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[kingnbajam]

I got banned with a modded xbox with retail HDD in it. After lots of reading I decided to buy a new fresh EEPROM, format and repartition my retail HDD, recover my (banned) account and go on XBL again.

So I used Slayer's 2.6, selected the FULL INSTALL/REBUILD RETAIL HD option, and after that formatted my HDD with the RESTORE RETAIL XBOX HD TO FACTORY option.

After that I used Configmagic Final to upload the new EEPROM, which I bought from Zodiiak. Everything went fine and within a couple minutes I was back on XBL!

My C: partition was retail, with no software or other files that don't belong there. I only had evox and configmagic on F:, that's it. Nothing more.

When I checked today, 24 hours later, I discovered I was banned again. So I guess the local marriage theory has not worked for me.

If anybody has some comments on my method or some other feedback, I'd love to hear it.

[Bggsyboy]

According to the marriage theory you have to get a new HDD you used the HDD that they banned so when they saw that you used they banned your new EEPROM so to get back on buy a new stock xbox harddrive and another new EEPROM.

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(Bggsyboy @ Jan 12 2005, 10:05 PM)

According to the marriage theory you have to get a new HDD you used the HDD that they banned so when they saw that you used they banned your new EEPROM so to get back on buy a new stock xbox harddrive and another new EEPROM.

yes but the local marriage theory states that you can "revirginize" your HDD by rewriting the partition table with Slayer's 2.6, put a new EEPROM on it and then get on XBL again.

So I'm not sure this theory is correct. I don't know whether I've done something wrong or not.

If I buy a new xbox retail HDD, it should be a HDD that has never been on XBL right? Where can I get those?

And if I buy a non-retail HDD (120 GB), I need to have a new GT?

This stuff sucks so bad, it makes me want to buy a new xbox for XBL alone. But somehow it feels weird to have 2 xbox-es!

Let's discuss this local marriage theory and how to make MS believe you're using a new HDD.

[XMack]

Could you please list your configuration?

It concerns me that you never took your Xbox on XBL before your mod and still managed to get yourself banned without any obvious slip ups. (IE live with chip active, little brother played with it, etc etc).

I was under the impression that disabled mod chips with unmodified/stock HDD and new GTs never to have seen XBL were deemed "safe".

Did I miss something? I only say this because I am about to use my Xbox on Live for the first time and the above description is what I am using.

Any thoughts?

[lordvader129]

i never heard of rewriting a partiton table being able to unban someone, i am under the impression that MS bans the HD serial number, plain and simple

if you get a new eeprom AND a new HD you should be able to get baqck on Live with your old GT

[Gumba]

QUOTE(lordvader129 @ Jan 12 2005, 11:26 PM)

i never heard of rewriting a partiton table being able to unban someone, i am under the impression that MS bans the HD serial number, plain and simple

if you get a new eeprom AND a new HD you should be able to get baqck on Live with your old GT

from : http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=304652

The Local Marriage Theory
A new theory which is a refinement to the original Marriage Theory has been floated recently, and successful test results are just beginning to come in.

The theory is that MS marries the EEPROM to the HD by writing metadata onto the HD in a part which doesn't get erased by normal formatting (the partition table). If at a later date you connect to live and this data is not there when it should be, or is there when it shouldn't be, or is wrong, then you get banned.

This is an interesting theory because :
1) it explains the results the original Marriage Theory predicts, and
2) it also explains some results that the original Marriage Theory doesn't predict! and
3) it predicts that you can possibly get back on live without acquiring an XBL Virgin HD!

You should be able to virginize your current HD and thus get back on live by rewriting the partition table with a partition table from a virgin stock drive (or just low-level formatting the drive with a program like autoclave).

You can write the partition table using Slayer's EvoX installer's "Prepare New HD" option which runs the evox command 'configsector "disk.bin"' to load a partition table from a virgin stock drive (stored in the disk.bin file)

So, the (not 100% confirmed) steps to getting back onto live are

1) get new eeprom
2) re-virginize HD using Slayer's or autoclave (etc)
3) get a new gamertag if your HD is not stock (ie originally shipped inside an xbox by MS)


This theory although promising has not been strongly confirmed yet, kingnbajam if you can, I would suggest trying a few more approaches, for instance, read the links from the marriage theory post section on LMT and try some of the more detailed approaches to "re-virginizing" which don't rely on Slayers.

See this link about problems with Slayer's and Fire's auto-installers http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=338957

I would wait for someone to reply to this thread who has actual experience with it, as I don't.

This post has been edited by Gumba: Jan 13 2005, 07:16 AM

[Gumba]

QUOTE(XMack @ Jan 12 2005, 11:18 PM)

Could you please list your configuration?

It concerns me that you never took your Xbox on XBL before your mod and still managed to get yourself banned without any obvious slip ups. (IE live with chip active, little brother played with it, etc etc).

I was under the impression that disabled mod chips with unmodified/stock HDD and new GTs never to have seen XBL were deemed "safe".

Did I miss something? I only say this because I am about to use my Xbox on Live for the first time and the above description is what I am using.

Any thoughts?

I think XMack may have a point. You didn't get banned by Marriage Theory since you had a stock HD. So, why did you get banned? and what's stopped you from getting banned for that same reason again?

Are you using an XBL blocking BIOS? (there are no excuses not to anymore)

I think you're re-virginizing might've actually worked, but then you got rebanned for the original reason

[lordvader129]

hmm, what information is conatined in the disk.bin? anythign that can distinguish it from other partition tables? if so isnt it possible that the disk.bin on the slayers disc itself has been banned, and thus any HD formated by slayers will then be banned?

that could explain alot of the people who use upgraded HDs getting banned that then claim MS is banning all large HDs....hmmm

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(XMack @ Jan 12 2005, 11:18 PM)

Could you please list your configuration?

It concerns me that you never took your Xbox on XBL before your mod and still managed to get yourself banned without any obvious slip ups. (IE live with chip active, little brother played with it, etc etc).

I was under the impression that disabled mod chips with unmodified/stock HDD and new GTs never to have seen XBL were deemed "safe".

Did I miss something? I only say this because I am about to use my Xbox on Live for the first time and the above description is what I am using.

Any thoughts?

I have a 1.6 version xbox, with retail HDD (10 GB). I went on XBL for the first time with this xbox, did the HALO2 update and played for 2 days. After that, I formatted the HDD with slayer's 2.6, just to prevent MS from scanning my E: partition with all the emulator's, evox etc.

After the format, I got banned, while I played on XBL with my modchip off. However, the format must  have been removing the 'files' (cookies) MS put on my xbox.

So that could be the reason I got banned.

Then I bought a fresh EEPROM, reformatted and repartitioned my HDD with Slayer's 2.6, flashed the EEPROM on my retail HDD with Configmagic final and only had evox on my F: partition. I played on XBL for 1 day and BAM! I got banned again.

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(Gumba @ Jan 13 2005, 07:28 AM)

This theory although promising has not been strongly confirmed yet, kingnbajam if you can, I would suggest trying a few more approaches, for instance, read the links from the marriage theory post section on LMT and try some of the more detailed approaches to "re-virginizing" which don't rely on Slayers.

See this link about problems with Slayer's and Fire's auto-installers http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=338957

I would wait for someone to reply to this thread who has actual experience with it, as I don't.

I'm going to give this a try, thanks.

What I don't understand is this:

If I buy a new retail xbox HDD which has never been on XBL and I flash that with a new EEPROM, do I still have to repartition the retail HDD? I guess not, but what if I buy a non-retail HDD?

I would like to understand what 'repartitioning' does to a HDD. If everyone uses Slayer's 2.6 for repartitioning a HDD, then all those HDD's will get the same HDD key?? Could that be the reason that I got banned with my fresh EEPROM en retail HDD??

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(Gumba @ Jan 13 2005, 07:32 AM)

I think XMack may have a point. You didn't get banned by Marriage Theory since you had a stock HD. So, why did you get banned? and what's stopped you from getting banned for that same reason again?

Are you using an XBL blocking BIOS? (there are no excuses not to anymore)

I think you're re-virginizing might've actually worked, but then you got rebanned for the original reason

I don't have XBL blocking BIOS. I have set "connect to XBL automatically" to disabled in my xbox network settings too. And I always unplug my UTP cable when I turn my modchip on.

I highly doubt whether the revirginizing worked or not, because I used a fresh EEPROM, formatted my retail HDD, had no suspicious files on my HDD and went on XBL with my modchip off.

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(lordvader129 @ Jan 13 2005, 08:09 AM)

hmm, what information is conatined in the disk.bin? anythign that can distinguish it from other partition tables? if so isnt it possible that the disk.bin on the slayers disc itself has been banned, and thus any HD formated by slayers will then be banned?

that could explain alot of the people who use upgraded HDs getting banned that then claim MS is banning all large HDs....hmmm

I think you have a strong point here... formatting/repartitioning with Slayer's 2.6 didn't do the trick for me... So now I don't know what to do. If I buy a new retail HDD, I will still be needing Slayer's 2.6 I think, for reformatting/repartitioning. If I buy a non-retail HDD, I'm still going to need Slayer's 2.6.

So will I never get back on XBL again?? What if I get a new gamertag, buy a retail xbox HDD, format/repartition/new EEPROM and then go on XBL? That would work right?

Sigh....  

[Lord Magnus]

Well.. here's something that I don't get.. maybe you can help.

I have never been banned (knock on wood). But about 2 months or so, I was playing with the slayers 2.6 disk, just for the heck of it, and for my own stupid reasons, since I actually did not need to do it, formated the HD with the same "Format to original stock HD" option. And after connecting to live an infinite number of times.. I am still not banned.

My point is, that if the disk.bin in the slayer disk was banned, I sould be banned right now as well... unless my stock HD still has his hidden BS in the partition table... wich means that the Slayer disk does not clean shit... just ereases and copy the files back. I mean... it did that shit so freaking quick that it is doubtful.

Any thought about this?

Edit: Almost forgot... your posted procedures to get back on live in your post above should work perfectly.

This post has been edited by Lord Magnus: Jan 13 2005, 11:58 AM

[feet14]

QUOTE(kingnbajam @ Jan 13 2005, 10:06 AM)

I have a 1.6 version xbox, with retail HDD (10 GB). I went on XBL for the first time with this xbox, did the HALO2 update and played for 2 days. After that, I formatted the HDD with slayer's 2.6, just to prevent MS from scanning my E: partition with all the emulator's, evox etc.

Doing this is likely to cause a ban, as M$ will expect that your Xbox has the Halo 2 updates etc. installed. They will then conclude that the files on the HD have been tampered with = ban.

QUOTE

After the format, I got banned, while I played on XBL with my modchip off. However, the format must  have been removing the 'files' (cookies) MS put on my xbox.

So that could be the reason I got banned.

These cookies will only be erased if the formatting option you chose used the disk.bin file.

QUOTE

Then I bought a fresh EEPROM, reformatted and repartitioned my HDD with Slayer's 2.6, flashed the EEPROM on my retail HDD with Configmagic final and only had evox on my F: partition. I played on XBL for 1 day and BAM! I got banned again.

If the Slayer option you chose used the disk.bin file then most likely your HD Serial got banned.

However, for people who get banned with a large HD installed at time of ban, they can revert to their stock HD even with a flagged GT as long as a new EEPROM is flashed in. It appears that when a HD marriage is broken, only the HD serial of the upgraded HD is banned.

[kingnbajam]

QUOTE(feet14 @ Jan 13 2005, 12:52 PM)

Doing this is likely to cause a ban, as M$ will expect that your Xbox has the Halo 2 updates etc. installed. They will then conclude that the files on the HD have been tampered with = ban.

These cookies will only be erased if the formatting option you chose used the disk.bin file.

If the Slayer option you chose used the disk.bin file then most likely your HD Serial got banned.

However, for people who get banned with a large HD installed at time of ban, they can revert to their stock HD even with a flagged GT as long as a new EEPROM is flashed in. It appears that when a HD marriage is broken, only the HD serial of the upgraded HD is banned.

I agree, MS banned me after reformatting my HDD after being on XBL for 2 days. How do I know whether Slayer's 2.6 used the disk.bin file?  And what is this thing with HD serial codes that are getting banned? Doesn't a new EEPROM replace the HD serial as well?