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[NipsMG]

I've been through the marriage theory threads, and many others, but I've yet to see a distinct set of instructions for revirginizing your hard drive with Slayers, or through this supposed "Prepare new HD" in Evox.  There seem to be many people who say they did it, but I haven't yet heard a sequence of steps and the CORRECT NAMES for the menu items used to achieve the needed results.


I have a banned box, and want to wipe my original xbox hd (which was banned), install a new EEPROM, and get a new GT.

From what I gather, Slayers v2.6 has a clean disk.bin in it.  

Specifically which options do i use?

Do i format then "Rebuild new retail HD"?
What are the exact menu options?
I should apparently then lock the drive.
I should then apparently inject the eeprom into the slayers disk and rebuild it, so I can use configmagic right from the boot disk (I want to keep non MS-Files off the HD).

Are these correct?  Am I missing something?

I will update this thread daily to let everyone know if I'm still on, as long as I can get correct instructions for this method.  If it's not possible, I want to know that too.  I'd rather keep a retail xbox HD in there, as I have this hunch MS will start checking HD Sizes soon.  However, I don't trust buying a retail xbox HD off Ebay, because I won't be sure if someone got banned using it.

Thank you in advance for any help anyone can give.  Please only reply to this thread  if you have personally used this method and have either succeeded or failed.

Thanks.

--NipsMG

[NipsMG]

OK.. If no one knows how to re-virginize a stock XB Hard Drive, how about a reliable source for getting a replacement that HASN'T been on xbl yet?

[g0tr3wt23]

You can't revirginize a hard drive unless you can create a program that will allow you to change the serial embedded in the hard drives firmware. This has been stated countless times in the forums. Any such tools, if they exist would be vendor specific, proprietary, and only available to that company's engineers.

[feet14]

The option you need in Slayer's 2.6 is 3b2 which revirginises the HD, formats each partition, then installs the stock M$ files for version 5960 dashboard. This dash has a Live tab. If you've obtained an EEPROM from an old Xbox without a Live tab then consider Slayer's 2.5 which installs an earlier non-Live dash.

You will need to use Qwix (do a search) to extract the slayer ISO to a folder on your pc in order to flash the EEPROM. Open this folder, then SYSTEM->ALL->Configmagic->Data, copy your eeprom.bin file here (say yes when warned about overwriting). Recompile the ISO with Qwix then burn it.

Your HD is currently locked. You will need to unlock your HD in configmagic before flashing the EEPROM, then re-lock it afterwards. It doesn't need to be unlocked for anything else.

A new GT won't help you as flagging is only used to detect larger HD's (probably by make/model). Similarly, having non-M$ files won't ban you as long as the M$ files are left intact.

However, I'm not confident that you will avoid a ban as you are using a HD which was present when your Xbox was banned. Revirginising works for a HD which has been on live before but not present when the Xbox was banned. Revirginising a drive present at time of ban isn't proven to be safe, as M$ may be logging HD serials of banned Xbox's.

I have successfully revirginised my original Xbox HD which I used on live until July when I upgraded the HD without changing the EEPROM. My Xbox was banned in November, probably because I broke the HD marriage. I think M$ would have been able to ban the upgraded HD serial by querying the hardware but were not able to ban the old HD serial as it was not present in the Xbox at that time.

Have a look at the buy/sell forum as you should find a reputable seller of HD's in there.

This post has been edited by feet14: Jan 20 2005, 04:24 PM

[NipsMG]

QUOTE(g0tr3wt23 @ Jan 20 2005, 04:38 PM)

You can't revirginize a hard drive unless you can create a program that will allow you to change the serial embedded in the hard drives firmware. This has been stated countless times in the forums. Any such tools, if they exist would be vendor specific, proprietary, and only available to that company's engineers.

g0tr3wt23:  No, actually, it has been stated countless times in the forums that it is NOT the hard drive's firmware that is apprently being scanned, it's the Disk.bin that is written to the disk that holds identifiable information.

It has also been stated numerous times that you can "Revirginize" a hard drive by re-formatting and creating a clean disk.bin with no such identifiable information in it.

Gadget, Slyt, feet14 (apparently) and others have used this method with success.  I had a very very hard time finding the correct way to do this, until JUST recently on the 24th or 25th page of the marriage theory thread I finally found Gadget's post saying to just delete the disk.bin when running the configsector command, which will make evox default to clean info.  

Also, feet14 apparently did this with success also, until he upgraded his HD after using his original HD first to go on live.

Feet: Thanks for the post.. I'm going to try this tonight.  I will create a specific list of steps that I took, and also make sure to update the thread every day for at least 72 hours to let everyone know whether or not it really works.

Thanks again.

--NipsMG

--NipsMG

[ChrispyCreampuff]

QUOTE(NipsMG @ Jan 20 2005, 04:53 PM)

g0tr3wt23:  No, actually, it has been stated countless times in the forums that it is NOT the hard drive's firmware that is apprently being scanned, it's the Disk.bin that is written to the disk that holds identifiable information.

It has also been stated numerous times that you can "Revirginize" a hard drive by re-formatting and creating a clean disk.bin with no such identifiable information in it.

Gadget, Slyt, feet14 (apparently) and others have used this method with success.  I had a very very hard time finding the correct way to do this, until JUST recently on the 24th or 25th page of the marriage theory thread I finally found Gadget's post saying to just delete the disk.bin when running the configsector command, which will make evox default to clean info. 

Also, feet14 apparently did this with success also, until he upgraded his HD after using his original HD first to go on live.

Feet: Thanks for the post.. I'm going to try this tonight.  I will create a specific list of steps that I took, and also make sure to update the thread every day for at least 72 hours to let everyone know whether or not it really works.

Thanks again.

--NipsMG

--NipsMG

Yes please, someone make a tutorial that explains revirginizing exactly how it should be done. I got fed up with my HDD, so I sold it for $110.00. I bought a new one, same model, brand new not even out of the box off of eBay for $96.00 ^_^. Also, in trying to cancel my banned accounts, I got a free game from M$. Haha suckers   .

[NipsMG]

Didn't get a chance last night.  I'll do it tonight, definitely.

[NipsMG]

Well, I followed these steps:

Got new version of configmagic (beta) that works with V1.6 xbox.
Unpacked Slayers 2.6 ISO to disk w/ QWIX.
Replaced old version of ConfigMagic.
Put unbanned EEPROM.bin into DATA dir.
Rebuilt ISO.
Burned ISO on CDRW.
Booted to slayers,
Used option 3b2 to "Rebuild Retail HD".
Unlocked drive.
Launch ConfigMagic
Write New EEPROM.
Lock Drive
Reboot Xbox.
ERROR 16 ?!?!?!?!

.. hmm..  attempt to unlock drive using Cromwell Bios, No luck.
Attempt to re-initialize hard drive by throwing XBOX HD in PC and using tools on Xbox-Scene "tools" menu for HD.   No dice, Error writing to sector 0.. HD Hosed?!

Oh well, I ordered a brand new xbox HD, I should have it in a few days.  I'll chronicle that process as soon as i get it and let everyone know the status.  I got charged the $50 for my account the day before I got banned grrrr.... so I'm definintely planning on recovering that account, I might as well do it w/ a new EEPROM and a new HD.

--NipsMG