XPlorer360 - Make It See a FatX Hdd

[HDShadow]

Since I moved over to Windows 7 64bit a long time ago now there's been one problem I've had with using Xplorer360 that has never made sense to me. Why does it see FATX formatted flash drives and display their content but the when you try to use an unlocked FATX HDD it always reports as no FATX device found.

On my now deceased Windows XP SP3 32bit laptop it did work but was always a bit iffy.

The solution is actually hinted at by that but in all those years of using Windows 7 I'd not come across any mention of this problem in any discussion of Xplorer360. There are even posts from a respected Xbox guru (no name) who states categorically that Windows 7 with Xplorer360 will not see any FATX device >4GB. It is not wrong because, clearly it doesn't but no mention is made that even using Windows 7 you can get it to see your unlocked FATX HDDs.

I spent half the morning today just trying to get my FATX HDD to be seen by Windows and that in itself is difficult enough. A simple IDE > USB cable (+power of course) just didn't work for me. But a dual IDE/SATA external enclosure did after several reboots and cable changes. But Windows 7 64bit > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage Devices still reported it as an uninitialized USB Mass Storage device with unallocated space.

You do need to right mouse click the left hand panel of the HDD volume shown and use the initialize option provided but, obviously, do nothing else.  

But even then Xplorer360 thwarts you by not see what you know is an attached, Windows recognised, unlocked FATX formatted HDD.

I was on the point of giving up and just happened upon this forum post from 2009 (hope it is OK to post this) :-

https://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/getting-hdds-to-show-up-in-xplorer360-if-you-have-fatx-error-look-here.92832/

The answer is frustratingly simple: Run Xplorer360 in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.

Depending on your default status you may need use the run as administrator option too.

The other stuff in that thread is mostly just about using the most up to date version of Xplorer360 and the DLL missing from Windows 7 installations it needs. If you're using Xplorer360 successfully already with flash drives then it is irrelevant.

My feeling is that any trouble you may still have will be down to the hardware used in connecting the FATX formatted HDD to the PC.

The HDD must be recognised by Windows as an attached Mass Storage device but it may only display in the system tray as an USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge if it is in an external housing. Unlike FATX flash drives it appears it will not be shown in the Computer/My Computer overview screen at all either. But Xplorer360 will still see it and display the content.

Whether the  same solution will work for Windows 10 I don't know yet but definitely worth trying compatibility mode for WinXP SP2 whatever Windows version you're using.

 

 

 

[HDShadow]

Follow up - annoying problem.

Whilst its useful to be able to see the contents of a FATX formatted HDD the real purpose of this is to be able to modify or add to whats there and that's the problem. You don't seem to be able to do anything except delete files/folders and create a "New Folder" but you can not apparently add anything to it.

Unlike FATX flash drives drag and drop does not work and when you use the context menu Insert Folder or Insert File whilst something sounds like it is being written to the HDD and the progress bars shows likewise once its finished there's nothing there. Bizarrely Extract works fine either using drag and drop or the context menu: Extract.

Neither "Insert" option is working.

I thought it might be a display issue so I relaunched Xplorer360 again but nothing is shown and I've tried shutting down the PC and restarting that. It reacquires the FATX HDD no problem but the folder I wanted to add just is not there.

Any ideas about what the problem might be?

EDIT

This is just bonkers:-

In WinXP SP2 or SP3 compatibility mode Win7 will detect and display a FATX HDD. You can Extract and Delete to your heart's content but, as I've just discovered, the Insert or drop and drag in options only work when using Win7 without the compatibility modes.  That is a bit of a problem.  

Edited June 2, 2020 by HDShadow

[Ging3rguy]

Do you have the msvrcr71.dll file in the folder next to Xplorer360.exe? I am running Windows 10 and just run it as administrator and it works fine.

[HDShadow]

Not in the folder, I installed it to the Windows folder years ago now.

Win7 doesn't come with that DLL by default and Xplorer360 won't launch at if you do not have it. It will actually say which DLL is missing.

But I've just tried a copy of it in the same folder as Xplorer360 to see if it made a difference; it did not. To see the FATX HDD I still need to use WinXP SP2 or 3 compatibility and, as said, using that appears to mean I can't copy anything to the HDD. Must be a Win7/Vista thing if it works 100% with Win10. 

Its getting a bit frustrating on another related front too - the error 16 HDD from the recently purchased 'for parts' Xbox I'm trying to fix.

Even just being able to see what's on that would be helpful. With the copy from facility still working there might even be an eeprom backup I could get to and use to lock the other softmodded HDD I've prepared.

I've tried multiple hot-swaps to my PC and Windows disc management sees the damned thing, reports it as a HDD, the correct unallocated space and even identifies it as a ST310014ACE. But to use it you need to be able to initialise it and when I try to do that there is in I/O error report preventing it initialising.

I'm fairly sure that means it is still locked but whatever I've done, hot-swapping at various points under error 16 or 12 (DVD drive disconnected) I'm still getting that message.

Any suggestions/tips on hot-swapping appreciated.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by HDShadow

[Ging3rguy]

6 hours ago, HDShadow said:

Not in the folder, I installed it to the Windows folder years ago now.

Win7 doesn't come with that DLL by default and Xplorer360 won't launch at if you do not have it. It will actually say which DLL is missing.

But I've just tried a copy of it in the same folder as Xplorer360 to see if it made a difference; it did not. To see the FATX HDD I still need to use WinXP SP2 or 3 compatibility and, as said, using that appears to mean I can't copy anything to the HDD. Must be a Win7/Vista thing if it works 100% with Win10. 

Its getting a bit frustrating on another related front too - the error 16 HDD from the recently purchased 'for parts' Xbox I'm trying to fix.

Even just being able to see what's on that would be helpful. With the copy from facility still working there might even be an eeprom backup I could get to and use to lock the other softmodded HDD I've prepared.

I've tried multiple hot-swaps to my PC and Windows disc management sees the damned thing, reports it as a HDD, the correct unallocated space and even identifies it as a ST310014ACE. But to use it you need to be able to initialise it and when I try to do that there is in I/O error report preventing it initialising.

I'm fairly sure that means it is still locked but whatever I've done, hot-swapping at various points under error 16 or 12 (DVD drive disconnected) I'm still getting that message.

Any suggestions/tips on hot-swapping appreciated.

 

 

Run Xboxhdm2.3 to check if the drive is unlocked.

[HDShadow]

Will XBHDM USB actually see the HDD if its not initialised?

Xplorer360 if launched takes some time checking but under both Win7 (default) and Win7 (compatibility mode) it reports no FATX device found.

But I will try it.

[Ging3rguy]

7 hours ago, HDShadow said:

Will XBHDM USB actually see the HDD if its not initialised?

Xplorer360 if launched takes some time checking but under both Win7 (default) and Win7 (compatibility mode) it reports no FATX device found.

But I will try it.

If you are doing the hotswap method to unlock your drive just unplug the drive and connect it to your sata computer via the ide adaptor, then use xboxhdm2.3 to check if it is unlocked, you just need to be quick. You can use it to load files to the drive but I have read you are limited on the amount. You don’t need Xplorer360 to do this.

[HDShadow]

Thanks, its just that these anomalies in how thing work bothers me.

For instance whilst, as said, you need an initialised HDD for Xplorer360 and even then you get that difference in what you can do when using Win7 (64bit) and WinXP (32bit) compatibility mode. But why does this only happen with a FATX formatted HDD?

A <4GB FATX formatted flash drive also has its own differences in behaviour ie. under Win7 (64bit) you can copy to and from it no problem. But, as I found last night, if you use WinXP SP2/3 compatibility mode drag and drop to the drive stops working.

However I have WinXP SP2/3( 32bit) on a VM and when I boot that with the same FATX formatted flash drive set as shared volume I can copy both ways - no problem. What I can't do, so far, is get that uninitialised FATX HDD to be recognised by the XP VM.

I like to try to understand these 'quirks' on some level but in this case a lot of it does not make any sense to me.