Got an original xbox for free. How to I get it working, and how do I mod?

[Armadillo]

At least in the working 1.6, with the second unit's DVD drive, it kind of has the inverse problem. DVD drive not wanting to eject out. But when I stick a game in, it does load readily. At least once I get the tray open, I can load a game.

Clean and new belt. Unfortunately samsung drives have a habit of getting some sort of eject issue & there's not much you can do other than clean and change the belt & hope it sorts it . Leaving a disc in often lets them eject fine for whatever reason as well.

Gave the first attempt at trying to copy a game disc with Chaos theory, and then with XIII. Chaos Theory seems to give an error 112 in the dash almost immediately. But XIII copied and loaded fine.

112 means there is not enough space for the game. XIII is smaller than Chaos Theory.

I guess now I need to know what I have to do if say, I want to use a 2TB hard drive in either of these.

Two options on a softmodded console.

Chimp, runs on xbox and you have both hdd hooked up at the same time and it will clone it for you. You basically hook both drives up to the box at the same time, once it's booted. Here is a basic tutorial

http://www.xbox-hq.com/html/xbox-tutorials-260.html

Although it says for 1.0-1.5, chimp has since been updated, so as long as you grab version 2.6 something, you'll be fine. Only reason 1.6 was different before is you had no video output and had to telnet, 2.6 fixes that.

Xboxhdm.

Dump eeprom, copy C: and E: from xbox. Build xboxhdm image including your C:, E: and eeprom. Have xboxhdm rebuild the drive, it will use your files (so the softmod) and then you can lock it using the eeprom image.

Either method leaves the original drive intact, so anything goes wrong you can just start over.

And would a hybrid hard drive, or even an SSD work in one of these systems, I wonder?

I've seen people say they have used them fine. Once you go over to SATA drives, there are no guarantees though. You'll need an adapter that works with the xbox and fits (xbox can be fussy over them for some reason), & supports locking/unlocking the drive.

I also remember reading something about backing up the EEPROM. How would I do that in one of these systems?

Config magic can dump it.

Since I basically could scavenge from the 1.0 system, would I be able to use the soft-modded hard drive from the 1.0 system (since it had 10GB instead of 8) on 1.6-2 to get it to boot properly?

No. Drive is locked. You'd need to remove the lock and then lock it with the key from the 1.6 before it would take it.

 

[codezer0]

Is there something specific I need to look for, in order to use a SATA drive & adapter to replace the internal PATA drive? Annoyingly, SATA at least seems to be about the one real choice I have, in part because no local stores even offer or sell PATA drives anymore, and what few I can find online are at best around 200GB, when I could see myself using 1TB, if not more.

And if it comes to needing a modchip, are there even any being made anymore, much less at a reasonable price? A part of me has to wonder that any left would be furiously marked up.

Funny thing is, I remember buying a pack of drive belts that helped get a second-hand 360 up and running, and had plenty left over. They probably would be the right size as a drop-in replacement for the Samsung DVD drives. I was tempted to snatch the belt out of the Thomson unit, but upon getting to see it, realized it was much longer than the belt in the Samsung units. I just wish I could find it right about now so I could at least try, without having to try to buy another set.

 

[Armadillo]

Is there something specific I need to look for, in order to use a SATA drive & adapter to replace the internal PATA drive?

Not really. There is nothing to look for that will say X will work, while Y won't. Xbox can just be fussy, that's all. You are either best going with the cheapest you can find, incase it doesn't work or buy one others report to work. There is a big thread here (still being updated even now), with compatiblity of the adapters.

http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/forum/v...id=1451e509dc61edcfca3a6ba0f1a908c6&start=160

And if it comes to needing a modchip, are there even any being made anymore, much less at a reasonable price? A part of me has to wonder that any left would be furiously marked up.

Yeah, you can still get them.

http://www.eurasia.nu/shop/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=266

They aren't really marked up, because of softmods. There's very little chips offer over softmod (booting with a blank/unlocked hdd is it really).

 

[codezer0]

Well, at least for the one that currently is giving Error 16, it does seem like it would be far faster to get it up and running, if I had one of these modchips.

That said, one thing I definitely have been running into with either remaining xbox... I was initially trying to get them to all be using the 80-pin EIDE cables. However, even with the one that was the longest and most capable of reaching each, I found that in every case, the uh... connectors, as it were, are almost always upside-down to how the DVD, Hard drive, and board connectors are. And only one seems to be loing enough to actually reach all points on the original Xbox components. So, the question is, is there anything I could do, or is it a case where the benefits of going to an 80-pin not enough to warrant trying to hunt down some compatible cables for each?

Also, now that I am aware of these apps to run on the Xbox, how exactly would I get them on there? since I don't have one of those Xbox-to-USB adaptors, I'm guessing I need to FTP it somehow? To where, though?

I apologize ahead of time for sounding very newbish, but this more or less my first round with a working Xbox. Just trying to gauge how much I actually can do with this UnleashX on it. It is curious how the maker of the dash is saying it's not an actual soft-mod. So, what would that be?

 

[Armadillo]

That said, one thing I definitely have been running into with either remaining xbox... I was initially trying to get them to all be using the 80-pin EIDE cables. However, even with the one that was the longest and most capable of reaching each, I found that in every case, the uh... connectors, as it were, are almost always upside-down to how the DVD, Hard drive, and board connectors are. And only one seems to be loing enough to actually reach all points on the original Xbox components. So, the question is, is there anything I could do, or is it a case where the benefits of going to an 80-pin not enough to warrant trying to hunt down some compatible cables for each?

If you intend to use an SATA adapter, you'll have to hunt for long enough cables as most of the SATA->IDE adapters, don't work with a 40pin cable. As for the end of the cable being upside down compared to the connector, you just have to try to fold it, much like the original cables to get it the right way around. They are pretty tough, so you'd also be fine just twisting the cable to get it the right way around.

Also, now that I am aware of these apps to run on the Xbox, how exactly would I get them on there? since I don't have one of those Xbox-to-USB adaptors, I'm guessing I need to FTP it somehow? To where, though?

FTP. The alternate dashboards have an ftp server in built in. UnleashX (which seems to be what you have) definitely has one. Most dashboards look for apps by default in E:\apps and F:\apps. So you would ftp in and put them in one of those folders (you can create them if they are not already there).

Just trying to gauge how much I actually can do with this UnleashX on it. It is curious how the maker of the dash is saying it's not an actual soft-mod. So, what would that be?

UnleashX is just one of many replacement dashboards for the xbox. The softmod is ndure and is invisible to the end user once installed on a box.

 

[codezer0]

Okay, very much appreciated for the info thus far. Still, one thing you said brought up another question, however.

UnleashX is just one of many replacement dashboards for the xbox. The softmod is ndure and is invisible to the end user once installed on a box.

In that event, would that mean that (say, if crunched for space like I currently am), I would be able to use CD/DVD backups for the original Xbox games on the system in question? Granted, I know I should probably make sure I get that DVD drive working first if I'm going to start using burned discs en masse like that.

 

[Armadillo]

I would be able to use CD/DVD backups for the original Xbox games on the system in question

Yeah, you can play from disc if you don't have space on the hdd.

Only thing I can't remember is if it will if it's in the drive when powered on (say if you left the game in the drive when you last finished playing & powered off), but it will definitely play burnt discs if put in the system once booted up.

 

[codezer0]

Okay, this is weird.

So I have config magic on there at least already. Saw an option to be able to lock or unlock the hard drive along with backing up the EEPROM.

It did occur to me that maybe I could try unlocking the hard drive so that I could maybe do something about the other 1.6, so I had that set up to ask on here beforehand.

However, now when I start up said system, I get an Xbox error 05. To be fair, I hadn't swapped over the hard drive yet. This is just on the same 1.6 that I successfully soft-modded.

So, uh... what do I do? and would unlocking said hard drive and migrating it over actually be something I could do to at least get the other one operational?

 

[Armadillo]

Okay, this is weird.

So I have config magic on there at least already. Saw an option to be able to lock or unlock the hard drive along with backing up the EEPROM.

It did occur to me that maybe I could try unlocking the hard drive so that I could maybe do something about the other 1.6, so I had that set up to ask on here beforehand.

However, now when I start up said system, I get an Xbox error 05. To be fair, I hadn't swapped over the hard drive yet. This is just on the same 1.6 that I successfully soft-modded.

So, uh... what do I do? and would unlocking said hard drive and migrating it over actually be something I could do to at least get the other one operational?

Error 05 is hdd not locked. Sounds like you must have unlocked the drive accidentally already when you were in config magic.

As for what you can do, if you backed up up your eeprom, then you can use that and xboxhdm on pc to relock the drive for that xbox. If you have no eeprom backup, then the only options are chip or build an eeprom reader (search xbox eeprom reader, as there multiple designs), not too hard and dump the eeprom using that, then xboxhdm and lock the drive.

As for the other question. A softmodded box can't be booted with an unlocked drive. It has to have a drive that has been locked to that system with the correct key (key is in the eeprom). Only a chipped or tsop flashed xbox can run with a drive that isn't locked to the xbox.

 

[codezer0]

Okay, the EEPROM backup is on the xbox hard drive's contents, would xbox hdm be able to read that?

 

[Armadillo]

Okay, the EEPROM backup is on the xbox hard drive's contents, would xbox hdm be able to read that?

For locking/unlocking, xboxhdm has to built with the eeprom.bin in xboxhdm\linux\eeprom. I think it has a file browser (been a long time since I used it), that would let you retreive it, copy it somewhere else, then rebuild. But would mean having to make two copies of xboxhdm.

Xplorer360 (as the name suggests, designed for 360, but fatx is fatx) can read the fatx file system. So you could use that to browse the unlocked drive, extract the eeprom bin then use it and xboxhdm to relock the drive.