Xbox 360 HDD

[nomis_nehc]

So I was looking around and came across this site selling compatible HDD for teh 360: http://www.consolesource.com/ecomm/catalog...VS--p-2578.html

it's the 160GB HDD that you can install yourself for $170.

Anyway, so I thought I would look around and see if i can find it for better price, and found:

http://www.pcpartsohio.com/BookDetail.aspx?item_id=728

WTF? It's only $50! $55 shipped!

Now, I am just curious, but who in the right mind would purchase from the first link? And why?? I mean, a quick search would save you over $110!

[Neo003]

You know that these are only notebook drives (which you can also get in you local stores) right.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

Now, I am just curious, but who in the right mind would purchase from the first link? And why?? I mean, a quick search would save you over $110!

Because as pointed out above, you cannot swap out the drive in the proprietary piece of plastic that snaps into the 360 itself, so none of the drives you have found will actually work with the 360 itself.

So you have just figured it out, apparently that custom shaped piece of plastic is worth approximately $100

I myself am just confused as you, as I would love to upgrade to a larger drive myself.

[Snakehn]

is that a trusted place? my Lsptop HDD crashed and that is a good deal there.

[The_Observer]

from what i have readed, there are only certin hard drives that you could use, but on top of that, if you want the 120HD you to copy a file of ur 20Gig drive, and flash it onto the 120gig drive, been looking into it, myself, looking at doing it after the next update comes out. with the feature to install games onto the HD, ill run out of space in no time.

[Trong]

Actually, the BEVS series WD hard disks can be swapped out for the 360 hard disks. I just ordered mine on Newegg for $65. Sure, it'll void my warranty but hey, I'll be saving $120.

Details/Instructions: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=601813

Hard disk: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136072

[nomis_nehc]

Because as pointed out above, you cannot swap out the drive in the proprietary piece of plastic that snaps into the 360 itself, so none of the drives you have found will actually work with the 360 itself.

So you have just figured it out, apparently that custom shaped piece of plastic is worth approximately $100

I myself am just confused as you, as I would love to upgrade to a larger drive myself.

What Trong said above. The link I have provided above are the models that will work with the 360. There are plenty of instructions online about how to swap out the hard drive.

However, now thinking about it, I am even a bit more confused. I was under the impression that this HDD hack only supported up to 120GB. I remember reading that somewhere, but the link above is clearly 160GB? Anyone know if the utility was recently updated to support 160GB or what's the deal?

[Neo003]

^ Yes you can install 160 gig drives but you'll only be able to use only 120Gig of that. Also you will need an existing 120 gig drive to copy the 7 sectors to the new HDD. So in short any Sata drive (of course compatible with the size of the hdd case of 360) is compatible and you can buy it dirt cheap but you will be able to use only 120 gig nothing more.

I would recommend that you go thru every forum before you fork out 45~f**k I got lot of money to waste, before you make any purchase. My recommendation is to wait until MS does something about it, I am pretty sure after they release the next update they will rollout larger HDD.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

interesting, I did not know there were work arounds for the HDD, but I can say that option is all you guys who are daring enough to do it. I refuse to void my warranty considering I am on my 2nd replacement console already and it is still the old chipset, and as such I just have no faith my 360 will continue to keep working without flaw, and while I know you can fix it yourself, I really do not want to even have to think about doing that.

[Kushan]

interesting, I did not know there were work arounds for the HDD, but I can say that option is all you guys who are daring enough to do it. I refuse to void my warranty considering I am on my 2nd replacement console already and it is still the old chipset, and as such I just have no faith my 360 will continue to keep working without flaw, and while I know you can fix it yourself, I really do not want to even have to think about doing that.

That's not a problem, these mods don't touch the 360 itself, just the hard drive. That's the only warranty you're voiding (unless, of course, you are silly enough to tell Microsoft what you've done).

[Ricardo Gil]

interesting, I did not know there were work arounds for the HDD, but I can say that option is all you guys who are daring enough to do it. I refuse to void my warranty considering I am on my 2nd replacement console already and it is still the old chipset, and as such I just have no faith my 360 will continue to keep working without flaw, and while I know you can fix it yourself, I really do not want to even have to think about doing that.

I wouldn't worry about that, since you don't need to ship the HDD with the console for repair, they won't know you messed with it anyway.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

That's not a problem, these mods don't touch the 360 itself, just the hard drive. That's the only warranty you're voiding (unless, of course, you are silly enough to tell Microsoft what you've done).

I wouldn't worry about that, since you don't need to ship the HDD with the console for repair, they won't know you messed with it anyway.

Oh, that is fine then. I did not read any of the links since most sites are blocked at work, but if it is not evident, then I actually definitely may do this!

[Kushan]

Oh, that is fine then. I did not read any of the links since most sites are blocked at work, but if it is not evident, then I actually definitely may do this!

I've decided to give it a go myself, I didn't realise that 120Gb 2.5" WD-XXXBEVS drives were so cheap at the moment (looked for some a while back and they were quite pricy).

From what I gather, you'll need the following:

A 120Gb WD-BEVS model drive (all BEVS should work, but ONLY these).

A TORX 6 and a TORX 10 screwdriver.

A compatible SATA chipset (Bit hit and miss here, plus you might need to fiddle with some BIOS settings to get it to show up).

A copy of hddhackr, the program that'll do all the dirty work.

And finally, you'll need a copy of "hddss.bin". This is the bit that tells the 360 it's a legitimate 120Gb drive, but it's technically copyrighted by Microsoft so you might need to get creative when finding it and is the only "slightly legally-ambiguous" part of the whole process.

You can back up the one from your own drive, but I think 120Gb drives use a different one (it's not made entirely clear).

There's also little information on transferring your data over, but I assume when you've got your 20Gb drive connected via SATA, you can use Xplorer360 to copy the files off of it (gamesaves will work fine, but I don't know about purchased content, although I don't see why not).

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

<snip>

Nice, Thanks for detailed info. (Y)

If I am reading it right, considering BIOS were mentioned, sounds like I cannot do this, at least on my own, as I pretty much need a Windows based comp for the SATA part unless I just am not understanding enough about it all, which very well could be the case.

Unfortunately my custom built Windows comp fried during an electrical storm so all I have are my Macs. I do have one or two friends with Windows comps who would also be down for this endeavor though I am pretty sure, so I can always try to do it with them.

[Kushan]

You don't need windows to flash the drives at all, it's done outside of windows (the so-called "DOS-prompt"), but you need to make sure your SATA chipset is compatible.

You probably do need a Windows computer to use Xplorer360 (should you want to directly backup the data on the drive, i.e. if you don't have a memory unit) but you could probably do it within MacOS using a VM or something.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

You don't need windows to flash the drives at all, it's done outside of windows (the so-called "DOS-prompt"), but you need to make sure your SATA chipset is compatible.

You probably do need a Windows computer to use Xplorer360 (should you want to directly backup the data on the drive, i.e. if you don't have a memory unit) but you could probably do it within MacOS using a VM or something.

Cool, that makes sense, as I remember when I owned a PSP and played around with Homebrew I could do almost all of it through my mac now that I think about it. So definitely makes sense.

When I am at home at can read the sites I need to read to find out the information about the compatible SATA chipset, I imagine that is the first step I need to take. I really, really want to do this if I can.

[Kushan]

You and me both!

I've just ordered myself a 360 drive -> SATA adapter, for about $10. It should allow me to more easily transfer the files to my PC and back without having to prematurely disassemble the 20Gb drive caddy.

Then, it should be a case of swapping in the 120Gb drive, flashing it, transferring the data back and that's it. In theory.

If I can backup my data (and my 20Gb drive's own hddss.bin file) then I'll purchase a 120Gb or 160Gb drive. If not, then I figure a $10 loss without voiding any warranties isn't so bad.

[Neo003]

Hacking the drive isn't the problem but, to do that you need to have legit copy of 120GB HDD sector data. Which no one in his/her right mind will give you, so you will need to buy new or refurbished 120GB drive to get that.

You cannot add 20gig bin to a 120gig drive. Also even if you hack and start running the drive you will not be able to use more than 120gig.

[Kushan]

Hacking the drive isn't the problem but, to do that you need to have legit copy of 120GB HDD sector data. Which no one in his/her right mind will give you, so you will need to buy new or refurbished 120GB drive to get that.

You cannot add 20gig bin to a 120gig drive. Also even if you hack and start running the drive you will not be able to use more than 120gig.

This is true, but the sector data from one 120Gb drive is the same as the sector data from any other 120Gb drive. It's technically copyrighted by Microsoft so to be 100% legal, you should own at least one 120Gb drive. However, the file (as with most things) is available in the usual places.

But then you have the moral aspect of "ok, it's illegal to copy this tiny little file, but how justified is Microsoft at charging us 2, 3 or even 4times the price of the hardware?". Your moral mileage may vary, personally though I wont lose any sleep at night.

[nomis_nehc]

hum, so if i am understanding this correctly, you need to copy the bin file from a 120 gig drive? dang it, i was under the impression that a 20 gigger would do it.

[Kushan]

hum, so if i am understanding this correctly, you need to copy the bin file from a 120 gig drive? dang it, i was under the impression that a 20 gigger would do it.

That would certainly seem to be the case. Of course, I'm sure SOMEONE has already copied one...

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Be careful where this topic is heading guys, on the very border of piracy and 'how to' techniques here, don't want the topic being closed :p ;)

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Piracy hasn't been mentioned once.

[Kushan]

Indeed. Anyone know if anyone's selling replacement 360 HDD cases? I'd much rather buy a new one than have to rip open the official one (as stated above, I'm getting an adapter that will let me connect the 360's HDD to my SATA ports without the need for opening it). I've looked around and I've found some XCM shells that are designed to replace the offiical shell, they'd probably work fine except they only seem to come in chrome, black and white, which wouldn't look very good (not that I'm arsed, but if I can avoid it I will). They also seem to cost about ?10 or $25, which seems a little pricey.

[The_Observer]

Be careful where this topic is heading guys, on the very border of piracy and 'how to' techniques here, don't want the topic being closed :p ;)

wht does piracy have to do with xbox 360 hard drives?