Original Xbox - replacing dead hard drive steps?

[ubersaurus]

I've got a Halo edition Xbox where the hard drive finally conked out on me a little while ago. I'm interested in resurrecting the machine even though it seems likely I'm out of luck on recovering any of my old data, but I'm not sure what the steps are for this scenario, and Google has been kind of confusing. I've got an Xecuter 2.6 chip to install on the board, and a new compatible HDD is on my shopping list - I just don't know what to do from there once I've got the chip and hard drive in place.

 

Ideally I want to be able to boot up the original dashboard along with a homebrew one by pushing different buttons (to maintain some semblance of original hardware), I don't know if there's a process to setting that up with a fresh HDD?

[Starscream]

Easiest way is to download Slayers auto installer iso, burn it to disc. But first, you will need to flash the chip which can be done with a disc or thru your home network via ftp. If you are using windows 7 on up, you may have to boot into safe mode to flash thru the network. Thats just your basic steps. There is more you can do but to get it up and going, it's all you need.

[ubersaurus]

I thought having the mod chip made the chip flash unnecessary? And does the Slayers disc do that, or?

[Hyper_Eye]

Typically you need to load a bios onto the chip. With the Xecuter you should be able to enter the config menu at boot to flash the chip. The slayers disc will not have what you need for that. That will either come with the chip or you will have to download an appropriate bios. Once you have the chip flashed you will be able to boot the slayers disc which you will need since you are using a new hard drive. The slayers disc can set the new drive up with a stock Xbox partition table and dashboard. Once you have the drive partitioned and you are able to boot into the stock dashboard you can use the Xecuter config menu (with my Xecuter 3 it is accessed by holding the white button while booting) to get an ftp server running. Then you can transfer your new dashboard (I use XBMC4Xbox) from a PC.

[Nebulon]

From what I recall, it boils down to the following:

 

Your XBOX and the existing BIOS in the v.2.6 mod chip were designed for hard drives that max out at around 137GB.

 

In order to use larger hard drives, you need to update the BIOS. To do this, you could use a disc like Heimdall's Hexen XBOX Engineering DVD.

 

Then you could use XBPartitioner version 1.3 to partition the drive. I say 1.3 because the earlier versions are a bit buggy. If you run XBPartitioner with the BIOS that's in your XBOX currently, it will post a warning message stating that your existing BIOS doesn't support LBA48. And LBA 48 v2 is what you need to properly handle a large hard drive.

 

So what happens if you ignore the message and go ahead and partition the large drive with the old BIOS? Well, possibly nothing bad -- at first. Then, one day when you least expect it, you might find that all the data on the F: or G: partition disappear -- as if by magic. This can really ruin your day.

 

In short, the XBOX is just a PC. Treat it the same and go through the same process you would on a PC. Get the BIOS up to date and run a partition tool that can handle the spec of hard drive you want to install in it. Then things should run smoothly.

 

https://www.avforums.com/threads/120-gb-out-of-160-gb-hdd-help.1188919/

[Nebulon]

An additional note: Be sure to double-check the version of XBOX you have. You want to make sure you use the correct BIOS file for your machine.

 

More info here:

 

http://team-xecuter.com/forums/threads/36684-Bios-Xecuter-2-6-CE

 

http://forums.afterdawn.com/threads/xecuter-2-6-bios.323815/

[Nebulon]

Aaaand if I recall correctly, you'll want to set the Xecuter chip to Bank 2 before you flash the BIOS in order to keep the original BIOS available in the EPROM's bank 1 (just in case the flashing process doesn't go well).

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[ubersaurus]

If I recall from opening it up, my Xbox is a 1.4 board. And the hard drive I'm looking at is just an 80 gig - other than the unreleased KOF 94 Rebout and Shikigami no Shiro I don't have too much I plan on installing on there as far as Xbox games go, and the arcade games I'd toss on are all fairly old, small titles too (plus all the DLC to games I own fit fine on the original HDD so I think 80 should do me just fine). So that should save some hassle as far as BIOS tweaks go!

 

So just to make sure I'm clear on all the steps here. Once I've got the hard drive plugged in and the mod chip installed:

1: set switch on mod chip to Bank 2 to retain the original BIOS on the console's EEPROM

2: Turn on system and have the chip install its secondary BIOS from a disc? USB flash drive? Also what's a good BIOS?

3: Insert a copy of the Slayers disc to format the new hard drive as I see fit

4: Go forth and play that Sid Meier's Pirates I bought in February before I realized the system had crapped out?

Edited November 19, 2016 by ubersaurus

[+wongojack]

I found this site helpful when repairing my original Xbox: http://www.xbox-hq.com/html/xbox-tutorials-cid-1.html also xbox-scene.com, but I can't get to the second one any more.

[Hyper_Eye]

Right now http://www.emuxtras.net is a very active Xbox mod community. You can definitely get quick assistance there. Xbox-scene goes down from time to time but it always comes back.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Hyper_Eye

[Starscream]

If I recall from opening it up, my Xbox is a 1.4 board. And the hard drive I'm looking at is just an 80 gig - other than the unreleased KOF 94 Rebout and Shikigami no Shiro I don't have too much I plan on installing on there as far as Xbox games go, and the arcade games I'd toss on are all fairly old, small titles too (plus all the DLC to games I own fit fine on the original HDD so I think 80 should do me just fine). So that should save some hassle as far as BIOS tweaks go!

 

So just to make sure I'm clear on all the steps here. Once I've got the hard drive plugged in and the mod chip installed:

1: set switch on mod chip to Bank 2 to retain the original BIOS on the console's EEPROM

2: Turn on system and have the chip install its secondary BIOS from a disc? USB flash drive? Also what's a good BIOS?

3: Insert a copy of the Slayers disc to format the new hard drive as I see fit

4: Go forth and play that Sid Meier's Pirates I bought in February before I realized the system had crapped out?

Yea basically, you got it. Not sure you can flash bios from usb...I don't follow the scene much anymore, but you can from disc, or as I said, ftp. FTP is really easy. IP will show on your screen, just type IP into browser and Xecuter flashbios screen apears, hit flash and thats it.

 

Any bios will work in theory. Stay away from the 1.6 ones, I think called M6. It will work, but not best idea.

 

If you need help PM me.

[ubersaurus]

FTPing sounds good but with the layout of my apartment I'm not in a good position to run a cable to the router to get the system on the network. I do believe I have a few DVD-Rs around here though. Will definitely touch base if there are any issues or questions.

[Nebulon]

Being familiar with the process for a version 1.6 XBOX.... All one would need in that case would be a Slayers v. 2.7 boot disc (and if they're wanting to set up a large hard drive, a boot disc containing XBPartitioner 1.3).

 

For the BIOS end of things, a version 1.6. XBOX user would choose a BIOS that was compatible with an XBOX 1.6. In your case, you'd want to avoid the 1.6-specific BIOS files (as others have mentioned). The Hexen disc is an alternate to Slayers. However I don't like how the Hexen utility starts writing Dashboard files to the drive as soon as you go to flash the BIOS.

 

So, back to the version 1.6 XBOX example. If partitions C and E are working already and the goal was to just wanted add LBA48 support for large drives and re-do F: and G: partitions, one could:

 

- Power off unit

- Set Bank to 2

- Set Xecuter 2.6 bank protection switch to off

- Make sure chip enable switch is on

- Insert Slayers 2.7 disc

- power system on

- select "EEPROM / FLASH MOD CHIP or XBOX TSOP"

- select "FLASH MOD CHIP of XBOX ON-BOARD TSOP"

- choose appropriate BIOS file. For a version 1.6 XBOX with an Xecuter 2.6ce, the option to "Flash MOD ONLY ON v1.6 w/EvoX M8 v16 *FC* F:&G:" seems to work well (in your case you do NOT want to use that particular BIOS file. You'd use one for machines 1.5 and earlier).

 

Once done, the machine powers off on itself off.

 

Then the chip protection can be switched on again.

 

From there on, it's up to you how you take care of partitioning and formatting.

 

Since the goal of the example I gave was to modify the partitions on a 500 GB drive that was already kind of working, the XBOX would just be allowed to boot into the existing dash (Avalaunch for example). Then a disc containing XBPartitioner 1.3 would be inserted, and partitions F: and G: could be re-partitioned and formatted (e.g. 16k clusters with F and G receiving about 235 GB of space each). The BIOS that I listed for this example does indeed have LBA48 support included so XBPartitioner shouldn't show a warning message about it not being able to find LBA48 info.

 

In your case, you'd likely just boot back into Slayers again and choose "NEW INSTALL / FULL REBUILD".

 

After that, you can select the "CHANGE STARTUP DASHBOARD" option if you want to use a different style of interface. Avalaunch is pretty cool, IMHO though.

 

 

As you can see, it's possible to get LBA48 working without bothering with EVTool and X2BM and customizing a BIOS.

 

Note: There's a chance that you might lose video output if you flash using a particular BIOS files. For that reason, be sure to mark down the exact steps you took to flash the BIOS using the Slayer's disc, just in case you need to re-flash the BIOS blindly. Make a note of a few other BIOS files on the list that might be compatible with your system so that they can serve as alternate BIOS files if the initial one doesn't work out.

 

Additionally, you can use utilities like Extract-XISO and Nero on a PC to turn folders full of files into discs useable on the XBOX. That's one way to get XBPartitioner 1.3 running on a machine with an unformatted hard drive.

[Mark Wolfe]

All you need to do is use a little serial port cable from your PC to the Xbox Mobo, detach the HD and the DVD, turn it on with the probes from the serial cable on the right spots and it will read the eeprom

 

Save that to the PC naming it eeprom.bin

 

Use that with any tools you wish to recreate an Xbox hard drive

 

I have an extra eeprom kit or get one on eBay . Comes with several DVD-R with updated tools and apps

 

PM me if you need help

[ubersaurus]

I'll let you know if it comes to that - since I've already got the mod chip and everything I figure I may as well give that whirl now, though.

[Mark Wolfe]

Did you ever find a solution ?

 

I have an extra eeprom kit I can sell you

[ubersaurus]

The shop I took it to couldn't figure out how to install the Xecuter 2.6 in the board revision I had, so they ended up taking a fresh board and installing it on there before tossing it in my case. I haven't had the chance to go get DVD-rs to do the rest of the modding process, but I'm hoping next weekend I can hit up Target and get that going. The good news is the new board has its original hard drive still, so it shouldn't be quite as annoying to get it modded before swapping to the new drive.