First time xbox sofmod & few questions

Hey guys,

Well after spending at least 6 hours or so reading up about how to softmod an original xbox I have, I decided to sign up here because it seems like the most friendly and up to date place around.

I'm going to be using the hot swapping approach. I've got an old pc which I'll hopefully be able to use. If not I'll use my current one. My hope in the end is to replace the xbox HDD with a bigger one... only a 40GB for the moment till I buy a bigger one but I'm just worried about making sure I get a backup of what I need and the eeprom stuff.

I was going to use THIS Guide and xplorer360 to access the xbox hdd. I understand the hot swapping part but I'm stuck at the point of knowing what to replace in the C:\ & E:\ folders to put in a dashboard and whatever else I might need to do like re-locking the hdd when I'm finished if I even need to. I spent ages elsewhere looking for software and at out of date guides but I wasn't 100% sure going ahead with anything and software was a bit hard to find without broken links and stuff.

So If anyone could help me out a little with advice or point me in the right direction that would be really great. Thanks.

 

What ever soft mod you use will also install an alternate dashboard , if you want it purely for gaming then UnleashX or Evox but be best for you. If you want it as a media centre and gaming machine then XBMC would be ideal, best place for xbox info is xbmc4xbox.org .Dont use xplorer360 as its crap for any larger than gamesave exploit files , dont replace any files on C or E unless you are 100% sure you are replacing the right files.

 

Use XBOXHDM + NDURE to get going, then you can use Slayers Auto Installer, or AID to finish the job on how you want it.

 

XBOXHDM is definitely the best tool for doing a HDD upgrade. You can just install any dash to start with then FTP over what you really want. I prefer UnleashX.

 

I use splinter exploit then flash the tsop (V1-1.4) before adding a larger hdd then there is no stuffing around burning discs or hotswapping , V1.6 i just leave softmodded and sell off.

 

TSOPing is no longer a softmod, that involves soldering and what not. Yes TSOP is a much better option, but not everyone can do no matter how simple it is.

@OP

It will be much more easier to load an exploit and softmod your XBOX with the OEM Hard Disk, FTP your EEPROM, and lock a larger Hard Disk with XBOXHDM by EEPROM. Then install it into your XBOX.
To softmod quickly, you can follow my tutorial here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?46169-TUTORIAL-Softmod

 

I used the Splinter Cell method on my 1.4 Then I FTPed a HDD tool in that will copy the original drive to the new one by removing the DVD drive and putting new HDD in its place. It did everything from setting drive up, copying files and partitions, to even locking to the console. then shut everything down and swapped the old for new drive. Everything worked until my dashboard decided to take a dump on me a few months back. Haven't gotten around to fixing it yet...

I plan to TSOP the BIOS sometime soon so I can add LBA48 support for my 320GB drive. BIOS only has LBA28 it seems since anything over 137GB won't even show up in it. That or the HDD tool I used didn't like my drive even though it is on the list of confirmed working models for the Xbox. Not sure. May try the exterior method for locking the drive or else just use alternate BIOS to ditch the need for even locking it at all.

 

Thanks guys, that's some great advice.

I attempted the hotswap method 2 times but I've ran into trouble. Here's what I did... The first time I ran my xbox with a cd in and played a song and paused it as I read that this unlocks the hdd but as I'm writing this I just realised I think I should have played a song that was burnt to the hdd...

Well then I then powered on my pc and loaded the usb ( I was using xboxhdm 2.2 & ndure 3.1 and I put the stockfiles from the hexen disc into the hdm C & E folders on my usb drive and installed the grub loader etc) Then I did the hotswap then loaded loaded up linux and went to use the Konsole and typed xboxhdm2 and it said hdm directory not found. no xbox files avaliable.

So I thought maybe I did something wrong with the usb or the xbox hdd wasn't unlocked so I re made the usb and this time I unplugged the xbox cd drive to try to get error 12 to unlock the hdd but I got error 07. So I'm guessing I've screwed up my xbox hdd or there's a problem with the ide cable or it's not plugged in right somewhere which I'm gonna check and see in a bit. cheers.

 

It doesn't matter what error you get during the hotswap, as long as the hard disk unlocks. This is a very fiddly process, so when the light flashes red for the first time, you must swap the hard disk then. I honestly suggest you softmod by an exploit and lock by EEPROM file with XBOXHDM, it will stop you from getting annoyed with hot swapping. When I first did it I was very confused with hotswapping and timing it.

 

I followed this guide, the files referred to in it are easily found if you know how to use google

 

Thanks guys, Only problem is for me with that guide is I only have one IDE slot so I think I would have to use xboxhdm instead of xplorer360 which I was gonna do until I got the 07 error. I tried using an old pc with 2 slots but it wouldn't detect any usbs so I had to use my current pc.

Anyway due to frustration I just bought a softmod kit with splinter cell and a adapter and a usb with files on so hopefully I can get rid of the 07 error when I boot my xbox and have a go at doing that as it seems a bit more easier.

 

Was gonna say it would probably be easier to just buy the kit, hopefully it won't give you any problems.

 

Sorry I can't help (my XBox is hard modded), but whatever you do, it's well worth it as a modded XBox is *brilliant* as an emulation station (it has superb emulators for almost every 8 and 16 bit system ever, plus emulators for some later systems, though those emulators tend to be less accurate or compatible, due to the higher system requirements that the XBox can't match up to).


http://www.xboxscene.com/ and it's forum (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?c=103,107,109,112,110,104,111,113) is the best place for XBox 1 information of all kinds.

For all questions about emulators on the XBox, see http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=524593

XBMC is a superb media player, and you can use DVD2XBox to install all XBox games to the hard drive (you really should get a larger hard drive for the XBox, as the standard XBox HD is only 10 or 12 or 20GB) so you can play them without needing to insert the disc, plus you can play all emulators and media files (via XBMC) from the hard drive if you like (it's *so* convenient, having your entire XBox game collection on the hard drive, along with the SNES emulator + all SNES games, MAME + games, Megadrive emulator + games, etc).

 

Yeah thanks for the info. Im only really interested in emu's espcially nes, snes and gba games and also putting a few xbox games on there. I can do the media stuff on my 360 or pc. I need to sort out emulators. I was also looking at coinops 2. I know it's a big download but is it worth it do you think?

I've got the choice to install evolution or unleash when i start so what would you guys say is best for gaming only?

 

UnleashX. EvoX (remoteX) is absolute balls. I only use it for flashing chips/TSOP.

 

When I softmodded I installed EvoX and hated it with a passion. It includes absolutely nothing in way of functions. UnleashX has almost everything I need in it.

 

To be fair to EvoX, it was great when there was little else that was decent around. Nowadays, there is little reason to use it.

 

Just use AIDS or Slayer and be done with it. Or step you're game up and use a mod chip.

 

Actually they are 8 and 10 :wink-new:

 

Getting an Exploit/splinter cell kit is the safest easiest way to go around. Just get the eeprom key, make new hard drive with xboxhdm, done. Ultra Safe.

However you need a perfectly functionnal xbox to begin with. This does not seem clear to me from reading your posts, if you messed up your Xbox Hdd, the exploit is not gonna help you. You would either need an eeprom reader or a modchip.