Xbox OG modding?

mmsadda

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So I've got two Xbox systems with nearly-dead disc drives; a local guy tried to repair them a while back, but neither was working when I tried them again . I'd love to have one that'll play stuff like Dino Crisis 3, the Otogi games, etc... Stuff that won't run on 360.

Is there a way to pre-load ROMS onto a hard drive, then just drop the hard drive in to play games off it? Hoping for a solution that doesn't depend on a working drive, unlike the ones I've found by searching online.
 

kuze

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If your DVD drive isn't working you will probably need a mod chip or to just get the DVD drive repaired.
 

Neo Alec

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You can soft mod the systems, but getting a compatible USB drive is the difficult part these days. You won't need a working disc drive after the mod. You can FTP files onto the system.
 

adeneo

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Get a cheap mod-chip (Aladdin XT at $4'ish), an IDE to SATA converter (Startech etc), then find an old hard drive, up to 2TB, and install roms.
You can find complete disk-images online ("Origins Fully Loaded" is good) that makes it quite easy to install roms on the drive, where you just clone the image on any PC, and drop the drive in the xbox (ArcadePunks etc).
 
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ChopstickSamurai

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You can soft mod the systems, but getting a compatible USB drive is the difficult part these days. You won't need a working disc drive after the mod. You can FTP files onto the system.

When I soft modded my Xbox I had the same problem finding a old enough USB drive. I ended up just using my PSP and an old ass memory stick.

It’s pretty easy to soft mod these consoles and there are plenty of guides online. I think I used the one at Reddit and it worked great. Upgrading the HD is pretty easy too, and those old drives are pretty cheap as well. FTPing can be pretty slow, but will work just fine without a working drive once you get your files on it.

Good luck!
 

sparksterz

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Get a cheap mod-chip (Aladdin XT at $4'ish), an IDE to SATA converter (Startech etc), then find an old hard drive, up to 2TB, and install roms.
You can find complete disk-images online ("Origins Fully Loaded" is good) that makes it quite easy to install roms on the drive, where you just clone the image on any PC, and drop the drive in the xbox (ArcadePunks etc).

Do the hard mods eliminate the need to do that whole Hard Drive key locking process? I remember that being quite the pain when I swapped hard drives, but mine are only soft mods.
 

adeneo

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Do the hard mods eliminate the need to do that whole Hard Drive key locking process?

Yes, at least some do. Not sure if the cheap Alladin chips can easily lock / unlock drives though?

I have old Xecuter chips in my xboxes, and those will lock or unlock a drive just by selecting it in the menu, easy as that.
Have never done a softmod, so have no idea how that works?

currentharddrivesetup.gif
 
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Neo Alec

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The problem I have is that I fried my original Xbox with all my save data on the hard drive years ago trying to hard mod it. This was back before I had any idea how to solder. There's no way to unlock and read the contents of the drive without the original console running.

One of these days I'll get around to seeing if I can patch the burnt traces to get it running again.
 

mmz16x

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just get a eeprom reader you need a older pc with Serial IO to use one but it will allow you to dump the HDD key off the motherboard and then unlock the HDD or install a chip I always softmod then TSOP xbox's but thats me
 

Neo Alec

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Thanks. I need to look up how to do that. I'd rather get the console working again if possible.
 

adeneo

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The problem I have is that I fried my original Xbox with all my save data on the hard drive years ago trying to hard mod it.

With a chipped console you could just hook that drive up and unlock it in bios
 

SpamYouToDeath

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With a chipped console you could just hook that drive up and unlock it in bios

The password is computed from the serial number stored in the BIOS ROM. You need the contents of the ROM from the specific XBox to unlock its drive.

I've got a couple XBoxes with knockoff modchips. All of them, with an appropriate BIOS, can boot from an unlocked drive.
 
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adeneo

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The password is computed from the serial number stored in the BIOS ROM. You need the contents of the ROM from the specific XBox to unlock its drive.

Oh, that's right, all of mine have X2 or X3 chips, and probably unlocked drives, so never had any issues swapping disks around, I only lock them if booting from the original bios, which is almost never.
 
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