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[JonBOY]

yeah could be the OS, a recovery would be worth trying out.

Hey CJLee, when you peform the recovery, could you please let me know if you loose the Xenium golds default '24K' skin with the newly restored OS.

[CJLee89]

how do i perform a recovery using an iso disc??

[JonBOY]

1) go to downloads section at www.teamXodus.com and download the latest XOS (get the ISO version titled 'LATEST! Xenium OS 2.3.1 ISO update ')

link http://www.teamxodus...download&cid=15

2) Expand the RAR file. Right click on the ISO file and slect open with Nero. In Nero, set options to finalise disc, burn as slow as possible and be sure to verify the disc. You may to try different media before you find one that will work (ie CD-RW, DVD-R etc)

3) Since you can boot XOS, you can activate recovery mode in the XOS menu. Simply put your disc in, navigate to 'recovery' and select it, confirm yes. Hopefully you'll see a Xenium splash screen saying SUCCESS...got from DVD. Let the xbox do its thing for a while and it'll power down by itself. Boot back up and thats it.

Here's a tute if you get stuck. Check out No.4 in the Tutorial index.

http://www.teamxodus...ewtopic&t=10317

If it wont work by activating recovery mode in the XOS, your other options are
(i) install your original xbox drive (that pressumabky works ok) and FTP the 'recovery.bin' file (see the latest HDD update file) into the root of your E drive. Activate recovery mode in XOS (this would probably be the best option out of all to try first actually).

(ii) open the box, remove the chip off the adapter, flick the chip into recovery mode manually by sliding the little black tab/switch on the side of the chip towards the top of the chip (recovery mode). replace the chip on adapter. Re-attach DVD and HDD. Boot XOS (if you cannot insert the disc at this stage you my need to insert it before putting the chip in recovery mode).

[CJLee89]

i have tried both of those and all the xbox did was reboot and go back to the xenium screen. so either it did it really fast so the screen didnt come up or it didnt do anything at all??? is there a way to reinstall the OS?

[JonBOY]

What you're decribing means the recovery did not work. I used to run a Xenium ICE and never had any troubles using the recovery feature (on chip switch or the menu option) to update/restore the XOS. Since I've got my GOLD, I've tried peforming a recovery myself on the exact same pinheader set up as what the the ICE was on and the GOLD just will not recover (soon as you activate recovery mode in the XOS the box shuts down and reboots your default launch item). Sounds like you're in the same situation. I don't understand what's going on at this stage, fortunately my GOLD works perfectly fine and has never given me any trouble, I only tried a recovry becuase I noticed XOS's built in FTP function was performing very poorly one day.

Do you have any friends modded boxes? If so it would be worth while tring to use their system to recover your chip, as well as try recovering their chip on your set up to see whats going on.  

Since the HDD upgrade wizard isn't working for you, get yourself a copy of Auto Installer Deluxe 3.0. Simply flash a hacked bios (if you haven't already) then boot from the disc (you'll have to find the iso file within the AID 3.0 torrent download and brn it to disc first). AID 3.0 then has HDD formatting options as well as providing automated install options of just about any app you want.

Some words though on using AID;
before you burn the ISO to disc, you may want to use 'xISO' to extract the iso content, then open up the configuration file (i think its an .xml) and adjust your settings as desired (ie network settigs to allow FTP). Then use 'qwix' to re-create the ISO file, then burn that iso using nero, slap it in your box and boot it.

Extracting the ISO is also a very handy in that you can then access all the individual apps on your PC, and use FTP from your PC to Xbox to set things up.    

Look for the torrent on mininova, an update to 3.01 has just been released actually. Sorry I couldn't work out the upgrade wizard problems for you man.

Another quick thought, if you do have a mate with a modded box, try setting up the HDD using his upgrade wizard, as long as the drive isn't locked you can then just put it back in your box and it'll be fine.

[CJLee89]

thanks for the help. my cousin has a modded box but he lives like 45 mins from me. so it will take about a week to do something with it. ill just do that instead of D/L-ing any files since i have 56K. is there a way to email xodus to see what we can do.

[CJLee89]

will there be a problem with eeproms? and once i get my HD formatted can I just FTP in and put my backup of my hard drive (on my PC) on it?? how do i get my eeprom from my original HD onto my upgraded HD once formatted? i have it backed up on my PC also!!!

in C:\backup it contains:

-bios.bin
-eeprom.bin
-hddkey.bin
-disk.bin
-hddinfo.text  (opens in notepad)

thats what my xenium backed up when i selected backup eeprom.

[CJLee89]

i suppose i can just transfer over the backup files and then select restore eeprom from the OS??

[JonBOY]

you wont need to worry about the EEPROM. In terms of HDDs, EEPROM is really only an issue if the HDD is locked. When you lock a HDD, a specific key is generated and stored in the motherboards EEPROM and is required to unlock the HDD. As usch if you put a locked HDD in another xbox it wont work with the different m/board.

However, actually locking the HDD does not require a code (the codes generated is for unlocking the drive). As such, you can take your new HDD, make sure its unlocked, remove it from your box, take it to your cousins place (or whereever), get your cousin to unlock his drive (just to be safe), attach yours to is DVD-ROM site, use the HDD upgrade wizard to prepare the drive. Remove your still unlocked drive and re-attach to your box. I would then make sure everything is working fine (ie apps and games), lock your HDD and then re-unlock it, then backup your EEPROM to the chip and .bin.

To prepare the drive by FTPing backups in from your PC, you'd firstly need to backup the complete C and E drives (drag the whole C and E drives onto your directory in flashFXP, not just the few files you listed in 'C:\backup'

You need to get the whole folders so you get all the files for you MS dashobard (C drive) and all your game save data etc from the E drive.

I've never used XOS to prepare a HDD and am not entirely sure how it would be done, but heres how I see it;
1) Install XBMC on your original drive and boot it. launch the syste info option and take note of the partition names and the exact size of these partitions on your original drive.
2) FTP into xbox with original drive installed. Drag C and E drives to PC desktop (I think the other partitions are only filled with files generated from these partitions.
3) Ensure old drive is unlocked, remove old drive, install new drive. Boot XOS and go into disk tool
4) things get a bit hazy here but I imagine you should be able to create a partition somehow. You'd need to create each partition according to the name and size you documented in XBMC. This will give you all your partitions except for your F drive. Hopefullly then theres some way of formatting the rest of the left of space in one partition and calling it F drive.
5) If you succeed in that, reboot XOS, FTP into the drive, open the Xboxes C drive, then open the C drive backup on your PC directory, select all the files in the PC directory and drag them onto the xbox C drive. Once thats done, repeat for the E drive.
6) try launching XBMC and your MS dashboard.

[CJLee89]

i already have a full back up of E and C drives!! i would have to format each partition seperately since the wizard formats and COPIES the data. i only need format. his bios is set up for F drive only.(if that makes any difference) when i do this i just need to make sure i have it unlocked and keep it unlocked until i put it back in my xbox.

Question:
shouldnt the xenium OS format with correct partition sizes?


partition sizes:

C drive - 499MB
E drive - 4881MB
F drive -  2134 MB (gets rest of drive on upgraded HD)
X drive (cache) - 749 MB
Y drive (cache) - 749 MB
Z drive (cache) - 749MB

[CJLee89]

i will have to set my bios to partition 6 (F drive) takes rest of drive before i can actually see the space on XBMC, dvd2xbox or evox right?. my cousin only has a 80 GB in his so he left it to partition 6 (F drive) limited to 137 GB so i will not be ably to see the space on his xbox.

[JonBOY]

The bios settings shouldn't matter unless you're planning to go running XBMC with your drive plugged onto his machine. The bios settings wont make a difference to the XOS. It'll detect your drive is big enough to support F only or F plus G (for a 250 gig brive like yours I'd go F only).

Simply run the wizard, hopefully the wizard on his chip will work, unlpug the drive, plug it back into your xbox and everything on his C and E will be on your drive. You'll then want to overwrite the TDATA and UDATA drives with your backups to return all your game saves etc.  


"Question:
shouldnt the xenium OS format with correct partition sizes?"

Do know man, I've never had to use the XOS to format individual partitions, it'd be a nice feature though if it did.
Since you have cmplete backups of your C and E drives give it a go (might save you a 40 min trip to your cousins place). Just remove your original drive, plug in the upgrade drive and tell it to format all the partitions you listed. Then FTP the contents of the C and E backups back to where they should be.  

If you decide to go with the option of piggy backing on your cousins box, just remember not to lock your drive whilst attached to his box.  

i'm just looking at the XOS menu now, have you tried using the 'repair HDD upgrade' option in disc tools? Probably wont help as the HDD upgrade doesn't get all teh way through for you but might as well see what it does.

[CJLee89]

i tried indvidually formatting the drives also and that reported an error to...i have also tried to do the repair thing also and that didnt work. i wonder if the OS that shipped with all the golds are bad..since both of ours will not recover and nothing works in disk tools.  i will prolly just completely overwrite C and E drives all together once i get it fomatted..my cousin has emulators that i really dont want or need (even though they r fun).

[JonBOY]

easy man, just make sure both your original and upgrade HDDs are unlocked first then take them both with you. UNLOCK HIS DRIVE ON HIS BOX, remove it and set up both your original drive and upgrade drive on his box as required to run the HDD wizard (original = master, upgraded = slave attached to DVD-ROM site). If it is just your XOS then hopefully his wizard will work ok. That'll save you getting the extra stuff on his HDD that you don't want, as well as save you having to re-copy all your game saves etc back onto your drive.

For interest sake, you should get him to try a XOS recovery on his chip (he have an ICE or a GOLD?) to confirm that its working, then remove his chip from the adapter (hopefully its not an ICE quicksolder), slap on your GOLD and try the recovery again, see if your GOLDs recovery function really screwed.

You could also try putting your GOLD on his box first up, then attach your HDDs and run the wizard and see if it still wont work, might be that its not the XOS or chip but another piece of your Xbox hardware like an IDE cable that works fine for game play but is slightly dodgey in some way and hence the failing HDD upgrade wizard.

This epic saga must be driving you nuts, but hang in there man, it'll be worth it if you can get it sorted.

One other suggestion is also to try the guys at the teamXodus forums. Given that its a complete forum just for Xenium chips, the moderators and regulars over there are total gurus and they might be able to pick up something that I've missed.

[CJLee89]

i tried signing up for the xodus forums and i never got a confirmation email...it been like a month and a half. so if i would take both of my drives (unlocked) and put it in my cousins system, and run the wizard with his chip. then put the put the original drive in my xbox  lock it and then swap it out for the upgraded drive and make sure everything is working and then lock it i should be good???

step-by-step:

1.) take both (original and upgraded unlocked) to my cousins system and run the wizard with those 2 drives in
2.) put the original in my xbox and lock it
3.) swap w/ upgraded, make sure everything works, then lock it