Revision as of 00:22, 19 March 2009

Notes:

This is a fairly straightforward method and is a compilation of the tutorials at titaniumfish and IVC Wiki.

I created this because although their tutorials are great, I was short on sleep and just wanted to get a 120GB HDD in my XBOX 360.

Hardware needed

Computer related

• Windows XP PC w/ SATA capabilities.
• A Western Digital WD1200BEVS Hard Drive.
  • Yes it has to be that model. No I don't know why aside from the ability to rewrite the firmware such that it believes it's a Hitachi 120 GB hard drive as sold by Microsoft. My guess is if you can re-write the firmware of any equally sized hard drive it should work. However working with low-level hardware programming, I know it's not easy and when things go bad, they can go pretty bad.
  • ZipZoomFly sells it (this is where I purchased mine)
  • NewEgg sells it.
• USB key or floppy (I hope you have a USB key)

Tool related

• Torx ( * ) 8 and 10 bits or screwdrivers.  It looks like an asterisk or a star.
• Philips ( + ) #1 or #2 head.  A plus head.
• Small flathead ( - )screwdriver will also work and is probably the better option versus Philips heads.  A minus head.

Software needed

• hddhackr 0.91
• hddhackr 0.91 for nForce4 chipsets
• Xplorer360 extreme2
• You will need one of the following depending on the size of your new hard drive (Update: If you buy anything besides a 120 it's a waste of time and money - save up, ahem... that's why I removed the 20 and 60 GB mentions)
  
  • 120 GB HDD
• HP Flash Boot Utility
• Windows 98 Boot Files
  

Steps

Clean up

This sections purpose is to make your drive lean. It will save you a lot of time if you remove items you don't need or use.

1. Clear out your cache by following this KB article from M$.
2. Remove any trial games or demos (seriously, it had better be the next Metal Gear Solid for it to stay)
3. Remove any video or game previews or expired rentals.

Memory Unit (MU) Backup

Consider copying these items to your MU:

• Profiles
• Saved games

Here is how to copy or move:

1. With the memory unit inserted, select System ► Memory ► Hard drive.
2. You can copy or move items two different ways (note some items can't be copied and must be moved. If copying doesn't work, try to move it).
   1. You can go into the item, hit A and then copy or move it.
   2. You can work with the entire save data for an item if you hit Y and then copy or move it.

Backup and Restore

Backup original XBOX 360 hard drive

1. Open the XBOX 360 hard drive case and remove the hard drive
   • Follow this video but do not take any further steps in the video once the drive has been removed.
   1. To backup your data, In Windows XP Launch XPlorer360 xtreme 2.
   2. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, Drive ► Backup Image. Name it x360all.bin.
      • This will take time as it's create a complete backup of your old drive. Use your MU and play the free game that came on it.
   3. Drive ► Backup Partition 2. Name it x360p2.bin.
      • Create a new folder named x360p2. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, Edit ► Extract. You want to point it to where x360p2 resides.
   4. Select partition 3
      • Create a new folder named x360p3. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, Edit ► Extract. You want to point it to where x360p3 resides.

Now you can safely stow away your old XBOX 360 hard drive. Do *not* erase / re-tool it until you have a confirmed new drive in place that works how it should. Many people make that mistake, although we will have a complete back-up, if all hell breaks loose, you can just toss in your old drive - but not if you format / clean / re-tool it.

Prepare new XBOX 360 hard drive

Modify new hard drive

Create a bootable USB flash key

Follow these steps to create a bootable USB flash / key that will be able to modify your new hard drive.

1. Extract hpflash1.zip and install hpflash1.exe
2. Extract win98boot.zip to it's own directory.
3. Go to Start ► Hewlett Packard Company ► HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
   1. Device: Ensure you have selected your USB key.
   2. File system: Choose FAT32.
   3. Format options:
      1. Check "Quick Format"
      2. Check "Create a DOS startup disk"
         1. for "using DOS system files located at" click on the button and point it to where you unzipped win98boot.zip. e.g. c:\temp\win98boot
   4. Click "Start".

Now we need to copy a few files for the low-level information the new hard needs.

1. Extract 120GB_HDDSS.rar and rename it to hddss.bin
2. Extract hddhackr091.rar (Note: Use the nforce4 one if you have an nforce4 chipset).
3. All of the above extracted files should be copied to the root directory of your USB key.

Now that we have a boot capable USB key, we can flash the new hard drive.

Flashing your new hard drive

1. Shutdown your system.
2. Attach your new drive via SATA
   • For me a USB to SATA adaptor did not work. A direct SATA connection worked.
   • If you can't see the drive and it is connected, you may need to fiddle with your BIOS settings (if this doesn't sound familiar, stop now and find someone who is familiar with these terms).
3. Start your system and choose your USB key as a boot device.
   • You may need to enter BIOS for the following:
     • USB boot capabilities
     • Legacy USB
     • Boot sequence priority (i.e. First try a CD, then try a USB key, then try a hard drive, etc etc).
4. Now run:

   hddhackr -f

   • If prompted, enter the number for the correct drive.
5. If all went well, follow the instructions left for you by the hddhackr application for verification and continue on below.

Restoring your data

Note: For the sake of simplicity I have chosen a method already which should work. Yes this can be "easier" but it depends "easier for whom?". As such this should be feasible for the general populous but it should be noted that it takes more time. With that said, play the free games on your 512 MB MU.

You will need the serial number, you can get it from three places. My suggestion is just going through the system menu:

1. In the Xbox Dashboard. *preferred*
   • The Xbox 360 console serial number is displayed on the System Information screen of the Xbox Dashboard near the top. System Information is the last option on the list of console settings in the System section of the Xbox Dashboard.
2. Behind the USB port cover on the Xbox 360 faceplate.
   • You have to press the USB port cover down to see the serial number label. To see the serial number clearly, you may have to disconnect any attached USB devices. For more information about the location of the USB port cover, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 907578 Xbox 360 Description of the Xbox 360 console physical features
3. On the back of the Xbox 360 console
   • The Xbox 360 console serial number is displayed on the back of your Xbox 360 console, to the right and above the audio-visual (AV) port. Make sure that you remove any discs and turn off the console before you move your Xbox 360 console.

Now to begin... the end.

1. In Windows XP with the new drive, launch Xplorer360 xtreme 2.
2. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, Drive ► Open ► Harddrive or Memcard
3. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, Drive ► Restore Image. Choose the full backup (i.e. xbox360all.bin).
4. Once completed, boot to MS-DOS again and execute hddhackr -f. It currently has the hard drive information for your old drive and will need to be flashed back to a 120 GB XBOX 360 drive.
5. Connect the new drive to the XBOX 360. You will see that total space is ~13 GB and none of the files from the 20 GB backup shows up.
6. Fix this by formatting the new drive in the XBOX 360. In Xplorer360 xtreme 2, System ► Memory ► Hard Drive ► Format.
7. Once the drive has been formatted, place the new drive back into your computer. In Xplorer360 xtreme2, Drive ► Open ► Harddrive or Memcard
8. Select partition 3 and drag and drop all the items in x360p3 into the right hand side.
9. Test drive in your XBOX 360.  It should show 107 GB total size and all the content should be restored successfully.

If it is, excellent, wrap up your new drive in it's casing and be done with it.  Oh, *now* you can fiddle with your old XBOX 360 GB hard drive.

Congratulations!

If any of this helped you out please let me know, if it seems confusing feel free to ask questions. devnull@cimmerii.org I do look at it, just not that often.