Adding a Brand New Hard Disk (1tb Sata W/Adapter)

[Dave C.]

I am sure it is just experience (my lack of) but there seems to be a certain amount of Voodoo involved with adding a new Hard Disk to a TSOP'd system using HeXEn

I have successfully done it but now I am using a SATA 1TB Drive w/adapter and I am on my third try at it (formatting etc.).

Still nothing.  I am wondering if my Seagate ST1000DM003 is not compatible or I am missing something?

Any advice?

[Dave C.]

Definitely missing something as I can not even get a new IDE Drive to work.  I put the original IDE 250 back that I built and it boots fine.

If this cable switching that the HeXEn talks about really necessary?  If so, I could not get that to work because the video is not recycling (I did turn on the Hi-Def Settings on the original 250).

Also, what if the hard drive just fails?  Can't you install a new blank drive with a TSOP'd machine?

Calling it a night.  Any pointers would be appreciated.

[Dave C.]

Am I even at the right starting point?

[KaosEngineer]

No, you should be able to take out the old HDD. Plug in the new SATA with IDE-to-SATA adapter jumpers set to CS or MASTER not SLAVE with an 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable and boot HeXEn disc.  It should prompt you that a new HDD was detected and it needs to be formatted.

 

in 99.999999% of the cases (an exaggeration or is it), an 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable is REQUIRED for SATA HDD to work.

Edited August 24, 2017 by KaosEngineer

[ivanochance]

i have the same hd in my xbox, so it is compatiable. Make sure its all connected with the right cable. And as Kaos says you should get the prompt to Format

[Dave C.]

It does prompt me to format and then I go through the steps under HeXEn option 2 to create a new NTSC disk and it all looks like it works but it won't boot from the Hard Drive after. I also tried a 250 MB IDE new drive with the same results. Is there anything else I need to do after locking the disk and backing up the eeprom? That seems to be the final step. Thanks.


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[OGXbox Admin]

You need to be using an 80 wire cable. Let's see a picture of your setup.

[Dave C.]

Right now I am actually using an identical IDE drive as the one that works with the same cables (took the SATA out). I go through all the steps and it will not boot from the hard drive. I have to be missing a step in HeXEn. So identical IDE drive as the one that works and I can't get it to boot after formatting and preparing a new NTSC drive and locking and backing up the eeprom.


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[KaosEngineer]

Sounds like everything is being done as I'd expect when installing a new HDD with HeXEn 2017.  You are using the build new NTSC drive under the menu area for modchip/TSOP and not softmod? I don't know the numbers and need to find my HeXEn 2017 boot disk to check. 2 doesn't sound right thought it was 3.

If not, build the drive under the modchip/TSOP menu.  A softmod and modchip/TSOP BIOS don't play nicely together. The console will boot up with a BLACK screen.  Making you think the Xbox is broken.  Which in a way it is; wrong configuration!

If so, I'd do one thing before rebooting.  Login via FTP or use UnleashX's File Manager to verify that the C, E, F, X, Y. Z partitions do exist on the newly configured hard drive.  And, that the C drive contains a copy of the MS dashboard files and a file named evoxdash.xbe  is in the root directory.  This file is really a copy of UnleashX's default.xbe renamed so the BIOS will load it upon startup.

Edited August 24, 2017 by KaosEngineer

[KaosEngineer]

Didn't take as long as I thought to find the HeXEn boot disk and my DVD drive loaded it first try.

No, menu section 2 is not the correct area.  You want to use 3 - TSOP Flashed / Chipped Xbox Tools -> 3.5 Chipped / Flashed Xbox Disk Upgrades -> 3.5.3 - New Disk, NTSC Xbox.

[Dave C.]

KaosEngineer, you the man!  That was the problem with the new IDE Drive!  It helps if you (me) use the correct menu path.  Thank you so much!

I suppose I do need the 80 pin IDE cable for the SATA drive though so off to some online shopping as I know I don't have one of those.

[Dave C.]

Ok, so just as an added bonus, the 1TB SATA Drive works with the original 40 pin stock Xbox cable and the $7.99 converter I bought on eBay.  The converter must do what ever pixie dust and voodoo needed to use the stock cable.  The proof is in the pics

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-to-PATA-IDE-Hard-Drive-Adapter-Converter-3-5-HDD-Parallel-to-Serial-ATA/381459010587?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Thanks for all the help!

[OGXbox Admin]

LOTS of people have got it to "work", but when you realize that the 80 wires are there to prevent corruption at the higher speeds... you'll realize you will eventually get corrupted data and you won't want to continue the practice.

 

[Dave C.]

Got ya!  I am still messing with the partition size and am ordering a cable.

Will this one work?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073CKHX7X/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=B073CKHX7X&pd_rd_r=C5STP10T8VJZV1KMNMZ1&pd_rd_w=zZt9o&pd_rd_wg=pQqoC&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=Q5F7MBRVQBVQJT4MCC22&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=f719e185-4825-42a4-9507-9df1a19229d6&pf_rd_i=desktop

[Dave C.]

Do you think this is the best I can do as far as an optimized partition scheme for a 1TB drive?

[KaosEngineer]

Depends how long that cable is. Standard 18" cables barely fit as the Xbox used non-standard connector locations.  DVD connector closer to MB connection.  HDD connector protrudes from the opposite side of the cable.

I've seen people use 24" ASUS 80 wire 40 pin cables search on eBay.  But, those 18-19" are a pain to install.

[KaosEngineer]

10 minutes ago, Dave C. said:

Do you think this is the best I can do as far as an optimized partition scheme for a 1TB drive?

Looks good.  You could put all into just the F partition too using XBPartition 1.3 and 64KB clusters but all small files (<64KB) will be taking 64KB of HDD space. A 1k file will still consume 64KB of HDD space 128 sectors  As configured now, the cluster size should be 32KB, small than 32KB files will occupy 32KB of HDD space.   

Install/run XBPartitioner 1.3 to check the current configuration of the Extended Partitions. Cluster size = ?

Edited August 25, 2017 by KaosEngineer

[Dave C.]

eBay has a 24 and a 36 that I found.  Is 24 just right or would you go with the 36?

[Dave C.]

The cluster size is 32.  If I put it all on one drive, it would be 64.

[KaosEngineer]

18 minutes ago, Dave C. said:

The cluster size is 32.  If I put it all on one drive, it would be 64.

Yes, 32KB cluster will work for partitions up to 512GB,  Over 512GB, cluster size of 64KB is required.  Personally, I'd stick with the setup you have.

Cluster Size - Max Partition Size

8k  - 128GB
16k - 256GB
32k - 512GB
64k - 1024GB

20 minutes ago, Dave C. said:

eBay has a 24 and a 36 that I found.  Is 24 just right or would you go with the 36?

36" is too long.  the original Xbox cable is 24" but the connectors are not in the same locations as the ASUS/standard IDE cable. But, it works.

Tutorial on how to fold a 24" 80-wire 40-pin IDE cable for Xbox installation: http://web-nine.com/projects/xbox/ide/

Edited August 25, 2017 by KaosEngineer

[Dave C.]

I just measured a V1.0 (as best as I could).  It is about 21 ish and the 2 closest connectors are about 7 apart.

This one is 24 and 6 apart.  Do you think that is the best or keep looking?  Also, I am going to check a newer version XBox because this one seemed tight but definitely seemed OEM.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073CKHX7X/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=B073CKHX7X&pd_rd_r=C5STP10T8VJZV1KMNMZ1&pd_rd_w=zZt9o&pd_rd_wg=pQqoC&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=Q5F7MBRVQBVQJT4MCC22&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=f719e185-4825-42a4-9507-9df1a19229d6&pf_rd_i=desktop

[Dave C.]

Lastly, I am a software guy (by trade) so I don't understand why this cable is needed if the drive works?

I have built many PC's in my day and I am remembering how much I hate IDE cables because they are eventually going to pull apart (connector from cable) the more you connect and disconnect them but I don't remember an 80 wire IDE cable.  I remember that SCSI devices had a bigger ribbon cable.

[KaosEngineer]

Oops I was wrong about the length of the stock cable.  Its 21" not 24"

Here's a side-by-side view of a 19" well closer to 18.5" 80-wire 40-pin and the stock Xbox 40-pin IDE cables.

I've used this 18.5" cable before with IDE-to-SATA adapter and SATA HDD  A very TIGHT fit indeed.  Really need to take the HDD connector off the end and re-install so it protrudes from the opposite side. And, remove the center connector and re-isntall closer to the MB connection end.  But, works turned end round.  In this photo (yellow 80-wire cable), left end connector attaches to HDD (MASTER), center to DVD (SLAVE) and right end to Xbox MB (HOST).  

Both end connectors are not being used for their originally intended connection.

The Asus 80-wire IDE cable below uses colored connectors that follow the IDE standard's connector color code.

Blue to HOST, grey to SLAVE and black to MASTER IDE device.

Edited August 25, 2017 by KaosEngineer

[big F]

I've been using the standard, often supplied with new PC boards 80 connectors that a 24" long, since before SATA was a thing.

Plugged in backwards they fit nicely and only require a bit of cable management to get back in the case.

There is a slight speed increase even on IDE drives using one.

[Incursion64]

big F is correct - just flip the standard 24" cables around and it will work great.  I have used the longer ones, some worked, some didn't., After having inconsistant results I went to 24" and haven't gone back.