Migrating old hard drive data to new jtag 500 gig hard drive

[jimmy2x2x]

Anyone know how to get around this when using hexworkshop in windows 7?

http://i47.tinypic.com/1zydn9f.jpg

Are you running Hex Workshop as Administrator?

Yes, account type is admin
UAC is disabled
and running the program as an administrator too

I think its some kind of explicit permission I need to set, really not sure what tho

[bidomo]

I may be retard, but I like to read here and there.

I was reading in free60, the HDD has only 2 partition after any live update, I don't know if it's necesary to connect to live or just update for the hard drive to change partition scheme...
The live update, adds 2 new partitions, Game partition and backwards compatibility, so, if I Run the last update for the avatars and stuff (XBR), would that add the other lost partitions?

Already edited xplorer360 to show partition 3, and although the other 2 partitions are no relevant to me, my little and destructive nephews care about avatars (don't know if they relay on that) and some xbox 1 games (xbox PSU is fried, replacement on it's way), I would really like to have complete access to the drive, but formatting it will kill my newer games, little brats think game disks are expensive Freezbees

[djricekcn]

When following Magus's method, my Hex Workshop only displays a bunch of 0 and few lines (enough to only fit the currently displayed on the desktop) worth of them before or after I restore them (in other words, what I see displayed is the same regardless of restoring or not).    Is this normal?  If not, what can I possibly be doing wrong?  running 160gb Seagate here.

Too be honest, I'm not sure if I got the guide 100%, even though I think I did.  I had trouble finding some of the fucntions and I think on my Hex Workshop, Fill Bytes was Insert Bytes ?

CygnosV2'ed X360 picks up the HDD fine but I don't think it's formatted into proper way, I think it still acting as a Xbox360 straight formatted drive.  I don't see a 0000000000000000 folder when I open it up with XeX and none of the apps mentioned on the thread picks up the Hard Drive on the pc.



****still can't get this to work, can someone please help me?  i am not sure if i need a dummies guide or what, I just can't get this to work.  sometimes the second.bin fails in the middle?

[Grim187]

im trying to open a 1tb hdd, the hdd is freshly formatted, name.txt is about 2 lines of hex and its @ 0x13f661000, so i edited 09b6 250gb version and it dosent find any fatx drives.

i can get partition 1 to show up in extreme 2 modded for 120gb bevs but editing that dosent work for partition 3.

edit: i created partitions 0/2/3 with hddhackr and that got it working, Thanks!

[neonpolaris]

When following Magus's method, my Hex Workshop only displays a bunch of 0 and few lines (enough to only fit the currently displayed on the desktop) worth of them before or after I restore them (in other words, what I see displayed is the same regardless of restoring or not).    Is this normal?  If not, what can I possibly be doing wrong?  running 160gb Seagate here.

My Hex Workshop displayed everything at first, but later only showed a page worth of zeros as you described.  I ended up taking the linux route.

---

I just transferred everything from my 120 BEVS to my 500 BEVT, thanks to this thread.  I used DougTheSlug's post (like patstew's but easier to tell what I should be changing).  The offset values from patstews post on page three were key, because searching the HD takes a while. The value for 120GB was exactly right for my BEVS.  Thanks guys!

One thing I should note is that /dev/null did not work for me, but /dev/zero did. (Ubuntu 9.04 HD install)

[edrojo]

Hi. I tried to migrate from my 120gb to 160gb. I used DougTheSlug (Linux method). My xbox doesn't recognize profiles, or savegames. When I used Viper 360 I can see data on partition 2 and 3 but My xbox don't. Which could be my mistake.
Thanks

PD: I zeroed the drive and I guess that calculations are wrong

[ultra64]

Alright, I was finally able to upgrade from a HDDHackr 120GB WD BEVS to a 500GB Samsung M7 without losing data.

A few things first:
- iirc Arakon mentioned it before, you DO have to find out where your name.txt starts on the old drive as well, IF you're upgrading from anything other than a 20GB like in MagnusHydra's guide.
- iirc Eiji said he upgraded from 120 to 320GB successfully following MagnusHydra's guide. I don't think that's possible, see above. Sorry if it actually worked without tweaking.
- I don't think it makes any difference but FYI, I'm running XBR_JasperBB_8955_3.

First try:
- saved 120GB HDD firstpart.bin (sectors 0 - 9998663)
- saved 120GB HDD secondpart.bin (sectors 9998664 - end, 234441647 for 120GB WD BEVS, just use what Hex Workshop proposes as end sector)
- inserted brand new 500GB drive into 120GB case and formatted it via Xbox => System
- searched 500GB drive for name.txt, found it at sector 10227592 (might differ for other 500GB drives and will definitely differ for other drive sizes)
- created padding.bin with sectors 9998664 to 10227591 and zeroed it
- restored firstpart.bin from sector 0
- restored padding.bin from sector 9998664
- restored secondpart.bin from sector 10227592
=> Xbox found the drive, showed everything as empty, profile didn't show up, showed 461GB free.

Second try (slightly adapted version of MagnusHydra's guide (which I believe is based on Geremia's guide) for 120GB => 500GB):
- searched 120GB drive for name.txt, found it at sector 10046360 (might differ for other 120GB drives and will definitely differ for 60/250GB drives)
- saved 120GB HDD firstpart.bin (sectors 0 - 10046359) (start sector: 0, end sector: sector where name.txt on 120GB HDD is located -1)
- saved 120GB HDD secondpart.bin (sectors 10046360 - end, 234441647) (start sector: sector where name.txt on 120GB HDD is located, end sector: end of hdd, just use what Hex Workshop proposes as end sector)
- inserted non-zeroed* 500GB drive into 120GB case and formatted it via Xbox => System
- searched 500GB drive for name.txt, found it at sector 10227592 (might differ for other 500GB drives and will definitely differ for other drive sizes)
- created padding.bin with sectors 10046360 to 10227591 and zeroed it (start sector: where name.txt on 120GB HDD is located, end sector: where name.txt on 500GB HDD is located -1)
- restored firstpart.bin from sector 0
- restored padding.bin from sector 10046360 (where name.txt on 120GB HDD is located)
- restored secondpart.bin from sector 10227592 (where name.txt on 500GB HDD is located)
=> Xbox found the drive, showed all GOD and LIVE games, profile was auto-selected, showed 371GB free Played a few hours of AC2, works, saves and loads fine.

* If the drive is new zeroing is not needed, and if you tried it with the wrong sector numbers before (like me) but your old 60/120/250GB hdd wasn't quite full you don't need to zero it either. Otherwise zero the sectors after your new secondpart.bin to where your old secondpart.bin ended, or to the end of the drive. And zero-fill until the end of the drive if you used the drive for anything else before.

I think you only need Hex Workshop, I used it for everything except searching for the 'name.txt' files... used WinHex for that, but Hex Workshop has a 'find' function for HDDs too so I think it'll do fine.

MagnusHydra's guide (aside from the wrong (9998663/9998664) sector numbers, i filled the (probably) right ones in under 'first try') should work for 20GB => x, what I listed under 'second try' hopefully works for other sizes/drives too.

Good luck.

[threesixtyuser]

Removed the tutorial because after contacting PatStew some things ain't clear yet an most likely wrong in either MagnusHydra's and Ultra64's workaround regarding HDSS.bin/drive specific data and Finding correct name.txt sector, hope to post correct version soon! New version can be found here

[ultra64]

Thanks for making/editing the pics and giving me credit but I didn't do anything.

A few things I noticed:
- you say you need Winhex and Hex Workshop, are you sure? I'm too lazy to try it right now but iirc Hex Workshop alone should suffice since it offers a HDD search function too.
- 'A way to connect your HDD to ur computer, e.g. xport.' => uh... xport? When do we use that? I think it should say 'A way... e.g. HDD Transfer Cable'
- maybe the 'you will need an OEM 20/...GB HDD' bit might be confusing since a HDDHackr'd drive works fine which is definitely NOT Original Equipment. And there are 250GB drives as well
- 'Insert a new- or zeroed drive into your Xbox harddrive case and format and name it via Xbox -> System' => Are you sure you have to name it? I'm not sure but I think I didn't and it still had a name.txt (name 'Hard Drive'). Also zeroing is OPTIONAL in most cases, see my post.
- 'After that ur HDD should let u play xbox 1 games And if u have files on the HDD Le Fluffie and FATXplorer will work too.' => The Xbox1 part should be right (didn't test it yet), but FATXplorer didn't work for me (didn't find the drive) and Xport found the drive but showed all partitions as empty.

I don't mind that at all though since there's FTP via XeXMenu which works @ 8.5MB/s up and 11.5MB/s down for me, maybe you should mention that as another alternative which even saves you the trouble of turning off the Xbox and removing the HDD. Plus you can transfer an unlimited amount of XBLA titles etc. without corrupting your HDD like when trying to do so with Xport.

Oh, and did anyone actually even try 'my' method yet? It would be nice to know if it works for other people.

[threesixtyuser]

Thanks for making/editing the pics and giving me credit but I didn't do anything.

A few things I noticed:
- you say you need Winhex and Hex Workshop, are you sure? I'm too lazy to try it right now but iirc Hex Workshop alone should suffice since it offers a HDD search function too.
I followed MagnusHydra's advise on this one, not sure yet if Hex Workshop should do the job as well, not @home so can't test this either atm

Edit: As far as I could find on our big web Hex Workshop doesn't give you sector numbers directly which Winhex does. It is possible to calculate the sector number by converting and deviding the offset 2 bytes before the "n" of "name.txt" in either one of the following ways:

-Convert the HEX value of the offset to DEC and devide the result by 512 (200 HEX), the result is your sector number
-Devide the HEX value of the offset by 200 HEX (512 DEC) and convert the result to DEC the result is your sector number

In MagnusHydra's picture of Winhex you can see the offsett he uses is 2 bytes before "n" in "name.txt" and is 01381F0E00 Hex which results in:

-01381F0E00 HEX : 200 HEX = 9C0F87 HEX = 10227591 DEC (same as the sectornumber in the bottom left of the pic)

-01381F0E00 HEX = 5236526592 Dec, devide this by 512 and you get 10227591 DEC (same as the sectornumber in the bottom left of the pic)

If you get an integer (n00bs read: no decimals behind the decimal point/comma <- called fractionals) you should be ok, else you miscalculated or used the wrong offset.

As you can see using winhex saves you from going through this calculation

- 'A way to connect your HDD to ur computer, e.g. xport.' => uh... xport? When do we use that? I think it should say 'A way... e.g. HDD Transfer Cable'
Datel Xport is meant here, sort of the same as the transfer cable, added it and I reckon ripping the drive out of it's shell and connecting it via Sata will work too so added that as well
- maybe the 'you will need an OEM 20/...GB HDD' bit might be confusing since a HDDHackr'd drive works fine which is definitely NOT Original Equipment. And there are 250GB drives as well
Removed OEM and added 250GB
- 'Insert a new- or zeroed drive into your Xbox harddrive case and format and name it via Xbox -> System' => Are you sure you have to name it? I'm not sure but I think I didn't and it still had a name.txt (name 'Hard Drive'). Also zeroing is OPTIONAL in most cases, see my post.
Added your comment about zeroing
- 'After that ur HDD should let u play xbox 1 games And if u have files on the HDD Le Fluffie and FATXplorer will work too.' => The Xbox1 part should be right (didn't test it yet), but FATXplorer didn't work for me (didn't find the drive) and Xport found the drive but showed all partitions as empty.
I read different comments regarding this, some seem to be able to connect through the various available programs, some only seem to be able to connect via Modio. Added Modio to it and "should" instead of "will"

I don't mind that at all though since there's FTP via XeXMenu which works @ 8.5MB/s up and 11.5MB/s down for me, maybe you should mention that as another alternative which even saves you the trouble of turning off the Xbox and removing the HDD. Plus you can transfer an unlimited amount of XBLA titles etc. without corrupting your HDD like when trying to do so with Xport.
Will add the FTP option as well

Oh, and did anyone actually even try 'my' method yet? It would be nice to know if it works for other people.
Basically my post is your method but written a little different with pictures added to it, that's why you got credits but as it seems you think you didn't deserve them I changed them to thx I also compared your method to MagnusHydra's and earlier posts and it seems valid, certainly as it worked for you, now let's hope some more can confirm it!

Edit: added a supporting image at the end to try and make clear what it al does.

Edit2: @MagnusHydra: Are you sure your sector numbers on the first page are correct?

You use:

• found old drive "n of name.txt - 2 bytes" at: 9998664
• save old drive firstpart: 0 to 9998663
• save old drive secondpart: 9998664 to ending sector of drive

So far so good, but when creating padding and writing them to the new drive I think something goes wrong

• found new drive "n of name.txt - 2 bytes" at: 10227591
• save new drive padding: 9998663 to 10227590
^^^ Shouldn't this be 9998664-10227590? (same as old "n of name.txt - 2 bytes" sector to 1 sector before new "n of name.txt - 2 bytes" sector) because in your case the first sector of padding would be the last sector of firstpart and thus you would end up zeroing the last sector of firstpart
• restore new drive firstpart starting sector: 0
• restore new drive padding starting sector: 9998663
^^^ Shouldn't this be 9998664? (same as old "n of name.txt - 2 bytes" sector which is the first sector after firstpart) because in your case the first sector of padding would overwrite the last sector of firstpart
• restore new drive secondpart starting sector: 10227591

So in short: in your case the last sector of firstpart and the first sector of padding would overlap and since we restore padding after firstpart and padding is zeroed it zeroes the last sector of first part (still following me? )

Most likely won't cause any problems because the last sector of firstpart is zero anyway (as far as I can see) but if it wouldn't be your method would zero it.

[ReverseAffect]

ma-ma-me-ah....which one is it...both combined?
reason why i am asking is,my stock hard drive (20gb) is a filling up...lol

[texy]

Gentlemen, being as though the guide above was removed, I find myself at a loss as to what to do. Follow the guide on the front page, or wait for the possibility of a new one being posted.

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

P.S. I don't care about migrating data - I just want to use a blank HDD but with the correct partition structure like the official drives.

[ultra64]

Magnus' guide works for 20GB drives (if you use the corrected sector numbers at least, see threesixtyuser's or my post) and 'mine' should work for bigger ones. I don't know exactly what's going on with the HDDSS.bin, iirc that was just sectors 16-22? Aren't those copied with the rest? Do they even matter in XBR? And if there were problems with the name.txt/the start of partition 3 (right?) wouldn't the HDD not work? That's why I didn't want to be credited, I don't know enough about this stuff. But at least my own drive still works \o/
Hopefully threesixtyuser's guide will be back up soon too.

[threesixtyuser]

Be patient I've been in contact with PatStew about certain things and am goint to write a new tutorial today, with a bit more explaination as well!

[threesixtyuser]

After removing my first tutorial  because it seemed to have some incomplete information in it I did a bit more reading and contacted Patstew about some questions I had, this results in the following "universal" workaround for migrating data from your old- to a new Hard Drive.

Credits go to: Geremia, patstew, DougTheSlug, Eaton and Magnus Hydra!!
And, because he didn't think he deserved credits , thx to Ultra64 for posting his findings as well!

Warning: This tutorial works for homebrew consoles only!


Version history:

• February 5th 2010: Placed first version
• February 5th 2010: Added alternative method for finding starting sector of 3d partition's root dir cluster
• February 5th 2010: Alternated zeroing method for the new drive so no additional software is needed
• February 8th 2010: Modified the explanation of what we are going to do
• February 8th 2010: Reverted the zeroing method because Hex Workshop method was wrongly interpreted

First of all I'm going to do a little explaining on what we are about to do:



This image globally explains the structure of your Xbox 360 Hard Drive and the main partition:

• The first 1024 sectors (0-1023) contain drive specific info so are best to be left alone.
• Followed by the first 2 partitions (Cache & Game Cache) of the drive and the "backwards compatibillity drive" which have the same size and thus start at the same sector on all drives (including your new drive).
• Next is the 3d partition which is the main partition and consists of "Header, FAT (File Adress Table), Root dir. cluster and Data".
  Because we are going to enlarge this partition the size of the partition's FAT has to be enlarged as well (to the correct size for your drive/new partition 3 size)

So what do we need to do to get it working:

• Find the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. cluster on the old drive
• copy firstpart (the first 2 partitions, "backwards compatibillity drive" and partition 3 Header & FAT,) to the new drive in the same place as on the old drive
• find the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. cluster on the new drive
• copy secondpart (the Root dir. cluster and Data of the 3d partition) of the old drive to the correct location on the new drive
• Optional: if you didn't zero the drive we have zero the space between firstpart and secondpart of the new drive (refered to as "padding"), which enlarges the 3d partition FAT and originates from moving secondpart to the right location on the new drive.

In short:

• Find the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. Cluster on old drive
• Get Firstpart of old drive
• Get Secondpart of old drive
• Find the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. Cluster on new drive
• Optional: create zeroed padding.bin
• Restore Firstpart to new drive
• Optional: restore zeroed padding.bin
• Restore Secondpart to the right location on new drive

Now let's start with the tutorial!


What do we need:

• Winhex (only used for finding the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. Cluster, this can also be done with Hex Workshop but that requires some extra calculation)
• Hex workshop
• OEM or HDDHackr'd 20/60/120/250GB Hard Drive (referd to as "old drive")
• New drive
• In case of a not brand new unused drive, software for zeroing the drive provided by the drive's manufacturer or a more universal package (e.g. Ultimate boot CD).
• A way to connect your HDD to ur computer, e.g. HDD transfer cable/Datel Xport or just rip the drive out of it's case and use Sata cable.
• Enough free space on your computers harddrive for the entire contents of the old drive (e.g. 20GB in case of 20GB, 60GB in case of 60GB old drive and so on)

Zeroing the new drive

If your new drive isn't brand new and unused it is advisable to "Zero" it.

• Connect new drive to your PC
  
• Use software provided by the drive's manufacturer or a more universal package (e.g. Ultimate boot CD) to zero fill the drive. Make sure you zero the right drive! (not one of your system disks)
  

Next to a brand new drive there are other situations where you won't have to zero the complete drive, but I would advise you to always zero it completely so you are sure to have a clean and good start.

Optional but unadvisable: If you tried it with the wrong sector numbers before but your old 20/60/120/250GB hdd wasn't quite full you don't need to zero it either. Otherwise zero the sectors after your new secondpart.bin to where your old secondpart.bin ended, or to the end of the drive. And zero-fill until the end of the drive if you used the drive for anything else before.)


Finding the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. Cluster on the old drive

Method 1:

• Connect old drive to your PC
  
• Use Winhex to open the drive.  Make sure you opened the right drive (not one of your systems disks!) and search the drive for "name.txt".
  Sectors in Winhex are devided by horizontal grey lines, select a byte within the sector where "name.txt" was found as shown below.
  
  
  
  Note the sectornumber (bottomleft of the window) it is in, this will be refered to as "nametxtsector_org" in the rest of this tutorial.
  

Method 2:

• Connect old drive to your PC
  
• Use Hex Workshop to open the drive (Drive->Open Drive).  Make sure you opened the right drive (not one of your systems disks!) and search (Edit->Find) the drive for "name.txt".
  
  
  
  Hex Workshop will open the sector wich contains "name.txt"
  
  
  
  Note the current HEX sectornumber (in the titlebar of the window)
  
  Because this is HEX and we need Decimal we have to convert this number with Hex Workshop's built in "Base Converter (Tools->Base converter)" or some other HEX to DEC converter, in case of the Base converter use "Raw HEX" for byte order and "Long" for datatype.
  
  Fill in the current sector number under "Hex" and it will give you a decimal number under "Decimal".
   
  this decimal number will be refered to as "nametxtsector_org" in the rest of this tutorial.
  

Saving the firstpart and secondpart of the old drive

Because the first 1024 sectors (0-1023) contain drive specific data we are going to leave these alone.
Logically "firspart" ends 1 sector before "secondpart" starts so to calculate the ending sector of "firstpart" we need to substract 1 from the start of secondpart (nametxtsector_org)

• Use Hex Workshop to open the drive and save firstpart.bin (sectors 1024 -> (nametxtsector_org -1))
  
  
• Use Hex Workshop to save secondpart.bin (nametxtsector_org -> endingsector)
  Endingsector is proposed by Hex Workshop, no need to change it.
  
  

Preparing the new drive

Insert a new- or zeroed* drive into your Xbox harddrive case and format name it via Xbox -> System

If you don't give your hard drive a name when you format it, it's possible for name.txt to not be right at the beginning of the starting sector of the partition, but it will always be in the starting sector of the partition somewhere.


Finding the correct start of the 3d partition's Root dir. Cluster on the new drive (and optionally create padding)

Method 1:

• Connect new drive to your PC
  
• Use Winhex to open the drive.  Make sure you opened the right drive (not one of your systems disks!) and search the drive for "name.txt".
  Sectors in Winhex are devided by horizontal grey lines, select a byte within the sector where "name.txt" was found as shown below.
  
  
  
  Note the sectornumber (bottomleft of the window) it is in, this will be refered to as "nametxtsector_new" in the rest of this tutorial.
  

Method 2:

• Connect new drive to your PC
  
• Use Hex Workshop to open the drive (Drive->Open Drive).  Make sure you opened the right drive (not one of your systems disks!) and search (Edit->Find) the drive for "name.txt".
  
  
  
  Hex Workshop will open the sector wich contains "name.txt"
  
  
  
  Note the current HEX sectornumber (in the titlebar of the window)
  
  Because this is HEX and we need Decimal we have to convert this number with Hex Workshop's built in "Base Converter (Tools->Base converter)" or some other HEX to DEC converter, in case of the Base converter use "Raw HEX" for byte order and "Long" for datatype.
  
  Fill in the current sector number under "Hex" and it will give you a decimal number under "Decimal".
   
  this decimal number will be refered to as "nametxtsector_new" in the rest of this tutorial.
  

Optional: Create padding (this step is only needed if you aren't using a brand new- and/or non zeroed new drive!)

If you aren't using a brand new- and/or non zeroed new drive there might be leftover data on the space between firstpart and secondpart of the new drive (refered to as "padding") which originates from moving secondpart to the right location on the new drive.
To remove this data we need to fill padding with zeroes.
Logically padding starts at the sector after firstpart which is the same as the start of secondpart on the old drive (nametextsector_org) and it ends 1 sector before "secondpart" of the new drive starts so to calculate the ending sector of "padding" we need to substract 1 from the start of secondpart of the new drive (nametxtsector_new)

• Use Hex Workshop to open the drive and save padding.bin (nametxtsector_org -> (nametxtsector_new -1))
  
  
• Use Hex Workshop to open padding.bin, select all, fill with 00s and save it.
  
  

Restoring firstpart (, optionally: restore zeroed padding) and secondpart to the new drive

As stated the first 1024 sectors (0-1023) contain drive specific data and thus we didn't copy them from the old drive, so when restoring firstpart to the new drive we need to skip the first 1024 sectors (0-1023).
Optionally zeroed padding has to be restored after firstpart to make sure there is no leftover data in the space between firstpart and secondpart
Secondpart has to start at the right location for the new drive which we just found  in the previous step (nametxtsector_new)

• Use Hex Workshop to open the drive.  Make sure you opened the right drive (not one of your systems disks!) and restore firstpart.bin, start sector = 1024
  
  
• Optional: Use Hex Workshop to restore padding.bin, start sector = nametxtsector_org
  
  
• Use Hex Workshop to restore secondpart.bin, start sector = nametxtsector_new
  
  

Now we are all done!

Put the new drive in your Xbox 360 Hard Drive case and put it onto the console.

After that ur HDD should let u play xbox 1 games And if u have files on the HDD Modio, Le Fluffie and FATXplorer should work too (allthough it doesn't seem to work for everyone, Modio seems to be the best bet).

Another option for these programs is using XEXmenu's FTP function to put your files on the drive, if you get acceptable speeds that is (speeds seem to differ a lot for different users).

If any info is incorrect please let me know and I'll correct!

If it is correct I reckon someone with some programming knowledge could easilly write a tool for this

[threesixtyuser]

Double post I know, but I didn't want to mess up the tutorial post:

I found this info on the Hex Workshop site:

Disk Editing information is supplied to the user including sector number currently being edited and total number of sectors on the disk in the title bar, and sector size, cursor position (within the sector), and hex data interpretation in the status bar.

Can anybody confirm this? I can't atm because I don't have Hex Workshop available where I'm at.

If so, winhex won't be needed to find the "name.txt" sector but it can simply be done with Hex Workshop.

Edit: installed Hex workshop trial to see if this is true. It is, but sectornumber is displayed in HEX so it takes some calculation to convert to DEC.

Will add this as an alternative to Winhex, but use Winhex as preferred method.

Don't have correct screenshots from Hex Workshop search results, but with a Winhex screenshot combined with a Hex workshop screenshot from another drive I managed to create an explanatory image

[ultra64]

Great, that should do it.
Could you perhaps elaborate on those first 1024 sectors? Google didn't return anything useful and on my 500GB drive (which contains the sectors of the 120GB WDD) there's only data in sectors 4,5 and 16-22 (of the first 1024). Might HDDHackr have deleted that data or is it really just those two sectors (and the useless HDDSS)? I don't have another new drive lying around to check myself, thx.

EDIT: thx patstew, makes sense - so at least it shouldn't do any harm that I copied those first sectors too. (no need for a new post)

[patstew]

Nice tutorial threesixtyuser.

I've got two more minor points:
1. There's no need to use special tools to zero the drive, you can just use the same method as you use to zero padding.bin, ie open the drive and use hex workshop to fill with zeros. I think it's worth zeroing the whole drive, even if it is slow to do. If you don't, at least zero the first 1024 sectors in addition to the padding.bin. Or you can boot linux and "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx".
2. To be strictly correct in your explaining, firstpart actually contains part of partition 3. The partitions are laid out as header, the file allocation table (FAT) and then the actual file data. The first two are in firstpart, and the data is all that's in secondpart. The FAT has an entry for each cluster on the disk, which essentially says either 'the file in this cluster is continued in cluster x', 'this cluster is the end of the file' or 'this cluster is empty'. Basically, I'm sure you know how filesystems get 'fragmented', and sometimes you may defragment them, the FAT points to all the fragments, and shows what order they go in. This table needs to be bigger for a bigger drive, which is why you leave the gap between firstpart and secondpart. Because the file allocation table stores all the positions relative to where the root cluster (the one which contains name.txt) should be, it can still find all the bits of the files referred to in the FAT you copied in firstpart and so all your old data is intact.
That's why it's very important that the area between firstpart and secondpart is zeroed one way or another, and it also means that this method won't work for moving to a smaller drive (Which should be pretty obvious anyway).

ultra64: Most of the first 1024 sectors should be empty, 16-22 is the hdss. Both 4-5 and 16-22 contain stuff like serial numbers and sizes, so there isn't much point copying them to a drive where they don't match.

[threesixtyuser]

Thx patstew!

1. I changed the method of zeroing

2. I know there is more to it than what I wrote, tried to keep it a bit global, but you are right that stuff is missing in my way of explaining. Will try to refraise so it's more correct, but don't have time for that this weekend, so will be at the start of next week i guess.

[texy]

Fantastic, clear and concise tutorial, makes this a breeze now. Thank you!

A quick question if I may: Have any of you seen the homebrew app called HDD compatibility fixer (HDD compat fixer)? If im not mistaken, it is meant to achieve the same result as this, but using it on the xbox itself. Is this the case?

Thanks again