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[verastwin]

a simple answer to your question is no it will not, this is because your dash files and all other files will be stored on your original hdd so when you take it out and replace it the xbox will not have a dash to boot from.
 you do however have some options open to you to successfully upgrade the hdd

before you do anything make sure you have backed up your eeprom to your pc

you will need to use xboxhdm(get it from the usual place) but before you attempt to use this make sure you read the tut in the tutorial section (best thing to do is to print it so you wont forget how to do it) you will also need to read the tut on hotswapping(print this too) as this is involved too.

once you have read and reread the tuts and made the necessary disk (dont forget to put your eeprom in it)so you can boot into xboxhdm and hotswapped your xbox drive to the primary master  cable on your computer( put your new blank drive on the secondary master cable) you are ready to clone your xbox hard drive.

when xboxhdm boots choose option 1 .it will then come up with another message (off top of my head i cant remember what it says)press the space bar .

once you are into the main menu choose the option to clone your existing xbox hard drive.

at this point i cannot stress how important it is that you have the hard drives connected in the right order.
read carefully anything that xboxhdm asks on screen and type your answer in full i.e "yes" or "no"

once it has cloned your hard drive you will need to lock it using the unlock/lock tools in xboxhdm. once again read the tut thoroughly as locking/unlocking is serious stuff .

the other way to build your new drive is again using xboxhdm and choosing the option to build a hard drive from scratch . if you choose this ensure that you did put your eeprom in the file before you made your boot disk as you will need to lock the drive after you have built it.

also some hard drives  are not compatible for locking so it may pay to look for a compatibility list on here before doing anything else .

[tbirdturbo]

o.k. if what you are saying is true, how come, with my chipped xbox, i opened it, put in new hard drive, turned it on and screen pops up saying"unleashx has detected a new hard drive, do you want to format it now?" and that was a straight from box hard drive.  does that only happen with a chip?

[1hotjob]

Yes.

Your chip has the BIOS on it.

With a softmod, your BIOS is on
the hard drive. That is the difference.

You don't need to do the hotswap and
I strongly recommend you don't unless
absolutely necessary.

Build the new drive with Xbhdm.

You could probably build the HD with
your chipped Xbox, then replace those
C and E drives with the ones from your
softmod. Lock the HD with the eeprom
from your softmodded Xbox.

I have never tried that, but in theory it
should work fine.

[1hotjob]

You can only run one HD at a time.

There was a case mod that allowed
you to have 3 HDs installed, but you
had to pick which one to boot from.
You couldn't use all three at the same
time.