SATA upgrade noob help

Discussion about Modding the XBOX, including hardware and software hacks.
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daicon
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SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

I have:
v1.6 Xbox already softmodded
IDE -> SATA bridge (confirmed working in the compatability thread)
500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA HDD
Slayer's Hybrid Auto-Installer (working)
80wire IDE cable (least that's what ebay said..)
Full softmodded HDD backup from FTP

I've put in the new HDD, removed the jumper from the IDE->SATA bridge and ran the Xbox with the Slayer's disc inside. I get an error 16 screen when I turn it on. I've tried different jumper settings on the converter. One gave me an error '9'. Nothing else worked.

Outside of that, I haven't done much else yet. Do I need to prepare the SATA HDD in some way before installing it into the Xbox?

Forgive me for being such a noob, but I've read half a dozen guides and they all seem to atleast be leaving something out.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by bigkidoz »

With a softmodded console you cant just swap in a new hdd and expect it to work, you will need to either use chimp to clone the old hdd or build a new hdd using the eeprom from your console and XBOXHDM.
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daicon
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

Is there a special way to run Chimp or XBHDM with a SATA drive? All the guides I can find only show how for an IDE drive, and I don't know if the procedure is different.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by psyko_chewbacca »

Procedure won't be different using chimp. Make sure to set your IDE-SATA adapter to slave mode when plugging it in place of your DVD drive. Put it back in Master mode(or cable select, try both since some adapters are picky) when CHIMP has made it's work.

XBOXHDM method is no different either. The only difference is I think you can plug the HDD directly without the IDE-SATA adapter but I'm not 100% sure about this.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

psyko_chewbacca wrote:Procedure won't be different using chimp. Make sure to set your IDE-SATA adapter to slave mode when plugging it in place of your DVD drive. Put it back in Master mode(or cable select, try both since some adapters are picky) when CHIMP has made it's work.

XBOXHDM method is no different either. The only difference is I think you can plug the HDD directly without the IDE-SATA adapter but I'm not 100% sure about this.
Can anyone confirm that about XBOXHDM? My PC doesn't have an IDE port, nor do I have 2 Xboxs to provide power to the two drives for cloning on the Chimp method.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by bigkidoz »

daicon wrote:
psyko_chewbacca wrote:Procedure won't be different using chimp. Make sure to set your IDE-SATA adapter to slave mode when plugging it in place of your DVD drive. Put it back in Master mode(or cable select, try both since some adapters are picky) when CHIMP has made it's work.

XBOXHDM method is no different either. The only difference is I think you can plug the HDD directly without the IDE-SATA adapter but I'm not 100% sure about this.
Can anyone confirm that about XBOXHDM? My PC doesn't have an IDE port, nor do I have 2 Xboxs to provide power to the two drives for cloning on the Chimp method.
You dont need another xbox for power, just use a pc molex splitter. Must admit i havent tried xboxhdm with a sata drive so dont know if a directly connected sata hdd will work on a pc.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by psyko_chewbacca »

And you can try XboxHDM with your SATA drive. It's not like you can break anything. Worst case scenario it will not work.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

bigkidoz wrote:
You dont need another xbox for power, just use a pc molex splitter. Must admit i havent tried xboxhdm with a sata drive so dont know if a directly connected sata hdd will work on a pc.
I've heard it doesn't work, but I don't know if that's outdated or just plain wrong.

If that's the case then Chimp is the only method.

Does anyone know if Chimp is the only method to do a sata hdd upgrade on a softmodded xbox?
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

Apparently another software is Hexen's.. Will that work for setting up the sata drive for the softmod?
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by bigkidoz »

daicon wrote:Apparently another software is Hexen's.. Will that work for setting up the sata drive for the softmod?

Hexen is consoled based and although there are options for softmodding i dont think you can use it to clone a hdd like chimp does.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

Yet another question.

I bought an 80 IDE cable specifically for this mod. It was too short so I plugged the black end into the motherboard and the blue end into the actual HDD. Will that matter? The Xbox loads perfectly fine with the stock harddrive, and doesn't seem to have problems, but I don't know if i'll run into problems when cloning the HDD with Chimp
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

I managed to clone the drive! Very satisfied with that. No problems.

If anyone knows, I'm using a 500GB HDD. How do I partition it so I can get access to all the extra space on it?
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by psyko_chewbacca »

Well that depends on what cluster size you're willing to have.

You can basically have 2 extra partitions aside from the regular partitions that are normally present on every Xbox drives (C:, E:, X:, Y: and Z:). Those are F: and G:.

The bigger the cluster size, the more space is wasted for small files. For an example, if you have a partition with cluster size of 64KB, it means that every file is going to take at least 1 cluster. So a 1KB file will take a 64KB cluster alone(leaving 63KB of disc space wasted. Another 1KB file will take a different cluster(so another 63KB wasted, you now have 126KB of wasted space for 2 files). Same scenario but using 16KB clusters will waste far less space (only 30KB for 2*1KB files). You can see that on a bigger scale, wasted space becomes really something. This is especially true if you plan on storing games on your HDD. Most games have lots of small files that will generate a lot of wasted space. That's something inherent to FAT file systems, you cannot escape it.

For the Xbox and FATX file system, the rule is that the minimum cluster size for a partition is set to 16KB. If you create a partition bigger than 256GB, the cluster size will be of 32KB. If you create a partition bigger than 512GB, cluster size will be of 64KB.

So you have the choice of having a single F: drive (no G:) with 32KB clusters or both F: and G: drive bu with 16KB cluster each (providing you don't create a partition bigger than 256GB). XB partitionner (on HeXen or Auto-Installer deluxe discs) will let you create those partition with the sizes of your choice.

In my opinion, 32KB cluster partitions is not that big of a deal if you plan on only storing media files and emulator stuff. The files involved in these are mostly big files that keeps the ratio of wasted space versus file count low. If you plan on storing Xbox games as well, I would go for 2 16KB cluster partitions.
daicon
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed to know. I'm going with mostly Xbox gaming, so I'll be doing 2 partitions.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by daicon »

So I have a Slayer's Hybrid Auto-Installer disc v3.3u Full

I can't locate XBPartitioner 1.3 on it.

I tried going to change the dashboard and install all apps and advanced apps and now my Xbox won't boot into any dashboard, but will only boot from disc.

What can I do to fix this?
KA666
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by KA666 »

daicon wrote: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:38 am I managed to clone the drive! Very satisfied with that. No problems.

If anyone knows, I'm using a 500GB HDD. How do I partition it so I can get access to all the extra space on it?
Which method did you use? I am having a hard time getting my HDD to clone using chimp 261812. It either freezes at at the dashboard if I swap before loading and freezes at starting chimp screen if I wait to be prompted. 2tb barracuda with ide to sata connextor.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by SilverNZ »

KA666 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 1:16 pm
daicon wrote: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:38 am I managed to clone the drive! Very satisfied with that. No problems.

If anyone knows, I'm using a 500GB HDD. How do I partition it so I can get access to all the extra space on it?
Which method did you use? I am having a hard time getting my HDD to clone using chimp 261812. It either freezes at at the dashboard if I swap before loading and freezes at starting chimp screen if I wait to be prompted. 2tb barracuda with ide to sata connextor.
Try Rocky5's chimp version, it worked for me. Check that the IDE-SATA adapter is set to slave on your HDD you are cloning, this fixed my freezing issue.
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Re: SATA upgrade noob help

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

This is a resurrected 4 year old thread and there have been plenty of more up to date threads on the use of Chimp 261812 here and elsewhere.

The obvious source of info for this is Rocky5's own YT tutorial:-

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

In fact Rocky5 updated Chimp 261812 after the YT video was made so that you did not have to copy that linuxboot.cfg to the root of the E:\drive ie. it works now using a config.cfg in the actual Chimp folder. I think he also changed it so the IDE swap could be done safely even after Chimp has booted but don't quote me on that.

I still prefer to swap on my main dashboard and then launch Chimp 261812. The swap of the IDE cable from the DVD drive to the new HDD (set as slave) is not usually a problem if done cleanly. It should not cause the dash to freeze or reset.

If it does that is usually because the IDE cable was not swapped cleanly or, in the case of a SATA HDD, the adapter has been jiggled enough to temporarily disconnect some of its pin connections from the HDD. They are not robust connection devices and need to be handled gently.
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