Internal HDD Mod

[Plasmastorm]

Hi, Have just finished modding a nice new 120gb Western Digital BEVS drive using the hddhackr 0.91 from The Specialist.
Have tested it by swapping out another drive from a standard external housing, formatted ok and did live updates / downloads etc.

My question is this, where in gods name can i find a useful detailed guide for internal soldering of the drive ?
I have found a few here and there all of which either seem to be incomplete or have the crucial pics of the pin outs on the hard disk, motherboard or both missing.
Essentially all i need is details and some pics of the internal header of the xbox-hdd interface with the pin outs for data/power and the same for the hard disk so i know what connector on the drive I'm soldering to the board, nothing too fancy.

I have done plenty of modding before and have no probs soldering in fine detail etc, could possibly make a guide myself but i figure surely some one out there has done this before me and has a current guide up.
If for some bizarre reason there isn't one if somebody can supply me with pics I'll happily make a quick guide, seems like a simple mod to me with the right info.

Cheers.

[Protonus]

Why would you want to do this?
The inside of the console is ungoldy hot as is, hard drives die in heat and also produce a good amount of heat themselves. Plus then you lose the abilty to remove the drive to use it on another console too.

[Plasmastorm]

Have re-mounted the M/b in a lianli case with watercooling, heat aint a prob

[Protonus]

Gotcha.
Well this guide is the most comprehensive I know:
http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/tutorial/Xbox_360-HandC-V1_4.pdf

However it may not have what you need.  So to figure this out, i'd simply use a multimeter set to continuity testing to figure out which pin is which at the hard drive, corresponding to which pin is which on the motherboard. Should be fairly straightforward.

[Plasmastorm]

Just what i was after thanks.

Should have it rigged up in next few days then ill get some stock pics of a sata drive header and the M/b header and lable things up for peeps to know in future, nothing spectacularly hard but save time for the next person to come along that wants to do it at least.

 Pin 'A' on drive to pin 'A' on the M/b etc. nice and simple 

[gigabite]

It's quiet easy actually and theres a guide here:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/internalize-360-hard-drive.htm

gigabite

[Plasmastorm]

Yup, thats the 1st guide i found but the majority of the pics are missing when u try to enlarge them. it's thumbs only....

Looks like it would have done the trick if it was all working 

[Plasmastorm]

Sucess, did some more digging and found what i was after on dare i say it xbox-scene forums 

Here we go..  modified a good chunk of this but Credit to BoNg420, original guide maker

Supplies
-xbox 360 & original hdd (or any 'BEVS' drive modded using hddhackr from 'The Specialist') - plenty guids on this so wont go into detail can find one at http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=16115
-wire cutters
-sata cable
-sata to molex power cable(I also used a molex cable extender, not needed for you)
-wire, soldering iron, electrical tape, and solder
-hot glue gun and glue

First
Strip the side of the sata cable that dosent go into the hard drive (make a mark on the cable of the side with the L shape in the connector or the drop off)



Second
On the sata to molex cable cut the molex connector off along with one black and the yellow cable, strip one black and the red cables



solder the red wire to a 5v source and the black wire to a ground.
Find them http://www.xboxchopshop.com/catalog/man_360_volts.php OR http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=505106

Reccomend using the underside of one of the USB ports then covering that port so you dont accidentally plug something into it. Also you then don't have to worry about power fluctuations on any other components since these 2.5" drives are designed to be able to run off a single usb port anyway.
If you really need both ports you can always splice a usb hub onto the remaining free port.

Third
solder the wires to the pins behind the original hdd connector (look at the pic)
Pin 7 is on the side that the L or the drop off was located(on the cable)

Cover all soldering points with hot glue for insulation.

Could also put in a switch if you fancy to allow switching between this and original external HDD, no loss of functionality.
Easy place to put this would be on the 5V connector to simply turn the drive on and off.
Hope this helps anyone in future trying the same thing, took me damn near 2 weeks to track down what was relatively simple info 

Ill try this out myself and post results of it working or blowing myself up in a few days. thanks for the input guys.

[Plasmastorm]

Soldering complete, Drive is now working just as a normal official drive would 

Have also signed up for Xbox live from a fresh start (no previous account) and even received the 1 Month free gold membership, awww.... if only M$ knew lol

Thought they would have checked some ID code to realize this is an original Launch system and not an elite with a 120 drive but there we go.
Ill post if i get banned or encounter any problems but so far it's works as if it was a new system connecting to live for the 1st time.

[Arakon]

why would they ban you for using a 120 gig HDD with a non-elite system? they sell the 120 gig HD seperately afterall.

[Plasmastorm]

True , forgot to mention tho that the Secure sector i used to setup the Bevs drive was a random one from Bit-Torrent tho.
I would assume that based on that there will be more people on Live using that same setup than just me.
Wether or not they will check HDD firmware's down the line is anyones guess.

[sentinel0]

Would this drive work with hddhackr?
http://www.adc-ast.com/index.cgi?item_num=WD1200BEVS

[Arakon]

yes.

[n*m13]

Where di you put the HDD

[n*m13]

Where did you put the HDD

[neonpolaris]

I had experienced a couple lockups while playing.  Nothing very frequent, but irritating.  Left me worrying if my brand new console was going fail me and need an x-clamp replacement, heatgunning, etc.  No warranty for me, as I had opened the thing within a week of getting it.

So one day I took it over to a friend's house to play, and after playing for quite a while, one game was taking longer than usual to load between areas.  Then it froze, but the console came back to life after I ejected the disc.  Hmm... I always play games installed to the HD, so I uninstalled the game and played it from the disc.  It was fine.

After playing fallout for another long time (from HD) it decided to freeze on me, which was alright since I needed to leave anyway.  The next time I connected it back at my house, it didn't load my profile on startup.  The console wasn't recognizing my HD at all.  I shut the thing off, looked at the drive, it was seated in there just fine.  So I pushed on it a little, and then turned on the console.  It came up and worked.

This made me happy, as it meant my console wasn't dying after all, but it did mean that I needed to do something about this HD.  I could get another enclosure, try my luck, or I could do the internal mod.

BTW, I haven't had any problems since doing it.

---

So here's my take:


This is the placement of the drive.  I used servo tape on the underside, and it mounts very securely.


The SATA cable I used actually locks onto the drive, less chance of it slipping out I guess.


I heat shrinked the clipped leads just for safety.


All the ground connections on the hard drive from both the SATA and power cables were all directly connected.  I decided to clip off the ones in the SATA cable.  This allowed me to pass the data wires through pre-existing holes, with having to route a bare ground wire or cover it.


The wires line up perfectly, as per Plasmastorm's post above.


I routed the power and ground wires the same way as the data, through a couple larger holes.  I used the same color for both, only because that's what I had on hand that size.  I paid attention to not mix them up.  I decided to use the 5v supply that was going to the drive originally, instead of some other board location.  This is just because I know for sure that it's not going to cause any problems from drawing power there.

I originally intended to use the center pin (not the same row as the SATA connections!) for the power, but the wire wanted to lean towards the other.  That's fine, they're both tied directly together.  There was one more 5v, I think on the other side of the one I used, but I'm not certain.  You can always check what has 0 ohms with that center pin.

Several of those pins were ground, again, check with multimeter.  I decided to use the big one for obvous reasons.


I cut a hole in the heat shield (and trimmed down plastic).  Another thread had mentioned about it pressing down on the drive causing problems.  It did press on the drive, so I made room.

Also, I should note that I reinforced a few areas (like where the SATA wires passed through the board) with hot glue.

[gigabite]

I just take that stupid sheild off  (no debates) - if your still have trouble try doubling up your wires, and if you want to go to the next step, insulate each one with aluminium foil

gigabite

[neonpolaris]

Considering that the wires run unshielded for about an inch or so, I'm not worried about them.  I'm certainly not going to be wrapping wires in foil, and re-wrapping it in some insulating material.

It wasn't the shield itself that was pressing on the drive so much as the plastic behind it.  I just didn't see the need to remove the whole heat shield when my dremel works just fine.  The less things I change, the less chance I'll break something unknowingly.  Hence, drawing 5v from the same source, instead of some random place.

Perhaps it I was doing all this constantly, then sure, easy way out.

[streethawk]

nice, much cleaner than mine.

[.ISO]

The hard drive won't fit with my Xbox 360 window mod