My OperaA Day in the Life of My Xbox!..
Monday, January 10, 2011 3:54:00 PM
I love my original Xbox(es), as a games machine, it rocks, but as a Media Center, it rocks much harder!
I'm no no0b when it comes to Xbox modding, I've installed a few Modchips in my time but my preferred method is the good old 'Splinter Cell Softmod'! It's really easy to install, requires no technical knowledge, and no Xbox dismantling! But this post isn't really about Softmodding, it's about installing a new HDD into a Softmodded Xbox.
Well, what started out as a small project to work on in my spare time, turned into a bit of an obsession! I'd found an 80GB HDD in a discarded PC, (gotta love Skips), and decided that I'd make it work.
Now, the Xbox obviously has it's security measures when it comes to the HDD, they need to be 'Locked', (ATA Security, as it's otherwise known) and it requires an EEPROM in order to Lock the drive. The EEPROM is unique to every Xbox Motherboard, so just plonking in a new HDD will result in the Xbox booting to an error screen. To get past this, there's a couple of methods; 'XboxHDM' which is dependant on a PC with spare IDE channel, something I don't have, or the method I'm going to outline here, an Xbox Linux app called 'Chimp', designed to run on a Softmodded Xbox, and requires no other hardware apart from a power supply to the new HDD. That can be achieved by either a Molex 'Y' splitter, a power cord from an IDE to USB adapter plugged into a computer, or, the way I did it, an old Xbox unit with the top off and the HDD power supply from that!
Well anyway, all my hardware checked out, there's some issues with some HDDs not being lockable, for a while I thought mine wasn't lockable as it is a 'WD800BB' and there's tonnes of variants of that particular drive, some lockable, some not, mine was, so no worries, but more about that later.
Firstly, possibly the most overlooked aspect of this mod, SET THE JUMPER CABLES CORRECTLY! Your OLD HDD should be set to MASTER and the new HDD should be set to SLAVE! If this isn't done, Chimp WILL FAIL TO DETECT YOUR NEW HDD! Also ignore the CABLE SELECT setting as it may work for some, but didn't for me. After making sure they were correct I hooked everything up as follows...
Softmodded Xbox with IDE cable connected to MoBo, to the DVD drive, and finally to the powered up old HDD, booted into my Dash of choice, (XBMC) while I had the new HDD connected to a knackered Xbox by the Molex power supply only. I put the two units next to each other.
Next, I FTP'd into XBMC form my Laptop, and copied over the 'Chimp' files I needed to run from XBMC, I then found the App in the XBMC menu, but didn't open it yet, what I did was 'Howswap' the IDE cable from the DVD drive into the new HDD, then powered up the knackered Xbox to supply electricity to it. Then I started Linux.
After booting Linux, I chose to load Chimp from 'FatX' (Xbox file structure) and after a few seconds, Chimp had loaded and a list of options had appeared, the only ones I need right now are;
1. Scan Physical IDE Devices. I did that and it discovered my MASTER (old) HDD, (HDA) and my SLAVE (new) HDD (HDB).
2. Clone from Master To Slave. This is the Meat and Veg of the operation, this will copy EVERYTHING from old HDD to new HDD, after selecting this, choose the option to do the copy 'Byte by Byte'. Depending on the size of your old HDD, this can take 5 minutes to about 2 hours, but once it's done, it's done. There's even a progress bar in this version so you get an ETA on completion!
3. Next, the HDD needs to be locked, so choose the 'Lock Slave Drive' option from the menu, after that, check the security status of the drive, if it's locked, it'll tell you. Now turn everything off, get your new HDD off of the old Xbox power supply, SET IT TO MASTER and put it where your old HDD was, reconnect your DVD drive and power on the Xbox. If it boots to your Dash, result! You're now the proud owner of an Xbox with an upgraded HDD! If you get an error screen, check the number in the top-left of the screen. Those numbers are specific to the error so get googling, it may just be a case of the drive didn't lock, in which case you'll need to repeat some steps. It could also be that the new HDD isn't actually lockable. I can't hep you in that instance...
Right, some other stuff you should read if you're going to do this, it's about the subject of HDD locking...
Hard drives in things like DVD recorders, Sky+ boxes and Xboxes, have a security measure in place to prevent the swapping of Hard Drives. It's called 'ATA Security', and as a rule, PC's don't use it. Because of that, some drives don't support this ATA Security and are therefore incompatible with the Xbox. Choosing a HDD can be a bit of a minefield, but thanks to the Xbox Community, there's a Compatibility Chart of sorts, containing a lot of information on loads of different HDDs. It's not 100% perfect but can provide a guide on which drive to choose, in my case it made the job worse as the drive I had has lots of different revisions, some lockable, some not, so for now, (until I crack my Xbox open again to find the FULL model number of this drive) I wouldn't advise you to get a Western Digital WD800BB. But then again, if you're paying for a HDD, get something bigger than 80GB! I found mine in a skip! Still, I ramble on too much sometimes, the Xbox HDD compatibility chart can be found here.
Anyway, this is such an easy way to upgrade the HDD in a Softmodded Xbox I had to share it!
Okay, now for the files. here's a .zip file with all you need. Unzip it and FTP the, 'linuxboot.cfg' to the root of the E: drive of your Xbox, and the, 'chimp2618' folder to E:/Apps. Launch it from the Dash. Job done!
Respect to 'ldotsfan' for the Chimp update.
I'm no no0b when it comes to Xbox modding, I've installed a few Modchips in my time but my preferred method is the good old 'Splinter Cell Softmod'! It's really easy to install, requires no technical knowledge, and no Xbox dismantling! But this post isn't really about Softmodding, it's about installing a new HDD into a Softmodded Xbox.
Well, what started out as a small project to work on in my spare time, turned into a bit of an obsession! I'd found an 80GB HDD in a discarded PC, (gotta love Skips), and decided that I'd make it work.
Now, the Xbox obviously has it's security measures when it comes to the HDD, they need to be 'Locked', (ATA Security, as it's otherwise known) and it requires an EEPROM in order to Lock the drive. The EEPROM is unique to every Xbox Motherboard, so just plonking in a new HDD will result in the Xbox booting to an error screen. To get past this, there's a couple of methods; 'XboxHDM' which is dependant on a PC with spare IDE channel, something I don't have, or the method I'm going to outline here, an Xbox Linux app called 'Chimp', designed to run on a Softmodded Xbox, and requires no other hardware apart from a power supply to the new HDD. That can be achieved by either a Molex 'Y' splitter, a power cord from an IDE to USB adapter plugged into a computer, or, the way I did it, an old Xbox unit with the top off and the HDD power supply from that!
Well anyway, all my hardware checked out, there's some issues with some HDDs not being lockable, for a while I thought mine wasn't lockable as it is a 'WD800BB' and there's tonnes of variants of that particular drive, some lockable, some not, mine was, so no worries, but more about that later.
Firstly, possibly the most overlooked aspect of this mod, SET THE JUMPER CABLES CORRECTLY! Your OLD HDD should be set to MASTER and the new HDD should be set to SLAVE! If this isn't done, Chimp WILL FAIL TO DETECT YOUR NEW HDD! Also ignore the CABLE SELECT setting as it may work for some, but didn't for me. After making sure they were correct I hooked everything up as follows...
Softmodded Xbox with IDE cable connected to MoBo, to the DVD drive, and finally to the powered up old HDD, booted into my Dash of choice, (XBMC) while I had the new HDD connected to a knackered Xbox by the Molex power supply only. I put the two units next to each other.
Next, I FTP'd into XBMC form my Laptop, and copied over the 'Chimp' files I needed to run from XBMC, I then found the App in the XBMC menu, but didn't open it yet, what I did was 'Howswap' the IDE cable from the DVD drive into the new HDD, then powered up the knackered Xbox to supply electricity to it. Then I started Linux.
After booting Linux, I chose to load Chimp from 'FatX' (Xbox file structure) and after a few seconds, Chimp had loaded and a list of options had appeared, the only ones I need right now are;
1. Scan Physical IDE Devices. I did that and it discovered my MASTER (old) HDD, (HDA) and my SLAVE (new) HDD (HDB).
2. Clone from Master To Slave. This is the Meat and Veg of the operation, this will copy EVERYTHING from old HDD to new HDD, after selecting this, choose the option to do the copy 'Byte by Byte'. Depending on the size of your old HDD, this can take 5 minutes to about 2 hours, but once it's done, it's done. There's even a progress bar in this version so you get an ETA on completion!
3. Next, the HDD needs to be locked, so choose the 'Lock Slave Drive' option from the menu, after that, check the security status of the drive, if it's locked, it'll tell you. Now turn everything off, get your new HDD off of the old Xbox power supply, SET IT TO MASTER and put it where your old HDD was, reconnect your DVD drive and power on the Xbox. If it boots to your Dash, result! You're now the proud owner of an Xbox with an upgraded HDD! If you get an error screen, check the number in the top-left of the screen. Those numbers are specific to the error so get googling, it may just be a case of the drive didn't lock, in which case you'll need to repeat some steps. It could also be that the new HDD isn't actually lockable. I can't hep you in that instance...
Right, some other stuff you should read if you're going to do this, it's about the subject of HDD locking...
Hard drives in things like DVD recorders, Sky+ boxes and Xboxes, have a security measure in place to prevent the swapping of Hard Drives. It's called 'ATA Security', and as a rule, PC's don't use it. Because of that, some drives don't support this ATA Security and are therefore incompatible with the Xbox. Choosing a HDD can be a bit of a minefield, but thanks to the Xbox Community, there's a Compatibility Chart of sorts, containing a lot of information on loads of different HDDs. It's not 100% perfect but can provide a guide on which drive to choose, in my case it made the job worse as the drive I had has lots of different revisions, some lockable, some not, so for now, (until I crack my Xbox open again to find the FULL model number of this drive) I wouldn't advise you to get a Western Digital WD800BB. But then again, if you're paying for a HDD, get something bigger than 80GB! I found mine in a skip! Still, I ramble on too much sometimes, the Xbox HDD compatibility chart can be found here.
Anyway, this is such an easy way to upgrade the HDD in a Softmodded Xbox I had to share it!
Okay, now for the files. here's a .zip file with all you need. Unzip it and FTP the, 'linuxboot.cfg' to the root of the E: drive of your Xbox, and the, 'chimp2618' folder to E:/Apps. Launch it from the Dash. Job done!
Respect to 'ldotsfan' for the Chimp update.
