Help With 'corrupted' Hdd

[deadhamster35]

Okay, so I really messed up.

I recently got back two 1.6 Xboxes that I haven't had for ages, immediately set out to soft mod them. Looked up and used the Rocky5 kit, worked perfectly, got the first one up fine. But then when I went to FTP some files to it and noticed the Partitions were setup in a way that my file wouldn't fit.

Found a partitioning tool called Xbpartitioner 1.3b or something like that, and without doing any research I transferred it to the Xbox to resize the HDD partition. This erased the Rocky5 dashboard and put up an UnleashedX dashboard. I hadn't access to DVDs, so wanted to install the Rocky5 Extra Disc to the Xbox and run it from there. Found some type of program that claimed to mount and run the Extras Disc, performed the upgrade, Xbox came back to an error message. (Error Message 13). Some Googling says that this appears to happen when the dashboard can't be loaded.

I softmodded the other Xbox successfully using the same Rocky5 setup and it's working fine. I was hoping to clone the working Xbox drive over to bricked one, but Chimp is listing the drive as locked and I can't access the EEPROM key. I believe the Rocky5 mod backs up to the HDD in the E:\ Directory, but I also believe the partition may have erased it?

I went out, got some DVDs and burned the Extras Disc. It doesn't run in the Bricked Xbox, but loads up fine in the new one. The bricked HDD no longer contains the Exploited Savegames I used to initiate the softmod. I can load Retail games, but booting the dashboard leads to the error message (Error 13). Also saw suggestions to insert an Xbox Live game like Halo 2. This did not work either, the game simply reloaded instead of returning to the Dashboard.

So basically what can I do here? Should I be looking to get an IDE to USB converter, so that I can copy the Exploited Savegames onto the HDD and re-load the Softmod? Should I be trying to get the EEPROM backup of the E:\ Drive, assuming it wasn't formatted? Is there something else I can do? I've done lots of searching and haven't found anyone else as stupid as me.

Edited March 6, 2020 by deadhamster35

[SS_Dave]

If it was my Xbox or one sent to me with the problems your having I would fit a mod chip and scrap the Softmod altogether .

The number one rule with soft modding is as soon as you can null the hdd key then you can use a PC or a 2nd Xbox to rebuild the hdd.

If you can get you hands on a EEprom reader/writer you can read the EEprom from the working 1.6 Xbox and write that to the non working 1.6 Xbox  that way you now have 2 Xboxes that have the same HDD key and you could then clone the HDD and put that in the other Xbox. Or if the key has been nulled you can the use a PC to make a drive to work in the 2nd Xbox.

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[HDShadow]

This is what comes of mucking around with a softmod when you do not know what you're doing. Instead of asking here first when you had FTP problems you continued and messed up a perfectly good softmod. Then you continued messing around erasing or reformatting the E:\drive by the sound of it and doing who knows what else until it broke. On top of this you didn't do the one thing you should do first once softmodded and that is to backup the eeprom to your PC.

You've been a very naughty boy.

Whatever you did XBPartitioner v1.3 did not install an UnleashX dashboard.

Unless you tried to re-partition C:\, and the real C:\ at that, not the Shadow C that should have protected Rocky5's softmods from accidents and mistakes I can not begin to guess the route taken to end up with an error 13. That's a dashboard compatibility error but can be triggered my almost anything that prevents the dashboard from launching.

The one rule is with error 13 and 14 is to keep the Xbox plugged into the mains, not powered on, just connected to the mains supply or it could easily go to error 16 which is much more difficult to sort out.

The Xbox is not bricked if it boots retail games still but if it won't boot burned discs then the softmod is gone and unless Rocky5 XBSMT left in some backdoor to get to a recovery dash that limits your possibilities*. The HDD is, as it should be, still locked and that adds to the problems.

What dashboard do you have if any? The MS retail one? You say the exploit/installer game saves are no longer there - how do you know that if you do not have a dashboard? Have you tried booting the exploitable game disc again?

* from Rocky5's GitHub XBSMT ReadMe: Built in back door if you break your dashboard. ( Hold Start+Y on startup ).

Cross your fingers and hope whatever you've done it hasn't stuffed this up as well.

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by HDShadow

[deadhamster35]

13 minutes ago, HDShadow said:

Unless you tried to re-partition C:\, and the real C:\ at that, not the Shadow C that should have protected Rocky5's softmods from accidents and mistakes I can not begin to guess the route taken to end up with an error 13. That's a dashboard compatibility error but can be triggered my almost anything that prevents the dashboard from launching.

The one rule is with error 13 and 14 is to keep the Xbox plugged into the mains, not powered on, just connected to the mains supply or it could easily go to error 16 which is much more difficult to sort out.

The Xbox is not bricked if it boots retail games still but if it won't boot burned discs then the softmod is gone and unless Rocky5 XBSMT left in some backdoor to get to a recovery dash that limits your possibilities*. The HDD is, as it should be, still locked and that adds to the problems.

What dashboard do you have if any? The MS retail one? You say the exploit/installer game saves are no longer there - how do you know that if you do not have a dashboard? Have you tried booting the exploitable game disc again?

 

So the Start+Y at startup lead to the same Error 13. I definitely had attempted to repartition the C:/ drive, the actual real C:/ drive. I also saw something about the Error 16 from the clock losing power, I've kept it plugged in since seeing that. 

There's no Dashboard, it crashes at startup if there's not a retail disc inside to load. But I can get into the Save Games for Splinter Cell for example, and the exploits are not there. When creating a new save file, the game is saved to the HDD and can be loaded on subsequent playthroughs, so I believe if I can get the softmod exploit back onto the HDD I might be able force it to reboot again?

I've seen a video and also had someone mention "HotSwapping" as a potential fix; Unlock the HDD by starting it in my own Xbox to unlock it and then pulling it out to put into an IDE cable for a PC and using XboxHDM. I've seen recently there's an update for XboxHDM to allow USB-based IDE devices and that it has tools to either repair a C:/ drive or to Create an Xbox HDD from scratch. Is this something I should try? Will the drive lock itself when it powers down? 

[HDShadow]

I've just read your post on the other forum with the suggestion to hotswap to XBHDM and if Rocky5's backdoor didn't work (pity) then it is probably going to be your best bet. There is indeed a XBHDM USB but how you fix this exactly I'm not the one to advise - never used it so you need advice from somebody else about that.

From the sound of it you've busted the MS dashboard so it doesn't display but whether just replacing the files with stock ones would work I'm not sure. It depends so much on what you did with the partitioning. If that is messed up you will have to use XBHDM to rebuild the HDD from scratch but please wait until you get a reply and advice from somebody who knows how to use XBHDM USB before doing anything. 

[deadhamster35]

1 hour ago, HDShadow said:

It depends so much on what you did with the partitioning. If that is messed up you will have to use XBHDM to rebuild the HDD from scratch but please wait until you get a reply and advice from somebody who knows how to use XBHDM USB before doing anything. 

To anyone else who may be able to advise further; I completely butchered the partitions. I was trying to install a >4GB file, and all the partitions were ~2GB. I dropped the C partition down to 600mb or so? Took 2GB off if I remember correctly. Tried putting it all into the E drive I believe, as that appeared to be the main drive that software applications and games would be installed to. MAy have done something to the X Y Z partitions or whatever the other drive letters were.

I'm also wondering if using Chimp with the working softmodded xbox could be made possible with Hotswapping as well? When trying to copy the HDD normally it said that it was locked and needed to be unlocked first. Perhaps I could unlock it by starting up the console, disconnect it and plug it into the working Softmodded console when it prompts to switch to the slave drive, and then reattach it to the original xbox before powering down? It sounds like when powering down the Xbox locks the HDD and when powering up it unlocks it, or rather that a drive locks itself on losing power?

Thank you so much for the help HDShadow, hopefully someone else can guide me a bit further so I can save the Xbox, I've never soldered before so I don't know that reading the EEPROM or attaching a hardmod would be safe for me to attempt.



Edit: Other topic mentioned: 
https://www.reddit.com/r/originalxbox/comments/feitsy/help_with_corrupted_hdd/

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by deadhamster35

[Monark_78]

i personally like to old hotswap method with xboxhdm I used that when it first came out and still to this day, I find it easier than trying to find a compatible game disc 

[SS_Dave]

24 minutes ago, Monark_78 said:

i personally like to old hotswap method with xboxhdm I used that when it first came out and still to this day, I find it easier than trying to find a compatible game disc 

I have been using the 007 AUF game for as long as I can remember to Flash the BIOS with outsoft modding and I have now used Mechassault and Splinter cell to Flash a TSOP without softmodding

You can also use Splinter Cell, Mechassault,Tony Hawk's pro skater 4 ,007 Agent Under Fire to softmod with the rocky5 software.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

[HDShadow]

But is that any possible help here when deadhamster35 can not install any game saves to the HDD? Do they work from a memory card or flash drive?

If it is possible and he can launch an installer dash how would he fix this particular set of problems?  Lets say he is using Rocky5's XBSMT again, which installer options does he use to fix messed up partitions and broken MS dash?  

[SS_Dave]

5 hours ago, HDShadow said:

But is that any possible help here when deadhamster35 can not install any game saves to the HDD? Do they work from a memory card or flash drive?  

 

NO and the easy way would be fit a modchip  unless he has nulled the hdd key or has a copy of it then he could unlock the drive.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

 

[deadhamster35]

I can definitely appreciate that a chip would be the best option, so that I could just install any cloned HDD, and as much as I would love to install a chip, I really don't have the ability to do so and don't know of anyone else or a nearby service that would be able to do so either. This is also one of the green Halo Edition Xboxes, so I'd really like to save it without having to buy another xbox and swap the case out. 

I was advised to try HotSwapping into the working Xbox and using Chimp from there, didn't have too much success.

Here's my response from the Reddit topic;

"So my process was to start the console with the broken HDD up, with the HDD hooked up to an outside Power Supply. This booted into error 13 like normal, so I disconnected the HDD and powered down the Xbox. From here, I removed the Jumper to set the HDD to Slave mode, and then started up the Working Xbox.

Navigated to Chimp, switched the DVD Drive to the Broken HDD, Chimp loaded up and said that the connected drive was Unlocked and could not be locked, so certain options were disabled. This included the entire section for the Slave Drive options which lists the byte copy programs.

Any other advice? Did I miss a step or do something wrong?"