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[eh.]

M$ have potentially been tracking connected HDD types for at least 8 months; see link below! (Maybe they've now started the related bannings, as was anticipated when this was discovered eh?)

http://forums.xbox-s...0

[eh.]

Regarding "if that was the case, wouldn't almost every modder on Live have been banned?";

M$ maybe have/had specific tracking periods and would most likely ban gradually (as "all at once" would be much bigger, badder PR for them) eh...

[darylzero]

Xecutor 2.3b lite +
160 gig hard drive
some executor bios...i forgot which one
I AM STILL ONLINE.  Just checked.  And I played all last night.
I recovered my live account on the 160 gig when i put it in....never had the stock in..It was because i got a second xbox...before that i played on live with my other xbox (120 gig)
never been banned before
I have tons of shit on my f drive.

[bagofice]

darylzero, what about your E drive? Is it clean?

[furious_one]

I have a very big clue.

I have 3 modded xboxs in my home. On my favorite box (blue) I got banned last night with a bigger hard drive. So I have been reading here all day, and found that the hard disk seems to be the big hit. So I put a stock harddrive back into another box (back) and it logs into live fine. Now I have been online with all 3 modded xboxs before. But only my blue xbox got banned last night with a large harddrive. My black one will work live with an untouched stock harddrive.

So with this said, what I am gonna do is make my black one my favorite xbox. And create a 2 harddrive system. I am gonna hit up a radioshack or compusa and get some parts to make switch. So I can simply switch from one harddrive to another without pulling cables in and out. I will also do the same with my 3rd xbox(red)

[SNAAAKE]

Just remembered,I did get on live before.Bought my xbox on 12/21/03 and got on live after like a week(cant remember..could be 2 weeks) without any modchip and default HD.Then after my 2 month shit expired.I installed aladin modchip and 120gb and still not banned.Now according to xbox scene, M$ has been tracking/scanning HD info/serial for atleast 8 months.And I upgarded my box with everything 8 months ago,that explains why my box isnt banned yet.

[darylzero]

QUOTE (bagofice @ Nov 9 2004, 06:19 PM)

darylzero, what about your E drive? Is it clean?

no.  its filled with game saves and shit.

[ScoopyBadBoy]

 

[FoxRacR17]

I have a 200GB hard drive and i have not been banned from live yet.  Mind you that this 200GB hard drive is the only hdd that i have signed on to live with.  I got my xbox way back in the day, its a 1.1, and back then i didnt have dsl.  A couple of months after i got my xbox i got a x2.3lb+ chip and this 200GB hard drive and have had this set up ever since.  Well last october we finally got dsl so i used a 2 month trial subscription to get on live, i signed up on october 31, and i have yet to be banned.  I think thats what the problem is, they log what hard drive you sign on with the first time, and compare each time you sign on, if you sign on with a different hard drive then last time, then you get BANNED!  (I even had the leaked game on my hard drive with the gamesave on the E drive, and i didnt get banned for that either.)

[atomiX]

QUOTE

I think thats what the problem is, they log what hard drive you sign on with the first time, and compare each time you sign on, if you sign on with a different hard drive then last time, then you get BANNED!

IMO, this is the most probable answer. I've had my 160GB drive in my xbox for as long as i've had it. I had a 2-month trial from december 2003 to february 2004 with that same HD.

i now have a 12-month subscription that was activated 2 months ago and i've used live a few times since then as well as playing a lot today (halo2). all this without getting banned. i even have non-MS files on C and E.

for the present, this seems like a reasonable explanation.

[Heykrop]

QUOTE (atomiX @ Nov 9 2004, 11:16 PM)

IMO, this is the most probable answer. I've had my 160GB drive in my xbox for as long as i've had it. I had a 2-month trial from december 2003 to february 2004 with that same HD. i now have a 12-month subscription that was activated 2 months ago and i've used live a few times since then as well as playing a lot today (halo2). all this without getting banned. i even have non-MS files on C and E. for the present, this seems like a reasonable explanation.

I would have to agree with this. I was going to post this exact theory but atomiX beat me to it. Anyway. I have a v1.0 box that has a 46 Gig Seagate that has been the only drive in it since a couple of moinths after I bought it. I've been running this with LIVE for a year now and have never been banned.  It was the drive in the system when I subscribed for LIVE and ever since.  Here is my addition to this theory.

I believe that the early boxes v1.0 through maybe 1.3 were not having the HDD serial and corresponding EEPROM data recorded at the factories.  After much of the modding and such became prevelent it was made known that M$ had started scanning HDD serials on login to LIVE. This was not the case with the original release of LIVE as far as I know. SO here is my thought.  With those older boxes the first time they logged in to LIVE ,when the HDD serial scans started, they began creating a database of what EEPROM and HDD Serial were associated with  the gamertag and that was an OK thing as they did not know what the serial for the drive should have been for that EEPROM on those older boxes. Escentially giving those boxes a free pass on the larger hard drive bans.  NOW at the same time as this they were releasing the newer 1.4 and higher. These boxes may have been having HDD Serial and EEPROM registered before they left the factory. This could explain how some people are getting banned immediately now when connecting with a different hard drive than was shipped and also why people that are changing EEPROM and HDD after a ban are getting RE Banned as the replacement EEPROM has alredy been tagged at the factory as being paired with a stock drive with serial XXXXXXX.  

If this is in fact the case then it would seem that anyone in a situation like mine ,where the larger drive is the one that got registered , would not be able to go back to the stock drive as it would then look as though there was a drive change. Eventhough it was going back to the original. I do believe at least one person has posted here that they got banned after going back to stock. This would tend to support my idea.

[dfroot]

I am apparently an exception to every rule then.
I have a xecuter 2.2 and all kinds of shit on my box.
now I have NEVER changed my harddrive, and I have a version 1.1 xbox. I got banned. now factor that into your theory.

[Psykomantis00]

That theory is bullshit because I made a brand new gamertag not even 3 days ago just for halo 2, never signed into it other than the day I made it, and I was banned. I think it has something to do with the french game saves.

[scoopex]

This was posted by one of the mods of this forum.So it looks like they are tracking HD serial numbers and model numbers etc.

Anyone bothered to check the halo2 .xbe ?

0x0041158C, "XboxHardwareInfo"
0x00411594, "XboxKrnlVersion"
0x00411770, "HalDiskSerialNumber"
0x00411774, "HalDiskModelNumber"
etc

[bagofice]

Yeh, its halo 2