped it onto a wood floor from a height of about 5 inches. Little fragile? Maybe that explains the price being so low. Anyway I grabbed a 160GB I had laying around that's in the autumn years of its life (when you boot in a PC it says hard drive failure coube be imminent) and cloned the modded factory hard drive onto it. Works great! 2 things worth mentioning, and one's a question. 1. Before I cloned the XBOX factory drive, I had to use XBOXHDM to unlock it. I did that on a hunch, and never saw a word anywhere about having to unlock the source before cloning, so kids, remember that. 2. Now the 160GB has a 120GB F drive, and all the others that total to about 10GB... how do I get the remaining 30 back? Enable my G drive in the settings and use Karyzie's extras to format it? (didn't have time to try it before work today) And I'm so exchanging the brick at CompUSA today on the way home, since, "I don't know why, but it won't even turn on!"
That is a good question. I cannot say for sure why there seems to be about 20gig or space unaccounted for. I never had an issue or even heard of any drive space limit. But to be safe, you may want to enable the G drive and see what happens. And oh yeah, I guess I should have mentioned that anytime you load a drive into xboxhdm, you need to unlock it first. Sorry to hear about the bricked sammy though. Hopefully you can get things running some what to a norm. Hope i helped you out a little. You stay classy! Oh hey! A possible answer to the question.....because the PC indicates an HDD error or failure, it may be keeping that 20gig hidden due to bad sectors possibly?
so if someone screws up in the softmodding would a mod chip fix that? i dont understand what happens to these ppl's xboxs ive never had a problem with dashes or bios.
I guess that depends how and how bad they screw it up. All my problems happened with the drives I tried to add; softmodding the original (factory) drive was smooth sailing. The only hard part was finding the games, and that was easy since my roommate's a district manager for a chain of video game stores (probably better i leave the name out). I've never used a mod chip so I don't know any of how they work, but I'm guessing you can fix all your problems by bypassing the drive's bios and using the one from the mod chip. *if* tat's even how it works. That I don't know.
A mod chip is no more secure than a softmod. Anytime you alter the hardware or software of a a piece of machinery, you open the door for disaster. How you take care of the electonics determines how much life or death you recieve from it. A mod chip will not fix a bricked drive. The only way to recover from a botched softmod is to at least be able to get to the install partr where you can copy over your eeprom files. As long as you have that, you can go thru any amount of drives and botched and still recover. Even cold booting the game hack save and trying a re-install will usually fix a botched mod. But as for the mod-chips.....too expensive. Why pay $35 or more for a piece of additional hardware with no warranty or guarantee. I would rather spend $4.95 on a rental game and do a softmod. In my experience, the results are identical. The only advantage a mod-chip has over the softmod, is it's ability to turn off and on. But that only really matters if you really like playing on LIVE, which i despise!
so in theory taking a new xbox factory hd and installing it into a xbox that previously was bricked by a botched softmod, then installing a mod chip would work as well?
This is the good stuff. Last night after work (and happy hour) I stopped at CompUSA to return Sammy Brick #2 and picked up a Seagate 200GB. I figure 100GB less at $10 more means a drive that won't die from a 3 inch fall. Anyway, I grabbed my trusty softmodded XBOX factory drive, unlocked it with XBOXHDM, shut down, attached the seagate, rebooted, cloned the XBOX factory drive to the Seagate, locked both, and popped the Seagate into my XBOX this morning. I almost got teary when Evolution X came up. So here I am, with roughly 200GB to waste in my XBOX Next question... can I upgrade the DVD drive for progressive scan or 16X read speed? *runs over to the hardware forum*
First to ansrwer Ekim. Yes you can use a new Hd in a botched softmodded xbox, but to do so you must have the eeprom files. In case you don't know what that is.....it is the drive and console specific paasword key required to be on the HD of the xbox. The system checks it against the one stored in it's rom. Without the eeprom you cannot recover a bricked console. The modchip bypasses all the initial checks performed by the BIOS and runs it's own hacked BIOS, but you need a fresh working xbox to do this unless you can obtain a copy of a hacked set of BIOS from someone. Next about the DVD drive. You can upgrade to any drive you want including a RW drive. The only problem is functionality. Because the xbox kernel is a stripped down version of Win2000, the xbox will detect and install drivers for most hardware from it's time period. I would suggest looking into when certain drives were made to determine which ones have the best chance of working. I've seen people using 2 dvd drives and an extra cd-rom drive just to have it. Talk about modding it to shit!
If you think that's bad, I'm (in another project) trying to set up my Comcast DVR to use RAID storage
