Unable to lock HDD with XboxHDM23USB and IDE to SATA adapter

[amak79]

I’m attempting to fix a friends unmodded 1.0 Xbox with a dead HDD (error 7). I’ve successfully extracted the EEPROM using PiPROM and prepared a new IDE HDD with FATXplorer. However I’m having trouble locking the replacement Seagate ST3320620A IDE HDD which according the Xbox Hard Drive Compatibility Chart supports locking.

Initially I used an IDE to USB adapter but XboxHDM23USB Beta 3 and 4 complained about an unknown USB chipset. I then tried a StarTech PATA2SATA3 IDE to SATA adapter which progressed a little further but still fails with “ATA SECURITY SETPASS failed: scsi error aborted command”.

The output from XboxHDM23USB Beta 4 shows that the HDD is in the frozen state which I believe prevents unlocking/locking. If this is causing the failure, how can I unfreeze the HDD? Can I use some other utility such as hdparm to lock the HDD?

[nikeymikey]

I believe this is entirely down to the usb adapter that you are using. Had this very issue myself a while back. In the end after trying a few different adapters it worked for me. 

However, its much easier in 2022 to just use a SATA hard drive with an IDE2SATA adaptor in your xbox. You can also connect the SATA drive to your pc and set it up directly with FatXplorer beta. You can format a new drive and make it viewable in windows so then uts just a case ok drop and drag with all your needed files. Before putting the drive in the Xbox and booting it up. Much less grief than messing about with finicky USB adapters/software. 

Edited June 8, 2022 by nikeymikey

[amak79]

The IDE2SAT2 adapter is great but I would still need a modchip to use an unlocked HDD. It's not easy to find a cheap modchip such as an Aladdin that is flashable by the Xbox. Most Aladdin's sold these days are not flashable.

Another problem I have is the LPC pads are already filled with solder and I don't think I'm skilled enough to remove it without burning the pads. I'm not sure why they're filled with solder. The Xbox appeared untouched. I broke the patent and serial number labels, although the serial number label has another serial number label stuck underneath it. Perhaps the Xbox was serviced by Microsoft at some point.

Replacing the HDD with another IDE drive seemed like the easiest solution. I'm just one step away from it working, but locking the HDD has proved very difficult.

Edited June 8, 2022 by amak79

[SS_Dave]

19 minutes ago, amak79 said:

Another problem I have is the LPC pads are already filled with solder

The version 1.0 boards came with the LPC port holes filled with solder.

Apply fresh 60/40 solder with extra flux paste then you can use solder wick to clear the holes.

 

Cheers

SS Dave

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

 

[nikeymikey]

35 minutes ago, amak79 said:

The IDE2SAT2 adapter is great but I would still need a modchip to use an unlocked HDD. It's not easy to find a cheap modchip such as an Aladdin that is flashable by the Xbox. Most Aladdin's sold these days are not flashable.

Another problem I have is the LPC pads are already filled with solder and I don't think I'm skilled enough to remove it without burning the pads. I'm not sure why they're filled with solder. The Xbox appeared untouched. I broke the patent and serial number labels, although the serial number label has another serial number label stuck underneath it. Perhaps the Xbox was serviced by Microsoft at some point.

Replacing the HDD with another IDE drive seemed like the easiest solution. I'm just one step away from it working, but locking the HDD has proved very difficult.

FatXplorer says in the latest beta that the Locking/Unlocking of OG Xbox hdds is coming soon so maybe put the box aside until that is available.  You will probably need either an eeprom dump form the xbox or know what the hdd key is for it to work tho. You can make your self an eeprom reader and dump it quite easily if you dont have a backup already. 

Theres a guide here.....HOW to read your XBOX's EEPROM and GET the HDD KEY WITHOUT removing the chip Or Modding the XBOX | AfterDawn Discussion Forums

[amak79]

26 minutes ago, SS_Dave said:

The version 1.0 boards came with the LPC port holes filled with solder.

Apply fresh 60/40 solder with extra flux paste then you can use solder wick to clear the holes.

Thank you for the info and the desoldering tip.

10 minutes ago, nikeymikey said:

FatXplorer says in the latest beta that the Locking/Unlocking of OG Xbox hdds is coming soon so maybe put the box aside until that is available.  You will probably need either an eeprom dump form the xbox or know what the hdd key is for it to work tho. You can make your self an eeprom reader and dump it quite easily if you dont have a backup already.

I have read the EEPROM with PiPROM. I just need to lock the drive. I'll keep an eye out for any news on FatXplorer adding locking/unlocking support. Thanks.

[nikeymikey]

I always change the hdd key on all my xbox eeproms to all 1's. That way all my xbox hdds are swappable with each other. If one ever dies its trivial to get it going again. 

 

[KaosEngineer]

While the system has the drive FROZEN, you will not be able to change the locking status of the drive.  Try power cycling the drive and check the lock status, I believe it will state NOT FROZEN when in a state that it can be locked/unlocked. 

 

Edit: Many newer PC BIOSes especially UEFI's freeze a hard drive when it is attached and Windows 10+ may do so too. This feature is to prevent MALWARE/RANSOMWARE from locking your hard drive with some random password preventing you from being able to access your own files.   If you are not able to get your PC to show the state as NOT FROZEN, you will need to find an older computer with a system BIOS and OS that does not automagically FREEZE a hard drive when connected to the system.

[amak79]

6 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

Try power cycling the drive and check the lock status, I believe it will state NOT FROZEN when in a state that it can be locked/unlocked.

I can unplug/plug the power cable to the PATA2SATA3 adapter while the system is still on? I've previously powered down and the rebooted the system but that didn't clear the frozen state.

[KaosEngineer]

1 minute ago, amak79 said:

I can unplug/plug the power cable to the PATA2SATA3 adapter while the system is still on? I've previously powered down and the rebooted the system but that didn't clear the frozen state.

Yes. Only power cycle the adapter/hard drive you want to get UNFROZEN, not the entire computer.

[KaosEngineer]

It would be best if you could only power cycle the hard drive without power cycling the adapter.

If power cycling the adapter still shows frozen, try disconnecting the drive from the adapter then reconnecting it.

[amak79]

Just now, KaosEngineer said:

It would be best if you could only power cycle the hard drive without power cycling the adapter.

If power cycling the adapter still shows frozen, try disconnecting the drive from the adapter then reconnecting it.

The adapter and HDD have separate power connectors so I will be able to power cycle just he HDD.

I'll have to wait until the weekend to try this. I'll report back the result. Thank you for the help.

[nikeymikey]

Hope you have better luck than I did when trying this. I finally found an USB adapter that worked and stuck with it!

[VanishedPants]

5 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

While the system has the drive FROZEN, you will not be able to change the locking status of the drive.  Try power cycling the drive and check the lock status, I believe it will state NOT FROZEN when in a state that it can be locked/unlocked. 

 

Edit: Many newer PC BIOSes especially UEFI's freeze a hard drive when it is attached and Windows 10+ may do so too. This feature is to prevent MALWARE/RANSOMWARE from locking your hard drive with some random password preventing you from being able to access your own files.   If you are not able to get your PC to show the state as NOT FROZEN, you will need to find an older computer with a system BIOS and OS that does not automagically FREEZE a hard drive when connected to the system.

I keep seeing strange issues like the one you mention with windows 10+ machines. Makes me want to baby and hold onto all my old machines even more.

[GoTeamScotch]

ATA security commands are a bit of a pain in modern times. At least on Windows 10 (and probably 11?). As KaosEngineer mentioned, Microsoft has taken steps to prevent apps from sending ATA security commands to drives in order to prevent ransomware attacks. That said, it's still possible, but requires specific adapters and methods.

I have been using this adapter to lock/unlock Xbox hard drives using my Windows 10 computer for several months: Warmstor SATA/PATA/IDE Hard Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter

There are other adapters that work, but this is just the one I've been using. FATXplorer is going to be updated soon to add support for locking and unlocking Xbox drives, which is going to make everything much easier. The preview version seems to be working pretty well.

Aside from FATXplorer, I often use smartctl from command line. I use the version bundled with XboxHDMUSB beta 4 (beta 3 also works fine). The commands below work and can be used before or after the upcoming FATXplorer version if released.

Procedure:

1. Open a command prompt with admin privileges (start menu -> type "cmd" -> right click and choose run as administrator).
2. Determine your Xbox hard drive's drive number using this command:

   wmic diskdrive get mediatype,model,name

3. Look for your Xbox hard drive in the list of drives from the previous command in step 2. Take note of the Name it appears as. It will be something like "\\.\PHYSICALDRIVEX" where "X" is a number. Take note of this number.
4. Change the current working directory to wherever smartctl.exe is located. For example, I use this command:

   cd "D:\Console\XBOX\PC Utillities and Drivers\Xbox_HDM\XBoxHDM-2.3-Beta4\XboxHD"
   d:

   This will be different for you based on where your copy of XboxHDM is located on your PC.
5. Check the security status of your Xbox drive using this command:

   smartctl --device=sat --get=security /dev/sdX

   Replace "sdX" with the letter corresponding to your drive number from step 3.
   0 = a
   1 = b
   2 = c
   and so on. Example: if your drive appears as "PHYSICALDRIVE2", then your drive path would be "/dev/sdc".
   If your drive is locked, it will appear as "ATA Security is ENABLED, PW level HIGH **LOCKED**". If it is unlocked or frozen, this command will tell you that as well.

6. Unlock your drive using this command:

   smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-unlock,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX

   (Replace "sdX" with your drive letter from Step 5)
   The command above references "eeprom.bin". In this case, the eeprom.bin file is located one-folder up from where smartctl is located on my PC.
7. Disable your drive's password entirely using this command:

   smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-disable,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX

   (Replace "sdX" with your drive letter from Step 5)

With the adapter I use, I cannot unlock the drive and then use it right away. I have to disable the password and disconnect and reconnect the drive before Windows will let me use it with FATXplorer.

According to Eaton, this isn't a common problem. So there may very well be better adapters out there where you don't have to disable the password and re-mount it.

Quote

It's only with the Warmstor adapter you need to remove password and then reconnect for it to mount successfully. Other USB adapters & SATA do not have this problem and can be mounted right away after unlocking.

Once you're done copying files to your Xbox HDD, use this command to lock the drive:

smartctl --device=sat --set=security-eeprom-setpass,..\eeprom.bin /dev/sdX

Also, if you're using a nulled HDD key, smartctl has a special set of commands that make it so you don't have to reference an existing eeprom.bin file when locking Xbox hard drives. It will just calculate the password automatically based on a generic "all zeroes" hard drive key.

# Using null password:
smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-setpass /dev/sdX
smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-unlock /dev/sdX
smartctl --device=sat --set=security-null-eeprom-disable /dev/sdX

Anyways, like I said, FATXplorer will soon be updated with lock/unlock support for Original Xbox hard drives. So anyone having a tough time using these commands should just wait until Eaton releases the new version.

[amak79]

@GoTeamScotch Thank you for the detailed information. It will come in handy if the usual method of locking a drive doesn't work.

I have also learnt that with Linux a drive can have its frozen state cleared by suspending/resuming the system. If I'm unable to lock the drive with Windows, I will try with Linux and the hdparm utility. A drive can locked with:

hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass PASSWORD /dev/sdX

where PASSWORD is an ASCII string. I assume that would be the Unique HDD Key reported by LiveInfo?

Anyone attempting to use this command should know that it's considered dangerous so use at your own risk.

[KaosEngineer]

2 hours ago, amak79 said:

where PASSWORD is an ASCII string. I assume that would be the Unique HDD Key reported by LiveInfo?

Not so, the locking password is computed using the HDD Key, model and serial number of the hard drive.

[amak79]

2 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

Not so, the locking password is computed using the HDD Key, model and serial number of the hard drive.

I can rule out using hdparm then.

I have an EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.TXT file from my 1.4 Xbox that I believe is generated by ConfigMagic. This file has an XBOX HDD PASSWORD value. Is this the computed password that is used for locking?

Edited June 9, 2022 by amak79

[KaosEngineer]

18 hours ago, amak79 said:

I can rule out using hdparm then.

I have an EEPROMBackupBeforeLock.TXT file from my 1.4 Xbox that I believe is generated by ConfigMagic. This file has an XBOX HDD PASSWORD value. Is this the computed password that is used for locking?

No - at least not for a different hard drive. The locking password is unique to each hard drive.

The patched smartctl.exe application that comes with XboxHDM23USB computes the password by reading and decrypting the HDDKey value stored in the EEPROM backup file and reads from the hard drive its model and serial number.

 

[KaosEngineer]

You can use a program to calculate the value of the HDD Locking Password if you know the HDD Key, HDD Model and HDD Serial Number values.   I found an article archived by the Wayback Machine that was posted to the now defunct xbox-linux.org website:

• Generating HDD Password from your HDKey - Xbox-Linux (archive.org)

The program used in this article is Slavasoft's HashCalc program.  You can download it from download.com:

• HashCalc - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download 

Enter the three values noted above in the proper format to compute the password.  I've created an imgur.com album showing the steps necessary:

• Xbox Hard Drive Unlock Password Computation

Enjoy.

 

[amak79]

8 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

No - at least not for a different hard drive. The locking password is unique to each hard drive.

I know that the locking password is unique to each drive, I just wasn't sure which value is used for locking.

1 hour ago, KaosEngineer said:

You can use a program to calculate the value of the HDD Locking Password if you know the HDD Key, HDD Model and HDD Serial Number values.   I found an article archived by the Wayback Machine that was posted to the now defunct xbox-linux.org website:

• Generating HDD Password from your HDKey - Xbox-Linux (archive.org)

The program used in this article is Slavasoft's HashCalc program.  You can download it from download.com:

• HashCalc - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download 

Enter the three values noted above in the proper format to compute the password.  I've created an imgur.com album showing the steps necessary:

• Xbox Hard Drive Unlock Password Computation

Enjoy.

Thank you for finding this info. This will be very helpful if all other locking methods fail and I need to try with Linux and hdparm.

Edited June 9, 2022 by amak79

[amak79]

I can report that I was able to lock the HDD with XboxHDM23USB Beta 4 and the Xbox booted successfully. I had to clear the frozen state by unpluging/plugging the power cable to the HDD after Windows had booted as suggested by @KaosEngineer. Thank you!

I then tried to softmod the Xbox but was unable to launch the Splinter Cell exploit using a PAL disc. The game locks up after selecting the Linux profile. I believe it's because the save exploits on the E partition are for NTSC region games or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

The E partition was preloaded during formatting with a factory E partition zip file taken from the OGX Installer disc which contains the save exploits. I tried to unlock the drive and copy over the PAL save exploits but unlocking failed even after multiple attempts. I didn't yet try the locking/unlocking suggestions by @GoTeamScotch. I think I'll just copy the save exploits via a compatible USB stick.

Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions and information.

Edited June 11, 2022 by amak79

[KaosEngineer]

5 hours ago, amak79 said:

I then tried to softmod the Xbox but was unable to launch the Splinter Cell exploit using a PAL disc. The game locks up after selecting the Linux profile. I believe it's because the save exploits on the E partition are for NTSC region games or maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

Correct, there are two different game saves for Splinter Cell.  One for the PAL and another for the NTSC release of the game.  

[KaosEngineer]

5 hours ago, amak79 said:

I tried to unlock the drive and copy over the PAL save exploits but unlocking failed even after multiple attempts. I didn't yet try the locking/unlocking suggestions by @GoTeamScotch. I think I'll just copy the save exploits via a compatible USB stick.

You will need to make sure the hard drive is not FROZEN to unlock it too.

[amak79]

5 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

You will need to make sure the hard drive is not FROZEN to unlock it too.

I did but XboxHDM23USB would still complain about the device being incompatible with SAT type. It did appear to successfully unlock once but FATXplorer couldn't detect the drive.