Picked up soft modded Xbox for cheap, do I need ethernet to FTP and browse HDD from computer?

[Wantija]

Sorry if the topic title is a bit of a mess so let me explain in full detail now. (And hopefully some people actually browse this forum lol)

I picked up a Xbox at my local thrift store and it was already soft modded, which was great. Now my problem is that from what I understand you need an ethernet cable to FTP app/games to my Xbox and you cannot remove the HDD and view it on your PC as an external drive due to the way FatX works. I only have a laptop with no ethernet port (but I do have a USB to IDE/SATA converter, so if I can make any use of that, that'd be great).

Am I SOL in my current situation and have to buy a USB ethernet adapter or is there anything I can do like burn applications to a CD and have the Xbox install it to the HDD? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DinohScene]

You can burn content to discs and copy them to the Xbox with the build in filemanager (I recommend you clean all rubbish from the harddrive before hand, makes the harddrive more organized DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING FROM THE C DRIVE NOR DELETE THE BACKUPS OF THE C DRIVE FROM THE E DRIVE IF THEY EXIST!)

I highly suggest investing in a cheapo USB - LAN adapter.
Speed wise and less costly.

 

[Rusb]

Ah old xbox, sorry man, only know about x360 :\

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Sorry if the topic title is a bit of a mess so let me explain in full detail now. (And hopefully some people actually browse this forum lol)

I picked up a Xbox at my local thrift store and it was already soft modded, which was great. Now my problem is that from what I understand you need an ethernet cable to FTP app/games to my Xbox and you cannot remove the HDD and view it on your PC as an external drive due to the way FatX works. I only have a laptop with no ethernet port (but I do have a USB to IDE/SATA converter, so if I can make any use of that, that'd be great).

Am I SOL in my current situation and have to buy a USB ethernet adapter or is there anything I can do like burn applications to a CD and have the Xbox install it to the HDD? Any help would be appreciated.

Download the app dvd2xbox if you don't already have it preinstalled. Once that's on there, you can rip all your own backups right on the xbox itself. Put the game in the xbox, launch the app and "let it rip!" lol.

As for installing it, I would imagine that using the file manager method @DinohScene mentioned would probably work if you don't already have that app installed. As for installing future apps you would need to keep burning discs to copy it over via the file manager. Unless you get one of these handy adapters http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/130260984360?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82

I got mine on ebay a while back (different seller in the UK but yeah....) With this you can plug in a flashdrive/usb sd card reader to your xbox and transfer files without burning discs anymore

 

[DinohScene]

Ripping disc content with the filemanager also works, somehow it works better then DVD2Xbox for me.

To bad the flashdrives need to be FATX formatted before you can make use of them.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Ripping disc content with the filemanager also works, somehow it works better then DVD2Xbox for me.

To bad the flashdrives need to be FATX formatted before you can make use of them.

Well you can use special software to access the flashdrive (once formatted) on your pc. Also fun fact, if you're running linux on your xbox, you can use fat32 and other formats on your flashdrive (under linux) but it won't work in the dashboard or any other xbox specific stuff

 

[DinohScene]

It's not really quick and easy.
It's more for people who are further into the xbox scene like us two ;]

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

It's not really quick and easy.
It's more for people who are further into the xbox scene like us two ;]

I'm working on getting Xdsl all updated and relevant again in my spare time between my 2 part time jobs and game development (not too mention class starts up again soon XD). I won't derail this any further, but if you want to follow my progress, its here: http://gbatemp.net/threads/xdsl-xbox-damn-small-linux.393877/

 

[DinohScene]

Sweet, on watch list~

 

[Wantija]

Well thanks for the info! Turns out one of my friends has a laptop with an ethernet port so he'll be coming by to assist me in getting files onto it while I wait for a USB ethernet adapter. Since I'm at work right now and won't have acess to the Xbox for about 6 hours so I'll be going off of memory. When I was browsing around the apps last night I saw it had 2 other dashboards, (I'm using the blue one that's very similar to the original Xbox dash) is there any way to remove those extra dashboards? They looked aesthetically shitty lol and like you said clear it of junk. There was also a file manager but I forgot what it's called, I was able to browse the Xbox's HDD folders, but unable to do anything with the files, is using a file manager (somehow with the ability to delete files) how I delete applications off of the HDD?

It already has a 30gb HDD in it so I want to free up as much space as possible to play all those exclusives that I never played before, especially Metal Wolf Chaos.

 

[DinohScene]

Sounds like UnleashX.

I say format the F drive or delete its content.
Then delete all folders except "backup" (or something along those lines) "UDATA" and "TDATA" from the E drive (assuming UnleashX is installed in C).
If UnleashX is on D, leave it there.
Next, go into the MS dash and delete all saved games from the harddrive.

What you could do is FTP the C and D drive over to your laptop, zip them up and upload them to Filetrip.
I could take a look at them and delete all unneeded rubbish.

 

[stomp_442]

I highly suggest investing in a cheapo USB - LAN adapter.
Speed wise and less costly.

Will the same usb lan adapter that the Wii/wii u uses work with the xbox?

 

[DinohScene]

If it works on windows, it'll work yes.

 

[stomp_442]

If it works on windows, it'll work yes.

This might be a stupid question but isn't there already and enet port on the back of an xbox, why would you need a usb adapter for it?

 

[DinohScene]

I don't think you've quite read OP's post then.
A laptop with no working LAN port.

 

[stomp_442]

I don't think you've quite read OP's post then.
A laptop with no working LAN port.

my bad, I didn't fully read.

 

[DinohScene]

Can happen to anyone~
If the ethernet port on the xbox was broken then OP would resort to discs only.

 

[FAST6191]

USB to IDE adapters are troublesome with the xbox. Most of them do not support the locking commands that the standard softmods (only hardmods will dodge the requirement) need to access the drive, similarly you would also want the EEPROM/dvd keys from it.

If you had a USB adapter (or made one -- you solder the appropriate coloured wires to the same coloured wires in a USB extension and leave the yellow connected) you could do some stuff with that if you also manage to find a working USB drive, which is easier said than done in 2015 (back when we all had 2 gig drives you could try three or four and find a working one, today it is harder).

On the laptop not having ethernet... do you not have a router? Plug the xbox into the wired port on the router and go from there. It should happily speak to DHCP and get an IP address and otherwise do access like any other local network device.

Discs wise if you can find slayer's recovery disc and a copy of aid (aka auto installer deluxe, so a search and add xbox to the end and you should get something) then it will help you in the long run. As others have said try to get a copy of your EEPROM (AID should have some tools for it, use a PC tool called liveinfo to compare the serial it gives to the one on the sticker, said EEPROM will also allow you to unlock your hard drive).

 

[Wantija]

Ok so I'm back from work, here are the apps and stuff on the Xbox:

'Games'
Px HDD loader 1.1a
Snes emulator
Genesis emulator
N64 emulator
NES emulator

'Applications'
Xbox Media Player 2.4+
BoXplorer v0.96
Config Magic Final
xToolBox v0.41

'Dashboards'
EvolutionX
Avalaunch

From what I can tell, xToolBox is the file explorer and the FTP client.

 

[DinohScene]

You can delete Avalaunch, along with Boxplorer + Config magic + Xtoolbox + Xbox Media player + all the emulators and Px hdd loader (unless you want to keep some of them)
It seems that Evox is launched from E:

It's a good thing, means that the C drive is untouched.