Fix / Restore original 20/60/120 GB HDD after Xplorer ruins it

[wwwpop]

Thanks for the info. But something still nags me about this whole thing. Every drive then has it own numbers so the hddss has an ever changing set of numbers. You can put a 20 gig on and no trouble . Take it off and replace it with a 60 and no trouble. All these returned numbers to the xbox have to be different. Some other method must be used also. Or does the MS key return a universal number no matter what.  The key must also be rewritten on wd drive because you  also rewrite the correct drive number too. As I said I am a nube at this but my head is having a hard time understanding why only wd drives work for this problem. Are wd drive so much more different that other mfgr. I know the firmwares are unique but I believe the internals are almost the same. Also based on what you have told me other than wd being used as a replacement no other drive can be used except the original drive with its original hddss file. Even though the progams I used works great and all info written is correct except the drive used has the wrong serial number. This has become a frustrating task. Thanks again 

[wwwpop]

Another though along maybe this same line. I was wondering why I am not aware of any cable to be use out of the hard drive port so you could maybe monitor info going both way. Used to gather info etc. Is it because of the same thing the security key not being there so no info will flow.

[DougTheSlug]

Sigh, I was messing with my old 20gb drive between 2 360s and now I can't get it working again on my original 360. I took an image with Xplorer360, but it complains that the original image is larger than the exact same HDD it came from.

WinHex also complains that the image is larger than the original HDD.

ARG... the image is being reported as 20,003,880,960 bytes while my 20gb HDD is 19,985,825,792.

Any ideas why Xplorer360 would do something like this? I haven't been able to locate any clues as to why my backup is large than the original HDD.

Thanks.

[jhonnyp0lak]

Doug,

its most likely that Xplorer went into a loop and wrote too much information into the image file. You can still save your hdd. Your image should contain your hddss.bin file contents. Open your image with WinHEX and select all the information from address 0x0000 until 0x3000. This will be your hddss.bin file. You can copy and paste it into a new document in WinHEX and save it as hddss.bin.

Use WinHEX to wipe the drive clean (fill with 0's) and then write the contents from hddss.bin you just made on the drive starting with offset 0x0000. This will basically give you an empty drive with your disk's security sector in place. You should now be able to connect your drive to your 360 and format it. This will create all the necessary partitions automatically and you'll be able to use the disk once again.

If the data that you have in that image is very important to you, then perform what i wrote above and then there is an option in Xplorer 360 to open an image file, open the image file you created and extract all the contents in each partition to a folder. Then open your fix hdd in Xplorer 360 and drag those files back to the appropriate partitions. Be careful though, Xplorer 360 might once again corrupt your hard drive.

[DougTheSlug]

Ugh... didn't work. (thought I had super high hopes) I think the image is screwed possibly a little lower in the bin. Seems like there are 0s the entire block except 0x0820 to 0x0AA0, then 0x2020 to about 0x2CE5. Don't know if this is correct or not but my non-jtag 360 isn't booting it.

I'm going to try and get this thing boot period so I don't have a wasted drive to call my own.

Thanks.

[Maffrroo]

Hopefully someone can help...

I followed tutorial 2 completely, except for steps 10-15 because I never got the Fail. Try to re-power HDD message.  When I connected the HDD to my xbox, it still did not show any profiles.  I went to system settings, memory, and it said the drive was unformatted.  Also, Xport 360 just locks up when I try to access the hard drive on my PC.

Did I do something wrong, or am I just screwed?  Also, is there anyway to salvage my data off of the hard drive?

I have a Hitachi 120GB hard drive that came with my elite.

[Mercer1234]

Sigh, I was messing with my old 20gb drive between 2 360s and now I can't get it working again on my original 360. I took an image with Xplorer360, but it complains that the original image is larger than the exact same HDD it came from.

WinHex also complains that the image is larger than the original HDD.

ARG... the image is being reported as 20,003,880,960 bytes while my 20gb HDD is 19,985,825,792.

Any ideas why Xplorer360 would do something like this? I haven't been able to locate any clues as to why my backup is large than the original HDD.

Thanks.

Doug,
I was in the same exact situation you are in and thanks to this F*$%ing awesome tutorial I was able to swindle my hard drive back to life. I had the same situation 5-days ago. I plugged in my hdd for the first time and being cautions made a backup image using Xplorer 360. After doing what i wanted to it, turns out it ended up not being recognized by the xbox, go figure. So I tried to restore the image back onto the hdd using Xplorer 360. Backed up fine, but still no bueno in the xbox. So I tried to back up with XPort 360, this is where I found that my image size was larger than my hdd size. I tried using Xplorer 360 again, then I got the Xplorer 360_xtreme2 edition and still no luck.

Solution:
I decided WTF I have nothing to loose so I burned the original image using Xplorer 360_xtreme2 edition and at the end of the burn, it goes into an idle state where it says it's backing up but it's not doing anything. I let this go on for 10 min. before I figured "if it is going to write it, it should be done by now", So i unplugged the power and started with tutorial number 3 step 16. I followed it to the letter and it works. Let me know if this helps.

[Mercer1234]

Hopefully someone can help...

I followed tutorial 2 completely, except for steps 10-15 because I never got the Fail. Try to re-power HDD message.  When I connected the HDD to my xbox, it still did not show any profiles.  I went to system settings, memory, and it said the drive was unformatted.  Also, Xport 360 just locks up when I try to access the hard drive on my PC.

Did I do something wrong, or am I just screwed?  Also, is there anyway to salvage my data off of the hard drive?

I have a Hitachi 120GB hard drive that came with my elite.

To get a better understanding, did you make a backup image with X Port 360? Have you tried opening the HDD with Xplorer 360 or any other program for that matter?

[Maffrroo]

Hopefully someone can help...

I followed tutorial 2 completely, except for steps 10-15 because I never got the Fail. Try to re-power HDD message.  When I connected the HDD to my xbox, it still did not show any profiles.  I went to system settings, memory, and it said the drive was unformatted.  Also, Xport 360 just locks up when I try to access the hard drive on my PC.

Did I do something wrong, or am I just screwed?  Also, is there anyway to salvage my data off of the hard drive?

I have a Hitachi 120GB hard drive that came with my elite.

To get a better understanding, did you make a backup image with X Port 360? Have you tried opening the HDD with Xplorer 360 or any other program for that matter?

No, I did not make a backup image. I simply copied 1 of my save files to my desktop. Xplorer would not display any of the data on my hard drive. I could see the partitions, but none of the files on them. Those are the only two programs I know of. What else could I try?

[seanp2501]

I have been having a nightmare with a hd i was hoping to recover...I am going to post my story cause i think it is interesting and may help others...:

A while back this hd was unplugged kinda rough mid game and it gave me error 68 on my 360 ever since...It's a samsung like omega's...Well nwayz months later I just did this jtag thing.  I kinda wanted a hard drive i could just mess around with xbrreboot on so I have been working on restoring the old sammy over the last few days...Before I ever saw your tut what I did is a booted up an ubuntu live cd and "empy" the drive...somehow that actually worked...the jtag box viewed it as unformatted...I popped in my serial and it worked...unfortunately for me i was fudging around with xex loader and  corrupted it again (which was incredibly frustrating) Then I found this thread...well here is where I am at...

Doing the hex editor stuff was a breeze no issues etc...had some problems getting mhdd to boot but figured that all out now here is the prob:

My drive is detected in MHDD and when I select it it does init? Show correct model and size but when I type NHPA it fails when I remove my power and reissue NHPA it usually says "drive not ready" If I type Y it will still fail...any ideas?  Is this just a matter of timing? Does this just not work for samsungs?  For me the funny part is I can't duplicate my Ubuntu live cd trick but I also think there is something to that as well...

[jhonnyp0lak]

Try going to the MHDD website and download the latest version of MHDD.
The original post is linked to an older version i believe.
It could be that the samsung's dont want to unprotect. Browse through this thread and you'll see people posting their success with the method and what drive they used

[seanp2501]

ok will do thanks for your time anyone had any luck with samsungs on this?

also what format should the 360 hd be in after you are done with hex editor I get raw is that correct?

[seanp2501]

Ok update went here http://www.samsung.com/us/support/detail/supportPrdDetail.do?menu=SP01&prd_ia_cd=&prd_mdl_cd=&prd_mdl_name=HM020GI made a bootable cd of estool I can change lba and capacity with this software After I did this I redid your tut I was able to finish this time but sadly 360 still wont show hd as unformatted goes to error 68  I am thinking my lba values are wrong I also dont have my original hdss.bin

[seanp2501]

oh god after so many hrs success had finished the tut but still no luck found this here http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=653308&mode=threaded&pid=4291702 placed an old one in and bam it works..this tut does work for samsung ftw and you dont need ur hdss....

[xboxtech]

anyone have an undo bin for the 20gb seagate?

[Mercer1234]

anyone have an undo bin for the 20gb seagate?

Are you talking about the original hddss.bin for a seagate to flash it to use other than a xbox hdd?

[xboxtech]

Yeah this one seems empty,, looks like this is a pc one now,, just seeing if one was out there.

[Mercer1234]

Yeah this one seems empty,, looks like this is a pc one now,, just seeing if one was out there.

If you want to give Tutorial one a shot with the hddss.bin that I have from my seagate, I can email it to you, I think if you haven't tried it, at this point it can't do any harm. PM me if you want the file.

[xboxtech]

sent pm thx

[xboxtech]

So far nothing