Jump to content
OGXbox.com

1TB Formatting Issue


HDShadow
 Share

Recommended Posts

Not sure whether this is a Chimp 261812, HDD, BIOS or other matter.

I've not used a 1TB HDD with a Xbox before, largest size I've used is 500GB and I've had no problems with Chimp 261812 formatting the extended partition(s). Well today I decided to build a new Xbox HDD using a recently purchased ITB WD AF SATA HDD for use in a chipped Xbox by using a TSOPed Xbox and Chimp 261812 (v1.0). I've done similar things in the past when I couldn't use an installer disc because the Xbox did not have a working DVD drive.

All went well and worked perfectly except the formatting of the extended partitions.

I elected to have all available space for F but after I'd cloned the existing 80GB IDE 2.5" HDD, BTW just C and E, I was asked again how I wanted to partition the available free space. I checked the Slave ITB HDD's status and the partition table showed the remaining space equally split between F and G about 450GB each. WTF?

So I redid it, choosing all F again, but still with the same result.

The custom EvoxM8+ BIOS I used for the TSOP is set up for all free space to be used by partition 6 (F) and not to ignore the partition table. So I exited Chimp and used Rocky5's XBPTableWriter to reaffirm all free space goes to F. Went back to Chimp, this time with the 1TB as Master HDD on the TSOPed machine and checked. It was still showing equal split F and G so again I tried reformatting to use all F but still no joy.

Long story but I eventually gave up on Chimp and went to XBPartitioner v1.3 and very quickly had the thing formatted to use all the space to F with the correct cluster size (64K) for the 950+GB F partition.

So any ideas why Chimp might have been unable to do that?      

Edited by HDShadow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As you Xbox is hard modded you can use a PC DVD drive with a 4 pin power splitter cable,

It will only load copied DVD's like the OGXbox installer 2021 v1.5.3 from here  https://1fichier.com/dir/mX1kipIz

This will allow you to setup the HDD from scratch 

 

 

Cheers

SS Dave


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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I knew that but didn't think about trying it in this case. Thanks for the idea.

Primarily I was interested as to finding out why Chimp 261812 wouldn't format it to use all free space for F yet, as said, XBPartitioner v1.3 formatted it correcting in just a few clicks.

Last night I had another issue with same HDD - I hadn't used FATXplorer for some time so I decided to see how practical it was to install stuff to it on PC, things like apps, homebrew stuff, skin packs etc which I have archived.

Had to install ie. update to the latest version of MS.NET Runtime: v5.0 and get the latest FATXplorer Beta version too. All installed, rebooted to be safe and the HDD in an external USB housing that has worked with both IDE and WD SATA 160GB and 320GB respectively. No joy - Windows shows it as an attached mass storage device and FATXplorer detect it too but not as a FATX formatted HDD.

FATXplorer Report.txt

Tried downloading the new driver, rebooting etc but it still is not being recognised. I opened a ticket on the FATXplorer web site to see if they could offer some insight and/or solution other than the obvious ie. use a different HDD or different USB housing.

It is likely something to do with the fact the 1TB WD HDD is "AF" (Advanced Format) and there are reported issues with these newer AF HDD's firmware and some USB enclosures. I was going to use this same HDD to clone an existing internal PC HDD which includes a full Wndows OS but the cloning software refused to proceed because of the mismatched "Sector" sizing. No problem if you connect it by SATA internally but that's a bit of a faff.

It was one of the reasons I decided to use it as a Xbox HDD and yet it seems the issue with FATXplorer not recognising the FATX formatting may be related.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The ogXbox's hard drive should run with 512 bytes / sector instead of an AF drive's 4096 bytes/sector.

Is the drive's Advanced Format logo an orange "AF" or blue 4Kn one?

Since it worked with XBPartitioner v1.3, it must be the orange AF logo.  Internally the drive uses 4Kbytes/sector but supports access from the computer with a translation/emulation layer built into the drive to work with a system that expects 512 bytes/sector.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the theory, yes, and in practice when attached internally, using SATA of course, it reports and behaves as it should do ie. a 512/4096 (512e).

However, when using the particular HDD enclosures I have the HDD, as I understand it, appears to report as native 4096.

.png

I've asked about this on various IT forums and the only explanation offered is that there is, apparently, a problem with some USB enclosures which use a certain JMicron bridge controller chip version.

I'm testing that theory by buying another, different make and type of enclosure, but I'll have to wait for that to be delivered.       

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Strangely enough about 8 hours ago I was actually there reading about the new formatting facility and wondering if it would be a solution to this HDD issue too.

Windows has no problems even when it is FATX formatted ie. it still sees the HDD in Device Manager and Storage Management as an attached mass storage device with unallocated space. Formatted to NTFS FATXloprer should pick it up and if it has done the formatting to FATX itself it would be a bit odd if it then didn't recognise it as an attached FATX formated device.

My money is on it not working and it indeed being a bit odd. But I'm still going to try that because I hope I'm wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have testet the format option and had no problem. One thing more you could try is xboxhdm 2.3 USB SATA. Some days ago I fixed 2 HDD's with an error 16 with it. Maybe it would help you as well.

How ever, this version of FATXplorer changes almost everything (no need for an DVD installer anymore).

Edited by sweetdarkdestiny
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should make it clear: the HDD concerned works fine. Using Chimp it cloned the TSOPed Xbox/HDD I was using as a parent hardmod without serious issue except Chimp's refusal to format it to use F only. That was resolved with XBPartioner v1.3. So all is good with the HDD and I could FTP the contents from the PC if I wanted.

But I thought I'd like to try using FATXplorer instead. That's when I ran into this weird problem with FATXplorer recognising the HDD as an attached USB mass storage device but not recognising it as FATX formatted.

I'm looking for an explanation for and solution to that.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Extraordinary.

I have an older version of the same make of USB external enclosure which I bought more recently because it was being sold off cheaply. Just for a lark I thought I'd try the ITB WD in that. Blow me down - it is now being recognised by FATXplorer, the latest update with the new formatting tools. But I didn't use those, no need the content of the already FATX formatted HDD are suddenly now all available. 

What I do not know is if it was the enclosure swap or the driver update and reboot FATXplorer prompted before I tried to access the contents.

The enclosure only claims support for WinXP and Vista yet it works fine with Win7 64bit >.but I've just checked and the other enclosures only claim support for up to Vista too. That would suggest the driver update was the fix but I'll now have to swap the HDD back to one of the other enclosures to test out that theory.

Here's the new FATXplorer log for the very same HDD in the alternative enclosure:-

FATXplorer Log 2.txt

Edited by HDShadow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, HDShadow said:

That's the theory, yes, and in practice when attached internally, using SATA of course, it reports and behaves as it should do ie. a 512/4096 (512e).

However, when using the particular HDD enclosures I have the HDD, as I understand it, appears to report as native 4096.

.png 102.48 kB · 3 downloads

I've asked about this on various IT forums and the only explanation offered is that there is, apparently, a problem with some USB enclosures which use a certain JMicron bridge controller chip version.

I'm testing that theory by buying another, different make and type of enclosure, but I'll have to wait for that to be delivered.       

Could be.  Advanced format drives report different sizes for two different drive parameters:

Drives with a transition layer for standard 512 byte logical block access return:

  • physical_block_size = 4096 bytes
  • logical_block_size = 512 bytes

However, the firmware of older adapters simply reads the physical_block_size expecting it to be 512 bytes same as the logical_block_size then simply passes it on to the device it gets connected to. Newer devices may notice the drive is an AF device by checking both values and reports the logical block size used by the device it connects to. Just a WAG - wild assed guess - on my part.  Without details of how the chipset an enclosure or adapter works ???.

Most of the manufacturers of the bridging chipsets don't release details to the public about how they operate or even to the manufacturer's of devices that use them without large quatities of parts purchased and signing a non-disclosure agreement to not release those details to anyone else. :(

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well......................in this case it has actually proven either to be the new FATXplorer version update or the new driver.

I've literately just finished testing the HDD in question in two out of the three 'problem' enclosures and its now working in both with FATXplorer.

I'd been in contact with the Eaton Works support team and very quickly they replied that the update would likely fix the matter. Whether it was the FATXplorer update or the new driver wasn't clear but whatever it was worked. Yay!

Not important for other Xbox users but the Windows USB/SATA sector reporting mismatch with the same HDD/housing which prevented me from using that HDD to clone another Windows OS HDD via USB still persists. But it makes me wonder if there might be a software or driver fix for that now too.

Who do you approach to prompt looking into something that might just be because of niche USB bridge issue? WDC?

They'd probably just say to try using a different USB external enclosure...........................which is exactly what I'm doing.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

Board Life Status


Board startup date: April 23, 2017 12:45:48
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.