Original XBOX with dead HDD

Well, my model has the LPC header vias filled with solder. And here, I just could find the Aladdin one. I already did the soft mod and I think that I am happy with it. I can boot all my games from HDD without problem, so, modchip would be a option that I don´t need atm, once I could got my epprom from a cable.

Now, a bonus question: This is a japanese unit... and because of that, some games are showing japanese text (Panzer Dragoon Orta for example). So, is it safe to change the epprom settings to USA? I read something about a app called Config Magic that could do it.

 

Softmod is fine, but if you are using a PATA hard drive keep that eeprom.bin safe, and I recommend replacing it at some point with a modern SATA drive and a PATA to SATA converter. PATA drives are old. I don’t mean old technologically speaking, I mean they are literally old — I don’t think any companies have made PATA hard drives for years.

In other words, eventually this drive will die, too, and you know what to do when it does, but by then you might not even be able to find a working PATA drive!

Since you have a 1.0 Xbox, I think you can use most or all BIOSes by converting them to “BFM” files, which means “Bootable From Media” and allows you to boot into a completely modified BIOS (which is what a modchip does). If you’re willing to perform solder modifications you can even flash the Xbox’s TSOP BIOS chip with a modified BIOS and then it’s literally hardmodded without a modchip at all.

I would recommend at least looking into a TSOP flash, as I’ve heard a lot of modern SATA drives can’t be locked (and an unlocked drive would cause your Xbox to error on boot with any softmod).

As far as the EEPROM goes, frankly I don’t know as my Xbox is North American and the BIOS I use makes the console region free, but I’m inclined to believe you can set it however you like so long as the settings are valid — I don’t think that it has any real security on that part. You can also change your drive password with an EEPROM modification tool. I read somewhere about modifying the drive password to all zeroes so no backup would be needed to lock the drive.

 

We've (kinda) come full circle. After a period of no support, then bulky externals adapters, I just recently installed a factory-fresh M.2 SSD in an also factory-fresh PATA mount/adapter all inside a 2.5 case (making it a factory-fresh IDE SSD), to replace the ancient 30gig hdd in my dad's car nav, which wouldn't have had any room for adapters. It was only a 64gigger though so if you want terabytes of space to have every gaem evar (why??) in your Xbox you'll still need to go with an external adapter pcb.