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  | Locking a Replacement Hard Disk for the Xbox (v0.3) |  |
Locking a Replacement Hard Disk for the Xbox (v0.3)
Published by  -opjose on 2003-05-31
Category: Modchip | Page Views: 4782
Tutorial
written
by : -opjose
**note:
this is
the original
, manual
way to
lock your
harddrive
- xbox
software
has now
been released
by Team
Assembly
(ConfigMagic
- no downloadlink
here 'cause
build
with XDK)
that can
do this
for you
automatically**
The
OEM Xbox
hard drive
comes
from Microsoft
in a “locked”
condition.
This is
a privacy
mechanism
which
was intended
to prevent
you or
hackers
from looking
at the
contents
of the
original
disk.
If
you place
the OEM
drive
into a
PC, the
PC bios
will be
unable
to unlock
the drive,
and the
drive
will not
enter
a “ready”
state
that the
PC can
deal with.
It
should
be also
noted
that if
the drive
were to
be unlocked
the PC
would
still
not understand
the drives
formatting
mechanism
so it
would
still
be unable
to display
its contents.
Even imaging
programs
such as
Norton
Ghost
will fail
to read
or duplicate
the drive.
Why
lock (or
unlock)
the drive?
If
you elect
to put
a new
hard drive
in your
Xbox you
MUST first
already
have a
“mod”
chip in
the machine
that supports
hard drive
swapping.
The
normal
bios and
first
and second
generation
mod chips
were never
designed
to support
drive
swapping.
The original
unmodified
bios code
for handling
the drive
is contained
on those
bios chips.
As
you will
see later,
locking
a drive
requires
that the
Xbox be
first
able to
utilize
an unlocked
drive.
As
a result
DO NOT
proceed
unless
you know
that your
bios/mod
chip already
supports
hard drive
swapping.
If
you have
a mod
chip and
replacement
bios which
does support
the “hard
drive
swap”
there
is no
immediate
compelling
reason
to lock
the hard
drive.
Your Xbox
will actually
operate
just fine
with the
replacement
drive.
It
has also
been found
that XboxLive
works
quite
well with
modified
Xboxes,
though
there
are some
dashboard
issues
which
I will
not cover
here.
This
being
the case,
why are
you still
reading?
Probably
because
you are
a bit
paranoid
and believe
that you
MUST put
the Xbox
back into
it’s
pristine
state
to get
XboxLive
to work.
You don’t
really
have to
though.
You
may also
have a
Matrix
type Mod/Bios
chip and
want to
utilize
the dual
boot function
that makes
your machine
revert
back to
the original
BIOS.
You could
merely
elect
to disable
this function
by setting
the chip
to “mode
2”
that always
keeps
the flashed
bios on.
What
does locking
accomplish?
Locking
the drive
permits
the Xbox
to utilize
a replacement
drive
in the
same manner
as an
OEM drive.
During
startup,
the original
“protected”
bios will
temporarily
unlock
the locked
drive
during
the boot
(flubber
animation)
phase
and be
none the
wiser.
When the
unit is
powered
off, the
drive
goes back
into its
fully
locked
state.
With
the original
BIOS enabled,
any additional
space
seemingly
disappears.
As far
as the
Xbox is
concerned
it is
still
running
on an
original
8 gigabyte
hard drive.
You do
not loose
the information
contained
therein
though!
This
may be
a very
good thing
down the
road if
the powers
that be
decide
to implement
something
new.
When
used in
combination
with the
Evolution-X
BIOS releases
such as
Evo 2.x,ybox
or Evo
2.x,evox,
locking
the drive
permits
you to
quickly
switch
between
a “virgin”
Xbox and
a wide
open device.
What
is ybox?
The normal
OEM Xbox
BIOS initializes
and unlocks
the hardware
upon startup
and then
attempts
to launch
a user
interface
from the
C: partition
on the
OEM hard
drive.
This
interface
is what
you see
once the
Xbox is
fully
operational.
It is
the “green”
control
panel
that comes
up if
there
is no
DVD game
in the
machine
after
it is
turned
on. This
interface
is referred
to as
“the
dashboard”.
The name
of the
file that
contains
this program
is called
“c:xboxdash.xbe”.
An XBE
file is
an Xbox
Executable
program.
The ybox
bios has
an additional
modification
in it
which
causes
it to
instead
look for
and use
a file
called
c:yboxdash.xbe
instead.
If you
have one
of these
bios/mod
chips
you can
then install
the Evolution-X
dashboard
to the
hard drive
with the
name “yboxdash.xbe”.
So if
you have
a hardware
switch
or a Matrix
Mod set
to enable
multi-boot,
it is
possible
to quickly
flip between
the original
protected
BIOS and
dashboard,
or the
unprotected
bios and
the evolution-X
dashboard.
Cool huh?
A
bug in
the ointment.
However
there
is that
one bug
in the
ointment,
your replacement
hard drive!
When
you boot
up the
Xbox using
the original
bios,
with a
replacement
but unlocked
drive
in place,
you will
inevitably
see the
“your
Xbox needs
servicing”
message.
This
is because
the bios
attempts
to unlock
the drive
with a
UNIQUE
code and
expects
a reply
from the
drive
indicating
success.
If it
does not
get the
reply
the Xbox
assumes
that something
is wrong
with the
drive,
shuts
everything
down and
issues
the error
message.
The
Lock codes
The OEM
bios generates
the unlock
key “on
the fly”.
That is
it generates
a unique
key or
password
which
is dependant
upon several
things.
This
password
is generated
by looking
at your
Xbox’s
unique
serial
number,
configuration,
revision
level
and the
information
obtained
from the
currently
installed
hard drive
itself.
This
in turn
means
that you
cannot
simply
use a
password
from another
drive
or Xbox
when locking
a new
drive.
Instead
you must
figure
out what
the Xbox
is going
to use
as an
unlock
password
for your
new replacement
drive.Fortunately
the Evolution-X
hackers
gave us
a wonderful
tool to
do this
very thing.
This
“tool”
is built
into the
Evolution-X
dashboards
“backup”
command.
The “backup”
command
figures
out what
password
the Xbox
will use
to unlock
the currently
installed
drive.
It places
the password/key
into the
C:Backup
directory
in a file
called
hddinfo.txt.
This
is why
Evolution-X
must be
installed
and running
on the
Xbox and
drive
that you
intend
to lock
first.
What
do I need?
Before
proceeding
be aware
that you
will need
the following.
*
A working
modified
Xbox
with
a replacement
hard
drive
ALREADY
installed.
* The
Evolution-X
1.8.2xxx
dashboard
installed
to the
Xbox.
(note
if you
are
using
1.8.4xx
you
are
using
an old
version!)
* A
PC that
you
can
open
and
access
the
IDE
cables.
(not
all
PC’s
work
however!)
* Some
floppies
* ATAPWD.EXE
(found
here)
* HDDUNLOCK.ZIP
(found
here)
* FlashXP
* A
working
network
configuration
and
you
should
already
be able
to have
your
PC talk
to the
Xbox.
* Tools
to open
the
Xbox
and
remove
and
re-insert
the
drive.
* Berg
Jumpers
for
the
Cable/Select
Master/Slave
configuration.
Locking
the drive
Start
by making
sure that
you can
access
the Xbox
via your
Network.
Also be
sure that
you have
a working
bootable
DVD/CD-RW
that you
can using
to access
the Xbox
if you
make a
mistake.
If you
ever accidentally
make a
mistake
in renaming
a file
or in
the evox.ini
file you’ll
need this
disk to
recover
from problems.
You should
also have
a full
backup
of the
C: &
E: partitions
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