Best xbox 360 fat disk drive that can be flashed without a probe

[mitch1256]

What is the best (ie, reliable and quiet) drive that is not the lite-on drive that does not need a probe? need a replacement for a jasper v2 and may replace the one in my xenon refurb since the hitachi 47 in it right now is loud as shit, and i really dont see if its worth it to buy a probe for only like 1-2 drive models.

 

[sith]

What is the best (ie, reliable and quiet) drive that is not the lite-on drive that does not need a probe? need a replacement for a jasper v2 and may replace the one in my xenon refurb since the hitachi 47 in it right now is loud as shit, and i really dont see if its worth it to buy a probe for only like 1-2 drive models.

haven't done this in years but i never bought a probe in the day, the circuit was simple and i would just solder it together with random parts around i think it was an NPN transistor, a switch and a sewing needle.

 

[FAST6191]

Technically you can dump keys from JTAG/RGH these days, and in case you missed it
https://gbatemp.net/threads/rgh3-chipless-glitching.602237/
That opens up USB and hard drive loading (as well as any size HDD, region free, homebrew, XBLA, DLC, cheats...)

If probe is a problem, and you don't fancy a manual effort, I imagine replacement boards will be as well which rules out several in the 360 slim world. Don't know how you feel about kamikaze hacks (and often wanted extras to do it really well..

https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-how-to-hack-your-360.334203/

Simplest then will be benq drives which are about as nice as liteon. If you are exceptionally lucky I think there are some early jaspers with them but good luck on that one.

 

[mitch1256]

Technically you can dump keys from JTAG/RGH these days, and in case you missed it
https://gbatemp.net/threads/rgh3-chipless-glitching.602237/
That opens up USB and hard drive loading (as well as any size HDD, region free, homebrew, XBLA, DLC, cheats...)

If probe is a problem, and you don't fancy a manual effort, I imagine replacement boards will be as well which rules out several in the 360 slim world. Don't know how you feel about kamikaze hacks (and often wanted extras to do it really well..

https://gbatemp.net/threads/guide-how-to-hack-your-360.334203/

Simplest then will be benq drives which are about as nice as liteon. If you are exceptionally lucky I think there are some early jaspers with them but good luck on that one.

I dont mind switching the boards, and its a fat, but i dont see the cost of a $20 probe to be that good, and i dont trust myself to modify the xbox 360 disk drive cable for a probe. Im gonna dump the key from my jasper v2 using RGH3, once i understand where the wires go, and im still guessing you need a flasher, but ill slap in a benq for both my boards if i ever get tired of this loud as hell hitachi 47 i flashed that is its stock drive

 

[godreborn]

personally, I'd put that xenon in the garbage. it's unlikely it's going to last. they're little more than space heaters. get a falcon+ or a slim if possible.

 

[mitch1256]

personally, I'd put that xenon in the garbage. it's unlikely it's going to last. they're little more than space heaters. get a falcon+ or a slim if possible.

Its a xenon refurb, and it still runs. If it has a korean gpu ill be really happy because it was made november 2008 so there is odds that it could have a korean gpu in it, i mean i only spent $12 on it so its not much of a risk, gives me parts and a disk drive for my jasper v2 to use when i rgh it. Even if it has a taiwan gpu in it, i have my Jasper V1 rgh that runs perfectly with no issues somewhere in my house

Besides, yeah its a space warmer, but also a good youtube machine, so i got my $12 worth even if i do change the thermal paste and it has a taiwan gpu. There is a couple slowdowns at times but that may be my internet

 

[FAST6191]

Good youtube machine with no adblock (DNS level things/stuff like pihole are great for general internet, tricky for youtube embedded things) , no download options and no https://sponsor.ajay.app/ and possibly no 2x speed (if not more)? Tough sell on that one, especially when various old computers are so cheap/easy.

On loud drives. I am not sure where Hitachis ended up in later years but back when there were firmwares that had lower read speeds and consequently less noise (less read speed = longer load times where DVD was at play as well). Such things were dropped on drive types I cared about, and then we got the fun with verification (earlier hacked firmwares had wave checks, which meant updates when new waves hit or you had to disable the checks by inserting a certain DVD each time). However XGD3 and some Hitachi stuff seemed minimal updates needed so some of the old stuff might still work at some level. Also if you are willing to play with jumping wires on hitachi stuff then you can do similar to send drive eject pulses on later things.

 

[mitch1256]

Good youtube machine with no adblock (DNS level things/stuff like pihole are great for general internet, tricky for youtube embedded things) , no download options and no https://sponsor.ajay.app/ and possibly no 2x speed (if not more)? Tough sell on that one, especially when various old computers are so cheap/easy.

On loud drives. I am not sure where Hitachis ended up in later years but back when there were firmwares that had lower read speeds and consequently less noise (less read speed = longer load times where DVD was at play as well). Such things were dropped on drive types I cared about, and then we got the fun with verification (earlier hacked firmwares had wave checks, which meant updates when new waves hit or you had to disable the checks by inserting a certain DVD each time). However XGD3 and some Hitachi stuff seemed minimal updates needed so some of the old stuff might still work at some level. Also if you are willing to play with jumping wires on hitachi stuff then you can do similar to send drive eject pulses on later things.

Is there any hacked firmwares with lower read speeds? I want to keep the hacked firmware while quieting the drive, i dont mind taking a little bit longer to load for this damn drive to shut up

 

[FAST6191]

I don't know about Hitachi specifics but at one point there were hacked DVD firmwares for a lot of drives with lower read speeds. It was dropped as it posed a potential security flaw/ban detection method reasonably early on.
The troubles with using them today would be XGD3 (a new disc standard that even MS upgraded a bunch of DVD firmwares for, though I think some hitachis dodged this need for an update) and any security the firmwares added to try to ensure valid discs, which stopped working when a new wave (basically a new bundled dashboard on the disc) came along meaning new flash session. Such validation was dropped officially (unofficially there was the NS line of firmwares) and people told "just use ABGX360 on the isos and the burns" after new waves kept coming along and updating both the drives and firmware was tedious. However I had no Hitachi drives in any kind of rotation for me and mine by that point (between RRoD, cheaper bundles and online bans then everybody I was nominally responsible for had upgraded so I was mostly looking at benq and liteon 7 series) so paid no attention to what went there or in the time since, and what little glimpses I saw would seem it was often a bit different compared to what others went through.

Such firmwares would be very old at this point and you might have to go rooting through xbins (assuming it is still around) to see if they still stock them as very little elsewhere would.


Also to be a technically complete pedant.
There is also the optical drive emulator route. Good luck finding one at a sensible price today though.

At one point there was some tests happening on drive replacement with a PC drive -- was some super rare drive that only came bundled with an OEM desktop (can't remember if Dell of HP) and I don't know if work was ever completed but potentially something.

 

[mitch1256]

I don't know about Hitachi specifics but at one point there were hacked DVD firmwares for a lot of drives with lower read speeds. It was dropped as it posed a potential security flaw/ban detection method reasonably early on.
The troubles with using them today would be XGD3 (a new disc standard that even MS upgraded a bunch of DVD firmwares for, though I think some hitachis dodged this need for an update) and any security the firmwares added to try to ensure valid discs, which stopped working when a new wave (basically a new bundled dashboard on the disc) came along meaning new flash session. Such validation was dropped officially (unofficially there was the NS line of firmwares) and people told "just use ABGX360 on the isos and the burns" after new waves kept coming along and updating both the drives and firmware was tedious. However I had no Hitachi drives in any kind of rotation for me and mine by that point (between RRoD, cheaper bundles and online bans then everybody I was nominally responsible for had upgraded so I was mostly looking at benq and liteon 7 series) so paid no attention to what went there or in the time since, and what little glimpses I saw would seem it was often a bit different compared to what others went through.

Such firmwares would be very old at this point and you might have to go rooting through xbins (assuming it is still around) to see if they still stock them as very little elsewhere would.


Also to be a technically complete pedant.
There is also the optical drive emulator route. Good luck finding one at a sensible price today though.

At one point there was some tests happening on drive replacement with a PC drive -- was some super rare drive that only came bundled with an OEM desktop (can't remember if Dell of HP) and I don't know if work was ever completed but potentially something.

I found the firmwares but idk if its updated enough

 

[FAST6191]

Pending waiting for someone that knows things for DVD firmwares and hitachis in general then you are probably going to have to grab those firmwares with nfo/changelog/update history, possibly some earlier ones (security was sometimes added over earlier stuff for no great other change), any later ones (might get away with one or two later ones if history is cumulative), any later guides to flashing, possibly some older guides to flashing (don't know if the old jungleflasher things are around).

The issues I foresee are still those two mentioned. That being XGD3 support (if you are not familiar then MS changed the disc format to claw back a bit of space and improve security a bit later into the 360 lifetime, which most subsequent games leant into, in turn needs you to either have a special burner or run a special payload onto a larger list of burners before burning) and any internal security checks being present that mean valid official discs will appear invalid to it as it was made before such disc waves became a thing and is a whitelist approach to such validations. XGD3 would be an almost certain killer on any other drive type for this little exercise but some hitachis managed to dodge needing an update for that so it would presumably follow that barring wave concerns (XGD3 also corresponds to new waves) so you might be in luck there.
Over the years there might have been other concerns and reasons to stick on other dashboards or some workarounds (it memory serves is not impossible to change a wave and still have a valid disc on DVD modded stuff, it is however a shining "ban me now" beacon that may or may not be tripped) but nothing that is in play today.

If your readings of the firmware changelogs mean you think you can pull it off, and if you can risk a ban* then maybe a test or two of the drives to see if it works.

*to my knowledge we have not seen a DVD caused ban in many years at this point -- just JTAG/RGH, dodgy credit cards and acting the fool online really. Whether they have some legacy exception I don't know as most will similarly have all been using current firmwares and ABGX360 so not like anybody would have come and told us, much less in enough numbers for a decent sample range.

You could possibly hack the hacked firmware, either to drop speeds in the latest efforts or dodge any of those hypothetical checks, but the hours required to probably even get a suitable software setup going on, never mind actually do the hacks as all that happened behind closed doors, could fund a probe.

 

[Armadillo]

If you just want the drive to be quiet, seems like it would be easiest to just use the install feature, rather than mess around with the drive. It will only be noisy while installing and for the quick check of the disc when you launch the game, before spinning down.

 

[mitch1256]

If you just want the drive to be quiet, seems like it would be easiest to just use the install feature, rather than mess around with the drive. It will only be noisy while installing and for the quick check of the disc when you launch the game, before spinning down.

Most of my games that i have arent installable, and the 2 that do one is viva pinata which i installed and the other is pgr3 which is scratched and wont install but the game disk works fine

 

[mitch1256]

If you just want the drive to be quiet, seems like it would be easiest to just use the install feature, rather than mess around with the drive. It will only be noisy while installing and for the quick check of the disc when you launch the game, before spinning down.

Most of my games that i have arent installable, and the 2 that do one is viva pinata which i installed and the other is pgr3 which is scratched and wont install but the game disk works fine

 

[Armadillo]

. I thought the option worked on everything, with just some games like halo 3, it's not recommended to use it. My mistake then (jtag here, so never used the official option).

 

[mitch1256]

. I thought the option worked on everything, with just some games like halo 3, it's not recommended to use it. My mistake then (jtag here, so never used the official option).

I use the official option on my RGH only if i cant get the disk2god thing to work because of a scratch, your fine lmao, and on my corona slim i used to use it before i basically abandoned it (planning to sell)