I really haven't looked into original xbox modding in quite a while, I recently got a v1.3 or maybe v1.4 xbox that I want to mod. I've already done a softmod on it and I have begun to design the shell, probably a red on white scheme. I also have an 80gb seagate IDE drive lying around that I want to put in, the problem is that it is not lockable. How can I use this drive? I don't care what I need to do, I can solder and do whatever I need. I just want to be able to clone the existing drive and use the new one. I would preferably like to be able to be able to use this drive as well as be able to use the xbox without a DVD drive if that is possible as I may try a "slimbox"mod. If there is a way I could plug the second drive into the dvd drive IDE then that would also work. If someone can direct me with a decent tutorial and the downloads I need for this that'd be great. Thanks guys, btw when I do the mods I will make sure to update this thread.
As far as I'm aware there is no way to remove the DVD-ROM and use a second HDD at the same time. I know of ways to get two HDDs to work with a switch to change between one and the other but the XBox simply wasn't built with that idea in mind. You can daisy-chain USB drives till your heart is content but you're obviously limited to USB1.1; might as well use samba shares for all it matters at that speed. As per using a non-lockable HDD you have two options: do a TSOP flash (bridge two sets of points on the mobo and reflash the onboard TSOP chip with a 3rd party BIOS) or install a modchip. A modchip allows for greater flexibility and if you screw up flashing a BIOS onto it it's easy to recover from. If you screw up a TSOP flash you will need a modchip be it a 29 wire to recover the TSOP or a regular LPC based modchip. The Aladdin XT is probably the modchip of choice right now unless you feel adventurous enough to try a cheapmod.
Thanks for the very quick response, I think I will do the TSOP flash. After I solder the points, how do I go about flashing? Can you direct me somewhere where I can download a 3rd party bios that would allow unlocked hard drives?
How to flash TSOP: 1) Load EvoX (via exploit, disc or hard drive) 2) Pick BIOS from menu 3) Click on Flash BIOS That's pretty much all there is to it (assuming you've already write enabled the TSOP). BIOS choice is pretty much a personal decision. I tend to favor M8+, others prefer X2 variants. Pretty much all of them should allow unlocked hard drives. If you want to run DVD free you'll either need to find a BIOS that has been edited or edit your own.
The M8+ allows for no DVD check and will run the console with no DVD drive. I confirmed this on my setup when running it TSOP flashed with my 1.2 console. I had no problems flashing it with the last version Gentoox loader. I don't use it any more as I flashed the IND-BIOS to prepare for a 128MB RAM upgrade. If you want to go that route I believe it has no DVD check in there too. I used IND-BIOS 5003 until my system crashed either due to bad BIOS configuration or dead HDD. Now waiting on a Xecuter 2.6 to fix it.
