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[capboy210]

Hmm okay so you saying in order to format a 2TB hard drive using XBpartitioner do this: (sorry i need break it down it seems kinda confusing at first)

1. launch xbpartitioner 1.0
2. Split the F & G drives 50/50 (id assume it would each partition would be 985~GB's ish)
3. format both F&G in 32k clusters temporarily
4. Reboot xbox
5. launch xbpartitioner 1.1
6. Split the F & G drives exactly the same as you did in 1.0
7. Now format in 64k clusters
8. Reboot and celebrate?

Run088 did you have luck with the red dealextreme adapter? Which 2TB hard drive did you use? theres only a few out there. Im looking at the 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS (199$) here. Im thinking this would be the most wise choice, either that or im getting the Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS (159$) here

heres all six of my choices: http://www.newegg.co.......99&name=2TB

[run088]

On step 2 make it an uneven split. Then on step 6 make it split evenly.The size needs to be different when formatting with xbpartitioner 1.1 with 64k then what you used xbpartitioner 1.0 with 32k. You do this so you can visually see the change in the formatting.

If you do it the way you wrote it out you will not be able to tell if the 64k format went ok or not. I added this step so you can be sure the formatting is correct or not. I have been burned a couple times and didnt find out til I passed 512gigs. If you do as I suggested you should be good when you pass 512gigs as far as data corruption is concerned.


As far as adapters I always buy from a company on ebay called partsdomauction. I do this because they exchange no hassle and they get the adapters to me quick since there company is based in the USA.

There are most likely other companies that supply good adapters too but I can not confirm or deny about there performance. A member pm me a week ago saying that BX adapters or DX adapters I cant remember which is the name I deleted the pm would run 2 sata hdd's at once. I cant get my adapters to do that so that is another company that makes adapters you might want to look into.

As far as the hdds themselves

The 2tb I run is this. It has ran flawless for months it has been the best performing hdd I have had yet


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148413

This is the 1.5tb I run and I have made atleast half a dozen of them. I had one die within 60 days but the rest have held up flawlessly.


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148337


The 1.5tb is a 7200rpm drive. When I was buying these it was only available in the 7200rpm flavor. I noticed that the 1.5tb seagate is now available in the 5900rpm flavor. I really like my 2tb drive and I dont know if the 5900rpm speed is a factor or not. But it is the only difference I can tell by the spec so all future 1.5tb drives that I will buy will most likely be in the 5900rpm flavor.

[scullc]

@capboy210

i read that thread too and i saw the reviews on that Deal Extreme adaptor. so i bought one...and this was my quick review
I have just started using it tonight on my 200gb SATA (7200rpm) HDD.
1st impressions are great. So much so, i am thinking of getting another one - so i can use it on my spare 500gb SATA HDD.
Give me a week with it & i'll let you know? Mind you could have had it delivered it by then (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

This post has been edited by scullc: Nov 16 2009, 12:14 AM

[capboy210]

QUOTE(scullc @ Nov 15 2009, 07:13 PM)

@capboy210

i read that thread too and i saw the reviews on that Deal Extreme adaptor. so i bought one...and this was my quick review
I have just started using it tonight on my 200gb SATA (7200rpm) HDD.
1st impressions are great. So much so, i am thinking of getting another one - so i can use it on my spare 500gb SATA HDD.
Give me a week with it & i'll let you know? Mind you could have had it delivered it by then

Thanks evreyone for the advice! So from what i understand

1. launch xbpartitioner 1.0
2. Split the F & G drives 60/40 (uneven split)
3. format both F&G in 32k clusters temporarily
4. Reboot xbox
5. launch xbpartitioner 1.1
6. Split the F & G partitions 50/50
7. Now format in 64k clusters
8. Check that partitions to see they are evenly split
9. Reboot and celebrate if step 8 works!?

Also whats this evox test im hearing about?

@ run088 the hard drive you recommend looks like a good deal then! its pretty cheap compared to other hard drives. Looks like ill give the 5900 RPM drive a shot. Ill also get the dealextreme adapter soon! Ill probably treat myself with this when Christmas rolls around the corner. This adapter and hard drive combo seems pretty bulletproof.

@scullc let me know how the setup works! i hope it works for you and we can finally find an adapter that generally works for the xbox!

hopefully with all this research and help i wont run into any problems!

[firefighter1023]

I concur with the adapter found on deal extreme (originally discovered by Bomb Bloke, I believe).  I had good luck with it using a WD 1TB 32MB Cache Green HDD.  Boots 100% of the time.  Only problem I had at first was with the initial formatting, not real sure what went wrong, I had the full 900+ gb on a single F partition.  The drive wouldn't allow writing past approximately 200gb's.  I reformatted and distributed evenly across F and G and everything has worked fine.  I have almost filled the entire drive up, wondering if I shouldn't have tried a 1.5 or 2tb drive now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif).  Using it solely for game storage, I'm streaming all media from a scrap PC hosting a few drives, NAS if you will.

[Bomb Bloke]

QUOTE(firefighter1023 @ Nov 19 2009, 03:32 AM)

I concur with the adapter found on deal extreme (originally discovered by Bomb Bloke, I believe).

Nah, I was about the third guy to try it.

[aidhog]

QUOTE(capboy210 @ Nov 18 2009, 06:22 PM)

@ run088 the hard drive you recommend looks like a good deal then! its pretty cheap compared to other hard drives. Looks like ill give the 5900 RPM drive a shot. Ill also get the dealextreme adapter soon! Ill probably treat myself with this when Christmas rolls around the corner. This adapter and hard drive combo seems pretty bulletproof.

FYI, here's my experience of that combo (good so far).

Also, you should order that adapter ASAP. It takes forever to arrive, and it's as cheap as chips (even if you don't eventually buy the HD, no real loss).

In fact, order two just in case.

[reliantkcar]

absolute best on is from these guys

http://www.cooldrive...hadradtoid.html

I've bought these and run them for 2 years almost never a issue at all.

it has a small size so you can close the top and it has a pad on the back so it doesn't touch the drive casing and short out

only thing is you have to use the newer style ide cable not the factory xbox one.

I have the western digital green drive.it does save power and is quiet but it has it's issues.

first off in halo 1 prisner level with 4 players 3 out of 5 games will glitch randomly once per time
also the drive is variable speed so xbmc works great but if your playin a movie and hit the white butoon to see how long the movie is it will studder as it spins up to speed. otherwise it is very steady never a read issue and is whisper quiet

also boot up takes longer

but the seagate is faster but has firmware issue.

so slow but reliable=WD GREEN 1.tb

fast and not so reliable=seagate 7200.11 drive1tb

[nothingupmysleeve]

@runn088:
Tried to contact your ebay seller partsdomauction but he claims to not sell anything compatible  with this use. Just looking for confirmation that was the guy and maybe he just dont know what he has? Have you ordered from him recently?
Thanks.
FWIW I'm 10 weeks into dealextreme wait time. I bought 4 of em. I may die of old age b4 they arrive. Also, the most recent complaint I sent to them said my shipping status was last updated tomorrow?!?!?

[Bomb Bloke]

My first thought is that he knows it's not 100% likely to work, and so he's taking the safe route and simply telling buyers that it doesn't (rather then deal with complaints later). Second thought would be that he's never heard of anyone trying to plug one into an X-Box before.

[nothingupmysleeve]

OK I bought the adapter above (2 posts back) from ebay anyhow since I have other uses for it if it dont work.  It arrived and I built a new drive with XBHDM 1.9 (*but never put fresh C files from Slayers and didnt catch that till after burning it on my last CD. watching the process as xbhdm was building it seemed to  pull the C files from the ndure/c folder)  and locked it with my eeprom from the box I'm putting it in. Error 21 and 20

So, since it was 12:00 am, and the kids were in bed and I'm 30 miled from CD's at the best of times,, I tried re-running the ndure script from the xbrowser screen... Not booting when I got it back to the xbox.

Then I tried cloning the 8gig HD (using XBHDM that took ALL DAY)  to the 1.5TB and came up with Error 13, when I tried to boot it. Tried booting with a AID, a SLAYERS, and a EVOX boot CD and threw in a retail game for good measure) and got an error 21 with each of those. I threw the 8gig back in and it works fine.

So I was planning on pulling the stock c drive off the Slayers disc and rebuilding a totally stock HD. But I'm outta blank CD's and dont have a dvd drive in the computer I'm using for this....

Am I correct in assuming that slayers C and E drives on the new, SATA drive (rebuild from scratch using fresh XBHDM iso) should boot to a retail MS dash if the adapter is working correctly?  

Or have I already established the fact that the one I have dont work with xbox? and its time to switch gears and focus on building a nas till my stupid DealExtreme reshipment gets here (ETA 2011?)


 

[Bomb Bloke]

It may be worth attempting to setup the drive using only the stock C partition files. Hardmodding the console will make things a lot easier, if that's possible - remember, anything older then a 1.6 can be TSOP flashed without installing additional hardware components.

[nothingupmysleeve]

5 of the beautiful black beasties in my house streaming video to my tvs. (hey our cable co went belly up out here in the boonies and then NAG3 took the sat...) every one a 1.6. I WISH I had something else (for no DVD mods and for wiring to a pico atx power supply for a media center in the car cut up and stuffed in the side panels and a gazillion other things I can think of)

Thanks for the tip. think I'll go the easy route (now that you mention it) and see if it works on my buddies chipped box and if so, then I'll throw a slayers rebuild from his box.

Now if all that works, it should act like a regular stock unmodded xbox in my system right? (at least once I lock it with the right eeprom and until I softmod it) right? Or is it hit or miss with adapters and hardware? (i.e. adapter A might work in XBOX A and not in XBOX B)?

And again, thanks for taking the time to reply. I just fell in love with XBOXes in the last year or two as a way to let my kids watch what I want them to watch...yet still give them selection. Where else can you get a $10 media-streaming-child-proof-jukebox-emulator-superbox with everything else it has to offer(and didnt they sell some games made for it too?)?!?!?

This post has been edited by nothingupmysleeve: Sep 16 2010, 05:43 AM

[Bomb Bloke]

QUOTE(nothingupmysleeve @ Sep 16 2010, 12:40 PM)

Now if all that works, it should act like a regular stock unmodded xbox in my system right? (at least once I lock it with the right eeprom and until I softmod it) right?

Yes, that's the idea. If you can get it to boot the stock dash in the chipped box, then it should do the same on yours - and even if it only works on one system, you'll at least know you're handling the files side of things correctly.

If the lock is the problem, you'll get an error 05 or 06. Just for your reference.

QUOTE(nothingupmysleeve @ Sep 16 2010, 12:40 PM)

Or is it hit or miss with adapters and hardware? (i.e. adapter A might work in XBOX A and not in XBOX ?

If a certain drive/adapter combo works in one machine, then I would expect them to work in any other (though this isn't always true when talking about different drives/adapters which happen to be of the same type as the working pair). At least, I can't remember hearing anyone report otherwise.

[nothingupmysleeve]

Ok, so after all that I have a 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda (ST315005n4a1as) (frys.com weekly special drive) and a sata>ide adapter from
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

working with a softmod(ndure 3.1)...
You were right Bomb Bloke, cutting out the softmod at first let me load Slayers2.7 (on buddies chipped xbox) and see that the drive was being seen (HD temp started at 88F and went up as I watched). But all drive letters showed '0' for size. Tried restoring to M$ default. It acted like it was working but didnt create any directories or files. Also, couldnt ftp files over to the xbox. I could pull files back to computer from the D (dvd) drive and brows the other (all blank) drives.

So I tried a different IDE cable That did the trick. Formatted and restored to factory. Locked it with his eeprom (just to make sure it booted without the mod chip) Everything went great (M$ dash loaded with retail bios). Then unlocked the drive with the Slayers Disc...

Brought it home, ran my same NDURE/XBHDM disc from above, locked the drive with my EEPROM. put it all back together, then did xbpartitioner 1.0 with 50% F/50% G. I had INTENDED to go 75%/25% when I ran xbpartitioner 1.1 but for some reason (think it is my controller) couldnt get above 680GB on either partition no matter how much I lowered the other... so I lowered each (only way I could go was down) by 10 mb to get it to format with the 64k clusters. Worked like a charm.

Trying to fill it as I type...

Thanks again for all your help. Just wanted to detail another working (for me, at least) adapter/drive combo and  summarize steps I used in case it might help someone down the road either with selection or troubleshooting....

Also, anyone using the above adapter from http://myworld.ebay.com/partsdomauction/  (thanks to run088 for that one) the jumper is master/on  slave/off and I electric taped both the drive and the adapter to avoid potential shorts...

FWIW the drive seems surprisingly durable (or I'm just lucky) one of my buddies kids tripped on his controller cord hit the shelf the xbox was on. Drive slid out of the adapter and fell from knee height onto a hardwood floor...Made me think of the old Timex commercials..