Error 06, but HDD key matches EEPROM

[shauno5]

Hi all,

Hoping to get some help on this one as i'm really stumped.

Problem: I'm restoring an Xbox and trying to get a fresh built HDD paired with a motherboard using nulled (1's) key, but still getting E06.

Steps I've taken:

1. Built a fresh drive using XBHDM, locked the HDD with all 1's, and verified it boots correctly into a working soft modded xbox with nulled HDD key in the EEPROM (all 1's).

2. Read the EEPROM of the target motherboard using PiPROM, edited the eeprom.bin file to null the HDD key with 1's and written this back to the EEPROM.

3. Read the EEPROM again and verified its indeed now all 1's in the HDD Key.

4. Installed the newly created and locked HDD from step 1 into the target motherboard.

5. Error 06

Other info that may or may not be relevant?
* HDD i'm building is an original 8/10?GB Seagate drive, but i've also tried two original WD drives in step #1 and the same issue arises.
* Target motherboard revision is a v1.1

Any ideas whats going on here?

[dtomcat]

Sure there are enough 1’s?  Did you write the 1’s yourself?

[shauno5]

48 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said:

Sure there are enough 1’s?  Did you write the 1’s yourself?

Double checked that and 32 1's. I wrote them myself in the LiveInfo utility.

[KaosEngineer]

5 hours ago, shauno5 said:

Hi all,

Hoping to get some help on this one as i'm really stumped.

Problem: I'm restoring an Xbox and trying to get a fresh built HDD paired with a motherboard using nulled (1's) key, but still getting E06.

Steps I've taken:

1. Built a fresh drive using XBHDM, locked the HDD with all 1's, and verified it boots correctly into a working soft modded xbox with nulled HDD key in the EEPROM (all 1's).

2. Read the EEPROM of the target motherboard using PiPROM, edited the eeprom.bin file to null the HDD key with 1's and written this back to the EEPROM.

3. Read the EEPROM again and verified its indeed now all 1's in the HDD Key.

4. Installed the newly created and locked HDD from step 1 into the target motherboard.

5. Error 06

Other info that may or may not be relevant?
* HDD i'm building is an original 8/10?GB Seagate drive, but i've also tried two original WD drives in step #1 and the same issue arises.
* Target motherboard revision is a v1.1

Any ideas whats going on here?

XBHDM ???.   Which version of XboxHDM are you using to lock the hard drive: XboxHDM23USB Beta 2, 3 , 4 or XboxHDM v1.9?

Or, are you using some other application to lock the hard drive?

How's the Xbox hard drive connected to your PC?

 

[UltimateMe]

When do this manually I discovered several times that is doesn`t work. Use the EEPROM. Use the altered eeprom.bin file to lock the drive and don`t do this manually. I tried it a few times and it gave me headaches. After using the eeprom.bin for locking and unlocking with xboxHDM all the trouble was solved.

[shauno5]

41 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

XBHDM ???.   Which version of XboxHDM are you using to lock the hard drive: XboxHDM23USB Beta 2, 3 , 4 or XboxHDM v1.9?

Or, are you using some other application to lock the hard drive?

How's the Xbox hard drive connected to your PC?

 

Ah my mistake it wasn't XboxHDM exactly, it was Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disk on TruHexen 2021, using the 3.5.4 New Disk > PAL Xbox option, after which the drive was nulled with 1's and locked, which I thought would be sufficient.

[big F]

When I last did this I had similar.  I use a reader to pull the bin file directly from the rom.

I bought it back n the day on eVil Bay 

I ended up just pushing the modded bios to all the boxes I had at the time and then setting the HD key to match.

[RMM]

Maybe the software isnt doing something right.  You could try rebuilding the hard drive with FATXplorer 3 beta and see if that works as a comparison.

[shauno5]

 

16 hours ago, RMM said:

Maybe the software isnt doing something right.  You could try rebuilding the hard drive with FATXplorer 3 beta and see if that works as a comparison.

Tried the drive on PC with a USB IDE adapter (startech brand). Security tools found and unlocked fine using all 1's. However when I went into build tools I get "Media not loaded. Might be locked", and I can't mount it either to view files.

Maybe i've got a bad IDE adapter (i've heard they are hit and miss). Thats why I preferred to build with my existing modded xbox using utils disc. 

I'm going to try and find a larger drive anyway to do a fresh build and see how that goes.

 

 

[RMM]

7 hours ago, shauno5 said:

 

Tried the drive on PC with a USB IDE adapter (startech brand). Security tools found and unlocked fine using all 1's. However when I went into build tools I get "Media not loaded. Might be locked", and I can't mount it either to view files.

Maybe i've got a bad IDE adapter (i've heard they are hit and miss). Thats why I preferred to build with my existing modded xbox using utils disc. 

I'm going to try and find a larger drive anyway to do a fresh build and see how that goes.

 

 

Those IDE to USB adapters are known to be a big issue when trying to unlock IDE hard drives.  I think all of them have issues with a few being able to work. 

In FATXplorer if you can get your USB adapter to unlock the hard drive successfully the first thing you will want to do is have FATXplorer remove the password then disconnect the hard drive adapter from the computer.  Dont unlock the hard drive and try to write to it.  Unlock it, remove the password then disconnect if from your computer.  Plug the hard drive back in as it should now have the password removed and be unlocked then try to mount it and write to it.  This methods works on other brands of IDE to USB adapters so maybe it will work with yours.

Edited July 26, 2023 by RMM

[dtomcat]

1 hour ago, RMM said:

Those IDE to USB adapters are known to be a big issue when trying to unlock IDE hard drives.  I think all of them have issues with a few being able to work. 

In FATXplorer if you can get your USB adapter to unlock the hard drive successfully the first thing you will want to do is have FATXplorer remove the password then disconnect the hard drive adapter from the computer.  Dont unlock the hard drive and try to write to it.  Unlock it, remove the password then disconnect if from your computer.  Plug the hard drive back in as it should now have the password removed and be unlocked then try to mount it and write to it.  This methods works on other brands of IDE to USB adapters so maybe it will work with yours.

This is what worked for me as well (with startech adapter

[MadMartigan]

I’m honestly a bit shocked that nobody has suggested just flashing the TSOP and eliminating this headache all together. It would make this whole process a Sunday stroll through the park. 

[SS_Dave]

It sounds like the EEProm in the Xbox is not nulled to all ones

I would use the original soft modded HDD to re-flash the onboard bios chip and then unlock the new drive with Fatxploer v3.0 beta and use that.

On 7/25/2023 at 9:57 PM, shauno5 said:

Ah my mistake it wasn't XboxHDM exactly, it was Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disk on TruHexen 2021, using the 3.5.4 New Disk > PAL Xbox option, after which the drive was nulled with 1's and locked, which I thought would be sufficient.

My Heimdall's disk is now a coffee cup coaster and if you must use a install disk then use the OGXBox installer disk V1.5.4 

https://1fichier.com/dir/mX1kipIz

But in my view you are wasting you time with install disks

 

6 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

I’m honestly a bit shocked that nobody has suggested just flashing the TSOP and eliminating this headache all together. It would make this whole process a Sunday stroll through the park. 

I am getting a laugh from the stuffing around the OP is going to trying to upgrade the hard drive.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[big F]

When trying to read old IDE drives nothing beats an old pentium 3 era board. So cheap to buy and just chuck in a small hard drive and stripped out Windows XP and you are good to go.

[KaosEngineer]

On 7/25/2023 at 6:57 AM, shauno5 said:

Ah my mistake it wasn't XboxHDM exactly, it was Heimdall's Xbox Engineering Disk on TruHexen 2021, using the 3.5.4 New Disk > PAL Xbox option, after which the drive was nulled with 1's and locked, which I thought would be sufficient.

How is your Xbox modded? 

If softmodded, some softmods use a virtual EEPROM.  This virtual EEPROM gets updated in RAM with the new all 1's key and the hard drive locked with its computed password. However, the data in the actual EEPROM chip on the motherboard did not get updated with the new key - only the virtual EEPROM (RAM copy) of the EEPROM's data was.  Thus, after rebooting, the Xbox still computes the password using the original non-all 1's key it originally contained but the hard drive is actually locked with the password computed using the new all 1's key.  Therefore, error 06.

[shauno5]

36 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

How is your Xbox modded? 

If softmodded, some softmods use a virtual EEPROM.  This virtual EEPROM gets updated in RAM with the new all 1's key and the hard drive locked with its computed password. However, the data in the actual EEPROM chip on the motherboard did not get updated with the new key - only the virtual EEPROM (RAM copy) of the EEPROM's data was.  Thus, after rebooting, the Xbox still computes the password using the original non-all 1's key it originally contained but the hard drive is actually locked with the password computed using the new all 1's key.  Therefore, error 06.

So the Xbox i'm trying to put the drive into has no mod, just a re-written EEPROM with all 1's.

The Xbox I used to build the drive was actually a hardmod (so I could boot the tools disk to build the drive), and then use the Null EEPROM tool to lock the drive to all 1's. It also set the password to "TEAMASSEMBLY" I believe.

Then I verified it booted into a softmodded xbox which had a nulled 1's key and it loaded into the dashboard. Also unlocked successfully on FATXplorer so I knew it accepted an all 1's key, and relocked.

Then when I put the drive back in the EEPROM edited xbox from step 1 ... E06.

I might just look into the TSOP process instead though.

A couple of questions:
1. Can a hardmod or TSOP flashed xbox boot into a locked drive?
2. Whats the relationship between the HDD key and the password? Im a bit confused about this. Does a stock xbox need a password as well as a HDD key?

[dtomcat]

8 hours ago, shauno5 said:

2. Whats the relationship between the HDD key and the password? Im a bit confused about this. Does a stock xbox need a password as well as a HDD key?

Yea… both are needed on a stock system.  So the HDD key is an encryption key.  The entire password is derived from the 16byte HDD key and the drive’s model and serial number.   So you HMAC_SHA1 your key, model number, and Serial number (of drive).  That results in a 20 byte digest (first part of drive’s password).  Then you add 12 bytes of 0’s to complete the 32 byte password 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Dtomcat18

[RMM]

21 hours ago, MadMartigan said:

I’m honestly a bit shocked that nobody has suggested just flashing the TSOP and eliminating this headache all together. It would make this whole process a Sunday stroll through the park. 

But isnt the problem the OP cant install a hard drive in the Xbox because the OP's eeprom.bin doesnt seem to be working?  In order to do a TSOP flash you need a working hard drive in that Xbox to be able to use the gamesave exploit.  Of course you can do a TSOP flash with a modchip installed but if you were going to install a modchip why not just use the modchip.

[SS_Dave]

10 hours ago, shauno5 said:

Can a hardmod or TSOP flashed xbox boot into a locked drive?

Yes as long as the HDD key that's in the hard modded Xbox's the eeprom matches the HDD key in the hard drive, But if the hard drive has been locked in a different Xbox then that hard drive will not work.

For you info a Hardmod generally refers to a mod-chip or onboard bios re-flash (TSOP)

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

[RMM]

10 hours ago, shauno5 said:

...I might just look into the TSOP process instead though.

A couple of questions:
1. Can a hardmod or TSOP flashed xbox boot into a locked drive?
2. Whats the relationship between the HDD key and the password? Im a bit confused about this. Does a stock xbox need a password as well as a HDD key?

TSOP is a very good solution and much more useful than a softmod.  To answer your 1st question yes a modchip or TSOP can boot a locked hard drive.  However, the problem is you need a working hard drive in the xbox with an unlock key that matches the one in the eeprom for it to boot the locked hard drive.  You cant stick just any locked hard drive in an Xbox with a modchip/TSOP and think its going to work.

[SS_Dave]

5 minutes ago, RMM said:

Of course you can do a TSOP flash with a modchip installed

That not a easy thing to do as when you boot from a mod chip the Xbox will only re-flash the mod chip and not the onboard bios chip, I f you want to re-flash the onboard bios chip the Xbox need to boot from it.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

Soft modding is like masturbating, It gets the job done but it's nothing like the real thing.

 

[MadMartigan]

3 hours ago, RMM said:

But isnt the problem the OP cant install a hard drive in the Xbox because the OP's eeprom.bin doesnt seem to be working?  In order to do a TSOP flash you need a working hard drive in that Xbox to be able to use the gamesave exploit.  Of course you can do a TSOP flash with a modchip installed but if you were going to install a modchip why not just use the modchip.

Maybe I missed the OP not having a stock HDD. I was under the assumption they were just trying to toy with Xbhdm by making a new drive or three. The OP gave good info no doubt, but I guess mentioning several different HDDs, I’m no longer aware if they actually have a working one or not. Who wipes their stock HDD only to rebuild it? That’s insanity. 

[shauno5]

32 minutes ago, MadMartigan said:

Maybe I missed the OP not having a stock HDD. I was under the assumption they were just trying to toy with Xbhdm by making a new drive or three. The OP gave good info no doubt, but I guess mentioning several different HDDs, I’m no longer aware if they actually have a working one or not. Who wipes their stock HDD only to rebuild it? That’s insanity. 

Yeah I should clarify that. The target Xbox i'm trying to build a HDD for never had a matching HDD in it to begin with when I acquired it.

 

[MadMartigan]

Huge clarification. If you’re handy with a soldering iron, get a chip. It can be a cheap one or send it to one of us for a quick install. You’ll be back in business in no time. 

Edited July 28, 2023 by MadMartigan

[RMM]

3 hours ago, shauno5 said:

Yeah I should clarify that. The target Xbox i'm trying to build a HDD for never had a matching HDD in it to begin with when I acquired it.

 

No but you did mention in step 2 you read the Xbox's eeprom with PiPROM, edited eeprom.bin then wrote it back to the Xbox so even if you did have the original hard drive, it wouldnt have matched the edited eeprom the Xbox would now have.  It just brings us back to the question of whats wrong?  Is it the edited eeprom information that's on the hard drive, the edited eeprom information that is now on the Xbox's eeprom?  Is it both? 

I do think a TSOP flash is a good option but I also understand from reading your post it wouldnt be as simple a process given the problems you outlined.

 

My advice would be you should try starting from fresh.  Read the Xbox's eeprom with your PiPROM.  Rebuild the hard drive with FATXplorer while putting the necessary Xbox files on C partition.  After the hard drive is rebuilt, lock it with FATXplorer using the eeprom.bin that you read with your PiPROM. 

If you want to rebuild the hard drive in FATXplorer with softmod included, you can use the C partition from Rocky5's softmod XBHDM build.zip found here:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GO8e61Urz0Ck8110A5C5X0qxnGpLjTI8     

If you want a clean C partition you can download the files from here https://www.mediafire.com/file/95s2c0tf8873dyb/Clean_C_and_E_Files_for_Xbox.7z/file The clean C partition files come from KaosEngineer in this thread

Edited July 28, 2023 by RMM
shorten too much wording