GoTeamScotch

ATA security commands are a bit of a pain in modern times. At least on Windows 10 (and probably 11?). As KaosEngineer mentioned, Microsoft has taken steps to prevent apps from sending ATA security commands to drives in order to prevent ransomware attacks. That said, it's still possible, but requires specific adapters and methods. I have been using this adapter to lock/unlock Xbox hard drives using my Windows 10 computer for several months: Warmstor SATA/PATA/IDE Hard Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter There are other adapters that work, but this is just the one I've been using. FATXplorer is going to be updated soon to add support for locking and unlocking Xbox drives, which is going to make everything much easier. The preview version seems to be working pretty well. Aside from FATXplorer, I often use smartctl from command line. I use the version bundled with XboxHDMUSB beta 4 (beta 3 also works fine). The commands below work and can be used before or after the upcoming FATXplorer version if released. Procedure: Open a command prompt with admin privileges (start menu -> type "cmd" -> right click and choose run as administrator). Determine your Xbox hard drive's drive number using this command: wmic diskdrive get mediatype,model,name Look for your Xbox hard drive in the list of drives from the previous command in step 2. Take note of the Name it appears as. It will be something like "\\.\PHYSICALDRIVEX" where "X" is a number. Take note of this number. Change the current working directory to wherever smartctl.exe is located. For example, I use this command: cd "D:\Console\XBOX\PC Utillities and Drivers\Xbox_HDM\XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4\XboxHD" d: This will be different for you based on where your copy of XboxHDM is located on your PC. Check the security status of your Xbox drive using this command: smartctl --device=sat --get=security /dev/sdX Replace "sdX" with the letter corresponding to your drive number from step 3. 0 = a 1 = b 2 = c and so on. Example: if your drive appears as "PHYSICALDRIVE2", then your drive path would be "/dev/sdc". If your drive is locked, it will appear as "ATA Security is ENABLED, PW level HIGH **LOCKED**". If it is unlocked or frozen, this command will tell you that as well. Unlock your drive using this command: smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-unlock,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX (Replace "sdX" with your drive letter from Step 5) The command above references "eeprom.bin". In this case, the eeprom.bin file is located one-folder up from where smartctl is located on my PC. Disable your drive's password entirely using this command: smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-disable,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX (Replace "sdX" with your drive letter from Step 5) With the adapter I use, I cannot unlock the drive and then use it right away. I have to disable the password and disconnect and reconnect the drive before Windows will let me use it with FATXplorer. According to Eaton, this isn't a common problem. So there may very well be better adapters out there where you don't have to disable the password and re-mount it. Once you're done copying files to your Xbox HDD, use this command to lock the drive: smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-setpass,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX Also, if you're using a nulled HDD key, smartctl has a special set of commands that make it so you don't have to reference an existing eeprom.bin file when locking Xbox hard drives. It will just calculate the password automatically based on a generic "all zeroes" hard drive key. # Using null password: smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-setpass /dev/sdX smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-unlock /dev/sdX smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-disable /dev/sdX Anyways, like I said, FATXplorer will soon be updated with lock/unlock support for Original Xbox hard drives. So anyone having a tough time using these commands should just wait until Eaton releases the new version.

Great work! This is a very cool and unexpected piece of news. Makes me wonder what people will be doing with Xbox motherboards in another 20 years.

It's not quite optical-drive-emulation, but the new CERBIOS version 2.00 BIOS that was released earlier this week offers dual hard drive support. The Xbox already supports IDE to SD/CF adapters, so it would be trivial to replace the DVD drive with one of these cheap adapters, then use SD cards in addition to the regular (or upgraded) internal HDD to hold game ISOs.

Fatxplorer is such a useful piece of software. Really helps make Xbox modding more viable in modern days.

The wireless adapter you linked to is not compatible with Ogx360. The Xbox 360 wireless receiver is, but not the newer Xbox One adapter (generically named "Wireless Adapter"). Hopefully support will get added someday because buying multiple 8bitdo adapters and a USB hub is kind of expensive if you want to run multiple Xbox controllers. I'm surprised to hear that Series X|S controllers aren't compatible with 8bitdo adapters. That's unfortunate.

It should be pretty straightforward. For me, the harder part was cutting the lframe trace on the top of the board. Technically, you don't have to cut it, but it's a good idea.

Using an LPC rebuild board is easier than soldering wires. At least in my opinion. Don't be afraid to use the board.

That's pretty clever. I usually use plastic cards or some janky solution like that when I have mine all disassembled and powered on. Can I buy one from you?

If you have your Xbox configured to look for your preferred dashboard at C:\Dashboard\evoxdash.xbe, then you don't need to keep virtually anything that's currently in your E drive. UDATA and TDATA hold your Xbox gamesaves, so don't delete those, but anything else there on E: can be deleted if you don't have a specific need for them. It would be a good idea to move your EEPROM backups to your PC if you haven't done so yet. "evoxdash.xbe" is a common name for Xbox executables that are intended to be used as replacement dashboards. EvolutionX (evox) was one of the earliest dashboards, so other mods that came later kept using C:\evoxdash.xbe or E:\evoxdash.xbe just to make things more compatible with one another.

Yup. That's a pretty easy one. If you don't want to de-solder it, you can just wiggle the capacitor back and forth until it snaps off. If it looks like it did leak, clean it up with alcohol. Also, take a peek at the other capacitors to make sure none of them are bulging.

If that screw caused a short in the power supply, then it's possible that the issue was contained within the power supply and replacing it will resolve the problem. As a reminder, these power supplies are interchangeable between Xbox versions: 1.0-1.1 1.2-1.5 1.6-1.6b

Welcome! Glad you've had a chance to rediscover the Og Xbox. There's a lot your can do with a modded Xbox and if you want to learn and explore more, browsing around these forums are a great place to start. Also, a good resource is the FAQ and Tutorials area on the Xbox subreddit here. Of course, if you run into problems, don't hesitate to ask. There's usually a few folks lingering around that are happy to help. Your drive belt should be easy to replace. It would be a great idea to clean the plastic mechanism parts with rubbing alcohol and adding fresh lubricant afterwards. Those drives are getting pretty old now days and can collect a lot of gunk. Remember to remove your clock capacitors if you haven't already done so! Cheers

What BIOS are you using? How did you format your hard drive? What app/method did you use?

Usually you don't need to. When your Xbox is softmodded, it boots up and tries to load the original Xbox dashboard, which then loads the exploit, which then loads your Dashloader app, which then loads XBMC. When using a custom BIOS (by either TSOP flashing or using a modchip), you're basically skipping the process and just booting up directly into your dashboard of choice (XBMC for example). But your Xbox won't really care that the softmod is there or not. I'm not familiar with that 'softmodding tool 1.1.7' disc. It might have BIOS flashing apps on it, but I'm not sure. Hexen can flash your BIOS though, so that's an option. To flash your new BIOS, you can either use Hexen OR use the app XBlast over to your Xbox and run it (no need to burn a disc). XBlast lets you pick a BIOS from your hard drive and it then flashes your TSOP with that new BIOS. Hexen comes bundled with a bunch of BIOSes, so in that regard it's a little simpler. I prefer XBlast personally. Instructions for using XBlast can be found here. No. This process doesn't format your hard drive. If you have a larger hard drive installed, then you'll need to use a BIOS that supports large hard drives (also known as "LBA48" patching). Many of them do by default, or they can be patched to support bigger hard drives. iND-BIOS, for example, has LBA48 support built-in. EvoxM8+ can be patched to support LBA48 (and there's pre-patched copies of M8+ floating around on the internet). In general, it's a good idea to, but like I said, you can leave those softmod files in place. After you flash your TSOP, they're not necessary anymore and if you try to load up the stock Xbox dashboard, it could try to load the softmod, which could cause your Xbox to freeze up. Once your TSOP is flashed, you can copy over a stock version of the Xbox's C drive to remove the softmod. If there's files on your E drive relating to the softmod, you can delete those too. Most BIOSes will try to load whatever app you have under E:\evoxdash.xbe. If you have your Dashloader app located here and it points to XBMC, then you should be all set. If you want to skip using Dashloader, you could configure your BIOS to point to a certain app on your hard drive. I have my BIOS set to load "E:\XBMC\default.xbe". If your flash your TSOP and something goes wrong, you can pop in a disc (like Hexen) and use the file browser to look around your hard drive to see what's going wrong. If it were me, I'd flash iND-BIOS 5004.67 to the TSOP using XBlast, then find a backup of the Xbox's C drive on the internet and copy that over to your C drive. iND-BIOS looks at E:\evoxdash.xbe for a dashboard to boot up into, but you can use the "Ind bios configurator" app for PC to make it boot up to an app in a different folder if you wanted to. Again, if Dashloader is already at E:\evoxdash.xbe, then you probably don't have to configure ind-bios. Tip: don't flash the "BFM" version of any BIOS to your TSOP chip.

Not all HDMI cables are made equally, no. Whether or not you'll notice or care about the difference in picture quality is a different story. The HDMI adapter cables made by Pound and Hyperkin are okay, but aren't as good as N64 Freak's internal HDMI mod or Kekule's HDMI cable. The Pound and Hyperkin cables can sometimes show lines or visual noise in the video signal (the amount of visual noise can vary per Xbox even). The cheap $6 Xbox component cables on eBay usually suck, so anything else is a better option. If your TV has component inputs and you can find a good set of component cables, then there's no real need to get an HDMI cord/adapter. Like Dave said, MakeMHZ's HDMI mod is supposedly the best option out there, but it also requires that you solder it onto your Xbox and not everyone is comfortable performing that process.

Are you sure? According to the Xblast manual, a partially working TSOP is needed for this method to work. I bought an Xblast from N64 Freak a few months ago with the expectation that I could use it fix a board that had a bad copy of iND-BIOS flashed to it. Apparently the "inject config into BIOS" feature of the iND-BIOS configurator tool doesn't work and leads to a corrupt BIOS. I tried and failed to fix the TSOP using an Xblast, then researched it and found out this is the reason why. I just have a cheap Aladdin chip on that board that lives there permanently.

Linking a few potentially relevant sites/projects. These projects could have some useful examples or serve as inspiration. ----------- pata-gpio: https://github.com/manawyrm/pata-gpio Purpose: Use Raspberry Pi's GPIO as an IDE interface. Allows you to connect IDE hard drives to a Raspberry Pi, which can then connect to a PC over the Pi's USB port. This basically acts like a IDE-USB adapter. Not exactly an ODE, but could provide some useful insight into reading/writing to an IDE cable over a Pi's gpio pins. One downside is that there's no pins leftover for handling the Xbox's tray state. Another is that the data transfer speeds top out at ~800 KB/s due to the use of libgpio, which isn't intend for data transmission like this. So passing data to an Xbox's motherboard in real time probably isn't realistic using this method. Xbox DVD drives send data to the motherboard at many times that rate. But again, this project could potentially just be used for reference to get an idea of how to tackle sending IDE signals from an Raspberry Pi. Also, in this same project, the author has a GPIO to IDE adapter board (with gerber files). ------------- The NetPi-IDE project (SVN: click here), mentioned in my 1st post, seems to have some interesting hardware to go along with the project. It has a custom board with an fpga that allows for faster transfer speeds. So, in its current implementation it is limited to 2MB/s, but can be clocked faster. An interesting concept. I wouldn't think a single Pi (or Teensy, etc) would have enough overhead to deal with ODE as well as HDMI signal processing. EEPROM tools might be an neat additional feature, but I think the limitation there would be a lack of GPIO pins (assuming they would all would be tied up on the IDE interface).

Yup! I remember your Xbox mini from back then too. Your case mods have always been next-level.

If you're looking for an IDE cable for Xbox, Kekule has 80-wire cables specifically made for original Xbox. I've used them in several Xboxes. Works very well. https://chimericsystems.com/products/custom-xbox-ide-cable

Since it carries a low voltage digital signal, the wire doesn't need to be very thick at all. Something like a 15 to 20 guage (~1mm) wire is fine. Thicker wire is okay, but not needed.

Selling my Raptor PCI Card. This card goes in a computer and connects to a development kit Xbox to facilitate the DVD emulation feature that dev kits support. For more info on what this card is, see here: https://xboxdevwiki.net/DVD_Emulator I bought the card brand new a few months ago. I installed it into my PC and planned on trying to use it with my dev kit, but sold the dev kit before I got to using it. It's in perfect condition. Price: $120 shipped to lower 48 states in the U.S. (if located elsewhere, pm me for shipping rates) Contact me here (reply or PM) or email me directly at my username at gmail dot com. Payment via PayPal (preferred). Shipping via USPS or FedEx. Will be shipped in anti-static bag. Photos -> Full-size: https://i.imgur.com/Do8VKl2.jpg Full-size: https://i.imgur.com/dRQo5N0.jpg More photos available upon request.

It allows a person to use a folder on a computer as if the folder was a disc sitting inside the Xbox's DVD drive. Alternatively, they could connect a hard drive (to the PC card's IDE port, pictured above) that contains the contents of the DVD disc. The equipment will mimic a DVD drive, including tray state (open/closed/busy) and read speeds. Hard drives are obviously faster than DVD drives, so it limits the bandwidth down to that of a DVD drive so devs could see how fast their game would load. This tool ("Xbox DVD Layout Tool") was used back in the day when game studios would go to author their game discs. It let devs decide where files would physically go on the disc so as to optimize the placement of files. So, files for one level in a game could be located next to each other on the disc to reduce the amount of seeks going on while loading. Once they have everything optimized, they would burn the final "gold" disc.

Your USB drive is probably formatted as FAT. XBMC can't write files to a FAT formatted USB drive. It can read FAT drives but not write to them. If you want to be able to copy to a USB drive in XBMC, format it as FATX. I think UnleashX is different though. I'm pretty sure it can write to FAT flash drives (as well as FATX ones). I don't have a drive handy to test with so I may be wrong.

Thanks for the update! After looking up that Zalman of yours, I think I might actually pick one up. It looks like a great way to handle operating system ISOs. I usually have a couple of flash drives that I format and flash as needed, but that looks like a better solution. But yeah, that's too bad that it won't work for this purpose in an Xbox. Once I get some spare cash, I plan on buying a couple options to see if any are compatible. I imagine SD card adapters exist. I have a CF adapter that I use in Xboxes when I use as a bench hard drive for testing motherboards and junk. I admire your dream, but that's a whole lot of work to get to essentially basically the same outcome as using discs. Maybe someday someone can clone the XDK's drive emulator... PC card (installs into a PC and requires special software included in the Xbox dev kit suite) -> Xbox card (sits in between IDE cable and DVD drive) -> Ports open at the back for hooking up cables ->

Very nice. If I still had my iR rework station, I might have given this a try.