XBOX360 HDD Change Mod


Recommended Posts

Ok, here is the stupidly simple guide I used for my Xbox360 HDD Upgrade.

I am damn sick of people private messaging me for the info on how to do it. So here it is.

Its simple.

Just follow this guide at this link, and then you can either ghost the original hdd over to the new one, or do a DD (if your on linux). I had to use DD, much easier, but its up to you.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2610&p=5

I have successfully done a 40Gb upgrade using a Samsung drive. And no, it doesn't matter what RPM speed the drive needs to be. Oh btw, it needs to be a 2.5" SATA Drive :)

I have also done a 80Gb, and I am currently completing a 160Gb drive.

Hopefully that the 160Gb drive will be a success! Its not a Samsung, its a Hitachi... Fingers Crossed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love the avatar! :D

Anyone try this? I imagine it's detectable, so I'm holding off. But if the newer, bigger hard drive bound to be released by Microsoft is ridiculously overpriced, I will definitely be doing this.

Also, although this guide does show the hardest part (disassembly) it doesn't go into the proper ways of 'ghosting' the drive and following through with upgrade. Albeit easy to do, it'd be nice to have a complete guide. I'm sure there's one out there for those interested. If I find one, I will post back.

Un-Dead Soldier: Can you take a screenshot of the System Info on your Dasbhoard that shows the total capacity? I'm curious to see how the dashboard handles the larger size. I'm sure it works, but it'd be nice to see anyway. :)

Edited by magik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am interested in doing this. It's $129.99 CAD for a Hard Drive (20GB) (XBOX 360), and then another $90 for a 60GB 2.5 inch Samsung SATA HDD.

How would you go about copying the data from X360 drive to the normal laptop drive? AKA "DD"ing? Or "Ghost"ing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It does work.

I can see how DD would work, but wont it just clone the "data" partition to 13.4 or whatever it is on the 20GB drive to your new drive and the rest of the space wont be allocated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see how DD would work, but wont it just clone the "data" partition to 13.4 or whatever it is on the 20GB drive to your new drive and the rest of the space wont be allocated.

I don't know the logistics of it, but partitioning software exists that allow you to resize partitions on hard drives without having to format said hard drive. Partition Magik is one off the top of my head. :)

EDIT: Somewhat related note; does anybody know of a cheap SATA to USB or IDE adapter?

EDIT2: Nevermind :)

Edited by magik
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I failed to mention that part :p

Use PartitionMagic :)

This is the first time for me to use DD... I usually used Ghost and made it so that it expands over the drive... hmm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So this is possible without any actual modification to the 360 itself?

Just stick in an upgraded drive, and voila you have more space for downloads?

If so, I'm surprised it's taken this long for me to hear about it. It certainly provides a great deal of extra space for those in the U.S. who enjoy the Video Marketplace service. And in the future IPTV. Too bad both aren't here in Canada lol, so 20GB is fine for me (for now).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you'd still be missing the hash that the the ORIGINAL hd generates.

Thus making your *copy/cloned hd* useless

Otherwise post some proof as to how you were able to bypass it, i'm sure

xbox-scene dot com would love to know how you did it

:sleep:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure there have been threads on X-S forums and XH regarding this. Currently there are some files that need to be on the HDD (such as Microsoft logo PNG) and some other ID / Signatures on the HDD itself that need to match up to be able to work on the 360. Therefore, I'm not sure if a simple DD will work. There are some success stories and some failure stories. Only a matter of time.

Some links of interest:

http://www.free60.org/oldwiki/Harddrive

http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_Partit...esystem_Details

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure there have been threads on X-S forums and XH regarding this. Currently there are some files that need to be on the HDD (such as Microsoft logo PNG) and some other ID / Signatures on the HDD itself that need to match up to be able to work on the 360. Therefore, I'm not sure if a simple DD will work. There are some success stories and some failure stories. Only a matter of time.

Some links of interest:

http://www.free60.org/oldwiki/Harddrive

http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_Partit...esystem_Details

That's what I assumed. Microsoft for the original xbox had a "lock" mechanism that made the HDD tied specifically with the xbox. They didn't do that this time (thus the ability to use a 360 connector to SATA kit) but some sort of security to only allow the 20GB Microsoft drive would make sense (from Microsoft's point of view).

My own opinion? They need to allow third-party storage such as USB drives, etc. Force certain things to stay on a memory unit or 20GB HDD such as gamer profiles, patches, cache (obviously), heck even game downloads (new maps, etc).. But allow people to use a USB hard drive for other media, such as music/pictures/movies (including Video Marketplace), future functions such as IPTV, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, you can use USB-enabled storage devices as well as networked PCs to stream/view media such as Music, Pictures, Movies and Video Clips. I'm not sure if that's what you mean? :dontgetit:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this is pretty much impossible to do. the 360 checks the hard drive for the amount of sectors on it, and theres some files in the hard drive's header which contain copyrighted material... it also checks some other things on the HDD to make sure you can't swap it out.

post a screenshot/photo of your hard drive size and i'll believe it... you can't simply swap HDDs though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But allow people to use a USB hard drive for other media, such as music/pictures/movies (including Video Marketplace), future functions such as IPTV, etc.

They don't need to, sort of. I'm able to use my 1GB flash Drive on my 360, I've had music/pictures on my Flash Drive and the 360 has been able to play the content off of it. Same as my Creative Zen Vision M, the 360 can play the content off of it as well with no problems. Those are the alternatives that I use and I'm sure others can do the same or similar.

Just my two cents :whistle:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They don't need to, sort of. I'm able to use my 1GB flash Drive on my 360, I've had music/pictures on my Flash Drive and the 360 has been able to play the content off of it. Same as my Creative Zen Vision M, the 360 can play the content off of it as well with no problems. Those are the alternatives that I use and I'm sure others can do the same or similar.

Just my two cents :whistle:

You don't understand. We want the ability to save downloaded multimedia content (e.g. TV shows from the Marketplace) onto an external HD connected via USB. Everybody knows that you can play back music and view pictures from USB-connected mass storage devices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You don't understand. We want the ability to save downloaded multimedia content (e.g. TV shows from the Marketplace) onto an external HD connected via USB. Everybody knows that you can play back music and view pictures from USB-connected mass storage devices.

No I DO understand the point that is being addressed, I just made a statement same as the guy before me. Now you can't say EVERYONE knows that b/c there are ppl that don't know that :whistle: :sleep:

Still no photo of the dashboard with a bigger HD? If this were true there'd be pictures all over the place.

I've seen pictures of the dashboard wtih the bigger HDD, but not sure where I saw it, but I still don't believe it myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, this will not work because it's not that simple. There is much proof out there that this is a load of crap but I think it could potentially break forum rules if I linked to a thread explaining why.

I've seen dashboard pics of 360s with either 60GB or 80GB of space - I forget which - but those pictures were taken from devkits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, you can use USB-enabled storage devices as well as networked PCs to stream/view media such as Music, Pictures, Movies and Video Clips. I'm not sure if that's what you mean? :dontgetit:

I'm talking more about video/media downloading. Such as downloading TV episodes or HDTV films from Video Marketplace.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

nobody seems to be able to post screen shots..

if it was this easy, why did it take a full year for people to do this now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.