XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

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VanZan
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by VanZan »

But would you really want ALL of the games? Even the very crappy ones? I have a 500GB IDE drive and I'm quite happy with the 90 best games made for the xbox. The rest of the space is devoted to emulators/roms etc
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by VanZan »

Hmmm I'm a bit bored and feeling greedy for more HDD space. Are all you guys getting 2tb drives? I mean I'd say I'd be satisfied with 1tb to be honest. God knows what you guys have on 2tb drives. Just one question: if I upgrade and clone my existing 500gb drive with CHIMP what happens with the cluster size? I mean I think I'm using 32k with my 500gb. When CHIMP goes to format the 1 or 2tb drive to 64k won't I lose all my data? Or is the solution just something as simple as formatting FIRST and then CLONING? Thanks! :)
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by scroeffie »

after 3+ moths playing with 2 tb xbox games coinops etc yesterday my coinops did not work anymore
wierd symbols when i ftp and loosing data coruption i think
but i did format 64k clustert with xb 1.3 so now i need to format again but how can i prevent this from hapening again ??
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by scroeffie »

both f and g are when i upload a test file to part f: or g: its 65k difrencs is this correct ??
after and if it’s 64 + bytes the hard drive partitions are correctly formatted with 64k Cluster Sizes

517.632-452.096=65.536 << cluster size
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by xman »

This is the file I always use to see if it takes up either 32 or 64k..........
078.jpg
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by scroeffie »

i did the math followed the guide from a to z i hope now nothing gets corrupt it was around 250+gb than file started to get corupted wierd symbols etc
but now i no i did it 100% correct
this is what i got after ftp a file tested both f and g

517.632-452.096=65.536
pcmike
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by pcmike »

I followed the guide and upgraded my version 1.2 xbox from a 250GB hard drive to a 2TB drive, using the following:
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 - 2TB, 7200 RPM 3.5"
Kingwin ADP-06

The performance is considerably slower then before. For example, when I restart Unleash-X (from an IGR, not a full reboot) it takes about 8 seconds to load now instead of 2. Loading BoXplorer takes about 4 seconds. and when I choose "Select Drive" in BoXplorer, there is about a 4 second pause before it displays the list of drives, while on the old hard drive it was instant.

Is this normal on a large hard drive, or could there be an issue with either the Kingwin, the HD, or other settings?

The article mentioned the following:
"Both SATA to IDE boards mentioned here require you to remove the jumper which turns the devices into Cable Select mode."
But the Kingwin ADP-06 has no Cable Select setting or even Master/Slave setting and according to the FAQ page on their web site the only jumpers for master/slave mode would be on the hard drives themselves. My Seagate did not include such a jumper, and it requires smaller jumpers then most HD's so I was not able to test for differences with one installed for master, but I did try disconnecting the Samsung DVD drive from the IDE cable and the performance did not change at all. I also tried using both the original 40-pin IDE cable, and a UDMA133 80-pin cable but again there was no noticeable difference. Perhaps I should try buying a Sabrent and see if that performs any faster.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by xman »

Being slow is quite normal until it has a fair chuck of data on the HDD. A fair chunk being about a 1/3 full spread over both F and G drives. Once it has a decent amount of data loaded on it, the only noticeable difference you should see is on cold booting the machine and that should be about 2 seconds at most longer than an IDE HDD. :D
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by bytesaber »

Nice thread.

I am using an X3 with:
Rosewill RC-A-SATA-IDE SATA to IDE Adapter
Seagate Barracuda ST320005N4A1AS-RK 2TB

My XBox is a 1.4 (Canadian blue if it matters) and seems to work great, aside from a 30+ second boot time to reach XBMC. Launching games on the HDD from XBMC takes a long time too. Just thought I'd share.

When I connect a regular IDE drive, it's fast. So like this thread is covering, I'm assuming it's something to do with errors we don't see, and maybe initializing the adapter / 2TB drive.
UJLammy wrote: One last thing I would like to mention is I actually tried another adapter prior to this, I bought this cheapo adapter from Amazon based on what I read on other threads and forums:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005N7 ... 06_s00_i00
The adapter actually worked fine at first, Slayers ran at it's normal speed and was able to format with no issues, however the adapter died on me after a few minutes (to the point where it caused lock ups when connected to my PC and causing the IDE port on my PC overheat, I guess it was starting to short out)
An odd thought I've had, is there are some adapters that appear to have no controller chips on them. Like a literal electrical path only adapter. See the images in the quote's link above. Adapters like these would require no drivers. UJLammy said he was using one but it stopped working or burnt out. The two IDE - SATA adapters I have tried give the slow boot time, and both have an on board chip. Could this have any relevance?

Any advise on how to speed the boot times back up, would be appreciated.

Thanks!
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by scroeffie »

yeah the boottime sucks with ide to sata but when on xbmc everything is very fast for me games load very fast etc
xbox 1.5 2tb
bytesaber
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by bytesaber »

Agreed. Once loaded, XBMC and Games seem to run fast. Makes me wonder about adapters with a better or faster controller. I'd gladly pay for a higher priced one if it corrected the delay.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by scroeffie »

iam happy that the controller works and is stable the booting doesnt bother me anymore :)
do you know if its possible to change the xbox tm name in to other name
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Massamo »

xbox 1.6b
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/320737053142 ... 1497.l2649
and a Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB worked for me
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by xman »

Don't expect fast anything while your using X3 chips. There is so much going on on those chips and 90% , you'll never use anyway. Personally, unless I was using one for an LCD display I wouldn't bother with one. I found times very disappointing myself like a couple of extra seconds just booting a normal machine. I regard 10 seconds exceptable and 12 seconds with an IDE to Sata adapter. I found no difference between a 1 or 2TB sata however, getting satas to run quicker started resulting in F Drive not appearing reliably with my combo anyway. I always set my boot paths to EvoXDash and then a shortcut from there to E/Apps/XBMC .xbe and I do this same path on the 2nd bios path on the modchip just in case. The 3rd boot path I just had go straight to E/Apps/Avalaunch. xbe and this was set solely so I could actually see if the 3rd path was ever actually used. It never is unless you kill the XBMC folder you should be booting to.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by portland »

Hi Guys,
I want to upgrade to a 2gb hard drive, but when I read the instructions I came across this statement "Next you need turn on the XBOX with a bootable disc in the drive" is this a disc with unleashed x on it or any Xbox game?
Sorry for the stupid question I am sure I will have loads!


Portland
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by bytesaber »

Can a TSOP 1.4 with ind-bios boot with a SATA adapater?

I took the adapter and drive from my X3 chipped system (boot super slow when using an adapter + sata drive) over to my TSOP'd system. It never initializes it seems. Just fails.

I understand that the X3 works, but timing is off or the X3 isn't optimized well and causes the slow bootup processes. X3 is super fast with an IDE drive.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by fxmech »

I have your setup. Same spec's, with the LCD to boot. I'll take a picture of my adapter later.

My board has a ram upgrade in the works. Right now I have to clean up the failed first attempt at adding RAM. Once I get it all back together and booting again, I'll see how I get it.

Make sure you have a full bootup sequence set in X3's config - skipping anything to boot faster will crash the box.

My adapter will be going into a 1.0 with ind-bios on the TSOP. It loads the config **FROM A FILE** - this means before the BIOS can boot - your drive needs to be addressed. This is where the Config injector comes into play. That way your bios is waiting to execute the command right as the drive inits. To me, this was the approach given my problems with the X3 and the adapter.

I have a clear shell for my X3 so I equipped an older black 160GB HDD and a black Phillips DVD with a window. It looks better. And boots faster, as you mentioned.

Once I am done switching the parts around I will post back.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by pcmike »

I found that my Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 (2TB) ran considerably faster after I updated the Seagate firmware from version CC27 to Version CC29.
Also, as Xman stated the drive performs better once a fair amount of data has been written to the drive.

I'm using the Kingwin ADP-06 adapter, and initially I had issues with files becoming shorter or corrupt, and occasional font glitches visible sometimes when UnleashX displays a game title currently being launched, or in AID in some of the dialog boxes in which the text was unreadable. These issues vanished when I swapped the stock 40-pin IDE cable with an 80-pin UDMA-133 Cable.

Also I found that when I use XBPartitioner to size partition 6 and 7, it is inaccurate to simply set them both to 927.78 GB as the correct size in hexadecimal is 73F8FF00. In the XBpartitioner 1.1 screenshot that thepitt posted, he shows the following sizes:
Partition 6: 73F8EEDF (927.78GB)
Partition 7: 73F8EEE0 (927.78GB)

But again the ideal size is for both is 73F8FF00 (927.78GB). One way to confirm what the correct size should be is to look at the maximum values posted in XBPartitioner 1.0... Don't try it in 1.1 as it allows you to go past the actual drive limits, and as previously noted it will freeze once you go past 1000GB.

I have not encountered any issues with booting directly to the c: or e: partition, and I'm using the X2 5035 BIOS. The only problem I have encountered with this BIOS is that one game would refuse to run (Dead or Alive Xtreame Beach Volleyball), though it works fine on my other XBOX using the M8+ BIOS but not X2. The advantage to the X2 5035 is that the ConfigLive waits until it can read the configuration file from drive E: before it attempts to boot, giving the hard drive as much time as it needs to get up to speed. I just wish I could get rid of that lame "Xecuterr rox my box" slogan they added to the Xbox logo screen.


@fxmech: Let me know how it works out with the IND BIOS... I tried that at first but it was failing to recognize my hard drive (perhaps it was caused by my adapter).

@Portland: a good bootable disc would be AID (Auto Installer Deluxe) as the article suggested.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by pcmike »

UJLammy wrote: One last thing I would like to mention is I actually tried another adapter prior to this, I bought this cheapo adapter from Amazon based on what I read on other threads and forums:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005N7 ... 06_s00_i00
The adapter actually worked fine at first, Slayers ran at it's normal speed and was able to format with no issues, however the adapter died on me after a few minutes (to the point where it caused lock ups when connected to my PC and causing the IDE port on my PC overheat, I guess it was starting to short out)
I re-read this thread and noticed that some folks are not aware that if you re-format with Slayers, AID, UnleashX, etc, after formatting with XBPartitioner 1.x the drive partition you re-format will no longer have 64k clusters, and once you fill it about half way (assuming its now formatted with 32k clusters) your data will be corrupt.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by jims5150 »

These sata extenders make the job neater.
No cutting away at the hard drive cradle.

Image
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