If you have your HDD key on your PC then it is an easy fix. Use a bootable XBOXHDM linux CD on your PC to unlock, fix and re-lock a bricked XBOX-1's HDD.
Or try to "hot-swap" the HDD?
Don't forget that with most bricked soft-mods you can still boot original games. Boot your softmod game (Splinter Cell 1), load the hacked softmod save game (assuming it's still on the hard drive). UnleashX will load and you have FTP access.
I have 31096 on my Xbox which was the last build from sometime in January
http://sshcs.com/xbmc/?mode=NSAC&AR=XBOX
XBOX still cannot play most 720p x264 but the optimisations mean it can do the new SD TVRips in x264 format. Better quality. Smaller files.