He probably spoofed it to ms28 and he's getting the error because the firmware doesn't match.  I've heard e64 and e65 can both be this error.  He can't read or write the original firmware now because he succesfully flashed the ms28 based ixtreme firmware.  Use a enable 0800 disc or 10 second trick to get permissions to read or write.

They are not storing info on your 360.  I flashed my ms25 from 5.3 back to original.  Then I did the spring update.  Played originals and stuff online.  Disconnected ethernet cable from my 360, flashed back to 5.3, which is spoofed to ms28, played a 360 backup and a single layer xbox backup, reconnected ethernet, flashed back to original, and went back on live no issues, so whatever method they're using, its issued while connected to live only.  I have tested this over multiple days, so it's not that I'm just not banned yet.

I've actually noticed the issue with turning on the 360 with a wireless controller myself.  It never happened in the past, but it has happened a few times already since the spring update.  I doubt the update would cause this, but who knows.

You can't make an image and put it on another hard drive.  It won't work.  If you put an image from one drive on another, it won't be accessible in any way when connected to the 360.  That mismatch you mentioned Arakon makes it as if nothing is connected to the 360, so he didn't get banned for that, and he's probably full of $#!t and/or stupid.

thanks for all your hard work as usual c4e

I gave up and purchased an overpriced sh-d162c($85 when it retails for $20) for backups since I can no longer remove the drive and connect to my pc with the xecuter kit.  If you don't want to continuosly move your 360 to your computer, try to find that drive.  They're pretty much sold out everywhere, and where they are in stock, they're way overpriced, but the convenience is definitely worth it.  I wish I would've purchased one earlier though!

Worked perfectly using the batch file.  Odd.

Got the batch file to work for the first time.  I'm shutting down and attempting to flash again.  I'll post my results in 5 mins or so.

I just tried to flash my drive to 4.0a, and I keep getting a failed to open input file.  The batch files never worked on my pc, never figured out the reason, so I always hex edit it manually.  Anyone else getting the same error?

PS
Thanks to c4e as always!

I'd guess German since he's using a German PAL game, but yeah I noticed the same thing.  MTKFlash is for the samsung drives.  Once you get your hitachi into mode b, run one of garyopas auto flashers, and you should be fine.

Mine don't click anymore either.  Just try pulling harder.  Also, the team xtender ones do work for the sides.  That thin part that sticks out can be inserted to pop the two front clips on the hard drive side, and then you just pop the other ones by poking in the holes.  Tool makes it extremely easy.  I get cases open in about two minutes now.

Newegg doesn't ship outside the U.S. anyway.  Luckily, I live in the U.S., so I always use them.  They are the cheapest I've found

Well for starters, this is a 360 forum not xbox.  Second, there is no chip to mod halo 2...  Third, there are a million halo 2 modding tutorials on the internet.  Stop being lazy and read if you want to mod so badly.

If the originals boot fine, put away the backups and just play the originals.  Easy solution!

Oh and thank you very much for clearing it up for me.  I couldn't seem to get an answer from anybody.

So it is possible to rip all those individual games and burn them to a cd since combined they're way under what a cd would hold

I don't recall the kiosk disc having hexic on it.  Do you mean they ripped it from the xbl arcade unplugged disc, and it's just like the original kiosk disc?

I came across this file today, and somehow its bootable from cdr,cdrw,dvdr, and dvdrw.  I'm curious as to how that was accomplished and if anyone can shed some light on the details of how it was done.  If this is in the wrong forum, please move it to the correct ones mods.

There is some kind of stealth out for the hitachi drives already.  I'm not sure on the technical details of the stealth firmwares, but the one for hitachi I believe is to prevent Microsoft from detecting the flashed firmware, while the one for samsung is only media stealth. Again, I could be wrong, but there are "stealth" firmwares for both drives already.

Um that is definitely not true if you've opened the 360 and voided the warranty.  No store with knowledge of the warranty sticker would fall for that.  Luckily, Microsoft was stupid enough to put it behind the faceplate, and majority of retail store employees do not know that, so you can get away with it at a lot of stores.  But technically, you aren't supposed to be able to return an opened 360.