How do I upgrade my hard drive for my hardmodded OG-XBOX?

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
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KaKistoZ
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Joined: Mon May 18, 2020 10:17 pm

How do I upgrade my hard drive for my hardmodded OG-XBOX?

Post by KaKistoZ »

Hey y'all!

New guy here! Pleasantly surprised to see that there's still an active community revolving the original XBOX! I've yet to really invest in the fantastic world of hardmodded OG-XBOX as I've put it aside untill the day I obtained a suitable replacement for the original 4GB IDE hard drive that the console had originally. I tried replacing the original hard drive with a newer SATA spin drive with the IDE to SATA adapter many years ago, and I remember following all the correct steps, formatting the hard drive with a certain app so that the hard drive could be read by the xbox, but that didn't work out too well, so I scoured the internet for answers untill I found out that supposedly; not all hard drives could be used with the XBOX apparantly, at least not by using the adapter-fix.

And now I've obtained a "new" hard drive that I've salvaged from a older computer, thinking maybe it could be a perfect fit. It too is a SATA spin drive, however this time around it's not a 500GB drive, but instead a "Seagate Barracude 7200.7" 160GB hard drive. That's all good and well, but the thing is: I remember when I attempted this many years ago, I remember the whole process could be done using a format and partition app for Windows, made specifically for use with the OG-XBOX. But now when I'm searching, I'm seeing a bunch of threads saying something about burning certain XBOX homebrew apps to format the new drive via the XBOX with a split-cable or something, and I'm totally lost on the whole process. Can somebody PLEASE help out this noob? :P
Coldly-Indifferent
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Re: How do I upgrade my hard drive for my hardmodded OG-XBOX?

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

You can use XBHDM (Xbox Hard-drive Maker) to build a new Xbox HDD but unless you're using a Xbox that is chipped or TSOPed you have to lock it with the eeprom from the Xbox it i going to used in. There's a USB version of XBHDM and the original for use if you have an old PC with IDE connections.

Simplest way to prepare a new hard drive is clone the existing, softmodded, one using an app called Chimp 261812. This is a universal version of Chimp compatible with all Xboxes which Rocky5 updated over 4 years ago.

You install it on the Xbox in accordance with the readme that comes with it. A molex splitter is used to power both the existing HDD and the new one you're cloning it too. The latter must be set to Slave which means if it is SATA the adapter must have Master, Slave or CS options too.

You power the Xbox up and then swap the IDE cable from the DVD drive to the Slave HDD. That needs to be done as cleanly as possible and there is probably some time limit involved too. The latest version of Chimp 261812 allows you to do the swap after it is launched which may suit you better but if there is any Slave HDD detection issues swapping on the main dash then launching Chimp is recommended.

After that it is fairly self-explanatory.

Rocky5's YT video doesn't cover the final version but most of it is still as good a guide to using Chimp 261812 as you'll find:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBC9599ww6I
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