Topic: Tutorial For Upgrading Xbox 360 From 20gb To 120gb Using The Western D (Read 1644 times)

Adidajs · « **Reply #90 on:** November 24, 2008, 05:25:00 PM »

QUOTE(supertrek32 @ Nov 22 2008, 07:33 PM)

Can anyone answer my question about whether the hddss.bin files are unique? If I took 2 keys off different (retail) 120GB harddrives, would they be the same? Or are keys/serial numbers/etc. stored here that would vary?

If no one knows, could someone post an MD5 hash of their hddss.bin?

I think they are unique, but apparently microsoft isn't banning the use of copied hddss.bin files.

Reaper527 · « **Reply #91 on:** November 30, 2008, 10:33:00 AM »

QUOTE(hobartrus @ Nov 18 2008, 09:52 PM)

The tutorial is not meant to cover every possible contingency, but to serve as a general guide for how to do the upgrade. Obviously there are differences in equipment (such as using a USB key instead of a floppy) that make following the steps exactly as I laid them out impossible.

I don't have any experience doing it using a USB key. I did every step in my tutorial exactly as I listed them, so I know it works... if I start rewriting it to include steps for other methods I'd feel the need to experiment with those methods myself, and frankly I just don't have the time or desire to do that right now.

So, even though I noted in the tutorial that it could be reposted as long as it wasn't modified, I'll now remove that "restriction." Anyone is welcome to use my tutorial as a basis for an updated tutorial with additional information from their own experiences, as long as the folks who are credited in the tutorial are still given credit. Maybe you could also correct some of the typos and grammatical errors...

i'm not going to edit your guide, as its your call if you want this info in there, but i have 2 suggestions of possible additions.

1. the thumb drive setup really is an easy solution if you did want to add it to the guide. what i did was take my bootable thumbdrive that iprep made when i flashed my dvd drive, and simply drag/dropped the hddhackr tool over (right in the root). when it said "do you accept the terms of use" on bootup, i simply said no, so that it would spit me out to dos and i could access the hddhackr tool

2. its worthwhile to mention the potential need to hex edit the hddhackr tool. you don't need to write up a guide for it, but maybe c/p the section from the readme on the subject. (my via chipset wasn't recognized by the tool, so i had to manually hex edit the program to get my drive flashed. it was simple, but not obvious, as every drive in my computer showed up EXCEPT my wd1600.)

even if this doesn't get added to the guide, its in the replies now, so hopefully someone will find this useful

Bakko · « **Reply #92 on:** December 01, 2008, 04:43:00 AM »

I did this mod yesterday and it worked great. Thanks!

Small problem though. When I was backing up my 20gb HDD to my desktop, I realized I still had Gears 2 saved on there and didn't want to wait to backup a whole game. So I swapped my 20gb back into my Xbox, but now it doesn't recognize it. I don't believe I did anything to cause this. Does opening the harddrive with Xplorer change something that the 360 wouldn't like?

If anyone has some advice to fix this, much appreciated.

hurders · « **Reply #93 on:** December 01, 2008, 05:39:00 AM »

QUOTE(Bakko @ Dec 1 2008, 12:19 PM)

I did this mod yesterday and it worked great. Thanks!

Small problem though. When I was backing up my 20gb HDD to my desktop, I realized I still had Gears 2 saved on there and didn't want to wait to backup a whole game. So I swapped my 20gb back into my Xbox, but now it doesn't recognize it. I don't believe I did anything to cause this. Does opening the harddrive with Xplorer change something that the 360 wouldn't like?

If anyone has some advice to fix this, much appreciated.

I haven't done the mod yet but this is one of the things that is making me unsure of doing it. I have seen a few reports of 20GB hard drives becomming unreadable in the 360 after they have been browsed by Xplorer even if nothing is changed. I really want to do this mod but I'm not so keen is it makes my 20GB drive defunct as I'd like to keep that working as a backup. Does this happen to all drives or is it just some? And why does it happen if you are just reading data from the drive? What is Xplorer changing on the drive to make it unrecognisable in the 360?

Reaper527 · « **Reply #94 on:** December 01, 2008, 11:12:00 AM »

try reseating the drive. i had the same problem, reseated the drive, and everything worked fine. i was able to reconnect my 20 gig drive after i extracted all the data from it.

Bakko · « **Reply #95 on:** December 01, 2008, 01:25:00 PM »

QUOTE(Reaper527 @ Dec 1 2008, 01:48 PM)

try reseating the drive. i had the same problem, reseated the drive, and everything worked fine. i was able to reconnect my 20 gig drive after i extracted all the data from it.

I have the harddrive enclosure open while plugged in so I can quickly swap my two harddrives. My 120gb works perfcetly but my 20gb isn't detected no matter how many times after reseating the cables and rebooting. If I just knew what directory game save files were in, I could just backup that portion, as that's all I really care for. The rest can be redownloaded from XBLA.

Reaper527 · « **Reply #96 on:** December 01, 2008, 04:09:00 PM »

QUOTE(Bakko @ Dec 1 2008, 04:01 PM)

If I just knew what directory game save files were in, I could just backup that portion, as that's all I really care for. The rest can be redownloaded from XBLA.

partition 3 -> content

you might have to do some searching though, as this is where your marketplace downloads and profiles go as well.

i would just right click the content folder, choose extract, and then drag/drop it onto your new harddrive. (and when i say i would, i mean thats what i did this past weekend. drag/drop from the old drive gave me errors, extract did not. drag/drop to the new drive worked perfect)

Bakko · « **Reply #97 on:** December 01, 2008, 05:29:00 PM »

Alright, I just went ahead and backed up everything from my old drive. Took awhile, but it finished. Then I had problems getting Xplorer to find my new 120gb harddrive. Hex Workshop sucks for the disc hexing, so I got myself WinHex and that problem resolved itself.

In short, everything is on my new drive and working great. Thanks for the help, Reaper.

indus49 · « **Reply #98 on:** December 02, 2008, 07:00:00 AM »

Hey all - new to the forum... looking to try this out. 2 Questions:

1. Does the swap (and the freq. passed around hddss.bin file) play nicely with the new NXE?

2. Plain and simple, what are the big risks in doing this hack?

Thanks

Madmarky01 · « **Reply #99 on:** December 02, 2008, 07:52:00 AM »

does it have to be a western dig and i work and a computer store and we have no western d in stock we have samsung,fujisu,etc but no western

jyrisa · « **Reply #100 on:** December 02, 2008, 10:56:00 AM »

Ok, thing is that i'll soon change my DIY 120gb harddrive for an original. So the questsion is, when i connect my bevs drive to computer and simply drag-n-drop filest to computer, then can I just copy those files from computer to original M$ 120gb harddrive, eith no other processes or changes?
It goes like BEVS->Computer->M$ 120gb harddrive.

fnice · « **Reply #101 on:** December 03, 2008, 12:04:00 PM »

Anyone know if a WD5000BEVT will work?

it's a 500GB sata-2 for a notebook, This would help With the new NXE Dash

jyrisa · « **Reply #102 on:** December 03, 2008, 12:55:00 PM »

Nope. And if it would then it would only work as an 120gb drive. You see, the harddrive has a secutrity sector file wich determins if its 120 60 or 20gb hdd. So as long as M$ doesnt release 500gb hdd you can't get a security sector file for 500gb drive.

v_lestat · « **Reply #103 on:** December 05, 2008, 08:21:00 PM »

guys i have done 2 other 120gb drives in the past and never had this issue so i am a bit stumped.
i will admit its been a long while since i did those previous 2 so i may be forgetting what i did back then.

i can see partitions 0,2,3 everything seems fine.
xbox has formatted drive and there is 107gb free.
i can play a game put saves on it from my memory card
everything seems ok... BUT

when i drag and drop partition 3 files back into the partition 3 using ANY version of xlporer360 and then put the drive back in my 360 the 360 only see's 11 gigs or 30 gigs or 14 gig free....
there should be atleast 100gb free.
none of my svaes are there, infact it sees nothing, all folders under the memory menu are 0... menaing it can not read anything. it doesnt say they are corrupt, it just says there is nothing there , even though there should be dozens and dozens of game saves.

now i saw the OP said he had a similar issue and just hddhackr -u then hddhackr -f and it worked fine.

but here is what i am wondering.

using WinHex offset 400 shows this
58 54 41 46 78 99 76 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 01 XTAFx|v....|....
is this correct?

also, after freshly formatting the 120gb in the 360 i see a new file called name.txt which has the name of my hard drive in it "hard drive"
my original 20gb does not, in fact the original 20gb has a file called index.dat.
when i hexedit that, it appears to be a directly listing of all the files and partitions on the drive.

1)
do i need to hex the drive to show exactly what the OP has or should i leave it alone....
should i NOT use the index.dat file from the original drive??? since that seems to reflect the 20gb partition table and not the 120gb partition table?

2)
i feel like something is completely wrong.... did i miss something guys ?
has xplorer360 Xtreme 2 made the hex location look so wierd ?

i want to say i have been looking for the answer for a while now and this thread has been great, many many thanks to the OP for posting this,, its a life saver but right now i am lost,, i do not want to hex and save my drive before someone says its ok or to just leave it alone!

v_lestat · « **Reply #104 on:** December 05, 2008, 08:39:00 PM »

ok well wtf!
i just redid everything using xplorer360 Xtreme 2 and now everything appears to be working fine. I DID NOT INCLUDE THE INDEX.DAT file from my original 20gb...
107gb free space, all my games saves are there, everything looks ok....

i dropped the NXE on it to see if loading a game on the drive works.
since i am using ixtreme 1.4 8x speed,,, well... its pretty slow compared to my normal 360 unmodded lol.

so,,, xtreme 2 did the trick,,, wth lol......

why is this tutorial not in the tutorial section of the main xbox-scene site?
the 360 section there is missing so many tutorials..

Author Topic: Tutorial For Upgrading Xbox 360 From 20gb To 120gb Using The Western D (Read 1644 times)