I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

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TL GAMER
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I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by TL GAMER »

I upgraded a softmodded original XBOX with this drive:
Drive.jpg
I did something stupid and the xbox shit the bed (it cannot even be turned on)

So here is the situation and question:
Obviously since the drive is locked and has an XBOX set up, it cannot be used in another xbox, and I cannot just stick it into a PC and format it because the PC won't recognize it. I have the EEPROM from that XBOX on my PC

I am using WINDOWS 10, NOT LINUX

I just need to know what's needed and the exact procedure so i can wipe the HDD (Via format or whatever method is needed ) so I can reuse the HDD in another soft modded xbox.

Thanks in advance.
Last edited by TL GAMER on Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by professor_jonny »

Make / buy an eeprom programmer then use with pony prog and dump the eeprom onto a new console.

https://www.instructables.com/XBox-EEPROM-ReaderWriter/


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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

He has the eeprom already but I'm not sure what can be done with it just on PC when the Xbox is dead and the HDD locked meaning it cannot be hot-swapped.

Windows won't recognise/give you access to the locked HDD so even if you use XBHDM USB you can't unlock it. At least that is what I believe is the case but it needs confirming.

Another working Xbox is needed - you import the eeprom you have backed up swapping the second Xbox's eeprom for that. The Xbox then effectively becomes the original Xbox and should boot the 2TB locked HDD.

However be aware that this process has risk attached: if the eeprom you import is corrupted you could end up with a second unusable softmodded Xbox. Get the original eeprom backed up off that before attempting the import.

You'd be better off chipping the second Xbox first IMHO. It won't help with unlocking the old 2TB HDD but it would be a safety net for the second Xbox if something goes wrong with the eeprom swap.

I have a question myself which might be relevant: can Chimp 261812 unlock a slave HDD using an imported eeprom? You can lock a slave HDD with Chimp with an imported eeprom, I know that, but I realised I don't know if unlocking is possible.

If it is then it would be the preferable solution.

Still he has to buy another working Xbox in any circumstances and that is not the best news.
TL GAMER
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by TL GAMER »

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. I do however there are some things in your reply that need to be addressed. (I have that portion in bold)
Coldly-Indifferent wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:43 pm He has the eeprom already but I'm not sure what can be done with it just on PC when the Xbox is dead and the HDD locked meaning it cannot be hot-swapped.
I figured that was the case, but wanted another opinion to verify that.
Coldly-Indifferent wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:43 pmWindows won't recognise/give you access to the locked HDD so even if you use XBHDM USB you can't unlock it. At least that is what I believe is the case but it needs confirming.
I'm with you on this one, every tutorial I read passes it off as if XBOXHDM can be used to unlock the XBOX HDD directly from the computer just by plugging the HDD into the comp and using XBOXHDM to unlock it which is a load of crap. Half the tutorials about XBOXHDM mention ot use a file that simply doesn't even exist, not too mention every tutorial I read all say make some boot disk which is not possible. A boot disk 100% requires both an auotrun.inf and an executable (.exe or MSI or XBOXHD.bat) which none exist in XBOXHDM The only one that has the XBOXHD.bat is XBHDM USB.

Coldly-Indifferent wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:43 pmAnother working Xbox is needed - you import the eeprom you have backed up swapping the second Xbox's eeprom for that. The Xbox then effectively becomes the original Xbox and should boot the 2TB locked HDD.

Well the only possible way to import the EEPROM as you stated is to do this:

1. Have the original dead XBOX EEPROM on your PC
2. Soft mod the new xbox (Which will now place that specific XBOX EEPROM saved in a place on the system)
3. FTP the original EEPROM from the broken XBOX from the PC into the same place the new soft modded XBOX stores it's own when it softmodded it
4. Undo the softmod so it will undo the softmod but use the original EEPROM from the broken XBOX in place of the one it just made.
5. Now the new xbox has the EEPROM of the broken xbox.

Coldly-Indifferent wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:43 pmYou'd be better off chipping the second Xbox first IMHO. It won't help with unlocking the old 2TB HDD but it would be a safety net for the second Xbox if something goes wrong with the eeprom swap.
Nope I'll pass on anything that touches the motherboard. The xbox I'm talking about that's broken was of an attempt to TSOP by bridging the points on the motherboard. (BTW I reamed the idiots of the soldering community for posting completely false information about how to solder.
Coldly-Indifferent wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:43 pmStill he has to buy another working Xbox in any circumstances and that is not the best news.
I am not worried about getting another XBOX (I'm already in the process of having one shipped) I'm more in tuned with being able to use the drive itself. If I can get it working again, great.

I think what I'm going to do from this point on is use config magic to set the EEPROM to 00000000000000000000000000000000
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by professor_jonny »

have toy tried the master passwords or SECURITY ERASE PREPARE command, immediately followed by SECURITY ERASE UNIT ?
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by TL GAMER »

professor_jonny wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:38 pm have toy tried the master passwords or SECURITY ERASE PREPARE command, immediately followed by SECURITY ERASE UNIT ?
What does that even mean?
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by professor_jonny »

In some instances you can wipe a drive removing the ATA password by doing a secure erase.

you would boot into linux live distro and run HDparm from terminal, it could recover your drive it does not allways work but it is worth a try.

https://grok.lsu.edu/article.aspx?articleid=16716
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by 2questionsagain »

Hey TL,
You cannot unlock the HDD with just the comp and the HDD it's impossible. People shouldn't be making videos and replies to things that give off that impression.
I had the same problem you did and unless you mod another XBOX, there is no other way to access that HDD ever again. You're lucky you backed up that EEPROM

Anyway follow this exactly:

Mod another XBOX and then run and use configmagic to manually change the EEPROM on the new modded xbox, back to the one from the backed up EEPROM. The information you need to do this is in the xbox info.txt. open that in notepad and you want the XBOX HDD KEY:

Here is the video I followed to manually change mine: The information you need is at 51:43 - 53:56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_gmW2LFv4o

You're welcome!
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Re: I need help (a soft modded 2TB HDD)

Post by professor_jonny »

2questionsagain wrote: Wed Apr 07, 2021 8:04 am Hey TL,
You cannot unlock the HDD with just the comp and the HDD it's impossible. People shouldn't be making videos and replies to things that give off that impression.
Your experiences are not the norm, you can unlock a hdd with a computer it is part of the ATA command set, just options on Windows are limited partly because of how windows behaves, and also because some/ most usb to Sata devices dont pass through locking commands and smart commands.
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