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[ldotsfan]

Recently I came to know that unleashX supports the PrepareHD action which is designed for hdd upgrades.

Softmod xbox owners usually resort to using xboxhdm on the PC for hdd upgrade but that requires IDE connection and some people may not want to open up their PC for hdd upgrade. Chimp26 can be used for hdd upgrades on the xbox but that works well for non-1.6 xbox.

I have a solution for a Ndure softmod xbox to 'cold-boot' to the unleashX boot disc - do a variant of hotswapping of the hdd IDE to the new hdd after booting up and relaunch the DVD's default .xbe through the unleashX menu to 'refresh' the hdd.

Package the boot disc with configmagic for locking the new hdd and also xbpartitioner for formatting F/G drives for large hdd and you have a boot disc for softmod xbox to do a hdd upgrade easily.  

Any interest in this tool which I'll call LxHdm? If there's sufficient interest, I'll invest the time/effort to make the boot disc.

[run088]

Good Work!
I'm sure this would be useful to some and a big help for anyone that does not have pc access or it could be something that would possibly make some repair work a little easier.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(run088 @ Jun 18 2008, 07:12 AM)

Good Work!
I'm sure this would be useful to some and a big help for anyone that does not have pc access or it could be something that would possibly make some repair work a little easier.

Thanks for your feedback. Anybody else interested in this tool?

[Movax]

You've tested this approach with success? Not that I'm doubting you, (your explanation makes sense) but it's strange that no one has mentioned this technique before. (Or if they have, I've missed it.)

AID comes with all the apps you've mentioned and boots to unleashx- does it work?

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(Movax @ Jun 18 2008, 09:16 PM)

You've tested this approach with success? Not that I'm doubting you, (your explanation makes sense) but it's strange that no one has mentioned this technique before. (Or if they have, I've missed it.)

AID comes with all the apps you've mentioned and boots to unleashx- does it work?

1. It's almost xbox doctrine that we shouldn't try a boot disc like Slayer's or AID on softmod xbox for fear that it will mess up the softmod.
2. I learned of the dvd relaunch trick from one of kingroach's posts but he used it for softmodding another xbox via hotswapping.
3. I learned of the UnleashX hdd preparation capability from AID actually but that was on a chipped xbox. I combined the idea with point 2 for hdd upgrade.
4. I've not actually tried it yet but i need to gauge the interest level first. No point doing something nobody wants to use - like my xboxhdm2 (usb edition), to date that thread only has 2 other posters other than myself.

[Bomb Bloke]

I would like to see a "one touch" setup disc for softmodded boxes, though what I have in mind involves adding command line support to a few programs...

For example, XBMC/EvoX can launch XPort's emulators and get them to load a certain ROM right away. I don't know if UnleashX can do that, but say XBPartitioner/ConfigMagic could be made to accept such commands... Hey presto, you could make a drive prep disc that actually works correctly. Thanks to the cluster count limitations of FATX the current discs are somewhat prone to user error.

That said, I have no idea how the code for this works. I suspect it'd be easy enough to work it out but for the next month the amount of time I have for such projects is limited. Hence I've been hesitant to even mention the idea.

As it stands I have very little experience with the available boot discs. In fact I've never needed Slayers/AID/CASH, let used them (though I have on occasion glanced at their respective documentative notes).

CASH is a boot disc already aimed at soft modders, it might be worth checking to see if that's a suitable base to start from.

Some users have mentioned they temporarily install a chip in a new system, softmod it with AID, then remove the chip. Quite different to what's in mind here but I guess that means AID is at least to some extent softmod friendly.

Bonus points if you can get UnleashX to display a message on the TV saying "Hotswap NOW".

[metalmaster06]

I'm definitely interested in the ability to setup some softmods right on the console. I don't have a PC so a bootdisc of sorts would be right up my alley. I'll keep an eye on this thread for sure

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(metalmaster06 @ Jun 19 2008, 02:47 PM)

I'm definitely interested in the ability to setup some softmods right on the console. I don't have a PC so a bootdisc of sorts would be right up my alley. I'll keep an eye on this thread for sure

Thanks for the interest but due to the inherent limitations of softmods, this boot disc can't do much except what it is designed for - hard drive upgrades. I hope that part is clear.

QUOTE(Bomb Bloke @ Jun 18 2008, 11:54 PM)

As it stands I have very little experience with the available boot discs. In fact I've never needed Slayers/AID/CASH, let used them (though I have on occasion glanced at their respective documentative notes).

CASH is a boot disc already aimed at soft modders, it might be worth checking to see if that's a suitable base to start from.

Bonus points if you can get UnleashX to display a message on the TV saying "Hotswap NOW".

Slayer's, CASH, Frosty's all boot to EvoX. Though EvoX has hard drive preparation capability as well, I can't find it exposed as a scriptable menu option and it requires ftp access to invoke which is complicated for the average user. UnleashX on the other hand makes it available as a scriptable menu action and hence my interest.

If this works, the moment you boot up successfully to the dvd's dash is the moment you hotswap so I guess I will have to display hotswap now at the title

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(theevilhacker63 @ Jun 20 2008, 07:30 AM)

right now with all the hotswapping and unlocking, relocking, formating and all this stuff it would be nice just to insert a disk, pop in a hdd hit a button and off you go.

Let's see the expectations right - there is no way to circumvent the softmod limitations so hotswapping and locking is still needed - only difference is we do it on the xbox from a boot disc so that eases the pain somehow. However the data from the source hdd will still need to be ftp out to elsewhere and ftp back once the new hdd has been formatted and softmodded correctly. Data like your media files, XBMC, games stored on hdd,gamesaves etc.

Development of the boot disc is actually complete but I need to dig out my old 10Gb hdd to test it out. In the end I didn't use configmagic - I use EvoX and unleashX combined on the same disc.

I also intend to respect the rules of the forum - ie the usual place.

Thanks for your interest though.

[Bomb Bloke]

QUOTE(ldotsfan @ Jun 20 2008, 01:58 AM)

Though EvoX has hard drive preparation capability as well, I can't find it exposed as a scriptable menu option and it requires ftp access to invoke which is complicated for the average user.

I may be misreading what you're saying here, but isn't this what you're after?

QUOTE("From EvoX.ini")

[Menu]

Section "Install Menu"
{
Item "Install New drive",@210
Item "Settings",@9
Item "Reboot",@5
}

[Action_10]


Info "Install New HDD by Xbox-Emu"
Warning "This will format all drives"
Warning "Make sure you have a backup of C & E"
Progress "Formatting drives"

ConfigSector "\backup\disk.bin"
Format c:
Format e:
Format f:
Format x:
Format y:
Format z:

[Action_11]

[Action_12]

This extract is from one of the few boot discs I do use (at less then a megabyte in size I considered it well worth my time to download   ).

You slot in a new drive, stick in the boot disc, and tell it to format. No FTP access required though granted it's only useful "as is" if the box is chipped (or TSOP flashed, in my cases).

Don't ask me what "\backup\disk.bin" is, that's not included in the disc image...

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(Bomb Bloke @ Jun 21 2008, 12:36 AM)

Don't ask me what "\backup\disk.bin" is, that's not included in the disc image...

I looked at that too but that file is from the evox eeprom backup function so it seemed to me it is specific to each xbox so I didn't pursue that path.

Anyway I'm sorry to report that the boot disc doesn't work. I tried a few approaches. All files are from DVD and menu items are hardcoded to D:\ paths. EvoX relaunch to unleashX after hotswap - hang. UnleashX relaunch to unleashX after hotswap - error 21.

Without hotswapping to another hdd, all the unleashX preparehd commands worked on their own, it will format the hdd and copy the files etc. But once hotswapping is done to another hdd, nothing worked.

I guess this is a dead end then - thanks everyone who has shown interest.

[Movax]

I have a feeling this might work if the hard drive was the same size/model - but then there's no point.

It probably has to do with the bios loading the configuration for the hard drive on boot - it doesn't get refreshed by relaunching an app.

Linux ignores all bios hardware interfaces and uses it's own drivers, allowing for hotswapping to work. The closest thing to getting this to work then, would be to make a linux based tool, something better than chimp.

[Bomb Bloke]

In that case, could you use nkpatcher to reload the BIOS without doing a reboot? Would that refresh this HDD info?

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(Movax @ Jun 21 2008, 09:41 PM)

I have a feeling this might work if the hard drive was the same size/model - but then there's no point.

Linux ignores all bios hardware interfaces and uses it's own drivers, allowing for hotswapping to work. The closest thing to getting this to work then, would be to make a linux based tool, something better than chimp.

Unfortanately my experiments were with a pair of Seagate 10Gb stock xbox hdds.

Linux has some problems on xbox 1.6 hence that solution is not generic enough.

QUOTE(Bomb Bloke @ Jun 21 2008, 09:58 PM)

In that case, could you use nkpatcher to reload the BIOS without doing a reboot? Would that refresh this HDD info?

My softmod was nkpatcher based. I don't think there was a reboot for one of the scenarios I tried but that didn't work out too. The error 21 case was definitely a reboot as I saw a change of LED colors.
I tried this from the dvd:
1. PBL + Evox -> UnleashX  , hang but no obvious reboot.
2. PBL + UnleashX -> UnleashX , this looked like a reboot.
3. UnleashX -> UnleashX , hang.
-> means after hotswapping.

Case 3 is nkpatcher based as nkpatcher was still in memory and as far as I can tell, no reboot.

[ldotsfan]

QUOTE(Movax @ Jun 21 2008, 09:41 PM)

Linux ignores all bios hardware interfaces and uses it's own drivers, allowing for hotswapping to work. The closest thing to getting this to work then, would be to make a linux based tool, something better than chimp.

@Movax: Your suggestion of Linux reminded me about xboxhdm and the technique of altering the boot timing for xboxhdm so that there is enough time to do hotswapping.

I could try to write a looping xbe with nasm with a given time interval for the hotswapping so that when this timer xbe loads from the dvd, you have some time to hotswap to the new hdd and when the dash eventually loads from this timer xbe, it only sees the new hdd and hopefully solves the earlier problems. Not sure if I'm making sense. Can somebody verify my logic?