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Tutorial How to create a xbox 360 hard drive from scratch (Western Digital Only!)

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***!!! I'm not taking any credit for this tutorial, I'm simply just converting it from one site to another because I used this tutorial and had a 320gb hard drive for my xbox 360 in 10 minutes !!!***

So here we go... 10 minutes people, go fast and don't over complicate this -- it's an automatic process!!!

Custom Hard Drive Tutorial for XBOX 360:

What's Covered In this tutorial:
This guide will show you how I did that, its worth mentioning that you can also hack a 20gb, 60gb and 120gb drives, however i think doing a 250gb is the best value for money.

If you have an Xbox 360 slim you can also hack a hard drive using this guide and connect it directly to the console!

THE START:
Ok lets get started, first you will need to buy a hard drive to use in the Xbox 360.

Hddhackr will only work with the following Western Digital Drives:
  • WD Scorpio Series BEVS/BEAS
  • WD Scorpio Blue Series BEVS/BEVT/BPVT
  • WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
  • WD VelociRaptor Series
  • WD AV-25 Series BUDT
As of version 1.40, Hddhackr now works with all sizes and versions of the Western Digital Scorpio Series.
You can not use another make of hard drive for this hack, it has to be one of the supported Western Digital drives.

I purchased a 250gb WD Scorpio Blue Series drive (WD2500BEVT) for around £30 at CCL Computers.
For those of you who live in the States, you can get the same drive for around $47 at Newegg.
hddhackr1.jpg

I would highly recommend you also purchase a Western Digital Scorpio Blue Drive, you have nothing to gain by buying a more expensive drive.

The first thing you will want to do is create a bootable USB drive, for this I used a tool called Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool (recommended by hddhackr tool).

Download Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool

Unzip and open/run Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool, be sure to right click and run as an administrator. Use the following settings (remember, 10 minutes to complete the whole process!!!):
  • Select your USB drive
  • Set the file system as FAT
  • Tick quick format and Create bootable drive
  • Select the box with 3 dots and choose the USB Drive Boot Files\MS-DOS folder as the location.
  • Hit start and you will have a bootable usb drive within a few seconds.
usbboot.jpg



Now [Click here to view this link]:

Now [Click here to view this link]HddHackr_v1.40_Build_20130303

Unzip both to the bootable USB drive you just made:
  • Your Hard Drive Security Sector HDDSS.BIN
  • HddHackr.exe & Readme.txt
Be sure to rename your HDDSS_320/250/120/60/20GB.BIN to HDDSS.BIN before copying it to the bootable USB flash drive.

The end result should be something like this, don’t worry you will not have an UNDO.BIN yet.
drive.jpg



You will need to shut down your pc now, I would strongly advise you disconnect all the other hard drive in your computer just to stop you accidently hacking the wrong drive!

Now connect the hard drive you want to hack to your computer:
hddhackr2.jpg



Power your computer back on, before you carry on it might be an idea to enter you bios configuration and ensure the SATA operation mode is set to ATA or disable AHCI depending on the options you have. On some motherboards this can also be called legacy or enhanced, if you are presented with this you want to set it to legacy. This will vary depending on your motherboard / bios.

The above appears to be the most common cause for people not been able to flash there drives.

Now tell your computer to to boot from the usb drive, this will be different depending on your motherboard, on my pc I have to press F11 then select the drive I wish to boot from.

You will find yourself at a dosprompt, type hddhackr and press enter.
hddhackr3.jpg



If you've done everything above correctly, hddhackr will have listed all the drives in your system, in my case the drive I want to hack is number 5.
hddhackr4.jpg



After entering the number you will be asked if you want to dump, flash or restore the firmware, select F to flash.

Type in the name of the security sector you want to flash, this will be HDDSS.BIN if you have followed this tutorial.

You will get a message saying that the information in file HDDSS.BIN does not match the drive’s firmware info. Do you want to flash the Xbox 360 compatible firmware? Type "Y" for yes and press enter.

Say yes to this:
hddhackr5.jpg



Your drive should now be hacked if you followed this tutorial word for word, congratulations!

PLEASE PAY STRICT ATTENTION TO THIS:
hddhackr6.jpg



^^ FOLLOW THOSE DIRECTIONS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS ANYTHING UP!!! ^^

***!!! I'm not taking any credit for this tutorial, I'm simply just converting it from one site to another because I used this tutorial and had a 320gb hard drive for my xbox 360 in 10 minutes !!!***
 
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xI ENVY Ix

xI ENVY Ix

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It's not just for WD Drives. This tut is quite old.

For those who have X360PRO

images


and Xecuter X360USB Pro HHD Hacker Tool

09.png


Remember Google is your friend.
 
bmizzle

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Yes but I just wanted to post this because it worked for me and I didn't have to buy anything. I was lucky enough to buy a whole dell inspiron 1500 laptop w/ dead motherboard and guess what hard drive it had in it? :smile: that's right ... WD Blue Scorpio 320!!! w00t w00t .. so old or not, this method works and requires nothing more than a hard drive and FREE tools
 
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Was wondering about a 500gb or 1tb security sector... any ideas... looking at the 1tb blue... any ideas without the x360pro....
 
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It's not just for WD Drives. This tut is quite old.

For those who have X360PRO

images


and Xecuter X360USB Pro HHD Hacker Tool

09.png


Remember Google is your friend.

Thank you, this is news to me and I only found HDD hackr was only way to do it.
 
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Here's a couple questions.

1. Insofar as I understand your tutorial, you're talking about wiring the hard drive directly to the computer, i.e. putting it in one of the computers' drive bays. Now, I have a Rosewill RCW-608 IDE/SATA-to-USB bridge. Using that, can I format the drive with Hddhackr in WIndows? (For the moment this question is just academic; the power supply for the bridge was ruined in a flood and I'm still waiting on word from Rosewill on a replacement.)

2. Is it possible to create a bootable CD for Hddhackr instead of a bootable flash drive? My flash drive got eaten by the dog.

3. The only computer I have I could do this with is a laptop. Do you know anything about how safe it would be for me to take my primary hard drive out and replace it temporarily with the drive I want to run Hddhackr on?

4. I have an old 360, Xenon motherboard. Once I have the new drive in the enclosure, would I be able to copy data from the old one by connecting it to the 360 with the aforementioned USB bridge?
 
bmizzle

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Probably a dum question but I have to ask is this LIVE safe?


I've used this method for 5-10 "flashed" 360's and I've never ever ever had anyone get a ban from LIVE! Then again we don't play HALO 4 online a month early before it's released in general stores? LOL!!! To answer your question bluntly, this hard drive creation would never get you banned because you are in fact (if you follow this tutorial step by step) creating a MS X360 OFFICIAL HARD DRIVE. After you complete the last step with the computer and put the hard drive back in the 360 case, you'll see what I mean when you hook it up to the 360. It'll ask you to format the hard drive and once you do that it's registered as a official brand name Microsoft hard drive. If you happen to need any assistance please feel free to ask questions. Take care and have a blessed day/night.
 
bmizzle

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Here's a couple questions.

1. Insofar as I understand your tutorial, you're talking about wiring the hard drive directly to the computer, i.e. putting it in one of the computers' drive bays. Now, I have a Rosewill RCW-608 IDE/SATA-to-USB bridge. Using that, can I format the drive with Hddhackr in WIndows? (For the moment this question is just academic; the power supply for the bridge was ruined in a flood and I'm still waiting on word from Rosewill on a replacement.)

2. Is it possible to create a bootable CD for Hddhackr instead of a bootable flash drive? My flash drive got eaten by the dog.

3. The only computer I have I could do this with is a laptop. Do you know anything about how safe it would be for me to take my primary hard drive out and replace it temporarily with the drive I want to run Hddhackr on?

4. I have an old 360, Xenon motherboard. Once I have the new drive in the enclosure, would I be able to copy data from the old one by connecting it to the 360 with the aforementioned USB bridge?


  1. As far as I know the answer to this would be NO! Reason: Once a hard drive is in Windows it creates a random system file for the OS and would render the HD useless when hooked into the 360. This is the main reason for using DOS rather than WINDOWS.
  2. Yes it is, you should be able to create the cd using the same methods as the tutorial shows. You might have to google "How to create a bootable dos cd" to get the correct free program.
  3. It would be absolutely safe if you take out your laptop hard drive and make sure to create the bootable hddhackr usb/cd before doing so.
  4. I have no idea! This is something you would want to ask someone that keeps saved files and has experience on transferring data after upgrading or creating to a new hard drive. I just create the hard drives an use them to sell consoles. It saves my customers money as well as myself.
I hope I answered your questions and if you have any more please feel free to ask away. Take care and have a good one!
-bM
 
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i have a WD Scorpio Black 160gb (WD1600bekt), I don't see a link for that security sector? does that mean i can't do ithis?
Now [Click here to view this link]:



No Sir, that does not mean you cannot use this tutorial. What it does mean is that you can use this tutorial BUT you will have to use the 120gb security sector as MS don't support a 160gb sector. Just read the tutorial the same but make sure to use the 120gb security sector and to backup your original incase you ever wanted to use the 160gb with additional 40gb in a laptop or something. Hope this helps, take care.
 
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No Sir, that does not mean you cannot use this tutorial. What it does mean is that you can use this tutorial BUT you will have to use the 120gb security sector as MS don't support a 160gb sector. Just read the tutorial the same but make sure to use the 120gb security sector and to backup your original incase you ever wanted to use the 160gb with additional 40gb in a laptop or something. Hope this helps, take care.

Thanks, I put a Scorpio black 320gb on it. Worked like a charm, thanks for the article. Awesome!
 
bmizzle

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Thanks, I put a Scorpio black 320gb on it. Worked like a charm, thanks for the article. Awesome!


Not a problem, glad I could help! :biggrin: I did not actually create this article though, I found this tutorial on another website but I did edit it A LOT and make it A LOT easier to understand and follow for the not so technical folks. To be honest, this is the cheapest and most efficient way to create a hard drive for a Xbox 360. No special tools are required and you get better end results and cuts your time in half as far as connecting this piece and that piece, open this program .. etc etc. This tutorial works and is by far the best I've come across, that's the reason for the share -- to help others out! :wink: Take care, very happy you got it working as well. w00t w00t
 
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I was wondering if this would work if you took say a 750gb HHD and partitioned it into two 320gb would it read as 2 separate HHDs and in theory double the max space?
 
bmizzle

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I was wondering if this would work if you took say a 750gb HHD and partitioned it into two 320gb would it read as 2 separate HHDs and in theory double the max space?

That's a really good question and truthfully I don't have the answer to this. The only thing I know to tell you is, go for it! BACKUP YOUR ORIGINIAL.BIN for you hard drive encase it DONT work!!! Please let me know if it does though. :smile: Sorry I couldn't be of any help with your question though, really sorry. Take care.
 
Zydrin

Zydrin

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I'll be doing this tomorrow to my 2 terrabyte hard drive! Thanks buddy!
 
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Hi, I'm new to Xbox but I like to tinker and looking to revive some RROD Xbox's using RROD repair kits (I'm pretty good with electronics).

There are a lot of Xbox's for sale on eBay that don't come with the HD's or HD caddies. If I purchase a Xbox HD caddy from eBay for the same model Xbox and place a new WD HDD in the caddy, then go through the process above, will everything work ok on the Xbox? Mainly being able to play games?

I thought I had read somewhere that the HD caddy had to match up with the Xbox otherwise it wouldn't work? Is that fixed once the HD is hacked using the above?
 
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Sol1dsoul

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No Sir, that does not mean you cannot use this tutorial. What it does mean is that you can use this tutorial BUT you will have to use the 120gb security sector as MS don't support a 160gb sector. Just read the tutorial the same but make sure to use the 120gb security sector and to backup your original incase you ever wanted to use the 160gb with additional 40gb in a laptop or something. Hope this helps, take care.

is there any tutorial where indicate to me how reuse my hard drive for a pc?

I have a 160 Gb HD to give format to use a xbox hd . . my question is only for security ..

Thanks
 
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