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swap hardmod hdd with softmod


ldeveraux
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Hi all,

I tried searching but didn't see this exact question. I have an old softmodded (10 years ago?) v1.6 XBOX that I tried to install an Aladdin XT+2 on so I could double the RAM. Long story short, I think I borked that motherboard and it won't boot now. I've gotten a replacement v1.4 XBOX and correctly installed the Aladdin and gotten it to boot properly to EvoX. Is there a way I can transfer my modded HDD from the 1.6 to my 1.4 with the Aladdin? I had XBMC and a lot of apps installed so would prefer not to start from scratch.

Thanks!

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you would need to unlock the HDD from the 1.6 then you should be able to just drop it in your 1.4, the only thing could be the dashboard boot order so you may need to adjust the Bios boot order or change some files to get it to boot to where you want.

if your 1.6 powers on you may be able to read your EEPROM (look at https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:EEPROM) to get the key you need. if you cannot get it to turn on you'll need to remove the EEPROM from the 1.6 and read it manually to get the key. you can then use at least FATXplorer 3.0 beta 21 on a PC or Chimp on the Xbox to unlock it.

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It depends if the old HDD in the first Xbox was locked or not. If it was, as it must have been for the softmod to boot, except in very specific circumstances that are unlikely to apply here, you can not just transfer a locked HDD from another Xbox to a new machine.

The HDD needs to be unlocked and unless you have the eeprom backed up to PC you have problem.

If the old Xbox MB was really damaged you might not even be able to use an eeprom reader to get it off the old MB. TBH doing that anyway will be more work than installing a clean, empty HDD to the the newly chipped Xbox and setting it up from scratch.

Even if was unlocked - being a softmod there's a good chance it would not boot anyway unless the BIOS used was customised to do so.   

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3 hours ago, Gary The Brown said:

you would need to unlock the HDD from the 1.6 then you should be able to just drop it in your 1.4, the only thing could be the dashboard boot order so you may need to adjust the Bios boot order or change some files to get it to boot to where you want.

if your 1.6 powers on you may be able to read your EEPROM (look at https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:EEPROM) to get the key you need. if you cannot get it to turn on you'll need to remove the EEPROM from the 1.6 and read it manually to get the key. you can then use at least FATXplorer 3.0 beta 21 on a PC or Chimp on the Xbox to unlock it.

 

3 hours ago, HDShadow said:

It depends if the old HDD in the first Xbox was locked or not. If it was, as it must have been for the softmod to boot, except in very specific circumstances that are unlikely to apply here, you can not just transfer a locked HDD from another Xbox to a new machine.

The HDD needs to be unlocked and unless you have the eeprom backed up to PC you have problem.

If the old Xbox MB was really damaged you might not even be able to use an eeprom reader to get it off the old MB. TBH doing that anyway will be more work than installing a clean, empty HDD to the the newly chipped Xbox and setting it up from scratch.

Even if was unlocked - being a softmod there's a good chance it would not boot anyway unless the BIOS used was customised to do so.   

So the 1.6 xbox doesn't boot properly. At some point when I tried to install the Aladdin it just wouldn't boot, it would try 3x to boot then FRAG. I had already cut the LFRAME before realizing it wouldn't boot. I tried restoring the LFRAME, but it still won't boot even after I've pulled the chip and leads. I have the HDD still from it, untouched, except I made a imgc backup with HDD Raw Copy Tool. I also found an old EEPROM.bin file from 2008, but I don't know if it was from that 200GB HDD or the original 10GB HDD from the xbox. Is there any way I can get the EEPROM from either the bare HDD or the image? I noticed when I boot my new xbox to XBlast it has an option to unlock the HDD, could I try to unlock it with this EEPROM?

With that said, I'm less concerned with actually getting it to boot, which I thought could be changed later. I'd rather see if this HDD transfers to the new xbox. Consequently, when I tried to initialize a new 1TB HDD with a SATA adapter just by plugging it in and booting, I got an error, so that's confusing.

EDIT: I tried that EEPROM file I found, it wouldn't unlock the HDD in XBlast. I guess it wasn't the right one.

Edited by ldeveraux
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Yes you should try this EEPROM through xblast and see if it unlocks. the HDD key should be the same for both the 200GB and 10GB HDDs so long as they where used in the same xbox. at worst it would just fail to unlock so it will not damage any data.

 

if it doesn't unlock it should still have a chance of pulling the EEPROM from the board with a raspberry PI. so long as the board is powered up you can still recover it this way.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:PiPROM

 

as for the new drive Error there is a lot of parts that could be the issue.

What Bios are you using?

What is the Error Code? 

how are you trying to initialise the HDD?  

 

 

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1 hour ago, Gary The Brown said:

Yes you should try this EEPROM through xblast and see if it unlocks. the HDD key should be the same for both the 200GB and 10GB HDDs so long as they where used in the same xbox. at worst it would just fail to unlock so it will not damage any data.

 

if it doesn't unlock it should still have a chance of pulling the EEPROM from the board with a raspberry PI. so long as the board is powered up you can still recover it this way.

https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:PiPROM

 

as for the new drive Error there is a lot of parts that could be the issue.

What Bios are you using?

What is the Error Code? 

how are you trying to initialise the HDD?  

 

 

I was able to get the eeprom from the dead xbox using the pi (I think, it saved an eeprom.bin at least). I tried to unlock the hdd with it over network and it wouldn't unlock. Or it told me to check the status and XBlast still said 'Locked'. I then tried to unlock it with the LT+RT+START+WHITE master unlock and it said it worked. I rebooted to EVOX M8+ and was able to get to my old XBMC dash! However, while it says the HDD is populated with my old files and emulators (the drive has C, E, and F drives), they were effectively empty. I try to load my apps and it says 'path not found'. If I go to the File Manager in XBMC and browse, I can see the same file structure, but the F drive where everything was stored is empty. I thought maybe the unlock was wonky, so I rebooted back to XBlast, locked the HDD and rebooted, same issue. I think either I didn't unlock the drive correctly or there's something conflicting maybe with my old evoxdash.xbe that was set to autoboot? I'm at a loss now. I remember reading something about using HEXEN to disable the softmod once Aladdin was installed, but I don't want to break anything further

Edited by ldeveraux
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If it wasn't unlocked you wouldn't be able to have booted any dash.

You're talking about the 200GB softmodded HDD you mentioned, yes? What was used to softmod it?

I can't think of any reason C:\, E:\ and F:\ drive content could be "effectively empty", the XBMC file manager showing nothing and the Xbox be booting at all. If you have FTP access what does that show as the content of those drives?

What does mean "effectively missing" mean exactly?

My thought is that whatever is wrong, with the HDD unlocked, you should use PC tool: FATXplorer and get any content backed up. I would suggest doing that before trying to fix anything.    

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17 hours ago, HDShadow said:

If it wasn't unlocked you wouldn't be able to have booted any dash.

You're talking about the 200GB softmodded HDD you mentioned, yes? What was used to softmod it?

I can't think of any reason C:\, E:\ and F:\ drive content could be "effectively empty", the XBMC file manager showing nothing and the Xbox be booting at all. If you have FTP access what does that show as the content of those drives?

What does mean "effectively missing" mean exactly?

My thought is that whatever is wrong, with the HDD unlocked, you should use PC tool: FATXplorer and get any content backed up. I would suggest doing that before trying to fix anything.    

If I FTP in, C is populated with my XBE files and a few directories, E seems to have Apps but no Emulators nor Games. I'm nearly certain I had everything stored on F:, but there's literally nothing there. I don't remember what I used to softmod originally, I assume it was the Splinter Cell exploit with Software Installer Deluxe. LikeI said, I think this was in ~2008.

 

If I look at the File Manager, I can get the volumes (not sure if remaining or filled) of the drives:

C - 485MB

E - 3.37GB

F - 48.52GB

Q - also 3.37GB

Either way if these are consumed or remaining numbers, there's certainly something on the F drive.

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C:\ and E:\ free space are pretty typical and for a 200GB HDD with stuff on it 48GB+ for F:\ appears plausible. If it was empty you'd expect 170+GB. It is worrying that you can not see the content via FTP.

The default 16KB cluster size for extended partitions should be good for a 200GB HDD but it might like to just check with XBPartitioner v1.3 that there is no ER (ERror) flag against Partition 6 (F).

I doubt that is the problem in this case but it needs to be ruled out.

 

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1 hour ago, HDShadow said:

C:\ and E:\ free space are pretty typical and for a 200GB HDD with stuff on it 48GB+ for F:\ appears plausible. If it was empty you'd expect 170+GB. It is worrying that you can not see the content via FTP.

The default 16KB cluster size for extended partitions should be good for a 200GB HDD but it might like to just check with XBPartitioner v1.3 that there is no ER (ERror) flag against Partition 6 (F).

I doubt that is the problem in this case but it needs to be ruled out.

 

Is that an xbox app or PC? I've never heard of it and don't know where to look.

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XBPartitioner v1.3 is an Xbox application.  It is available on this web site, xbins FTP server and another website that mirrored most of the ogXbox content from the xbins FTP server.  The link provided at the start of this post downloads the file from that site.

Your account may not have permission to download the file here at ogxbox.com but the other locations will work.

XBPartitioner v1.3 is also included in many of the latest Xbox Installer discs (e.g., OGXbox Installer 2021 v1.5.4).

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7 hours ago, KaosEngineer said:

XBPartitioner v1.3 is an Xbox application.  It is available on this web site, xbins FTP server and another website that mirrored most of the ogXbox content from the xbins FTP server.  The link provided at the start of this post downloads the file from that site.

Your account may not have permission to download the file here at ogxbox.com but the other locations will work.

XBPartitioner v1.3 is also included in many of the latest Xbox Installer discs (e.g., OGXbox Installer 2021 v1.5.4).

I was able to boot XBPartitioner through Hexen disc and there were no errors. I also played around with the disc and opened the file explorer. My Emulators folder is at the root of the F drive with all my games, I even opened an emulator directly from its XBE and played a game, working fine. I think it's just the forwarder in XBMC that's pointing to a F partition that's not there any more. How would I fiix that issue after I confirmed the F drive is still populated?

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How can you launch an emulator XBE directly from the file manager? That contradicts what you described earlier.

Can you see the 'missing' content in the file manager?

If so it sounds like it is just a XBMC Source path issue. With a basic XBMC install the games, emulators, apps are set up as sources using just E:\ drive paths eg. E:\Apps or E:\Emulators. If the previous XBMC user settings are missing for some reason you'd need to redo ie. add the F:\ drive path locations again for those folders as sources.

Under the main XBMC menu: Programs you should have an Add Source option or it can be done via the White button context menu. 

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10 hours ago, HDShadow said:

How can you launch an emulator XBE directly from the file manager? That contradicts what you described earlier.

Can you see the 'missing' content in the file manager?

If so it sounds like it is just a XBMC Source path issue. With a basic XBMC install the games, emulators, apps are set up as sources using just E:\ drive paths eg. E:\Apps or E:\Emulators. If the previous XBMC user settings are missing for some reason you'd need to redo ie. add the F:\ drive path locations again for those folders as sources.

Under the main XBMC menu: Programs you should have an Add Source option or it can be done via the White button context menu. 

I didn't mean to mislead you. When I boot to my HDD and access the file manager, F drive is there, but empty. If I add it as a source, nothing changes. When I boot to Hexen DVD and enter its file manager I can access everything under my F drive. So there's something either with my dashboard or it's still tring to boot an incorrect BIOS still on the HDD? Or there's a conflict with Evox M8+ booting from the Aladdin? Is there a way to force refresh of my  drives or partitions in XBMC? Is there something I should run from Hexen to disable the BIOS on the HDD? Can I expand the E drive and move everything from F to E once I boot to Hexen?

Edited by ldeveraux
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I'm thinking it has got to be a weird BIOS thing if you can see it using HeXEn's file explorer from disc only ie. not any other way.

I'd suggest not moving stuff around until we're certain what is going on but I see no problem in you using HeXEn from disc to get FTP access and backup everything on F:\ to PC.

The content of E:\ is accessible, yes? Try creating an E:\UnleashX or E:\Apps\UnleashX folder and copying in an UnleashX dash "default.xbe" (copy it from HeXEn if needs be - HeXEn > Dash > UnleashX > unleashx.xbe and just change the name to default.xbe). Launch that from your dash and use its file manager to check if it sees the content on F:\.

Do make sure F:\ is enabled in the UnleashX main menu System > Settings > Storage > Harddisk Settings (its right at the top).

If this installed UnleashX dash can not access the contents of F:\ then a BIOS problem seems a possible explanation but the best course of action to take if it is that I'm not qualified to advise on such matters.

BTW when UnleashX launches it will create a default config.xml and item.xml in the UnleashX folder. The default config.xml for UnleashX v584 (the final version) is fairly sparse. It only contains E:\ and F:\ paths for Games and Apps but if you have either of those folders on F:\, after rebooting the test UnleashX dash, they should show up or the content list be added to E:\Games and E:\Apps respectively in the main menu content listing too. 

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10 hours ago, ldeveraux said:

I didn't mean to mislead you. When I boot to my HDD and access the file manager, F drive is there, but empty. If I add it as a source, nothing changes. When I boot to Hexen DVD and enter its file manager I can access everything under my F drive. So there's something either with my dashboard or it's still tring to boot an incorrect BIOS still on the HDD? Or there's a conflict with Evox M8+ booting from the Aladdin? Is there a way to force refresh of my  drives or partitions in XBMC? Is there something I should run from Hexen to disable the BIOS on the HDD? Can I expand the E drive and move everything from F to E once I boot to Hexen?

If you can't see F when booting your console, the LBA48 configuration being used it different than how the hard drive is configured / partitioned.

Hexen boots a BFM BIOS that supports LBA48 v3 which reads a partition table from the hard drive which overrides the default BIOS settings.

 

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20 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

I you can't see F when booting your console, the LBA48 configuration being used it different than how the hard drive is configured / partitioned.

Hexen boots a BFM BIOS that supports LBA48 v3 which reads a partition table from the hard drive which overrides the default BIOS settings.

 

I only stuck evox m8+ in my bios because it sounded familiar. If there's another bios I should be booting my Aladdin from, please let me know!

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1 hour ago, ldeveraux said:

I only stuck evox m8+ in my bios because it sounded familiar. If there's another bios I should be booting my Aladdin from, please let me know!

Some Evox M8+ BIOSes do not have the LBA48 v3 patch included so they only use the default LBA48 settings configured in the BIOS which will not read a partition table from the hard drive to know how the hard drive is partitioned.

Run XBPartitioner v1.3 to see which LBA48 patch the BIOS includes.  It's in the top left box of the main screen.

              Right here  ────────────┐
                                                ▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼                                                             
85044186_XBPartitionerv1.3PartitionList.jpg.025cb07d73e1f1cf4c36ff5bc2463bde.jpg

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OK got it working! Exactly as suggested, EvoX M8 doesn't support either LBA48 nor 128MB RAM, so I flashed IND-BIOS 5003.06 to my Aladdin and it booted up, everything is working 100%. Thatnks again for the suggestion on the LBA48 because I was never going to find that! Now it's time to solder in my extra RAM and call it a day

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