How to hack a 250gb or 320gb sata drive to work in the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim

**InsaneNutter** · 07-12-09, 23:33

As of the 20/09/2011 a 320GB security sector has been dumped, this will allow you to make your own 320gb hard drives. Just follow this tutorial and use the 320gb security sector, instead of the 250gb security sector if you wish to make a 320gb drive

After having a 20gb drive for the last 4 years and getting annoyed about having to constantly delete stuff I did something about it. I purchased a nice 250gb laptop hard drive for £30 and used hddhackr on it to enable the 360 to use it.

I think doing your own drive is the way to go as Microsoft charge £89.99 just for the 120gig drive here in the UK, at that price I could make 3x 250gig drives for the same price!

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, have a look at the end of the guide for information on how to connect your hacked drive to an Xbox 360 slim.

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 1.30, 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.

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.

Download Bootable USB Drive Creator Tool

Unzip and load the program, be sure to right click and run as an administrator.

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.

Now Download Xbox 360 320GB Hard Drive Security Sector

Or the Download Xbox 360 250GB Hard Drive Security Sector and Download HddHackr v1.30 Build 20110303

For anyone who wants to hack a diffrent size drive here are the security sectors that can be used for a:
20gb drive
60gb drive
120gb drive

Unzip both to the USB drive you just made bootable

Be sure to rename the HDDSS_250GB.BIN to HDDSS.BIN if you are hacking a 250gb drive or HDDSS320.bin to HDDSS.BIN if you are hacking a 320gb drive.

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

You will need to shut down your pc now, I would 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

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.

All been well hddhackr will have listed all the drives in your system, in my case the drive I want to hack is number 5.

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.

Say yes to this:

You will then be asked if you also want to create partition 0/2/3

Again say yes to this, you drive should now be hacked, congratulations!

An UNDO.BIN will have been saved on your USB drive, keep this safe as you will need it for if you ever want to restore the drive back to normal.

Opening the 360 drive enclosure

Now you need to open your Xbox 360 hard drive, you will need a Torx T6 screwdriver to do this.

You can now remove the top, the mechanism to lock/unlock the HDD-bay on your Xbox 360 console might fall out… don’t worry it’s easy enough its put back together, just look how it is in my photo below.

Now you have 4 more screws to remove, these require a Torx T10 screwdriver, you can then remove the metal case.

Now you can unplug the power and sata cable from the drive, then slide it out pulling the drive gentily up as you do so.

You should now have your original drive

If you want to restore the Xbox 1 emulator to your newly hacked drive or your save games you will need to connect your old 360 drive to your computer and boot windows.

If you dont have an old hard drive or simply want to save some time you can download a copy of Hoffmans partition 2 which he uploaded here

Download Xplorer 360 Extreme.

Now unzip and right click and run it as administrator.

Select Drive > Open > Harddrive or Memorycard

We are going to backup the Xbox 1 emulator so you will still be able to play Xbox 1 games on the 360.

To do this select Drive > Backup Partition 2 and save the backup.

If you want to backup your profiles, saves, arcade games, demos, dlc and videos you basically want to dump your Partition 3 > Content folder, I had to dump a few folders at the time because Xplorer 360 had random crashes for me.

Now shutdown windows, disconnect your original 360 drive and connect the hacked 250gb drive.

When windows has loaded up again load Xplorer 360 Extreme again, remembering to run it with administrator rights and select Drive > Restore Partition 2 and select the backup you made from your old 20gig drive.

It is important you just close Xplorer360 after that, massing about with anything else will corrupt Partition 3.

Now Download Xplorer 360 250gb Edition, this works fine with Partition 3 on 250gig drives, however trying to modify anything on partition 0 or 2 will just corrupt the drive!! Trust me save yourself some time and don’t do it.

If you are hacking a 320gb drive then you want to Download Xplorer 360 320gb Edition.

Also don’t use Xplorer 250gig edition on any other sized drive either, it will just corrupt the drive, same with the 320gig edition.

If you do corrupt you drive just connect it to your Xbox 360 and format it.

After you have restored any content you can now shut your pc down and put the 250gig drive in your 360’s drive enclosure, it might be an idea to test everything is working correctly before re assembling the enclosure.

The hacked drive:

Connecting to the Xbox 360 slim:

It is also possible to use your hacked drive in the new Xbox 360 slim, with the slim you are not required to insert the hard drive in any enclosure, you can simply connect it to the console.

If you want to buy an enclosure for it have a look on Deal Extreme at the HDD Hard Disk Drive Case for Xbox 360 Slim, if not just read below and connect the drive directly to your 360 slim.

First open the panel at the side, the entry way is on the right side as you look at the Xbox. If you look towards the end of the right side of the Xbox you can see 3 vents you can pull to remove the cover.

If you have the 4gb model, there will be no hard drive in this area. This is the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250gb hard drive inside the Xbox. Be sure to make sure it’s seated. It may take some time to get it perfectly fit.

The Sata and power connections inside the slim you need to connect the drive to

A Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250gb installed in a 4gb Xbox 360 Slim:

The new 4gb Xbox 360 slim with a nice 250gb hacked drive installed:

Credit to Digiex member Nsab3001 for the slim information and photos.

Hopefully I have covered everything you should need to know to do this hack yourself, if not feel free to ask and I will try and help.

FAQ:

HDDHackr doesn't work for me:
99% of problems are caused by the SATA chipset on your motherboard or BIOS configurations such as Legacy IDE not been enabled, AHCI been enabled or Raid been active.

If you still have problems try using another computer with a different SATA chipset. It might also be an Idea to check the official Hddhackr release thread on Xbox Hacker too.

HDDHackr still doesn't work for me, can i try anything else?
You can have a look at Harcrofts tutorial on How to Flash Your HDDSS.bin in Windows. Read the tutorial very carefully and do so at your own risk.

Some of my save games no longer work:
The easy solution to this is to move the save game on to the memory card from the old hard drive, if it will let you. Not all saves let you move them between storage devices.

DrDrrae has posted a solution that doesn't require a memory card, Link.

I have attached CONcept and Hash Block Calculator which he says are required. Ive not tested that myself as all my game saves appear to work, fine however people have stated it works perfectly.

I restored my data back however the Xbox 360 doesn't see it?

Have a look at my post here, that explains where your files likley ended up and a solution to get them in to the folder you want.

I want to be able to drag and drop files with Xplorer 360

UAC has to be switched off for this to work, simply running the program with admin rights doesn't work.
To do this in Windows 7 go to Control Panel\User Accounts and Family Safety\User Accounts and select "Change user account settings" Now slide down to never notify and hit ok. You might need to re start your pc for the changes to take effect. Remember to enable UAC again when you are finished.

I lost my undo.bin, do you have one i can use?

Using an Undo.bin from someone else is very risky, your drive must be the exact same as the drive the undo.bin is from, otherwise you risk bricking it. Member Robide has found a collection of undo.bin files for various drives: Download Western Digital Undo.bin collection.

**MasterChief** · 09-12-09, 22:51

Great guide, most other guides I have seen for this don't tell you how to backup and restore the Xbox 1 emulator.. i ended up corrupting my drive a few times before i found out how to do that.

I wish this guide was up before I hacked my drive, it would have saved me a lot of time and messing about

**InsaneNutter** · 10-12-09, 07:43

Same here, I taught that i would just to able to copy the files from partition 2 to my pc, then back to the new drive but that wasn't the case.

I thought the part with hddhackr would be the hardest bit yet it ended up been one of the easiest parts of the process.

Hopefully this guide will make it as easy as possible for anyone considering the hack!

**RFBadFish** · 12-12-09, 15:52

Hi,
Finally a decent tutorial on the dreaded HDD upgrade!!

Are the rumours of Xbox Live bans for doing this true in your experiences or are people just too scared to do it?
Thanks again for the info, much appreciated by my bank balance!!

**Titcher** · 12-12-09, 23:47

Microsoft aren't banning for using unofficial hard drives, they're banning for using modified DVD drives however. But yeah, the hardest part of this for most people is finding their T6 screw driver.

**RFBadFish** · 13-12-09, 13:04

Cheers Titcher, much appreciated.

**glg** · 21-12-09, 17:15

I have folowed your great tutorial to the letter and get stuck at the same point every time. I get to the part where you hit f for flash and get a message enter file name for sector 16-22 ( e.g. HDDSS.BIN): This is different to your screen shot
"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". What am i doing wrong? I am new to this so i would appreciate some tech help.

**InsaneNutter** · 21-12-09, 20:30

How does what you see differ from my screenshot?

You didn't actually say what the problem was, I need to have some idea about what is going on to try and help you.

**glg** · 21-12-09, 22:39

when i get to f i hit enter and get a message that asks me to enter file name for sector 16-22 e.g hddss.bin, this file is on my stick so type this in and get another message that tell me that that hddss.bin is not present. On your screen shot you seem to have data from the hddss.bin this information i do not see. I am puzzled. Hope you can help. My sata card is a via 6421 that i use for DVD flashing. Data on screen on boot is displayed and drive is found on 0XE800 as pri master. I have disconected all other drives for this operation. Hope you can help.

**ThatGuyDiego** · 22-12-09, 06:43

I just did this it worked out pretty well. Some notes from when i did it.

I had an 8 gig thumb drive. I had to use fat32 to format and it wasn't an issue worked just fine.

The xplorer 360 app gave me alot of issues and didn't seem to work to well for me. I assume this might be from me using it under windows 7 64 bit pro.

Just in case, I had a buddy at work with a spare 360 and transfer cable and was nice enough to lend it to me. So when i was done preping the 250 gig drive. I put the old 20 gig back and backed up on the spare drive my friend had. I poped the 250 gig drive in. It showed half of the drive was used. I assumed this was from trying to restore partition 2 and my content from my 20 through xplorer 360. I formatted the 250 gig drive in the xbox 360 utilities in the console. It asked me for my serial number for my xbox. I inputted the serial number in and bing all my space back. Tried an old xbox 1st gen game and it didn't work. I then swaped the drives to the spare 20 gig (which had my data backed up on it) and used the transfer cable. When it was done. everything worked i had my old data and xbox 1st gen games worked no problem.

The transfer cables are free if you order them from microsoft and a spare 20 gig drive in a case is 20-30 american on ebay usually. If the second half of the tutorial gives you crap this may be another option to try.

thank you very much for the great tutorial InsaneNutter u rock!

**InsaneNutter** · 22-12-09, 12:50

Originally Posted by glg

when i get to f i hit enter and get a message that asks me to enter file name for sector 16-22 e.g hddss.bin, this file is on my stick so type this in and get another message that tell me that that hddss.bin is not present. On your screen shot you seem to have data from the hddss.bin this information i do not see. I am puzzled. Hope you can help. My sata card is a via 6421 that i use for DVD flashing. Data on screen on boot is displayed and drive is found on 0XE800 as pri master. I have disconected all other drives for this operation. Hope you can help.

Can you post a screenshot of what is on the usb drive you are using to load hddhackr from, just want to ensure you have everything you need on it.

Originally Posted by ThatGuyDiego

The xplorer 360 app gave me alot of issues and didn't seem to work to well for me. I assume this might be from me using it under windows 7 64 bit pro.

The Xplorer 360 app is very buggy, it works under Windows 7 x64, you have to run the program as an Administrator if you have UAC enabled. Your not the only person to have trouble with it.

Xplorer 360 Xtreme works well with 20 and 120gig drives, it will also restore partition 2 to a 250gb drive, touching partition 3 on a 250gig drive just corrupts it so be careful not to.

Xplorer 360 250gb edition will only work on Partition 3 of a 250gig drive, touching anything else also corrupts the drive.

Good idea with the transfer kit, glad you got your hacked drive working 100%

**kikob** · 23-12-09, 07:01

I purchased a 250gb WD Scorpio Blue Series drive (WD2500BEVT) but after i have selected F option hddhackr give this message "reading hdd sector 16 failed"! Where is the problem?

**InsaneNutter** · 23-12-09, 12:09

Originally Posted by kikob

I purchased a 250gb WD Scorpio Blue Series drive (WD2500BEVT) but after i have selected F option hddhackr give this message "reading hdd sector 16 failed"! Where is the problem?

I got that when selected D and not F by mistake, also have you ensured AHCI is disabled in your bios? that can cause a lot of problems.

**glg** · 23-12-09, 16:06

How to hack a 250gb or 320gb sata drive to work in the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim-dsc01638.jpg

How to hack a 250gb or 320gb sata drive to work in the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim-dsc01635.jpg

How to hack a 250gb or 320gb sata drive to work in the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim-dsc01637.jpg

I Have attached these hope you can help.

**InsaneNutter** · 23-12-09, 16:19

Ok so Hddhackr detects your drive which is good, looking at your second screenshot it appears you are running hddhackr in a virtual machine? or you look a photograph of a photograph?

What exactly is displayed at the bottom after you have typed f? thats cut out the photo!

**poncho** · 23-12-09, 21:27

I have an official 250gb hdd from microsoft and I recently messed up the files inside it trying to transfer files over. Can I use this method to get it back to normal? I forgot to set a backup image in xplorer360.

**InsaneNutter** · 23-12-09, 21:50

Originally Posted by poncho

I have an official 250gb hdd from microsoft and I recently messed up the files inside it trying to transfer files over. Can I use this method to get it back to normal? I forgot to set a backup image in xplorer360.

You can just format the drive in your Xbox 360 I believe, if you cant format it I would imagine you could fix the drive like this as hddhackr will re create partition 0,2 and 3

**poncho** · 23-12-09, 21:58

Originally Posted by InsaneNutter

You can just format the drive in your Xbox 360 I believe, if you cant format it I would imagine you could fix the drive like this as hddhackr will re create partition 0,2 and 3

The problem I'm having is that the 360 won't detect the HDD, and thanks for the quick reply. I'm going to attempt it now.

One more question. Can I just leave it plug in a USB port and use a xsata cable or do I need to plug it into my internal sata cable on my motherboard.

**InsaneNutter** · 23-12-09, 22:17

You must connect it to an internal sata port for hddhackr to recognize the drive.

**poncho** · 23-12-09, 22:34

Originally Posted by InsaneNutter

You must connect it to an internal sata port for hddhackr to recognize the drive.

Damn looks like I'm out of luck then. :/ Thanks anyways.

**mranjobal** · 24-12-09, 02:44

The problems is that my 360 detectecs my new WD 250gig but after i install like 3 games on it , its giving me errors , Disc cant be read and after that in memory it shows the games are corrupted i need to shut down the 360 and everything gets back too normal but i cant install more games ....i di everything in the guide buti migth miss something.

Thank you for your help

**mranjobal** · 24-12-09, 02:53

What i have its a WD Scorpio Series BEVS 250GIG , I Format twice in the 360 but its still giving me the same error after that i install 2-3 games , i get the yellow icons..

, whta i do is remove the HDD and my stuff are correct but cant install more stuff, get DVD dirty....

**InsaneNutter** · 24-12-09, 09:28

If you format your drive then install a game that failed before does it then install ok?

From what your saying it sounds like the discs of some of the games you are trying to install are damaged, I installed every game i own and found one of my games had a small scratch on it, the game would play fine but failed to install about half way through. I borrowed the game off a friend, installed his copy which installed perfectly now i can play from the hard drive with my copy of the game in the console.

**kikob** · 24-12-09, 09:46

Originally Posted by InsaneNutter

I got that when selected D and not F by mistake, also have you ensured AHCI is disabled in your bios? that can cause a lot of problems.

I don't have this setting on the bios of my MB

**glg** · 24-12-09, 16:56

i have gone into disc manager and at the bottom of the page wd drive is listed as disc 2 basic 232.88 gb online but at the top of the page i get a list of the drives but the wd is not listed my two IDE hard drives. Could this have a bearing on the problem? In my computer the wd is not shown at all.

**Amenist** · 25-12-09, 08:25

I'm having the same problem as glg

Upon selecting f for flash in the prompt I get a message stating:

"Enter the file name for sector 16-22 (e.g. HDDS.BIN)."

Any clue what could be wrong? I plugged it into a laptops SATA port.

It's the same as the first screenshot glg has of the 3.

**mranjobal** · 26-12-09, 01:42

I will try with more games , i remember installing many games on my old 120GIg and never had any problemes....do i need to clear the cache?

Tx again

**wacky maky** · 26-12-09, 12:45

Hi,

I have bought the exact same hard drive as you pictured (Insane Nutter).
I follow all of your steps to the letter, but when i get into the dosprompt screen and enter "hddhackr" and then press eneter,
i just get a flashing underscore... that just stays there forever.

I'm using a laptop (Acer 8930G) and before you ask yes i am using the internal connections

I'd love to get this working and i'd really appreciate any help!

Many Thanks,

James

**Burn Notice** · 27-12-09, 20:02

Thank you InsaneNutter your tutorial are word a lot for every one. Everything working so smooth thanks again.

**InsaneNutter** · 27-12-09, 20:22

Originally Posted by wacky maky

Hi,

I have bought the exact same hard drive as you pictured (Insane Nutter).
I follow all of your steps to the letter, but when i get into the dosprompt screen and enter "hddhackr" and then press eneter,
i just get a flashing underscore... that just stays there forever.

I'm using a laptop (Acer 8930G) and before you ask yes i am using the internal connections

I'd love to get this working and i'd really appreciate any help!

Many Thanks,

James

If you have an option for AHCI in your bios disable it, it could also be the sata chipset in your laptop is not compatible although it is a lot more compatible than it used to be.

Im not an expert with Hddhackr, but for me AHCI caused any problems I had. You might also want to check out the official hddhack thread on Xbox Hacker if your lucky one of the developers might be able to help you a bit more than I can if you haven't managed to get it working yet.

**Samokee** · 30-12-09, 14:38

Hey guys, I know someone said that doing this won't get you banned but does anyone know this for sure? I have the WD2500BEVT HD in my laptop (which I've been meaning to upgrade HDs anyways) and even a torx T6 screwdriver but I really don't want to get banned.

**prle** · 30-12-09, 23:32

Hello to all.I've been trying to hack my scorpio 250GB to work on my x360.Well it is all good,until I get to the part where I'm supposed to restore my profiles...I have a problem because if I change the partition 3 it will corrupt it,and the saves are all on the partition 3...
simply put: how do I restore my save games?

btw. i tried the tutorial for this and it corrupted my hdd every time...
THANKS IN ADVANCE...

**InsaneNutter** · 31-12-09, 00:19

Originally Posted by Samokee

Hey guys, I know someone said that doing this won't get you banned but does anyone know this for sure? I have the WD2500BEVT HD in my laptop (which I've been meaning to upgrade HDs anyways) and even a torx T6 screwdriver but I really don't want to get banned.

You will not get banned, at worse microsoft might disable the hard drive like what happend with the datel memory cards, its unlikely but there is always a chance.

Even if it did happen im sure they would be a work around released asap.

Originally Posted by prle

Hello to all.I've been trying to hack my scorpio 250GB to work on my x360.Well it is all good,until I get to the part where I'm supposed to restore my profiles...I have a problem because if I change the partition 3 it will corrupt it,and the saves are all on the partition 3...
simply put: how do I restore my save games?

btw. i tried the tutorial for this and it corrupted my hdd every time...
THANKS IN ADVANCE...

To restore content to the 250gig drive close xplorer extreme and load the 250gb xplorer up, only touch partition 3 in xplorer 250gb and nothing will corrupt.

**Samokee** · 31-12-09, 01:27

Thanks InsaneNutter I'm going to give it a shot

**prle** · 31-12-09, 12:24

Thanks a lot...But,if you believe me,I figured it out about 10mins after posting a question..

Thanks anyway....
I spent 5 hrs yesterday trying to solve what is going on....

**denteonur** · 02-01-10, 16:26

please help me how can I flash my disk when i get to f i hit enter and get a message that asks me to enter file name for sector 16-22 e.g hddss.bin, this file is on my stick so type this in and get another message that tell me that that hddss.bin is not present

I use 250 gb western digital wd 2500bevt
4gb usb flash disk

**denteonur** · 02-01-10, 16:29

when i get to f i hit enter and get a message that asks me to enter file name for sector 16-22 e.g hddss.bin, this file is on my stick so type this in and get another message that tell me that that hddss.bin is not present

I use wd2500bevt
4gb usb flash disk

**angie** · 03-01-10, 06:39

HI do i have to use an WD hdd?? the only drive i got is an seagate 250
unless i go out and buy a new WD isnt there a way to use the seagate i have? please thanks!

**Hoffman** · 03-01-10, 11:08

For people who carnt find HDDSS.BIN did you extract the zip file and rename it to HDDSS.BIN?

Originally Posted by angie

HI do i have to use an WD hdd?? the only drive i got is an seagate 250
unless i go out and buy a new WD isnt there a way to use the seagate i have? please thanks!

Yes it has to be one of the supported WD drives.

**angie** · 03-01-10, 23:15

Originally Posted by Hoffman

For people who carnt find HDDSS.BIN did you extract the zip file and rename it to HDDSS.BIN?

Yes it has to be one of the supported WD drives.

being blonde could u link me some drives that would work from say pc world? allso do the drives have to be 250 gig? or can we use an 500gig?
because if i have to go out and buy one i may as well get a 500 for an extra £20 ?

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