Reformatting your Xbox HDD to factory default

Reformatting Your HDD to Factory Default
By ForrestMaster

This tutorial will show you how to reformat your xbox HDD to be stock. You will be able to bring your xbox from any dashboard error and back to the microsoft dash. The way it was when it left the factory. This is a LAST resort. It will fix your xbox but it will remove everything on your HDD. Hope you have a backup

Tools of the trade.
RapidShare: 1-Click Webhosting
http://www.pbfreeagents.com/7sins%20...oxhdm_v1.9.rar
Cd burner
A blank CD
Torxx screwdrivers
Another computer that you can open and boot from CD with.

Opening your Xbox

1. Remove the four feet from the bottom of your xbox. Use the torxx screwdriver to remove the four screws. There are two more in the center, beneath the stickers. Take these out as well.
2. Take off the top cover. Use your torxx screwdriver to take out the two brass screws that are in the center holding the drive housing down.
3. Remove the section of casing with the harddrive in it.
4. Use the torxx screwdriver to take out the four screws holding the HD in place. (You don't have to do this, but it makes getting at the data cable much easier).
5. Now to unlock the HDD unplug the IDE cable from the DVD drive. Now turn on your xbox and when you get Error 12 that means the HDD is unlocked and you did it right. Dont freak out about the Error 12. You can fix it by pluging back in the cable but dont do it yet.

Making the Iso

6. Now download the MS Backup from RapidShare and XboxHDM from my site.
7. Once you have them both downloaded extract them to the same folder. You dont have to but it makes it easier.

8. Once you are done it should look like this.

9. Now open up the MS folder and copy all of the files in it.

10. Paste the files in the \xboxhdm_1.9\xboxhdm\linux\C folder.

11. Thats all you need to do now. Go back to the xboxhdm folder and click the make-iso-win.bat

12. This will pop up.

13. This is your ISO file. Use some program to burn it to your disc.

Preparing your Computer

14. Make sure you have another computer with this tutorial up so you can see this tut.
15. Make it so that your other computer will boot from CD and then shut it down.
16. Unhook your IDE cable from your computer HDD and your xbox's IDE cable. Hook the computer IDE cable up to your xbox HDD.
17. Now turn on the computer with the XboxHDM cd in the drive. If you set it up right it will automatically load to this.

18. Input 1 and hit enter.

19. When its done loading type in xboxhd

20. This loads up and type in yes.

21. Then input 1 again.

22. Input yes for all the questions.


.

When it is done, poweroff your computer, plug the xbox IDE cable back into your xbox HDD. Then you can turn off your xbox. Turn it back on and now it is back to factory default.

Written entirely by ForrrestMaster.
Please give thanks if this helped you.

[digitalhigh]

Looks good!

*stuck*

Thanks man. Took me forever.

[c0dak]

I'll be trying this tomorrow morning, Hope it works

It works

[c0dak]

Damn it, I was hoping my the screws from the 360 would be the same size.. But of course they're not so i gotta get a bigger torx

haha damn that sucks.

[slurpeesz]

wow! Very nice TuT so detailed

[steel88]

Rly need to thank u this time Forrest master it works and now i got the ms dash now im just gonna find a way to install the xbmc

[lucidian518]

Quote:

5. Now to unlock the HDD unplug the IDE cable from the DVD drive. Now turn on your xbox and when you get Error 12 that means the HDD is unlocked and you did it right. Dont freak out about the Error 12. You can fix it by pluging back in the cable but dont do it yet.

Uhm, I did that and it keeps telling me that my drive is locked.

Pretend I'm a complete moron (I know, it's not that difficult) and explain how to unlock my HDD. Everything else I get, but for some reason my HDD is still locked.

Pull the IDE cable out of the DVD drive. Then boot up your xbox and get error 12.

[lucidian518]

Quote: Originally Posted by ForrrestMaster

Pull the IDE cable out of the DVD drive. Then boot up your xbox and get error 12.

Ok, I do that, then keep the DVD cable removed and the box powered on correct?
Then I unplug the Xbox IDE from the HDD and pluge my PC IDE in.
Then I boot up my rig and run the CD, and everything is peachy until I have to press "1" again. It says Warning! Your Xbox HDD is locked!.

Am I doing something wrong or is my whole Xbox drive gone Fubar?

If you get error 12 on your xbox screen then you have an unlocked HDD. You might have to hook the xbox HDD to your computer after you load xboxHDM. I would connect it at the beginning before you push 1 for the first time.

[lucidian518]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.
Sorry to be a painintheass but I wanna get this SOB runnin, here goes nuthin:

Your not being a painintheass. I am here to help. Im just getting sleepy because its 1:42 here

[lucidian518]

Good news: Drive is unlocked

Bad news: Can't find partition tables??

Stuck on the bad news... Something about xxx/hda. When I try to switch around IDE cables it says it isn't connected correctly. I wiped the fatx partitions (as per the readme) and then went to create an HDD from scratch, but it says first we need to create partition tables, wait we cant find partition tables on sumthinerother/hda. Warning about rebooting and locking the HDD, so dont reboot, then press any key to abort the process. Well, according to the first thing it tells me, there is no process, so I hit enter and abort it.

I read the readme about primary master being considered hda so I swapped around some cables but got nowhere, should I just let it do its "process" despite the oxymoron? Or am I missing something else?


/sigh

You should be able to rebuild the partition tables. And the xboxHDD has to be on the main master. It cant be on anything else.

[lucidian518]

I let it sit at "Press any key to abort this process" for 6 hours while I was at work this morning, and when I came back it was at the exact same place.

I rehooked my rig the way it was before I tried to hotswap and now I cant even post the Bios unless the DVD drive is unplugged.

I dunno wtf the deal is, I'm doing exactly what every guide tells me to do, but it keeps ***** slapping me.

Try booting up your computer with your computer HDD hooked up, then when you get to the first menu, you swap them.

[lucidian518]

No dice. (PC boots to windows fine now, I tweaked it out)

Would it be possible to use xplorer360 to "restore image" a working hdd?

For example, somebody with a working hard drive uses xplorer to create an image of their working drive, then uploads/emails/whatever that file to me, could i use the xplorer hotswap to solve everything?

I may just convince a "friend" of mine to let me clone his drive. But this guy is a pain to get ahold of...

In your pics it says that it found xbox partitions on your drive. How do I get those back?