XBOX 360 Hard Drive Upgrade

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Revision as of 22:52, 18 March 2009 by Cimmeriian (Talk | contribs)

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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 Pay no attention to this link - need to move it elsewhere on the page.

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

Extract old drive

I would make a video but I think this guy does a great job. Once you have extracted your drive from the case, stop listening to him.

Now I chose to also pull out the XBOX hard drive connector from the shell. I did this because I have anti-static bags (your hard drive came in one) and you will need to move around your new drive a few times.  So, pull it out carefully.  You may have to wiggle it.

Xplorer 360 image and backup method (recommended)

Original Xbox 360 drive:

  1. Open the Xbox hard drive case and remove the hard drive
    • Follow this video but do not take any further steps once the drive has been removed.
  2. In Windows XP, create an image backup of partition 2 (XBOX emulator) using the Drive ► Backup Partition 2 in Xplorer360 xtreme 2 (you can also extract the files and insert them in partition 2 on the new drive later if you can see partition 2 in Xplorer360)
  3. Create file backup of partition 3 (Xbox 360 main filesystem) by selecting the partition 3 in Xplorer360 xtreme 2 and Edit ► Extract

New replacement drive:

  1. Connect the new drive to Xbox 360 and format using System ► Memory ► Hard Drive ► Format (or press Y button), enter the serial number of the machine to allow it to format (you find it on the back of the machine or in System -> System information)
  2. Move the drive to the computer again, restore the partition 2 image with Drive ► Restore Partition 2 in Xplorer360 xtreme 2, select the XboxBackup.bin image created earlier. Update: It seems that partition 2 has to show up on xplorer360 before the restore function will work (it will not continue at Restoring Device). Either try to do a full restore or manually add the partition using the manual method below, only do step 1 under the Create Partition 0 section and step 4 under the Create Partition 2 section.
  3. Drag all the files from the partition 3 file backup into partition 3 in Xplorer360 xtreme 2
  4. Test drive in xbox 360, should show 107 GB total size and all the content should be restored successfully

Xplorer 360 full image backup method (alternate)

This method is essentially the same, the only difference is that a complete image backup of the drive is made and then restored. Partition 3 files are extracted from the image and then put back on the new hard drive.

  1. Complete step 1 and 2 above under Original Xbox 360 drive to create hddss.bin of the original drive
  2. Create a full image backup using Drive ► Backup Image in Xplorer360 xtreme 2
  3. Complete step 1 above under New replacement drive to flash the new 120 GB drive
  4. Do full image restore using Drive ► Restore Image in Xplorer360 xtreme 2
  5. Boot to ms-dos and execute hddhackr -f once again to write the hddss.bin to sector 16 again (its overwritten when restoring a full backup using Xplorer360)
  6. Connect to Xbox 360, you will see that total space is ~13gb and none of the file files from the 20 GB backup shows up
  7. Fix this by formatting in Xbox 360, System ► Memory ► Hard Drive ► Format (or press Y button), enter the serial number to allow format
  8. Open the full image in Xplorer360 xtreme 2 and select partition 3 and Edit ► Extract to create a backup of all the files
  9. Connect disk to computer again, and drag all the files from the partition 3 file backup into partition 3 in Xplorer360 xtreme 2
  10. Test drive in Xbox 360, should show 107 GB total size and all the content should be restored successfully

Modify hard drive

USB 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 20GB_HDDSS.rar and rename it to 20gb.bin
  2. Extract 60GB_HDDSS.rar and rename it to 60gb.bin
  3. Extract 120GB_HDDSS.rar and rename it to 120gb.bin
  4. Extract hddhackr091.rar
  5. Copy all of the above extracted files should be copied to the root directory of your USB key.

Modify your new 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. Depending on the new hard drive size, copy the file SIZEgb.bin to hddss.bin.
    • Example: I have a 120 GB drive. At the command prompt I will execute: 
      • copy 120gb.bin hddss.bin
  5. Now run: 
    hddhackr -f
    • If prompted, enter the number for the correct drive.
  6. If all went well, follow the instructions left for you by the hddhackr application and the instructions below.

Success

All on one Memory Unit

If you already have everything you need and backed up, then just place the new hard drive in the XBOX 360 hard drive casing, screw everything back in, pop it into the 360 and boot up.

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 format it:

  1. System ► Memory ► Hard Drive - This is where your serial number comes into play.
  2. Congratulations!  You are the proud new owner of a 120 GB HDD!


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.

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