Original xbox; pc dvd drive and backups

[oodhfshdfbs]

so I was looking at this this tutorial;
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/swap-dvd.php

and I notice that by modifying the xbox this way it can only read back up copies. there isn't much elaboration there, it mentions putting cd-r's into the xbox. but surely a cd-r wouldn't be big enough to hold all the data for an xbox game? you can only burn xbox backups onto dvd-r discs right?

also, is that all there is to it? or are there any other modifications someone would need to make to the console so that it can play a backup of a game? presumably just follow a tutorial online for extracting a file of the game (iso?) and burn this onto a blank disc.

 

[DinohScene]

Best thing to do is to just softmod it.
You can, with a little bit of tinkering, put a larger IDE harddisk in the console.

That allows you to boot games from the internal drive.
Eliminating the need for DVD's ;]

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

i'm not really looking to softmod it, at least not right now anyway. I have a faulty dvd drive in the xbox but have a spare pc dvd drive which I can put to good use, so it would make sense for me to try this out first.
also I presumed all games would be too large for cd-r media, but after looking around for a bit I found some xbox games that were only about 300 or 400mb. most cd-r's are about 700-800mb so in terms of storage that might be sufficient for some? but would the xbox still read a game on cd media? or does it have to be on dvd for the console to recognise it and play the game? another thing i'm wondering about, could using a pc dvd drive get around the issue of region locked backups? would the pal xbox play a backup of an ntsc game if it reads from a pc dvd drive?

 

[DinohScene]

If you do want to modify it that way, you'll have to modchip it as well iirc..
The Xbox can't read extracted gamefiles without an alternative dashboard tho, so you're out of luck for that.
And nope, in order to region free it, you'll have to softmod/hardmod it.

Seriously, the best option is to softmod it ;p

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

ok i've decided i'm gonna attempt to softmod it. I had a try with the pc drives but i've changed my mind on it.... it has a 10 gb seagate drive in there currently, i'd like something much much bigger than this. what is the highest capacity that the xbox will support? have you got a good link for going through it all.

 

[DinohScene]

FATX has a 2TB limit.
Dun think you can find 2 TB IDE HDD's
Maybe a 1 TB if you look hard enough.
I got a 160 GB in mine and it's plenty of space.
320/500GB would be more then enough.

The BIOS will make separate 137 GB (Atleast around 130GB) partitions cause it can only address a limited amount of space per partition.

So your layout should be
C:/ (500 MB) for the dash.
E:/ (5000 MB) for savegames and DLC
F:/ (137 GB) extended partition for gamerips/homebrew
G:/ (137 GB) extended partition for gamerips/homebrew
H:/ (137 GB) extended partition for gamerips/homebrew
And so forth.

The number of extended partitions all depend on the HDD size you decide to plonk in.
With a 320 GB HDD, you'll get space for roughly 80 games.
Which is more then enough (unless you're a hoarder)

A good tutorial on how to plonk in a new HDD can be found here.

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

thanks, that sounds good. will look at something 320-500 in size. had a quick look at the tutorial and it seems easy enough to go through.

 

[pyromaniac123]

http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list < lists all known hdd's that are compatible.

 

[DinohScene]

It's hard to find an IDE drive that's incompatible.
But indeed it does happen.

Good luck on your search!

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

thanks for posting the list, just looking over it, i'm looking for drives here that are still available to buy new and don't have a lot of negative comments? I saw one which was listed new checked it on the list, but a lot of comments saying how they have trouble with the games being read from the drive.

edit;
just realised a lot of the drives i'm looking at aren't actually new.... they are refurbished by the company the made it, are they prone to be more unreliable than a new ide drive? is it actually still possible to get a new ide drive?

 

[DinohScene]

I don't think it's possible to get a new IDE drive.
Just pull them from an old PC you find at the scrapyard or something ;p
Hell I pulled mine out of an old PC me neighbor gave me.
It works perfectly fine.

What you could do is periodically back up your entire E partition (the savegames etc)
And place them on your PC's hard drive.
If the drive ever fails then you at least got a backup of your saved games.

But honestly, if the drive is refurbished then it's usually good enough for sales so it means it's pretty reliable.


Btw, I got an original Philips DVD drive here laying around.
I assume yours is broken since you mentioned using a PC DVD drive.
If you want, you could get it for a couple of quid + shipping.

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

thanks, I might look into my local freecycle and see if someone has a pc going for free or try and find someone who is scrapping one. that's a good idea on backing it up, i'd not thought about that! that would be brilliant, i'll send you a pm cheers.

 

[DinohScene]

You could get 2 harddisks of the same size.
Prep them both and copy games to both the drives.
Place one drive in storage and the other in the Xbox.

Then keep on backing up the saves until either the HDD dies (which shouldn't happen soon) or you either get bored of it and never touch it again ;p

Oh, for backup purposes, keep the original 8/10GB harddisk that came with the console.
If you ever want to restore it as a stock drive, it's then just a matter of plonking it in ;]

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

good ideas! thanks again

 

[Jayro]

My Xbox is softmodded, and plays DVD-R games as if they were originals. I even installed Burnout 3 and GTA 3 to the harddrive to cut their lengthy load times down.

 

[tbgtbg]

so I was looking at this this tutorial;
http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/swap-dvd.php

and I notice that by modifying the xbox this way it can only read back up copies. there isn't much elaboration there, it mentions putting cd-r's into the xbox. but surely a cd-r wouldn't be big enough to hold all the data for an xbox game? you can only burn xbox backups onto dvd-r discs right?

There are a few games that are small enough to fit on a CD. I believe The Thing is one such game.

Also, possible he just meant using CD-R for apps or even music to rip for custom soundtracks. Many Xboxes won't read CD-R at all without doing something like this, which made ripping music you got from the internet a pain in the ass.

 

[oodhfshdfbs]

thanks, I was a little confused when reading it , I assumed all xbox games were produced on dvd media and the console would only read dvds. but didn't think that they might be small enough to be put onto cd's. I tested with a power splitter some of the pc optical drives I have and yea, there needs to be additional modification done to the console to get it working and reading cd's from different brands of optical drives. either that or very specific drives only.