XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

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thepitt
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by thepitt »

UJLammy wrote:IEDIT: Forgot to add I did all these tests using 2 different Ultra DMA ATA133 cables.
That my friend may lie within your problem. I've no had luck what-so-ever with UDMA133 IDE cables. From what you've reported you've had better luck then me. If using a 40 pin cable does not solve the problem then as for the symptoms in general it seems that the adapter/hdd combinations are simply not compatible. I've had the exact same experiences you're talking about with not only the Sabrent board, but others as well. As I mentioned in my guide in some situations you may be able to format the drive, even FTP the data over, but it will still refuse to boot XBMC. I know it can be frustrating, but sometimes it just doesn't work with certain adapters + sata hdd.
Mamejay
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Mamejay »

Hi guys,
i have been following this thread for a while and have had mixed results so far.
I have found some boards that appeared to work perfectly at first but now depending on the drive I use have issues.
I had one setup that worked fine with a 500GB Hitachi drive and then the next setup spits up an error. Attaching a external power supply to the drive and board fixed this issue but no matter what I have tried I cannot get the drive and board to work while using the internal drive power connector of the xbox.

I have modified my EVOX M8 bios and tried to add additional boot sequences to it to give it more time but this has been fruitless.

This is not isolated to 1.6 XBOX's as I have a 1.1 and it does the same thing. I have a 500GB WD drive which works perfectly using the internal power connector.
Are there any other ways to slow down the boot sequence to allow for the hitachi drive to spin up more and avoid this problem? I only ask as I have a source for very cheap Hitachi drives.
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thepitt
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by thepitt »

Mamejay wrote:Hi guys,
i have been following this thread for a while and have had mixed results so far.
I have found some boards that appeared to work perfectly at first but now depending on the drive I use have issues.
I had one setup that worked fine with a 500GB Hitachi drive and then the next setup spits up an error. Attaching a external power supply to the drive and board fixed this issue but no matter what I have tried I cannot get the drive and board to work while using the internal drive power connector of the xbox.

I have modified my EVOX M8 bios and tried to add additional boot sequences to it to give it more time but this has been fruitless.

This is not isolated to 1.6 XBOX's as I have a 1.1 and it does the same thing. I have a 500GB WD drive which works perfectly using the internal power connector.
Are there any other ways to slow down the boot sequence to allow for the hitachi drive to spin up more and avoid this problem? I only ask as I have a source for very cheap Hitachi drives.
If you've experimented via combining the power tricks to no avail then the drive probably will never be compatible with your current setup. What I did fail to mention in the guide is I've heard, but not been able to confirm, some higher end chips that I don't believe you can buy anymore like the X3, SmartXXv3 and Xenium chips could possibly help. Although, it's hard to find a Duo anymore. I wish I could be of more assistance and don't go buy a X3 and blame me if it doesn't work :P
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by fxmech »

I have my X3 running a 2TB, I will post back once I fix this nasty partition folly from my first attempt. I ended up unable to finish copying my games on my drive and will give 'er another go paying more attention to my cluster size.

I tried using an "All on F:" configuration and overlooked the fact it will require a different approach in XBPartitioner. 1.1 locked up as suspected, so I will be trying 1.3 which I've seen reported as "worth a shot". I may just use a 120GB F: and put the rest on G: (hopefully with 128kb clusters this time!)
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by xman »

I'd go twin 1TB partitions myself. You can use 1.1 XbPt but the moment it boots, hit the B button and the partition sizes will switch to under 1 Tb in size and prevent it from lockup up XbPt 1.1. as the partition sizes are now under the 1TB limit which is what actually cause it to lock up. XbPt 1.3 is the better version with it's actual display of the "running cluster size" but the B button is always a good trick to know about XbPt 1.1.. Ow, always check what your cluster sizes actually are after using XbPt and before you take all the time to load the big arsed HDD up using the EvoXDash method.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by fxmech »

I tried multiple times with both XBPartitioner 1.1 and 1.3 (first 1.1, then 1.3 to format the biggest chunk, etc etc) to get a properly formatted 128 cluster size. No-go, and ended up with 2 1TB partitions. All this really does is prevent me from trying Mugen on my main box. I'll have to format another larger (but smaller than 500GB) disk to give it a shot. It requires a 16kb cluster size. This may actually mean a drive less than 250GB will be required.

The good news is XBPartitioner 1.3 detects and displays cluster size properly for me every time. When it calculates a 128kb cluster size is needed pre-format, it is correct. After formatting the partition, it does NOT display a readout for the cluster size -- it simply appears blank. Hard to tell what's going on to cause it to fail (I've seen reports of 128kb working in theory); but the point is 1.3 will accurately figure the cluster size is unknown. ;)

Thanks for topic guys, hope my perspective might help too.
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thepitt
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by thepitt »

fxmech wrote:I tried multiple times with both XBPartitioner 1.1 and 1.3 (first 1.1, then 1.3 to format the biggest chunk, etc etc) to get a properly formatted 128 cluster size. No-go, and ended up with 2 1TB partitions. All this really does is prevent me from trying Mugen on my main box. I'll have to format another larger (but smaller than 500GB) disk to give it a shot. It requires a 16kb cluster size. This may actually mean a drive less than 250GB will be required.

The good news is XBPartitioner 1.3 detects and displays cluster size properly for me every time. When it calculates a 128kb cluster size is needed pre-format, it is correct. After formatting the partition, it does NOT display a readout for the cluster size -- it simply appears blank. Hard to tell what's going on to cause it to fail (I've seen reports of 128kb working in theory); but the point is 1.3 will accurately figure the cluster size is unknown. ;)

Thanks for topic guys, hope my perspective might help too.
Formatting a 2TB drive is covered in the tutorial and so is how to properly set and then make sure the sector size is correct. I do not see how you are having a problem. As long as you've gotten the drive working and you can format it then the rest is really simple.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by fxmech »

I was trying at first to make a large 2TB "F Only" setup.

The tutorial as you describe is the way I can get it to work, although it does not work properly with X3 bios.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by thepitt »

fxmech wrote:I was trying at first to make a large 2TB "F Only" setup.

The tutorial as you describe is the way I can get it to work, although it does not work properly with X3 bios.
That's strange. I can remember using THREE 2TB drives (with that Xtender IDE Switch Kit) with the X3 BIOS. Are you using a genuine X3 chip or the hacked X3 BIOS by itself?
Comp1demon
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Comp1demon »

Hey there guys.. see there has been some action here lately.

Just getting back into XBOX 1 again.

I want to use an XTENDER and put in 3 HDD's at 2TB each.

Should I use 64K clusters or 128K clusters?

Any advice would be apprciated.
Turtlepi
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Turtlepi »

Nice work 8-) I used to do xboxes back in the day.. writing .XML to link my programs to their appropriate pages and all that.
HDD and Network lights on the front. XBMC on Xbawks was about the best thing id ever toyed with.
All my games available without needing the disk, emulators and having a library of well over 8000 games. The visualisers on the music player were out of this world. Good times good times!
Then the 360 came out and I lost interest. Did a chip mod for a friend 8 months back first in about 10 years. So I had to re-aquaint myself with the forums .etc Which in turn led me to Raspberry pi.. Hello change of career and re-aquainted with XBMC. Whufclee you are doing a superb job man.. Your builds are solid as a rock, your pi build has been on my machine for 2 months now and still works :o . Keep up the good work
XBMC saved my life.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Xphazer »

Whufclee have absolutly nothing to do with XBMC4Xbox core develpoment.
The ONLY person with C++ skills in the team who work on the main code is BuZz.

Also I'm still trying to figure out why you posted in that thread. ^^

Thanks anyway ;)
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by whufclee »

Only just seen this, yes a very strange place to put the comment but thank you I'll take praise wherever I can get it lol.

@xphazer: I think he's referring to the whufclee build I do for mainbranch. Well it's not a build, simply an addons and userdata folder that allows users to use the same setup I have at home (my artwork, skin tweaks and a few other little tweaks). I hate using the name "build" as it's certainly not a build, it's really no different to what Jan does for xbox but I changed it to "release" and all it done was confuse people :)
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by VanZan »

Xphazer wrote:Whufclee have absolutly nothing to do with XBMC4Xbox core develpoment.
The ONLY person with C++ skills in the team who work on the main code is BuZz.

Also I'm still trying to figure out why you posted in that thread. ^^

Thanks anyway ;)
Damn right Xphazer and it needs to be emphasised more. There seems to be a group of long time XBMC users trying to make it look like they're part of the team by making long-winded Youtube videos and ridiculously useless and pointless customised "builds" that even a child could create. They're nothing but fanboys that are desperate for acclaim.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by Totsamazeballs »

Whilst no one would want to take away any credit for the amazing work BuZz continually does, i'm grateful for all the helpful tutorials and videos that others create.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by mrmajikbus45 »

Gentlemen, let's calm down and get back to the topic at hand. We all know that BuZz is the man in charge of this, and as such is the one for the claim. My loyalty lies with these boards and it's leaders. However, whufclee has provided tools and ftp access for some of the items that we use. Don't let a guy with 1 post cause this much drama in the boards. We are better than this fighting because of a one time user's comment.

For those who know me... Strange that the angry American is the one asking for peace. lol.
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RGB_Gamer
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by RGB_Gamer »

Would most, if not all xbox1 games fit on a 2TB HDD? I have what I believe is every USA game spread over 3-4 500gb HDDs
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by mrmajikbus45 »

There are 284 total games that are North America only release. So, figure it by 4.7GB (DVD) per game (and many are nowhere near this) yeilds 1334.8 GB. This is of course an extremely high guess, as I know of a few games that don't even scrape 2GB.
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RGB_Gamer
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by RGB_Gamer »

Ok so it is safe to say the entire USA XBOX collection to fit will fit on a 2TB drive. I got the entire Eggman Archive collection before it was closed down, and my collection for XBOX is 3-4 500gb drives, which also includes re-releases.
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Re: XBOX 2TB SATA Upgrade Tutorial

Post by mrmajikbus45 »

The easy way to state this, is that you have already answered it by saying that you have the iso's across a maximum of four 500GB HDD. 4x500GB=2TB.

So to Americanize the hell out of this answer... "Mmm-hmmmm"
A strong man doesn't need to read the future, he makes his own. -Solid Snake
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Get your Chimp on!
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