How To Upgrade your Xbox360 Hard Drive for Cheap
Disclaimer: This
will void the warranty on your hard drive. I'm not responsible for any damages to your computer or your xbox.
Supples:
- WD1200BEVS Hard Drive
- SATA Data Cable
- SATA Power Cable
- T6 & T10 torx screwdrivers/bits
- A computer with SATA support
- Something to boot into DOS (floppy or USB flash drive)
- WinHex (click to download)
- HDDHackr v0.91 (click to download)
- A file called hdss.bin (make sure it's from a 120GB drive - this is copyrighted so I won't post where to find it, just google "120gb xbox hddss.bin")
Step 1: Disassemble the hard drive
There are four T6 screws, one is under the Microsoft sticker.
When you remove the outer casing, open it from the thick side and lift at that angle. When it won't go up any farther, slide it towards the eject button. It should just pop out.
Be careful not to lose this spring! If you do, the eject mechanism will no longer work.
There are four more screws. These require a T10 screwdriver / bit.
Remove the metal shielding and you've exposed the hard drive.
Disconnect the hard drive from it's connector and slide it out. You'll have to lift it up at an angle to pull it out completely.
Step 2: Flashing the hdss.bin
- Make a DOS boot disk (floppy or USB flash drive)
- Copy hddhackr.com and hdss.bin into the boot disk you just made
- Turn off your computer.
[*]Disconnect all of your hard disks!
- Connect your Western Digital hard drive (WD1200BEVS) to your computer via your SATA data and power cables.
- Boot into DOS
- At the prompt, type in "hddhackr -f"
- You will be prompted to flash the firmware with sector 16 compatibility, select Y
- You'll be prompted to make a backup, select Y
Once everything is completed, turn off your computer and let it sit for ten to twenty seconds.
Repeat steps 4 & 5 to confirm everything worked correctly.
Step 3: Reassemble
Just do everything you did to disassemble in reverse
Step 4: Format your new XBox360 Hard Drive
Pop the hard drive on your XBox and go to Console Settings > System Info
Write down your serial number.
Now go to System Settings > Memory
You'll see an unformatted drive.
Select the drive and format it. Use the serial number you just wrote down so you can format it (it's stupid that you have to do that).
Sit back and enjoy your new 120GB hard drive!
Troubleshooting
I ran into a few snags when I was going through this process but figured it all out. I have a WD1200BEVS-22UST0 model. Apparently, the UST0 models are a bit more finicky than other models so I had to edit HDDHackr using WinHex.
Basically, I had to force HDDHackr to recognize that my drive was really there. Here's what you do:
On your computer, open the run command prompt and type "msinfo32"
With the window that pops up, go to Components > Storage > IDE or SCSI (wherever your SATA controller is).
Look for a list of I/O Ports. Here's what mine says:
I/O Port 0x000009F0-0x000009F7
I/O Port 0x00000BF0-0x00000BF3
I/O Port 0x00000970-0x00000977
I/O Port 0x00000B70-0x00000B73
Make sure you're under your SATA controller and NOT your PATA controller. Looking at the name category will let you know.
These are the first 4 (you usually don't need to go beyond these.
You'll want to compare the four numbers before the hyphen. Make sure the addresses are seven apart.
For example:
09F0 and 0970 are seven apart (by hex)
likewise, 0BF0 and 0B70 are seven apart
Typically, you're going to use the first and third values
Now open WinHex.
Find the folder you stored HDDHackr in and open the hddhackr.com file.
Scroll ALL the way down. On the right-hand side, you'll see text that say port=MPRT. Click on the 'M' and your cursor will fall on a 4 in the center window.
Now take your two 4 byte hex numbers (in this case 09F0 and 0970) and write them over the values that were there to begin with.
Going with our example, you'll replace 4D 50 52 54 with 09 F0 09 70.
Save that com file in your boot disk and flash your hard drive. It should work like magic.
For more info and troubleshooting tips go to
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=601813