Playing Compressed Xbox Games off Hard Drive?

XBOX, but not XBMC4XBOX related discussion
Post Reply
User avatar
SteelWolf89
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:33 pm
Been thanked: 1 time

Playing Compressed Xbox Games off Hard Drive?

Post by SteelWolf89 »

sorry if this question has been posted before, but i was wondering if anyone had experience playing compressed versions of full Xbox games either via .zip/.rar or .iso/.cso format directly off of the hard drive.

i'm starting to run low on space in my 160gb hard drive, and i'm trying to compress everything i can, and Xbox games take up the most space BY FAR.

i know most emulators support compressed roms already, but i need some good input on this. a link to a tutorial or a walkthrough would be greatly appreciated.

i'm willing to use other Dashes if i need to, but i'd prefer to stick with XBMC4XBOX for obvious reasons.


EDIT #1:

I'd like to upgrade my hard drive at some point, but i'd need an IDE to SATA adapter that works on the Xbox, and i'd like to simply clone the drive i have instead of rebuilding everything from scratch. if anyone has advice or suggestions in that vein, i'd very much appreciate any input.


EDIT #2:

i've done my best to find anything regarding compression of Xbox games, and the only thing i could find was a previous post here talking about using a program called "xisosplit". i've looked everywhere and for the life of me cannot figure out where to get it. if anyone has any suggestions, i'd like your input.
Xbox 1.6 HALO Ed. w/ UnleashX 0.39.0222A b.572, XBMC4XBOX 3.5 & MS Dash 5960.
Image
Metal Gear Online is BACK!! Visit SaveMGO.com to Learn More!
User avatar
Oldxboxusa
Posts: 145
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2012 5:47 pm
Has thanked: 14 times
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Playing Compressed Xbox Games off Hard Drive?

Post by Oldxboxusa »

No you can not compress them. And compressed ISO or rar games will not run. For the adapter you talk about here in the forum is a thread for that. Read it and you will find out which are working and which not. It depends on which hard drive and which adapter you use. In my case some that will not working for someone, works fine by me (dx adapter at least). But when I use another hdd it stops working.
l11l1venom1l11l
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:23 pm
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Playing Compressed Xbox Games off Hard Drive?

Post by l11l1venom1l11l »

As far as cloning drives go, I use CHIMP (or CHIMP-X) - just Google around for it. It's very quick and easy, but as far as I know and even against what I've read it DOES require a keyboard. It's easy to make an Xbox USB keyboard adapter, too. All you you need is a generic USB keyboard and a controller dongle. I made an actual adapter using a USB extension cable so I didn't have to damage a USB keyboard. You can find tutorials on Google for this as well. Honestly, it's 5 wires...it takes about 15 minutes.

Once you have the CHIMP program, just extract it to your E/Apps folder. (I use the E partition version, but I think there is also an F one).
MAKE SURE YOUR Apps folder has a capital "A" and looks just like this: Apps
Also, follow the instructions that come with CHIMP. There are some other files that need to be put in specific places. I had some difficulties with it at first because there are things it simply fails to mention (like case-sensitivity, but it's Linux so that wasn't hard to figure out), so here are some simplified instructions from someone who uses it frequently:

What you'll need to know:
A.) Secondary HDD needs to be powered either with a Y splitter from the XBox PSU or an external PSU.
B.) Make sure it's set for Cable Select.
C.) The new HDD needs to be lockable. I haven't found a drive over 80 GB that isn't lockable yet.

First and foremost: Get your Xbox naked. Just take its top off. Be polite about it.

1.) Plug in the keyboard and run the program.
2.) Once you are at the first menu, move left and right from FatX to DVD to Network, etc. to keep it from auto-loading. If it auto-loads you will need to start over. You only have to move left and right once.
3.) Give the new hard drive power.
4.) Remove the IDE cable from the DVD-ROM and plug it into the new HDD. Wait 5 seconds.
5.) Go ahead and select FatX to launch CHIMP from the Master Drive.
6.) Clone from Master to Slave. (I use full disk (byte by byte) and show percentage although it says it's slower...no other options seem to work for me.)
7.) Lock Slave Drive.
8.) Power down
9.) Physically swap the HDD's and plug the DVD-ROM back in with the IDE cable.

If it is a drive larger that 150GB:

10.) Launch chimp again (App will now be on the new drive, obviously because of the clone)
11.) Format Master Drive Extended Partitions (I use F Drive is capped at 137 GB or G Drive contains space above 137...something along those lines).
12.) Make sure your Dashboard is enabled to view the G drive if you are utilizing it.

1X.) Done. Tell it you love it and give it its top back.

The cool thing is that it can be a drive pre-formatted in any other file system, as far as I know. I've used hand-me-down FAT-16, 32 and NTFS drives and didn't even bother reformatting them (with stuff like Windows data intact) and they've always worked. The cloning reformats them automatically and fully as far as I can tell.

I've also yet to use a basic SATA to IDE adapter that hasn't worked yet. There is plenty of space at the back of the HDD caddy to house one - it just comes down to vertical space for the lid. The adapters are dirt cheap, too. Crazy how expensive large IDE drives are.
User avatar
Spongy
Posts: 97
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2012 5:11 am
Has thanked: 16 times
Been thanked: 18 times

Re: Playing Compressed Xbox Games off Hard Drive?

Post by Spongy »

SteelWolf89 wrote: i was wondering if anyone had experience playing compressed versions of full Xbox games either via .zip/.rar or .iso/.cso format directly off of the hard drive.
If you're interested in running your games from a compressed file (iso) read this post. Extra tips a couple posts down.
Post Reply