xbox softmodding

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:42 pm

hi guys, got a few Q's for the ones amongst us who have experience with this stuff

i already downloaded a mech assault exploit save file, and il find a way to get it onto my xbox, and i think it comes with EvoX as an optional dashboard, now here are my Q's

- do i need anything more then this? just to be sure
- can i backup games to the HDD with a EvoX softmod?

that is all

cheers for any answers

Post by **melancholy** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:03 pm

Wrong forum for this. This isn't nullish at all. This is more...Non-Dreamcast Emulation Discussionish.

Here we goooo!

Hashmire420 · Post by **Hashmire420** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 5:07 pm

ok ive done this a million times.

that is all you need. Well that and a ftp client.
Yes you can backup all your games. But i would really rather use pm, because im not sure this is ok by forum rules.

Skynet · Post by **Skynet** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 1:46 am

8gb

There's also 10GB too

and some games like blinx, for example, use a sort of paging file

Wouldn't that use the X Y Z cache partitions?

Freeze, it's quite simple to do. But I wouldn't stick with EvoX. I used it for about a month before switching to Avalaunch, and since then have been extremely happy with UnleashX. UnleashX or even XBox Media Centre are 2 software pieces of choice for me. XBMC can be used as the dash, which many people do. But I choose to stick with UX.

For backing up, although I'm not gonna tell you how (mods may delete if need be), UnleashX does it and patches the XBE files so the game will run iirc.

As to getting the save file onto your hdd, how did you do it/gonna do it? Hot swap or USB device with a usb plug?

A softmodding package I've used is Krayzie's Ndure Softmod and also UXE installer, both are pretty straight forward and easy to follow.

Just make sure you run the backup option first, as required.

You should be fine. I did it for a mate at work and although he was nervous about it before I did it, he's been extremely happy with it ever since.

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 4:09 am

well, i got a usb plug, so all i need to do is find a usb stick compatible with the xbox, i have a 256 meg stick that should suffice for most of my savegames and such

i also got the Krayzie uxe installer

as for the backing up, i know this sounds obvious (who would openly say otherwise?) but i only care about backing up my own games so i dont need to use discs, for one the HDD is a good deal faster for loading stuff, and my thomson drive has been giving me shit with some games, so backing up would solve those two problems at once, and sure i might slap in my 120GB drive ( i got a seagate 10 GB stock drive right now) later, but seeing how i dont know many people with an xbox and cool games i dont have yet, i doubt ill be pirating my ass off or anything

i know the modding thing is illegal, but im mostly interested in improving the performance of my xbox, both in loading times and avoiding DRE's

Nico0020 · Post by **Nico0020** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 10:35 am

ive been wanting to install a bigger HD for my xbox as I love Halo 2 CE. But if i put that on my box its really all i can fit. Though Its a bit harder to install a bigger HD with a softmod of what i have heard. has anyone done this before?

Hashmire420 · Post by **Hashmire420** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 12:48 pm

i have a 200 gig working with my tsop flash. Freeze what version is your xbox?

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:46 pm

i think its a 1.4 not 100% sure though, it might be a 1.5

as for the usb stick, i tried every usb device in the entire house short of my 160 gb usb hdd, which im obviously not gonna allow my xbox to format... crap

popley · Post by **popley** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 7:53 pm

if you do upgrade your xbox, and want to play live you will need to get a new epprom key, unless it hasnt been online yet, then want to get online untill you upgrade your harddrive.

Skynet · Post by **Skynet** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 1:50 am

He's already been on live

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:44 am

yeah, and i dont care much about going back really

i mostly played online with a buddy of mine who i havent spoken too for months now, and i dont care much for playing games with strangers on live, the whole headset deal is only nice when you have people you know imho

besides, the only game i have that is still played a lot on live would be halo 2, and im not to eager to pay 60 bucks just to play that overrated stuff again

but this sucks guys, i suddenly wish i hadnt given my ex girl my old usb stick, its the only one i know off to work with my xbox :S

XDelusion · Post by **XDelusion** » Sun Dec 25, 2005 3:49 pm

on pricewatch you can find 300Gb maxtor's for about $100 or at least the last I looked.

Softmodding is pretty easy, upgrading the hard drive with a softmod is a slight pain the the butt because you got to track down some not so easy to find software in order to make a boot disk for your PC to assign a password to your drive and all, but once it's all said and done, it's not half bad.

I'd suggest the BlackWar installer, though I'm sure better softmod discs have came out since...

Just remember NOT to unlock your hard drive before you got the password and you should be fine.

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 3:51 am

well, ill follow a guide for that part, first part is softmodding the thing and checking how that works out

and as for the 120 gb drive, im planning to use the 120 gb drive from my main rig, and then slap a brand spanking new sata drive into my rig

Wagh · Post by **Wagh** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:26 am

I suggest tsop flashing it if you don't plan on going to xbox live.

Lunchbox · Post by **Lunchbox** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:01 pm

I tried the new Ndure soft mod that was released a few weeks ago and not only was it quick and easy, but it still lets me access Xbox Live. I've been playing on Live with my soft modded Xbox for 3 weeks now and I've had no problems so far

Skynet · Post by **Skynet** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:55 am

I tried the new Ndure soft mod that was released a few weeks ago and not only was it quick and easy, but it still lets me access Xbox Live. I've been playing on Live with my soft modded Xbox for 3 weeks now and I've had no problems so far

Interesting. What's the release date on that one? I've got an ndure from a few months back (thats when I downloaded it anyway, not sure on date of it) and I liked the way that was setup. Reasonably quick, easy to do.

ninja · Post by **ninja** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:14 pm

I used the hot-swap method to transfer the stuff over. As for installing a new drive in an un-modded xbox, you would need to use a hex editor to hex edit the drive.

First: Backup your XBOX drive, as well get a backup of the EEPROM and also get your HD Key.

basically:

zero the first 4096 sectors

Go to the disk menu and select open drive. Select the drive you believe is the replacement drive. You will know it is the correct one by a screen full of 0000?s or mostly 0000?s. Now hex worksop lays everything out in sectors? there are 200 offsets in a sector so you need to hit the -> button on the toolbar 3 times to get to the correct offset. At the beginning of this page you must type in the ASCII values BRFR. So to do this you simply go to the right of the line and at the beginning of the page type the letters. On the left side you should see the Hex values 4252 4652 in red. That?s it, save the changes and exit the program.

Now, you just have to transfer over the back-up of your xbox hd to the new hd. Afterwards, go ahead and lock the drive and it should boot.

Or you can follow this link for a tutorial: http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/no-m ... d-swap.php

a mod may delete that link if its against the rules, but it only speaks of changing the HDD.

Post by **pixel** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:10 pm

Whoa.. hex editing? All I did was have EvoX make a backup of all my crucial information, like the EEPROM and HD key, then a friend of mine used a boot cd with those files on it to format a new drive. You can even keep all your saves and other information including soundtracks etc. With that and Krazie's method of softmod, it's really easy.

Edit: Sorry I don't have a link to the boot CD software, but I'm sure someone around here does.