Xbox 360 hard drives

[-Acid-]

I got my first 360 two weeks ago (yes a bit late in the day I know) but it didn't have a hard drive. It's the original Elite version 120GB model I believe and I would like to know if a hard drive from any model will work in it? Also can the hard drive case simply be opened and a bigger hard drive fitted into it? and if yes what needs to be done to get it working in the 360?

Finally the guy I got it off said it was a repaired RROD console and he also chipped it when he was fixing it. I've not had anyway to check if it is chipped or not but I have no reason to doubt him, but would it being chipped in any way affect the online functions? he told me it was not banned but can the chip be detected in anyway?

Thanks for any insights!

 

[roy_bates]

its been while since ive had a 360 but here goes.

you can put any harddrive from another 360 in it,there just sata 2.5 inch drives.
yeah,its pretty easy.

the chipped thing,dunnu never done it.

 

[scrappysphinx]

As above its been a while since i had a chipped xbox.

As roy said, you can use any xbox 360 hard drive (20gb, 60gb, 120gb, 250gb, 320gb) but they must be xbox hard drives as they use a special security sector. I.e. you can't just go out and buy a drive and just pop it in.

You can make your own but you need specific model of drives (WB Scorpio i believe) and you can only have whatever size the security sector has been dumped (i believe it is 320gb at the moment).

As for the chip, the last time i did one it was a firmware flash to the dvd drive, the custom firmware was stealthed but as with any modification nothing is 100%

You may get away online for a while but then you may only last 5 minutes before its detected. I haven't kept up for a long time but they used to release periodic updated stealth firmwares to try and stay in front so you may also need a way to keep upgrading the drives firmware. This used to require a specific VIA Sata chipset but i believe there's much easier ways of doing things nowadays.

 

[-Acid-]

The chipped thing sounds like a hassle. The ironic part is I do not intend to use backups it's just it was in the console when I got it. I don't game online that much anyway I think I could do without the online functionality (got a PC for that). I mostly intend to play the single player portion of games such as Dark Sector which I got with the console. Online FPS gaming is the realm of the pc for my money.

On the hard drive front, so I can get any hard drive for it but upgrading the drive is more complicated. That sounds straight forward enough, I know having a hard drive speeds up loading of textures and you can save game data there so if I am not looking to be using DLC and all that stuff, is a 20 or 40GB drive sufficient?

 

[scrappysphinx]

A 20gb (there is no 40gb Xbox HDD) will be fine for saving stuff but the xbox allows you to install the games to the hard drive for faster loading times so that might be worth considering. Just remember it must be an xbox hard drive to work.

Alternatively you can use a USB drive as long as it's USB 2.0 or faster and it will only allow you to use up to 32gb.

To use a USB just insert it and go to storage options and format the USB for Xbox use (will destroy any data already on the drive)

 

[ShambleS1980]

havent heard of any one being banned for a flashed dvd player in a long time now, but i always wait till the end of november as ms usually roll out a huge ban wave around that time ready for christmas and thats when you usually see what ms had found in regards to detecting things.

 

[ColourWheel64]

ms usually roll out a huge ban wave around that time ready for christmas

As cut-throat tactics go, and as much as I hate the practice of throttling an owner's computer, this is brilliant on so many levels.

Controlling piracy must be very important to Microsoft.

 

[slk486]

Controlling piracy must be very important to Microsoft.

Well, it ought to be for everyone

If "chipped" in this case means a jtag or RGH, then it doesn't matter what kind of HDD you put in. Also, if it's "chipped", then it needs custom firmware, either on the Xbox or the DVD drive, and both cases are likely to get the console banned if you go online.

keropi is a better source of knowledge on this, though.

 

[-Acid-]

Besides burning an iso out and trying it, is there any other way to tell if the console is chipped without opening it?

 

[slk486]

Besides burning an iso out and trying it, is there any other way to tell if the console is chipped without opening it?

It ought to boot to freestyle dash if it's a jtag/rgh, but if it's just a custom firmware on the DVD drive, then you'd have to burn an ISO to check.

 

[scrappysphinx]

Most xbox 360 games require dual layer disks too

 

[-Acid-]

Well i've found a guide to using your own hard drive which i'm going to try. I've ordered an empty hd shell from China off ebay. Assuming it works as it should I will have a nice 250GB drive for about £40 all in (if I buy a brand new drive... looking for a cheaper used one on the other bay). Will report back the outcome later.

 

[mjnurney]

some pointers.

you need a western digital 2.5 data hdd of 20 / 120 / 250/320 / 500 gb and the tool hddhackr for a windows PC. beware flashing the firmware can kill the drive.

if you wish to play old xbox games then you need to copy the contents of a real 360 hdd with its partition data and firmware / emulator or you will get an error.

Works with the following Western Digital drive series only: [BEAS/BEVS/BEVT/BPVT/LPVT/BEKT/BJKT/BPKT/BUDT/HLFS/BLFS]

as for flashing the xbox , you need the latestest use the latest iXtreme LT+ 3.0 firmware on the dvd drive. JTAG and RGH mods require soldering and a huge amount of patience...

all these operations can take minutes to hours and can bugger up some / all / everything.

mike

 

[ShambleS1980]

ms usually roll out a huge ban wave around that time ready for christmas

As cut-throat tactics go, and as much as I hate the practice of throttling an owner's computer, this is brilliant on so many levels.

Controlling piracy must be very important to Microsoft.

its kinda sneaky really.
they could just ban as they find out. but they seem to like to wait till late in november when kids have asked for a game or 2 for christmas or some addon or something. so when they get banned they are more likley to buy a new console because they have something already orderd for the console.
it is also a good time to do it because if they havent asked for anything yet/parents havent bought them any thing.
then they can ask for a new console for christmas.

never used a hacked 360 online, i dont really like the idea of being able to use hacked consoles on the internet at all. i dont like to see cheaters online and hacking things just makes it easier to cheat.

 

[protek]

Well i've found a guide to using your own hard drive which i'm going to try. I've ordered an empty hd shell from China off ebay. Assuming it works as it should I will have a nice 250GB drive for about £40 all in (if I buy a brand new drive... looking for a cheaper used one on the other bay). Will report back the outcome later.

I've done this procedure before and actually have a thread about it here. I managed to rewrite the security sector and format it to full 250 GB capacity but I must've done something wrong in either restoring partition 2 or my own content in partition 3 as I ended up with only 120 GB capacity. After I swapped to Slim, I could repartition and format it back to full capacity. This time the restoration of partition 2 didn't affect the capacity so it must've been the utility used to restore my savegames that screwed it up the first time as these are capacity specific.

Also worth noting that some instructions say to format the new drive in Xbox right after flashing and partitioning, before you restore partition 2 containing the original Xbox emulator. The instructions behind this link doesn't tell you to do this. On the other hand you'd think that formatting the hard drive in Xbox shouldn't affect partition 2.

The instructions behind the link are pretty straightforward but feel free to PM me if you have any questions.