Upgrade hard drive?

MayoForSam

With the new NXE update coming soon, I was wondering has anyone been tempted to upgrade their 20GB hard drive to something more substantial?

The ability to install games will speed up loading times and more importantly, reduce the decibel levels from the DVD spinning around like a dervish all of the time. The 20GB stardard drive will only allow about 1 game at a time to be installed (based on having a few game saves and demos on there as well) so that's far from ideal.

Apparently MS are going to offer an upgrade kit (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=280806) soon buts that's not great value for a 60GB drive.

An alternative is to do a DIY upgrade using a standard WD laptop drive (tutorial here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=660096) which would give you a much beefier 120GB of space (i.e. an Elite).

The only potential pitfall I can see is the potentially complicated transfer of your profile and DLC from your old drive to the new one, but if it works, it would be great.

Vic Vinegar

€80 isn't a bad price really for a 60 gig hd and 3 months of xbox live. The other method tempted me but seems really complicated and I wonder how easy it is to find that specific hard drive in shops/online (Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS 120 GB SATA hard drive)

Burning Eclipse

I preempted and bought a 120 gb of ebay... €60 delivered, good times trying to sell the 20gb at the mo, recoup some of the losses!!

Vic Vinegar

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

I preempted and bought a 120 gb of ebay... €60 delivered, good times trying to sell the 20gb at the mo, recoup some of the losses!!

€60? is that new? do you have a link?

bucks73

Im going to be upgrading to the Elite myself to make use of the 120GB. The DVD drive on my console is knackered anyway and can take a fair few attempts of opening and closing the drawer before it reads there is a game in there so will trade it in a couple of weeks.

Scruff

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

€80 isn't a bad price really for a 60 gig hd and 3 months of xbox live. The other method tempted me but seems really complicated and I wonder how easy it is to find that specific hard drive in shops/online (Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS 120 GB SATA hard drive)

Dabs.ie have it for €43 + del.
Am tempted to try this myself but my pc doenst have a sata interface needed to do the hack

ps1086

Dont suppose anyone has one of those migration cables knocking about. I bought a cheap 120gb hard drive and it came without one!

Burning Eclipse

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

€60? is that new? do you have a link?

I was taken from a refurbished machine. Came to me like new only issue I had with the seller was the delivery. I won the auction for €45 and delivery from Dublin was €15... steep!! Still great price overall!!

Linky

Vic Vinegar

Not too bad! i was looking on ebay, i found some new ones for 90 dollars inc delivery (€70 ish) pretty good, but they are from China! don't know if they would be the real deal or just a hard drive case filled with ants.....:D

Just saw he has 100% positive feedback! might be worth a shot!

stev2604

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

Not too bad! i was looking on ebay, i found some new ones for 90 dollars inc delivery (€70 ish) pretty good, but they are from China! don't know if they would be the real deal or just a hard drive case filled with ants.....:D

Just saw he has 100% positive feedback! might be worth a shot!

Be careful though, if the transfer disc is from a different region you won't be able to transfer your saves etc to your new hard drive.

MayoForSam

These guys on Ebay are offering the upgrade including file transfer for around €56 inclusive: http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150307301617&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX&refitem=220273472612&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26ps%3D42. You will be without a HD for a while and they hang on to the 20 GB drive (who would want that anyway?). Another possible option to consider.

Burning Eclipse

Bombleswizzum, slight caveat; because they're taken from refurbs, they don't come with the transfer cable or disc. I borrowed mine from a mate. Just received the HDD in bubble rap.

That said, 2 months on and I'm delighted though, working like a charm!!!

the groutch

better to pay the €80 imo, because if you try doing a DIY job on it you will void the warranty

Vic Vinegar

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Bombleswizzum, slight caveat; because they're taken from refurbs, they don't come with the transfer cable or disc. I borrowed mine from a mate. Just received the HDD in bubble rap.

That said, 2 months on and I'm delighted though, working like a charm!!!

Hmm, the ones i saw were new hard drives inside a second hand HDD case. that's fine really, if it was a second hand hard drive, i would be dubious then!

BaconZombie

I know I should of gone for the Elite.
Has anybody hear of anybody getting banned from Live due to a unofficial HD swap?

quad_red

This whole thing really p*sses me off.

Is DLC not what MS want to drive forward their future revenues? I, like so many other chumps out there, bought an early wheezy 20 gig.

So I don't have the space to download anymore arcade games and certainly not enough to download movies or xbox originals.

And there is NO WAY IN HELL I'm paying MS 120 quid for a basic 120 gig hard drive.

So either
A) They start charging something approaching reasonable.
or
They allow a relatively risk free option of upgrading.

mika27

MayoForSam wrote: »

These guys on Ebay are offering the upgrade including file transfer for around €56 inclusive: http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150307301617&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX&refitem=220273472612&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D4%26ps%3D42. You will be without a HD for a while and they hang on to the 20 GB drive (who would want that anyway?). Another possible option to consider.

Saw that on ebay as well, would be interested to hear if anyone used these guys. I was considering it but i'm a little bit wary of sending my 20gig drive off in the post!

Captain Chaos

quad_red wrote: »

This whole thing really p*sses me off.

Is DLC not what MS want to drive forward their future revenues? I, like so many other chumps out there, bought an early wheezy 20 gig.

So I don't have the space to download anymore arcade games and certainly not enough to download movies or xbox originals.

And there is NO WAY IN HELL I'm paying MS 120 quid for a basic 120 gig hard drive.

So either
A) They start charging something approaching reasonable.
or
They allow a relatively risk free option of upgrading.

I got mine for €70 in gamestop, still expensive for 120gigs but alot cheaper than €120

quad_red

Captain Chaos wrote: »

I got mine for €70 in gamestop, still expensive for 120gigs but alot cheaper than €120

Really?

How? A second hand one?!!?!?

ROC1977

if anyone thinks that ghosting your 360 hdd is hard then think again. Take apart xbox 360 hdd, connect it via sata to pc norton ghost everything on it to Pc, connect new 120 hdd and ghost it onto the new one. Stick new drive in case and off you go. this is the oldest mod in the book. They have been doing this since day one of the 360. only prob back then was the 360's firmware didn't recognize anything over the 20gig mark. But since the elite it can now see 120gig. I'd go as far as upgrading to a 320gig drive. Coz soon enough you'll be able to but bigger drives again. I've 112 360 games to install all them I'd want a 1TB drive lol. and Imagine how long it would take. Averager of 10mis per 6.6 gig game install.

Vic Vinegar

ROC1977 wrote: »

if anyone thinks that ghosting your 360 hdd is hard then think again. Take apart xbox 360 hdd, connect it via sata to pc norton ghost everything on it to Pc, connect new 120 hdd and ghost it onto the new one. Stick new drive in case and off you go. this is the oldest mod in the book.

That'll 100% work for sure?

Might give it a shot....

Zonda999

Bombleswizzum wrote: »

That'll 100% work for sure?

Might give it a shot....

Saw something else about that here recently.There was a link to a really detailed guide about how to do it. Will have a look for it...

Captain Chaos

quad_red wrote: »

Really?

How? A second hand one?!!?!?

No brand new, I asked the guy was there a deal on, he said that's just what they were selling them for at the time. It was about 2 months ago.

DingDong

ROC1977 wrote: »

if anyone thinks that ghosting your 360 hdd is hard then think again. Take apart xbox 360 hdd, connect it via sata to pc norton ghost everything on it to Pc, connect new 120 hdd and ghost it onto the new one. Stick new drive in case and off you go. this is the oldest mod in the book. They have been doing this since day one of the 360. only prob back then was the 360's firmware didn't recognize anything over the 20gig mark. But since the elite it can now see 120gig. I'd go as far as upgrading to a 320gig drive. Coz soon enough you'll be able to but bigger drives again. I've 112 360 games to install all them I'd want a 1TB drive lol. and Imagine how long it would take. Averager of 10mis per 6.6 gig game install.

Do you need a particular mode hard drive or any 120 gig drive will do?

ROC1977

You need a western digital drive, can't remember the part number off the top of my head, but google it and you'll find out easily enough.

Scruff

ROC1977 do you have links (recent ones) saying that procedure works? afaik that is a old hack that doesnt actually work cause you get booted from live with it.
Everything i have read has only been of a harder hack and was limited to only 120gb WD HD

ROC1977

Have a look at xbox360iso.com I think they have a couple of guides. I think afterdawn have one. I'm at work behind a firewall so I can't check.

quad_red

Captain Chaos wrote: »

No brand new, I asked the guy was there a deal on, he said that's just what they were selling them for at the time. It was about 2 months ago.

Well, you got some bargain. They €126 in Gamestop as of this evening.

quad_red

ROC1977 wrote: »

if anyone thinks that ghosting your 360 hdd is hard then think again. Take apart xbox 360 hdd, connect it via sata to pc norton ghost everything on it to Pc, connect new 120 hdd and ghost it onto the new one. Stick new drive in case and off you go. this is the oldest mod in the book. They have been doing this since day one of the 360. only prob back then was the 360's firmware didn't recognize anything over the 20gig mark. But since the elite it can now see 120gig. I'd go as far as upgrading to a 320gig drive. Coz soon enough you'll be able to but bigger drives again. I've 112 360 games to install all them I'd want a 1TB drive lol. and Imagine how long it would take. Averager of 10mis per 6.6 gig game install.

From what I've read on the net, it's not that straightforward. The connections are proprietary, are they not?

Twould be great if it were.

Have you done it?

ROC1977

not yet but doing it soon will post what happens! lol

ROC1977

Here's the most recent guide I could find. Doesn't look to hard to pull off. Right I'm off to find a HDD now in time for the weekend. I'll give it a go then.

Introduction
This tutorial will explain to you how to upgrade your Xbox 360 Harddrive using a program called "HDDHackr".

What is HDD Hackr?
This tool will allow you to use HDD's that are not 'certified' by Microsoft.
This specific tool is written for use with the Western Digital BEVS series
only!

Required Tools
- HDDHackr v0.91

How to use
Get yourself a Western Digital SATA BEVS HDD. To use this tool, you need
a HDD security sector file ('hddss.bin'). If you don't have one, here's how
to create one from a valid xbox 360 HDD:

* Dumping the hddss.bin file *
Boot to dos from a writeable medium (like a floppy). Connect an *original*
xbox 360 HDD to your SATA controller. Make sure it is the only SATA device
that is connected. Now run 'hddhackr -d'. This will create a file 'hddss.bin'
and it will save it to the path you've started the hddhackr from.

* Modding your Western Digital *
Now turn off your PC and connect the Western Digital and boot to dos again.
Type 'hddhackr -f' from the same path you have saved the hddss.bin file to.
This will flash your FW. It will ask if you want to create an undo file. It
is advised to do so. This will create an 'undo.bin' file that you need if
you want to undo the hack.

* Check if it worked *
Shut down your pc, reboot again to dos and again type 'hddhackr -f'. It
should now tell you that the drive should work in your x360. If so, connect
it to your x360 and go to your dashboard/system/memory where you should be
able to format the drive.

* Restoring your WD to original state *
If you don't want to use your modded WD in your x360 anymore and you want to
flash it back to its original size, then you can now do so. Boot to dos again
and run 'hddhackr -u'. This will use the undo.bin file you created before to
restore the drive to its original state.

FAQ

Q. I get an error when I try to dump hddss.bin from a 120 gb HDD.
A. This version can't dump from an elite drive yet. You'll have to dump sectors
16-22 manually with a tool like winhex, save them as 'hddss.bin' and then continue
like normal, with the hddhackr.

Q. Will this tool allow me to connect a 500 gb drive to my x360 ?
A. No. The information on sector 16 is signed and can't be changed. You can
only use size where you have a valid signature for. In otherwords, if a
bigger HDD comes out, you can use that signature.

Q. With which HDD's does this work ?
A. As of version 0.91, it now works with all sizes and versions of the Western
Digital Scorpio BEVS series.

Q. Do I need the same size WD HDD as the size on sector 16 states ?
A. No. You can use bigger HDD's, but you can't use more than the size stated
in sector 16. You can NOT use smaller HDD's than the size on sector 16
states. For example, you can use a 40 GB HDD with a sector 16 from a 20 GB HDD, but
not the other way around of course.

Q. Can I use the HDD in my PC again ?
A. Of course. The tool comes with an 'undo' option, that will restore the
original size. For example, you use a 40 gb WD HDD, you used hddss.bin
from a valid xbox 20 gb HDD, so the tool will transform your 40 GB HDD into
a 20 gb HDD. However, you can restore it to 40 gb anytime you want with the
undo option.

Q. I lost my undo.bin file, can I use it from another drive ?
A. There's no guarantee this will work. It might kill your drive. Using
a undo.bin from a different model (LAT/RST) will kill your drive for sure.

Q. I have a x360 core version and want to use this hack to buy a cheap HDD.
But how do i connect it ?
A. If you don't have a premium, you can make the HDD internal.

Q. The tool doesn't detect my HDD !
A. First, make sure you are running it from dos, not from a dos box under windows.
Ifthe hddhackr does not autodetect your SATA controller (if you have an nForce
chipset for example), then you can manually edit the hddhackr to support it.
To do this:

1. Find the two ports that your SATA chipset uses for data communication (see the
MTKediting thread ( http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=514126 ) for
more detailed info on how to do this), basically, you need to run 'msinfo32',
then go to storage/scsi or storage/ide, depending on your SATA chipset and then
look for the two adress lines that have a difference of 7 between them.
For example:

I/O-port 0x0000EFE0-0x0000EFE7
I/O-port 0x0000EFAC-0x0000EFAF
I/O-port 0x0000EFA0-0x0000EFA7
I/O-port 0x0000EFA8-0x0000EFAB
I/O-port 0x0000EF90-0x0000EF9F
I/O-port 0x0000E800-0x0000E8FF

In this example the two port numbers you are looking for (with difference of 7) are
0xEFE0 and 0xEFA0.

2. Open the hddhackr.com in a hexeditor and search for the string 'port=MPRT'
(it is at the end of the file). Now, that 'MPRT' string is 4 bytes long:
0x4D 0x50 0x52 0x54. You have to replace these four bytes with the 2 port numbers
(which are each 2 bytes long, so you replace the 4 bytes in total), so in the
example above you replace these four bytes with: '0xEF 0xE0 0xEF 0xA0'.

3. If you then start the hddhackr, it will automatically detect that you have edited
that string, so it will skip the SATA autodetector and instead use the port numbers
you've supplied.

Q. The hddhackr says the undo.bin file already exists
A. If you previously made an undo.bin file, then you should keep that one. There's no
need to create another one. Keep in mind that the undo.bin represents the current state
of the drive. So if you flash the drive and create a new undo.bin, it will contain
different info. So in short: it's best to only create the undo.bin file ones: the very
first time.

Q. Could you do this for my Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung or whatever drive too ?
A. Yes, but I don't have plans to do so. The cheapest WD drive (40 gb) ships
for about $50 and thus is one of the cheapest. It is a lot of work to
convert this tool for usage with other brands and I don't think it is worth
the trouble.