Hard modded xbox upgrade hard drive to 2tb

[Jerry98vert]

I bought this xbox has a SmartXX chip that runs xecuter 2. I have done a soft mod hard drive upgrade using hdmaker putting in the C:\ the E:\ and the backup eeprom.bin making the iso and bam it worked no problems got that concept down.

This hard mod xbox i think is different, I tried to use splinter cell disk so I can back up the eeprom.bin but the screen to do this just dosen't want to come up.

The real qustion is can I use the hdmaker to do this 2tb hard drive, I know there is an APP to back up the eeprom.bin or since the xbox has a chip in it is there a better way to get the new hard drive formatted, copy the C:\ copy the E:\ and the eeprom.

I tried to research all this but there seems different ways to do this.

thanks.

[spicemuseum]

No need. With a hard mod you can just plug in the new HDD, the xecuter BIOS will detect it and format it.

Once it's formatted, you'll still want to use an installer disc, like HeXEn to build the files onto it.

You can choose whether or not to lock the HDD when you're done. I don't bother, there are no disadvantages to leaving unlocked.

[bigkidoz]

You will need to use xbpartioner to format the extended partitions once you have done the initial setup , they need to be 64k clusters. Dont bother locking the hdd as there is no need or advantage.

[Jerry98vert]

Thanks every so, just to double check here, just unplug the old hard drive plug in the new and the hard mod menu comes up and go to the hard drive menu part and format (hope there is one there).

then put in the installer disk and install xbmc from that.

So I don't need to clone the old hard drive at all, I mean it's working great but if you all think starting from scratch again with this xbox I will do.

Thanks again.

[xman]

I just put a slayer's disc in to unlock the old harddrive 1st, turn the machine off, pull out the old HDD and put in the new 2Tb and tell Slayer's to do a "New Build Using Large HDD". This will format it and put the necessary apps and files on the machine.

Once done, it takes about 1/2 hour, exit out of that part of Slayer's and go back in this time selecting "XBMC and Apps on E drive". You do this so when you format using XBPartitioner, it will erase everything on your F and G drive so these "Must" be on E drive. This takes about 5 minutes.

Next after Exiting from that part of Slayer's, go back in this time go to "Make XBMC your booting app on Stock HDD". Don't select large HDD or you will set the shortcut to go looking in F/apps for XBMC. It "has" to be E/apps and this last step will do that for you.

Pull your Slayer's disc out and check everything. Try rebooting the machine and make sure it actually boots to XBMC in your E/Apps folder. It will be an ancient version of XBMC but that will give you FTP ability and you can quickly FTP the latest version of XBMC onto the E drive. You'll need to FTP over XBPartitioner anyway so no harm done. You'll need at least XBPartitioner 1.1 but 1.2 is better, it doesn't lock up. You can prevent 1.1 from locking up by hitting the B button while the app boots but like I said, 1.2 is better

[Jerry98vert]

I just put a slayer's disc in to unlock the old harddrive 1st, turn the machine off, pull out the old HDD and put in the new 2Tb and tell Slayer's to do a "New Build Using Large HDD". This will format it and put the necessary apps and files on the machine.

Once done, it takes about 1/2 hour, exit out of that part of Slayer's and go back in this time selecting "XBMC and Apps on E drive". You do this so when you format using XBPartitioner, it will erase everything on your F and G drive so these "Must" be on E drive. This takes about 5 minutes.

Next after Exiting from that part of Slayer's, go back in this time go to "Make XBMC your booting app on Stock HDD". Don't select large HDD or you will set the shortcut to go looking in F/apps for XBMC. It "has" to be E/apps and this last step will do that for you.

Pull your Slayer's disc out and check everything. Try rebooting the machine and make sure it actually boots to XBMC in your E/Apps folder. It will be an ancient version of XBMC but that will give you FTP ability and you can quickly FTP the latest version of XBMC onto the E drive. You'll need to FTP over XBPartitioner anyway so no harm done. You'll need at least XBPartitioner 1.1 but 1.2 is better, it doesn't lock up. You can prevent 1.1 from locking up by hitting the B button while the app boots but like I said, 1.2 is better

Thank you for your quick how to, I hope with all this I still will get the SmartXX menu. Right now when I hit the power button I get SmarttXX menu. When I hit eject I get XBMC and when I git eject hold and hit power I get the original Xbox green menu.

[blighty]

there are no disadvantages to leaving unlocked.

Doesn't Ms dash fail to boot on a unlocked hdd? I always thought it did.

[psyko_chewbacca]

there are no disadvantages to leaving unlocked.

Doesn't Ms dash fail to boot on a unlocked hdd? I always thought it did.

Nope, it runs just fine.
The only down side I can think about running your Xbox with the HDD unlocked is you cannot boot from retail BIOS. Not much of a down side now that Live is no more for Original Xbox.

[bigkidoz]

MS dash wont boot an unlocked hdd, it will throw an error. As said there is no need at all for the MS dash since live was shut down.

[retromonger]

What about savegame management ? Or ripping CD Track on HDD for custom Tracks in games ?

[Jerry98vert]

Ok so I am confused here, do i just lock the hard drive to be on the safe side? I mean it won't hurt if I do right?

So to triple check here:
just put in the new hard drive
use slayer
run the reformat
install XBMC
lock the hard drive
rebuild with games and such

And if this for some reason dosen't work i can us xboxhdm to unlock and try something different.

Hope this works.

[retromonger]

forget about locking anything.
its over. there is no more LIVE. it cant be messed up anymore.

[xman]

If you ever need MSDash, God only knows what for, it will be sitting in your C drive. Just go into filemanager, into C drive and select the MSDash .xbe and up will come MSDash with the HDD locked or not. Locking the HDD will make no difference to the machine's operation other than the ability to boot direct to it by turning off the modchip and starting the machine. However should the HDD be locked, that HDD is only ever good for just that machine. Unlocked means it can be used in any machine simply by swapping it.

[Rocky5]

Locked HDD = Softmod

Only use for a locked HDD in this day & age.

If you want to lock the HDD for personal reason go a head, but I would Null the HDD key first before locking. (Configmagic 32 0's)

[Jerry98vert]

So far FAIL, I used Slayer 2.7 reformatted C:\ large which gave me E: and F: and now I can boot up to Slayers EvolutionX dash I am thinking finally, before I was just getting error 21 (basic error).

Anyway I go back the Slayers CD and install Apps XBMC first then I reboot goes back to EvolutionX and under applications I see XBMC I click on it and nothing it says loading then it just goes back to EvolutionX dash again.

I can ftp into the xbox and I manually installed XBMC that doesn't work. I manually install UnleashX then when I go into applications in EvolutionX it says "loading" then back to EvolutionX.

I have also tried to format E: again I tried to install Apps and XBMC (in Slayers disk) nothing every time I go into EvolutionX and pick any APP it says "Loading" then nothing back to EvolutionX screen.

I also tried to make XBMC the default dash (in Slayers disk) then reboot get an error screen I think error 21 again.

Don't know what to do here any help would be great.

thanks.

[xman]

So far FAIL, I used Slayer 2.7 reformatted C:\ large which gave me E: and F: and now I can boot up to Slayers EvolutionX dash I am thinking finally, before I was just getting error 21 (basic error).

That is because you are using an F only bios. Quote..... I used Slayer 2.7 reformatted C:\ large which gave me E: and F.
This has to be changed to an F and G drive bios or if you are actually using an F and G bios, you do need to tell Slayers to format both F and G because F only on Slayers will only use 137GB of your 2Tb so only 137Gb of the 2Tb actually got formatted. If you go a F and G drive bios it will still make your F drive 137Gb but most importantly, the remaining GBs on the HDD will also get formatted all be it at the wrong size, the full HDD size will actually be seen and will stop the Error 13

Anyway I go back the Slayers CD and install Apps XBMC first then I reboot goes back to EvolutionX and under applications I see XBMC I click on it and nothing it says loading then it just goes back to EvolutionX dash again.

I can ftp into the xbox and I manually installed XBMC that doesn't work. I manually install UnleashX then when I go into applications in EvolutionX it says "loading" then back to EvolutionX.

I have also tried to format E: again I tried to install Apps and XBMC (in Slayers disk) nothing every time I go into EvolutionX and pick any APP it says "Loading" then nothing back to EvolutionX screen.

I also tried to make XBMC the default dash (in Slayers disk) then reboot get an error screen I think error 21 again.

Don't know what to do here any help would be great.

thanks.

Don't worry about any of this till you get the 1st step booting correctly. Until the machine can see both F and G drives, it isn't going to work correctly. I need to know what modchip and bios your using also.
We may need to reflash your bios if it is an F only bios.

[Jerry98vert]

Thanks XMAN for your time to responed to this. i am not home and will post later when I see the Xbox again.

I do know the Chip it is SmartXX v1 and not positive but it's something like X43xxxx number I will get you the exact number later.

Also I believe I saw G:\ drive but once again I will check this out.

Question here isn't it better to clone the hard drive that is working/ that came witth xbox and deal with 2TB format later.

[Jerry98vert]

I so hate myself I got XBMC to work by getting a default.xbe renaming that to evoxdash.xbe and creating in notepad evoxdash.cfg and telling it to go to E:\apps then I went into xPartitioner to change some hard drive space numbers around got an error message saying my bios won't let me do that, then the xbox needed to be rebooted and then got an error had to reinstall the whole process again but this time my trick didn't work and now that evoxdash trick is not working at all. From reformat the whole drive do this do that f'd up man it was done.

Ok here is where I am at now:

EvolutionX is working again:
C:\ has 331 mg space
E:\ has 5.1gb
F:\ has 129gb
G:\ has 862gb

SmartXX chip is X2 4983.67
EvoX +3935

I don't think the bios needs to be flashed I just need to trick the xbox (I did once before) to start up on XBMC.

thanks for any help

[xman]

sweet, looks like your bios is in deed an F and G bios and you have XBMC in E/Apps?. If not you can FTP the latest version there anyway. You have Slayers so just put that in and tell it "Use XBMC as Primary app on Stock HDD". Don't use large HDD to do thisor will go looking in F/Apps for XBMC and you don't want that do you?. Believe me, stock means E/Apps in this shortcut method. The disc will create a shortcut and your machine will then be booting straight to XBMC. I do have one question though, how come you only have 1TB of space showing and not 2TB?.

[Jerry98vert]

sweet, looks like your bios is in deed an F and G bios and you have XBMC in E/Apps?. If not you can FTP the latest version there anyway. You have Slayers so just put that in and tell it "Use XBMC as Primary app on Stock HDD". Don't use large HDD to do thisor will go looking in F/Apps for XBMC and you don't want that do you?. Believe me, stock means E/Apps in this shortcut method. The disc will create a shortcut and your machine will then be booting straight to XBMC. I do have one question though, how come you only have 1TB of space showing and not 2TB?.

Thanks again XMAN on your help, I will try Stock HDD, I think I tried this already but I will try again. As far as why it's showing 1TB not 2TB is because when I do a build from scratch Slayer puts all kinds of stuff in F:\ which makes the numbers not come out to 2TB when I reformat the whole drive from C thru Z the number does come out to close to 2TB. With nothing in F:\ it's like 500GB and nothing in C:\ is more then 331mb, but I will double check this.

FYI when I first bought the Xbox the XBMC was called dash and it was in C:\ so I did my trick evoxdash trick so it can see XBMC in E:\ I believe the chip wants to see the dash in C:\. The problem is now that I did it once and messed it up it now knows this trick and won't let me do this again, but I will try.