Hack a 250gb, 320gb or 500gb Sata harddrive to work in the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Slim

[InsaneNutter]

Performance wise I don't think you will notice much difference for real world usage between the two drives on the Xbox 360.

 

[masternoxx]

Hello There,
I want to ask about this model (WD2500LPCX 250 GB manufactured 23 June 2014), it is supported for firmware and further work, there is only a 500 GB version in the topic header, or is it better to take a proven one WD3200BEKT?
I would be grateful for your help.

My drive is a 500gb lpcx mfg 2019 its new from newegg. Its working great. I set the intellipark timer to 10 minutes or 600 seconds with the option in hddhackr (setting the timer longer than 8 seconds, is a must do). Its working awesome now. Think paid about 35 dollars on newegg you might want to get one before all new ones are gone.
I'd say the probability that a 250gb one will work is moderately high but that would really suck if it didn't work so I will agree with nutter! If its not listed I wouldn't try it. The real question is why are you bothering with that if you can get a 500gb drive.
One thing to note is after I flashed it hooked it up to laptop with transfer cable and I am using FATXplorer, said "no security sector found" (even though hddhackr was supposed to add it), but with FATXplorer was able to add it without much problem. Also you can optimize folders and format to FATX without plugging into xbox360, removing, xplorer add original xbox emulator partition, replugging etc., it is a great program. I mean its not ultra easy, but if you're a little tech savvy you can do it, also the developer is a great guy and helped me out a lot in emails. And even you might be able to get newer LPLX drives working with this program but I'm not sure on that, so at your own risk.
Perhaps should make a how to for people its just that most people don't care about xbox 360 anymore but I am getting big into Morrowind game so I do... lol... its all about the games really... the controller support, and resolution upscaling in Morrowind, is very nice, a bit choppy in a few parts, but playable.
Also I am a huge fan of Castlevania curse of darkness, unfortunately have to play that on my PS2 because its not supported on xbox360. But I digest...
actually have new xbox emulator cxbr or something might run it, but I doubt it, won't run Morrowind, so what good is it LOL

Also want to say that I bought 7 xbox live pass for 1.39 cents ea. for 14 days and you can activate that on the 5th of the month or something and download both games free for the month for basically free. So why not?

 

[vex]

So, I've been working on my 360 as of late. Just bought a 500gb LPLX drive, then discovered that people are having problems with it.
Has anyone got this variant of the Scorpio working or did I just waste $50 on ebay.

 

[masternoxx]

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

Sorry but what is the reasoning behind this statement?
Could you not buy a 7200rpm WD black and it would be faster?
Also I have seen that the xbox 360 slim has SATA II interface 300mb/s.
Well what about the older xbox 360s like the pro and arcade? Are they also SATA II ?
Thanks for reply

 

[masternoxx]

So, I've been working on my 360 as of late. Just bought a 500gb LPLX drive, then discovered that people are having problems with it.
Has anyone got this variant of the Scorpio working or did I just waste $50 on ebay.

I also did this,
totally wrecked the drive and then returned it, LOL
turned out nothing wrong with the drive LOL, but I didn't know what was going on at the time.
let me guess you have flashed it and now when you put it in the xbox 360 it doesn't show up at all.
well in my post right above yours I say a possible solution but its doubtful it will work.
dl and run fatXplorer, hook up the drive to your laptop with transfer cable / sata bridge cable, install integration driver, mount drive, do an analyze (I think its under toolkit view), if it says no valid security sector found, add one. Then try plugging into xbox 360 again.

if that not work can you just scramble the firmware brick the drive and then return it LOL... no I won't condone dishonesty, but it's what I did. However at that time I had read SOME OTHER STUPID NOOB WEBPAGE that recommended to use that drive for maximum speed so I was under the impression that is "should" have worked.
need to go have that webpage taken down but I don't even remember the web address of it

Plz report back if it worked or not

Yes tons of people have got those drives to work and they used to always work then around 2017 or so the came out with a new revision of the drive and since then it won't work, to my knowledge that is the deal

 

[InsaneNutter]

Sorry but what is the reasoning behind this statement?
Could you not buy a 7200rpm WD black and it would be faster?
Also I have seen that the xbox 360 slim has SATA II interface 300mb/s.
Well what about the older xbox 360s like the pro and arcade? Are they also SATA II ?
Thanks for reply

Someone did some testing years ago and the real world difference in loading times in most games was negligible, its not like going from a HDD to an SSD. I'm pretty sure you will find this somewhere in the 3000+ replies in this thread if you really wish to look back and find it.

 

[masternoxx]

Someone did some testing years ago and the real world difference in loading times in most games was negligible, its not like going from a HDD to an SSD. I'm pretty sure you will find this somewhere in the 3000+ replies in this thread if you really wish to look back and find it.

xxx://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/340690/does-the-type-of-hard-drive-affect-load-times-for-an-xbox-360-slim

well there's that webpage, at the bottom. Not really applicable to this because you are not using the MS stock / Hitachi drive any more, with this hack. But does show that there might be a bottleneck.
I haven't seen anything else, but I'll try searching some more. Thx

 

[vex]

I also did this,
totally wrecked the drive and then returned it, LOL
turned out nothing wrong with the drive LOL, but I didn't know what was going on at the time.
let me guess you have flashed it and now when you put it in the xbox 360 it doesn't show up at all.
well in my post right above yours I say a possible solution but its doubtful it will work.
dl and run fatXplorer, hook up the drive to your laptop with transfer cable / sata bridge cable, install integration driver, mount drive, do an analyze (I think its under toolkit view), if it says no valid security sector found, add one. Then try plugging into xbox 360 again.

if that not work can you just scramble the firmware brick the drive and then return it LOL... no I won't condone dishonesty, but it's what I did. However at that time I had read SOME OTHER STUPID NOOB WEBPAGE that recommended to use that drive for maximum speed so I was under the impression that is "should" have worked.
need to go have that webpage taken down but I don't even remember the web address of it

Plz report back if it worked or not

Yes tons of people have got those drives to work and they used to always work then around 2017 or so the came out with a new revision of the drive and since then it won't work, to my knowledge that is the deal

I haven't gotten the drive yet. Its in the mail. I should have it next week I hope. But when I get it, I'll be sure to update with the success or failure.

 

[masternoxx]

I haven't gotten the drive yet. Its in the mail. I should have it next week I hope. But when I get it, I'll be sure to update with the success or failure.

Not even tried it yet? LOL
Wow that is some slow shipping

 

[vex]

Not even tried it yet? LOL
Wow that is some slow shipping

I just got it delivered right now. LOL!
So I opened the package and it’s not the LPLX. It is the LPSX version. I don’t know if that has a higher or lower chance of success.

Edit: I guess it doesn’t work. Ugh!

Edit #2: Even though it says the sectors were applied - they weren't. The drive still functions and is recognized as a WD HDD while attached the the mainboard or in a USB cradle. HDDHackr isn't applying the firmware at all. So, the drive isn't bricked but I still want to try and flash this damn thing!

Edit #3: I couldn't make the 500GB work no matter what, but then I remembered I had a 750GB WD7500BPKT in my old macbook. I took it out and it worked just fine, even though it will only utilize 500GB of the drive. Oh well. I made a recovery file for the 750GB if anyone ever needs one. I'm attaching it to this post.

 

[masternoxx]

I just got it delivered right now. LOL!
So I opened the package and it’s not the LPLX. It is the LPSX version. I don’t know if that has a higher or lower chance of success.

Edit: I guess it doesn’t work. Ugh!

Yeah LPSX was not listed on page 1 under compatible drives, did you check that? It was under SPOILER (not sure why) , or a black box

750 is fine did you change the un-intellitimer, well if the drive is noisy you will want to do that.
put the 500 in your macjob?
reminds me I need to check my mail

 

[vex]

Yeah LPSX was not listed on page 1 under compatible drives, did you check that? It was under SPOILER (not sure why) , or a black box

750 is fine did you change the un-intellitimer, well if the drive is noisy you will want to do that.
put the 500 in your macjob?
reminds me I need to check my mail

I ordered the LPLX and I was shipped the LPSX. I was sent the wrong drive.
I changed the intelliagent thing to 300sec
The LPSX went into the mac.

 

[vex]

@InsaneNutter I had a 250GB drive that I bought of ebay years ago. It was modified using hddhackr by whomever I bought it from.

I replaced it with a larger drive, but in an effort to use it as an external backup I tried using an identical UNDO.bin from this site but the flash didn't take and now the Serial / Model / LBA in hddhackr all appear blank or report 0.

I can't reflash with any bin file without a DRQ error 0802 or an error that the hdd couldn't read sector 16. Since the LBA is reading 0, I guess this would make sense. I've tried writing a new HDDSS.bin with a hex editor but it won't take either.

Any chance at saving this drive at all or is it trash? Thanks.

 

[masternoxx]

@InsaneNutter I had a 250GB drive that I bought of ebay years ago. It was modified using hddhackr by whomever I bought it from.

I replaced it with a larger drive, but in an effort to use it as an external backup I tried using an identical UNDO.bin from this site but the flash didn't take and now the Serial / Model / LBA in hddhackr all appear blank or report 0.

I can't reflash with any bin file without a DRQ error 0802 or an error that the hdd couldn't read sector 16. Since the LBA is reading 0, I guess this would make sense. I've tried writing a new HDDSS.bin with a hex editor but it won't take either.

Any chance at saving this drive at all or is it trash? Thanks.

try using the brute force flash instructions in the HDDHackr readme.

You could be SOL if you can't get a proper UNDO.BIN tho. It sounds like the one you tried was corrupted or wrong model. Make sure it is exact UNDO file for that drive...

I bricked a drive in this fashion by accidentally accidentaly plugging in a broken drive first to my usb to SATA cable. You would think this shouldn't matter but it totally wrecked the Windows drive intitialization. Then when I replaced it with the good drive (they were the same model and looked the same) and tried to format that one POOF wrecked the drive six ways from sunday. Everything was blanked out when hooked to HDDHACKR, the drive sounded terrible and returned it LOL.
Still keeping that defective drive just in case I want to brick another HDD haha

If you ever do plug in a defective drive by accident make sure you reset your computer before plugging in a good one, is the lesson

 

[vex]

try using the brute force flash instructions in the HDDHackr readme.

You could be SOL if you can't get a proper UNDO.BIN tho. It sounds like the one you tried was corrupted or wrong model. Make sure it is exact UNDO file for that drive...

I bricked a drive in this fashion by accidentally accidentaly plugging in a broken drive first to my usb to SATA cable. You would think this shouldn't matter but it totally wrecked the Windows drive intitialization. Then when I replaced it with the good drive (they were the same model and looked the same) and tried to format that one POOF wrecked the drive six ways from sunday. Everything was blanked out when hooked to HDDHACKR, the drive sounded terrible and returned it LOL.
Still keeping that defective drive just in case I want to brick another HDD haha

If you ever do plug in a defective drive by accident make sure you reset your computer before plugging in a good one, is the lesson

I tried the brute force method multiple times on 3 different desktops. Couldn't get it to work. I smashed the drive with a hammer and threw it in the trash. Problem solved.

I don't think there was any way to breathe life back into that drive without a Dolphin firmware flashing kit. Oh well. Not a huge loss. The drive served it's purpose. It had a good 11 year run.

 

[leenny]

New member here, great tutorial. I have a 500gb wd 2016 lplx drive, was able to hachkr the drive create the partitions and it was seen by by my 360. good so far. I finally got a computer to see the drive using xplorer360 extreme, wrote the partition2 to it all ok. It is still seen by my xbox360. When I try to play a original game it does not allow me and gives the message contact xbox.com for backward compatability. Is there some thing I missed???

 

[masternoxx]

New member here, great tutorial. I have a 500gb wd 2016 lplx drive, was able to hachkr the drive create the partitions and it was seen by by my 360. good so far. I finally got a computer to see the drive using xplorer360 extreme, wrote the partition2 to it all ok. It is still seen by my xbox360. When I try to play a original game it does not allow me and gives the message contact xbox.com for backward compatability. Is there some thing I missed???

Yes. There is a file called

in the Content directory on the content partition (partition3) (I think, not super sure tho)
lemme see if I have it...
Install with usb stick or horizon or fatXplorer I think
I think it needs to be in that folder on usb stick
can't remember for sure how to install sorry

so I think the file should be on your previous drive, use fatXplorer, content view to find it
I'm not sure if it can Identify my console or account so unfort had to can't upload mine
I'm not sure why it doesn't auto-dl from live
it also won't allow you to copy it with the console and transfer cable so I had to use PC

this is a compatible OG xbox game you played before yes? bc they are not all compatible

Welcome new member =)

 

[leenny]

I don't have a previous drive, I started from scratch with the wd drive and I am at this point. Where do I get this "xbox back Compat Title update"??
I was under the impression that when I performed the Hackr mod to the drive and loaded the "Hoffmans partition 2" using xplorer360 extreme that would be it. What else am I suppose to do to be able to play original xbox games??

 

[InsaneNutter]

I don't have a previous drive, I started from scratch with the wd drive and I am at this point. Where do I get this "xbox back Compat Title update"??
I was under the impression that when I performed the Hackr mod to the drive and loaded the "Hoffmans partition 2" using xplorer360 extreme that would be it. What else am I suppose to do to be able to play original xbox games??

You don't need to do anything else, put a supported Xbox Classic game in the 360 and it will play fine.

 

[masternoxx]

I don't have a previous drive, I started from scratch with the wd drive and I am at this point. Where do I get this "xbox back Compat Title update"??
I was under the impression that when I performed the Hackr mod to the drive and loaded the "Hoffmans partition 2" using xplorer360 extreme that would be it. What else am I suppose to do to be able to play original xbox games??

Is your game on this list?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360
What is the game? Is it Barbie's Pink Fabulous Fashion Show ?
As I said only some games are supported, if its not on that list it won't play. Xbox 360 uses a "whitelist" and will only allow you to play those original xbox on that list.
Even then some of them don't play too great, it is an emulator running through software not true xbox hardware

I was under the impression that file added some games to the compatibility list that were not originally supported. If that's not the case please inform me to what that file does. Because I have been wondering, TY. Title update is a game patch right but which game? Can't copy it why?

Sorry if led you astray Bud, Nutter is prob right since he has more XP with this HDDHACKR