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[FierceDeityLink1]

Figures I just bought a 120GB BEVS a few days ago when I could have bought any of these news ones for less since they aren't known as "the 120GB 360 HDD". Oh well, nice to see a new version even if its unexpected.

[Ruiner420]

HDDhackr does more than just copy the hddss.bin to the hard drive.

HDDSS.bin contains all the drive information (model number, serial number, capacity, etc), and this file is signed so none of the data can be modified

HDDhackr reads the hddss.bin, and flashes the hard drive's firmware so that the model number, serial, and capacity match the file. Much like spoofing a DVD drive.

Only if the drive's firmware matches what's in hddss.bin will the hard drive work in the 360

this is why it's harder to make it work for other brands of drive, each one has different protocols for reading/writing the firmware, different locations of this data, etc. Plus some drives have security measures to prevent modification of firmware.

[HDDS214]

I do have a question about sectors 16 - 22.  I know sector 16 contains the hard drive info. And 17 to 22 are xbox info. This only applies to XBOX hard drives right. Im going through some of my spare drives and there is nothing in those sectors.

[theevilhacker63]

exactly what I was looking at..

QUOTE

HDDS214     

Posted Today, 12:33 AM
     I do have a question about sectors 16 - 22. I know sector 16 contains the hard drive info. And 17 to 22 are xbox info. This only applies to XBOX hard drives right. Im going through some of my spare drives and there is nothing in those sectors.

so your at the point I am.. logic would tell you since the sectors are empty why not inject those sectors with the info from the hddss.bin file and in theory be up and running..

here is the thing im stuck on.. if he is telling us to extract the sectors from a stock xbox drive then one would think that the reverse of injecting the sectors would also work..


now one road bump is when we hook the drive up to our pc and browse the drive with a hex editor are we looking at the mechanical "platters and sectors" or are we looking at the firmware sectors.. is it even possible to look at firmware level code while in windows?

because what I'm thinking is if in the program he wrote is "flashing" to those sectors  then he is not injecting the info onto the platters but onto the actual firmware of the hard drive itself which is separate from the mechanical platters. so this is why im stuck..
why would he say something that is not possible to do?

please someone with some knowledge here please respond with an intelligent response and no negative crap as all were trying to do is further our knowledge of how this stuff comes together.

[HDDS214]

QUOTE(theevilhacker63 @ May 26 2009, 06:58 AM)

exactly what I was looking at..
so your at the point I am.. logic would tell you since the sectors are empty why not inject those sectors with the info from the hddss.bin file and in theory be up and running..

here is the thing im stuck on.. if he is telling us to extract the sectors from a stock xbox drive then one would think that the reverse of injecting the sectors would also work..
now one road bump is when we hook the drive up to our pc and browse the drive with a hex editor are we looking at the mechanical "platters and sectors" or are we looking at the firmware sectors.. is it even possible to look at firmware level code while in windows?

because what I'm thinking is if in the program he wrote is "flashing" to those sectors  then he is not injecting the info onto the platters but onto the actual firmware of the hard drive itself which is separate from the mechanical platters. so this is why im stuck..
why would he say something that is not possible to do?

please someone with some knowledge here please respond with an intelligent response and no negative crap as all were trying to do is further our knowledge of how this stuff comes together.

The SA (searvice area) IS on the platters. And the service area does contain the firmware. Its usually in one location with backups in other places.  It has always been to my understanding that these locations are different depending on the the manufacturers. The fact that sectors 17 through 22 are used by microsoft suggests to me that MS adds its own firmware to these hardrives. I dont know actually know how he is exactly flashing the WD. Not until I get my own WD and flash it using his method. Then I can check with my own tools to see whats happening.  If your asking if this whole process can be done using winhex id say im not sure. But I can tell you this. Other people have managed to clone their drives using winhex using basically the same method. Well they did for a particular dvr. Again by going to specific sectors of the hard drive. And other have tried doing the same thing for something else and it didnt work. And I dont think you can use winhex to read the service area of hardrives. You would need specialized equipment for that.

[theevilhacker63]

see ok so now we getting somewhere.. I was not aware that they put the firmware of the hard drive on the actual platters of the disk.. I always thought firmware was stored on some kind of memory chip residing on the pcb which I assume it is at least partially..

I can only assume he has figured out a way to trigger these drives into service mode or firmware update mode which allows him to flash this info onto the drives..


so the question is where do we go from here?
 
I'm not greedy at all if we can figure out an easy method for making any drive work I will share and help make the tools , tutorials etc  avail for everyone no one should have to pay microshaft a penny more for something that we should be able to buy freely and upgrade at our own discretion im not a fan of sony at all but at least with the ps3 you can do this whenever you want.

[iisdev]

QUOTE(Xbox-Scene @ May 24 2009, 11:19 AM)

A new version of HDDHackr(<a href="http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/HDDHackr.php">info</a>) has been released, a tool that allows you to use some Western Digital laptop HDDs as Xbox 360 HDD.
What's new/fixed:
* Completely new version core
* Two flashing modes, Auto and Manual
* Western Digital Vendor Intro Power Brute for misflashed drives
* Minimized incompatibility problems
* Improved exception handling
* Confirmed HddHacker supports
  - WD Scorpio       Series BEVS/BEAS
  - WD Scorpio Blue  Series BEVS/BEVT
  - WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
  - WD VelociRaptor  Series

Sadly, this version didn't work for me. It's more polished than previous versions and the menu and options are much more user friendly.

I tried my WD1200BEVS-00UST0 in my notebook. This version nicely displayed all cables and I found my drive on (4). I selected it, typed in the 'hddss.bin', chose to make an undo file named 'undo.bin' and got to the next screen. It displayed information on my hard drive I selected and below it information on hddss.bin. The message underneath read:

QUOTE

Information in sector 16 does NOT match the drive's firmware info. Do you want to flash XBOX460 compatible firmware (Y/N)?

I typed 'Y' and hit enter. I then received a green blinking success message saying the firmware was flashed and I should power off the computer and wait 10 seconds before powering it back on.

I followed the instructions and launched hddhackr again to confirm that the firmware matched. Again I got to the screen that displayed information on both my hard drive I selected and the hddss.bin file. The information didn't match.

On the off chance that it actually worked (but for whatever reason wasn't reporting correctly) I tried it in my Xbox360. (didn't recognize it) and also under Xplorer360 (extreme2) couldn't find a drive with fatx.

A Good effort by The Specialist, Modfreakz, and Schtrom - just didn't work for me.

[oddmaker]

Exacly what I had, and this was with an WD2500BEVS Scorpio and a WD2500BEVT Scorpio Blue.

[oddmaker]

Okay tried it with version 0.91B and it worked fro both drives. Maybe a problem with v1.0? Whos knows.

[HDDS214]

QUOTE(theevilhacker63 @ May 26 2009, 08:16 AM)

see ok so now we getting somewhere.. I was not aware that they put the firmware of the hard drive on the actual platters of the disk.. I always thought firmware was stored on some kind of memory chip residing on the pcb which I assume it is at least partially..

I can only assume he has figured out a way to trigger these drives into service mode or firmware update mode which allows him to flash this info onto the drives..
so the question is where do we go from here?
 
I'm not greedy at all if we can figure out an easy method for making any drive work I will share and help make the tools , tutorials etc  avail for everyone no one should have to pay microshaft a penny more for something that we should be able to buy freely and upgrade at our own discretion im not a fan of sony at all but at least with the ps3 you can do this whenever you want.

The only one that may have part of the firmware on the pcb is, I think, is seagate. Thats because you need a special cable to write to it. The other hard drives dont require it. Again im just guessing here. What is really intriguing me about this is that a lot of people, from what I read, have their WD drives stuck on a particular brand and cant flash it back. If you know anything about hdd serial numbers you would realize what he is done is just amazing. The fact is changing the serial number of a hard drive is relatively easy if you have the knowledge or equipment. Changing the serial number and having the drive work too is another story as most hard drives use the serial number as part of the boot up process. You see this when people need to replace the pcb board to recover data from a broken hard drive.

[MrFish]

QUOTE(fatvince @ May 26 2009, 12:07 PM)

Having to restore something usually means that it was broken, otherwise why the need to restore?

So you're expecting a complete filesystem image to sprout wings and fly from the nearest retail 120GB module, and install itself on your newly-flashed blank BEVS, while you're not looking?

Or where, exactly, are you expecting the 360 stores the data needed to recreate what should have been on the hard disk, when it's not on the hard disk?

[ravihpa]

Hi guys,

I have a WD 1600BEVT Blue Series HDD, and when I try to flash it with the hddss.bin that I got from *ahem* source, it says...

"LBA size does not match"

Can you guys please help me out with this.    I am using Hddhackr 1.00, and it does detect the BEVT, and then I select "Flash" and it asks me for the hddss.bin and then shows information of the BEVT drive and the info in the hddss.bin, which is a 120 gb Fujitsu hddss.

Then it says something like info does not match in Sector 16, do you want to Flash ? I click Yes, and then it shows that message "LBA size does not match"

Any help in this regards will be greatly appreciated.  Thanx a lot in advance

[ravihpa]

QUOTE(rgraham @ May 27 2009, 01:32 AM)

I have the exact same drive as you ravihpa and the same problem unfortunately, ive tried multiple .bin's with the same result, you guys think i should try the old version of Hddhackr??

I have already tried hddhackr 0.91, and it doesn't even detect my WD drive

It says, "No drives detected in Enhanced mode, Now searching in Legacy Mode" and then shows me something like....put nr number from 1 to 4 (x for exit) or something like that.  Tried pressing from 1 to 4, but nothing happens, and then ultimately had to press x to exit.

Guys...any suggestions ?

[Ruiner420]

WD1600BEVS $47.99 w/ free shipping:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136071

They also have the 800BEVS (for use with a 60gb hddss.bin) for $39.99 free ship, for 8 dollars more the 160 gig is a sweet deal

[brwcrw]

I really wish I knew what everyone was talking about...

I sounds like I'm gonna need to wait for this to get a little more noob friendly.