Hey guys,

I just bought an Xbox, I was reading I can softmod my box to let me run things like Linux or new Dashboards etc.

I have a couple of questions.

I've been to an Xbox site full of information but they don't have some info I'm looking for.

I'm looking to use some sort of exploit with MechAssault. Problem is a lot of the tutorials I've been reading have people using Xbox memory cards is there a way to get around this since I don't have one?

Is there any website or some sort of text file that walks me through everything? some of the tutorials I've been reading jump all over the place and I get lost just reading it.

Also is there some sort of Video tutorial/walkthrough for exploits/softmods??

Thanks,

EGM92

You have to have some way of getting the game save form your pc to your xbox. If you have a friend with a modded xbox, you could maybe borrow their memory card with a mechassault game save. There are currently three games that there are exploits for, mechassault being one, 007 agent under fire, and splinter cell being the other two. All of which require the game save to be on the xbox hard drive to work. There is another method using a tool called xboxhdm, but it requires taking the hard drive out of the xbox and putting it into a computer to do the modding. If the memory card option is out of the question, look on xbox-scene forums for a tutorial on xboxhdm hot swap method.

yea I was on there but is hotswapping safe? They make it so complicated with locking and unlocking and hex codes and all this stuff. I can't afford a Memory card right now so I will probably try it. Is there a good "visual" tutorial with pictures on how to do it?

Thanks,

EGM92

As long as you don't unplug the power cable to the hard drive, it is save. Here is one tutorial that I like.
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=244043

in case you don't already know, the official Xbox mem card can't directly connect to your PC; get an Action Replay mem card unless you know someone who could already has it on their mem card

I don't know anyone with a Action replay key, nor do they sell them in any of the gameshops in my area. I don't have money for a Meory card so I'm just trying to find a way to get my Xbox to load backups without the need for a memory card to load files.

I followed some of the tutorials but they get complicated because I've only been using an Xbox for a little bit and I have almost no knowledge of linux. That XBOXHDM tutorial is a bit confusing here:

3. Copy files for xbox C:\ drive from slayers disk and put the files in xboxhdm's linux>C folder.

4. copy your xbox's eeprom.bin to linux>eeprom folder

5. Double click on make-iso-win.bat, it will bringup command prompt and dump the bootable iso same folder.

Where do I get a eeprom.bin? and step 3. I can't access the Slayers disk and explore the files, nor do I know which files to copy if I could view the disk.

If someone can help me I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

EGM92

This all falls back to having some sort of memory device for your xbox. You can connect an xbox memory card to your pc by means of a modified controller using xbcd for the drivers and the action replay software available for download from codejunkies.com. I use MadCatz memory cards to be precise. I picked up a couple from my local WalMart for 5 bucks each and they work great with the action replay software. Tutorials for modding the controller to work on the pc can be found at www.llamma.com. You can also use a USB memory stick but again this requires a modified controller connector to work and not all memory sticks work either, I know that the Lexar Secure 128 MB jump drives work because I have used one in the same situation. Basically what it boils down to is that you have to modify your xbox an replace the original Microsoft Dashboard with a replacement dashboard and install something like dvd2xbox to be able to backup games on an xbox. In order to modify it, you either have to use a software exploit which requires copying an exploit game save to the xbox's hard drive by means of some type of memory device, install a mod chip, or do a tsop flash. To my knowledge there is no other way to be able to make backups. the eeprom.bin file is made when you run an exploit game save that allows evolutionx to run and from the evox menu, choosing system utils and then backup. You would then ftp into the xbox and transfer the c and e files and wade through the files and find the eeprom.bin file. More that likely it would be in the e:\udata\ directory somewhere depending on the game save exploit used.

I don't know anyone with a Action replay key, nor do they sell them in any of the gameshops in my area. I don't have money for a Meory card so I'm just trying to find a way to get my Xbox to load backups without the need for a memory card to load files.

I followed some of the tutorials but they get complicated because I've only been using an Xbox for a little bit and I have almost no knowledge of linux. That XBOXHDM tutorial is a bit confusing here:



Where do I get a eeprom.bin? and step 3. I can't access the Slayers disk and explore the files, nor do I know which files to copy if I could view the disk.

If someone can help me I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,

EGM92

your safest bet, is to get a memorycard... used or other wise. the eeprom.bin comes from your xox hd, after it has been backed up using xboxhdm or evox. if you use the utility incorrectly, you can have a big black shiny paperweight on your hands. without the eeprom.bin, hd key and password you can't unlock the xbox hd.

I have an extra 20GB hdd, is it possible to get the files that are in the harddrive and put them on the 20GB including like exploit files, dashboards, install the new hdd and run it from there? Memory Cards here cost 30$CAD used and 45$ New and non of my local retailers carry 3rd party Xbox stuff cause a lot of the stuff they used to carry would easily break.

Thanks,

EGM92

You still need access to your original xbox to pull the files off, Windows can't read an xbox hd without some other software like hdd driver or fatxplorer or something like that and you would still need to unlock the drive before being able to access it's data.

TreFactor is right, a memory card is the safest route. I like Xboxhdm very well because I have used it countless times, I have never messed up a drive yet with it, but the possibility is there without any doubt. Evox can even read the eeprom wrong and give you a bad eeprom.bin file. If that happened, Like TreFacTor said, you would have a paper weight for sure. So if you don't feel comfortable with a method, don't use it. Wait till you can afford a memory card, borrow one, or get someone else to mod it for you.

Alright by unlocking the drive, doesn't that mean I'll have to open my Xbox, let the HDD spin down, then quickly swap the IDE cable from the Xbox HDD with one on my PC? then use a program like HDD_Driver to open the harddrive, copy the files I need from the Xbox HDD and swap them into the new HDD. Is it possible to do this?

without transfering a game save to the xbox by memory card/stick yeah, thats about your only way. But then you would have to worry about locking the 20 gb drive that your wanting to use. It might be possible while you have the drive hotswapped to put a game save on the xbox hd using hdd driver. I'm not to experienced with hdd driver, but when you explore the drive, you will find a partition that contains a TDATA and a UDATA folder. If you were to FTP to a modded xbox, this would be on the E drive of the xbox. You would want to extract your game save which will contain a TDATA or a UDATA or both inside it. You would want to move the contents of those folders into the TDATA or UDATA or both folders on the xbox hd. Don't move the TDATA or UDATA folders themselves unless you don't care about the game saves that you already have. This would allow you to run a game save exploit to get your eeprom.bin file, or if you get the right exploit, mod it straight from the exploits menu. Sorry for being so lengthy, but I'm just trying to provide as much info as I can.

Thanks for the help, Is there a tutorial on how to do what I just asked? like unlock the drive and get all the files I need then replace it with my 20gb? Also is the eeprom.bin not stored within the HDD? if not how do you obtain it.

Thanks,

EGM92

Thanks for the help, Is there a tutorial on how to do what I just asked? like unlock the drive and get all the files I need then replace it with my 20gb? Also is the eeprom.bin not stored within the HDD? if not how do you obtain it.

Thanks,

EGM92

the tutorial that you mentioned has all of that information in it. the eeprom.bin is created from the eeprom on the xbox motherboard. yes the file is on the xbox hd, but without first having exploited the xbox first either by softmod, or modchip there's no way to gain ftp access to the xbox hd to retrieve the file that is easily backed up and retrieved with the help of evolution.

xboxhd maker may unlock the hd, and make a retail version of a xbox hard drive, but without the bin from the eeprom on your mother board the hd won't work. each hd is married to the motherboard. sucks, but if it was truely easy, it wouldn't be fun ;)

get a memory card, a softmod exploit with one of the exploitable games, a lockable hd and feel free to hack away. I'm not kidding when I tell you that you can have a wasted xbox if you manage to stink up the hotswap without having the eeprom.bin, hd key and password befor you begin, and the easiest way to get that info is through a softmod.


P.S.

correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the xbox hd maker predicated on the fact that you need to have exploited the xbox hd first, or at least have access to one?

Yes, Xbox HD Maker relies on the fact that you have an exploit to at least be able to create a backup of the xbox drive and dump the eeprom bios.

In this situation, without an exploit the eeprom.bin file will not be able to be created. And without which, any other drive besides the orginal xbox drive would not be able to be used without a mod chip.

The only drive that would be able to be modded in this situation would be the original drive by using the hotswap method. You would have to manually install all the modification files by hand and once finished, hot swap it back to the xbox for it to lock it back.

Although you could put a game save exploit on the original xbox hd using the hotswap method, doing this or maunally softmodding is highly dangerous and this is why TreFacTor and myself is saying the best thing to do in this situation is to purchase, borrow or beg a memory card to get an exploit on it to do the modding.

I have only done a manual softmod once, and beleive me when I say, I would not want to do that again. Hdd Driver is buggy, FatXplorer is in French language, understanding the layout of the partitions the way those programs present them to you is not easy at all.

! AMEN ! PREACH BROHTER
The only way I see the hotswap working for you using the xboxhdd maker, Is to put an already modified hd into your box, copy over the files needed (xbox rom.bin, hd key and password) and go from there... that's actually what the directions suggest. Without it don't even try it.
TRUST ME ! I have a softmod nightmare that I'm using for case modding practice....here's the skinny. I softmodded my brother-in laws box, he deleted a file using one of the apps from the evox menu... the xbox never worked again. I had everything that I needed to restore the box back to factory like he wanted, but lost power during the transfer, loosing the eeprom.bin and hd key and password. got an alladin live pro to install, and screwed it up even more. now the box is only good for parts.

alright... I can't get any memory cards no one I know have one or need one because they save games to the HDD. All the stores around me either don't have memory card in stock or they are freakin expensive, there is no way I'm going to pay 59.99CAD for a memory card so I bought a memory stick for 10$ it's a 128mb USB drive. Can I load things onto the drive like that? through the USB stick? or will that involve me cutting up an extra xbox controller I don't have?

Thanks,

EGM92

alright... I can't get any memory cards no one I know have one or need one because they save games to the HDD. All the stores around me either don't have memory card in stock or they are freakin expensive, there is no way I'm going to pay 59.99CAD for a memory card so I bought a memory stick for 10$ it's a 128mb USB drive. Can I load things onto the drive like that? through the USB stick? or will that involve me cutting up an extra xbox controller I don't have?

Thanks,

EGM92
not sure which memory stick you have, as only a few work with the xbox... but you will have to doctor one. (cut an extra controller cord) . The trick is to get the save onto the xbox hd from the xbox dashboard through the memory manager.. having the softmod by itself is not enough, you also need one the the exploitable games. agent under fire, splinter cell, mech assault.

ok I don't have an extra Xbox controller laying around cause well I only have one controller. So I guess back to hotswapping the drive. I own Mechassault to load the exploit.

Ok whats so dangerous about hotswapping? I don't intend on deleting any files from my Xbox HDD. I just don't know where to start! All the damn tutorials I read makes me feel like I'm missing something like a step before it or something. I need to know where to start, if I hot swap the drive and input the mechassault exploit gamesaves into the proper directory and load the game and then load the save file from the game is that what I have to do?

The reason it is so dangerous is because things can go wrong. Power outages, copying the wrong file over to the hd, just about anything can mess up a manual softmod. I don't know who is charging 59.99 for memory cards where your from, you can get original MS memory cards here for 20 bucks at walmart. You can find them online for reasonable to. If you have a usb memory stick and want to give that a go, you should be able to pick up a controller extender cable for cheap and mod it.

Ok power outages I have covered. Are there a lot of partitions on the drive? Is there a tutorial on how to do a manual exploit? Where to put the files step by step? I'm willing to take the risk.

Also the HD key, password, etc files where do I get those?

Thanks,

EGM92

The way you get the hdd key and other files that your talking about is by running a game save exploit that has Evox in it. From Evox choos system utils and then choose backup. This will create those files. But with out a memory card/stick with a game save exploit, you will not be able to get those files making using a different hard drive impossible to start with.

Yes, if you were to look at your xbox hd through an ftp session, you would see a c,e,x,y and z drive. If you had a game disk in the drive and a memory card in the controller you would also see a d and a h drive as well. This all changes when you use hdd driver or fatxplorer to look at it. Don't ask be to describe it cause I can't remember.

If your that desperate and really want to do the hotswap method, the tutorial link that I posted earlier is complete. Read it, memorize it and then do it. Just don't say we didn't warn you if your xbox turns into a paperweight. Not saying that we don't want to help, just making sure that you understand the possible results.

If I were to get a Xbox memory card, how would I put the gamesave files onto the memory card? I would still have to make some sort of cable right?

eeprom.bin file can only be accessed once the exploit is installed correct? If so how can I use this tutorial? Am I able to use some other eeprom.bin found on the internet or will it have to be my own from my own box?

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=244043

Yes. You would have to modify your xbox controller. This can be done to where you can use your xbox controller on your xbox and your pc. Click here (http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=223) for information on modding the controller.

Regarding the eeprom.bin file, it is unique to your xbox. In other words, I could not use your eeprom.bin file to unlock/lock my xbox hd and you could not use mine to unlock/lock yours. And you can only get it by running a game save exploit. The exploit does technically have to be installed. Transfering the game save to the memory card from the pc, then from the memory card to the xbox technically installs it. That way when you run the game and tell it to load a game save and point it the the exploited game save, it will run the exploit and allow you to make your backup. While the game save is running, you will be able to ftp into your xbox after setting it up on a network connection to your computer and retrieve the eeprom.bin file that running the backup creates.

The tutorial also shows you the hotswap method. Using this method, the xbox is turned on until such a time the xbox hd is unlocked by the xbox allowing access from other sources like a pc running xbox hd maker. If you will notice, the version of xbox hd maker they are showing is 1.7, that is an older version and now everyone is using the game save exploits. It really is the best and safest method of doing a softmod.

Alright I'm going to mod my controller.. now if I don't want to buy a memory card can I use a USB cable that has a Female head and stick my USB memory stick in that to load files?? or will that not work?

It might work. The xbox will not reconize all memory sticks. Only thing I can tell you on that 2 of the three memory sticks that I have is recongnized. One is a Lexar secure 128 mb the other is a Lexar 1gb. The one that it doesn't recognize is a 128 mb stick by impact. You might try searching google with your sticks brand to see what comes up. Modding the controller, I would do anyway because if the stick doesn't work, when you save up enough to get a memory card, you can do the mod. But thats just me.

Did you do what I just explained? Instead of using a Male USB head you used a Female and you put the memory stick on there to transfere files?

yeah, as long as the xbox will recognize your usb memory stick, it will work. Click here (http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=262740) for a tutorial on using memory sticks. When you get your controller modded and if your memory stick works, it will just be a matter of getting the rest of the software. All of which you can download from the net.

Alright cool, I'm going to mod it tomorrow, thanks for the help, I really appreciate it. Just out of curiousity where did you get your Female USB head from? did it come with your USB stick?

Thanks again,

EGM92

nah, I had a usb extension cable that came with an HP printer that I had no use for, so I thought I would give the memory card thing a try and it worked.

Good luck! Hope everything turns out for you!

I modded my controller and I got it to work (After about 2 hours of patients) Now on the tutorial that I'm reading it asks me to setup an FTP. How do I connect my PC to my Xbox? I connected both of them together, should I use my router?

I tried to connect through my FTP program and it couldn't establish a connection. If you could help me I'd really appreciate it.

If you use MSN messanger and have some free time, would you mind helping out a noob?

Thank you,

EGM92

Disregard the post up top,

I got the exploit running and Media X Menu. Now what should I do? Everytime I try to use linux the screen goes screen then it goes out of sync or just is really screwed up and I can't use it. Also happens when I try to backup my C: the screen doesn't go green but it just screws up. Do I have to install UXE? it gives me the option to do so but it asks so many things I'm confused! lol I don't know which version my Xbox is because I never really removed the HDD holder to check under it. Is there some guide to install stuff like PBL and other things it asks for?

I'd really appreciate the help,

Thanks

EGM92

I don't know which exploit your running, kinda sounds like the Ltools package. You might have a version 1.6 xbox from the sounds of how the screens are doing. You might be better of with the UXE package. Although the Ltools package works well with version 1.6, you don't get the weird screens with a 1.6 with UXE than what you do with UDE.

If you connecting your xbox and your pc straight together, make sure your using a crossover cable (system link). If your going to use your router, use a straight cable. When using a router, to me anyway, it seems as everything works better when the pc and the xbox are set to use dhcp. You might even try that.

Last night I got WaffleTools_MA_1224 to run, Ltools was being a pain and giving me errors to call Customer support. Waffle and Unleash-X worked prefectly. It turns out I own a version 1.6 console. Now I did a backup of the EEPROM, Hd key/password. It told me to FTP and back it up to my PC and burn it to a CD just in case something ever goes wrong.

I'm connecting my Xbox to a Hub that has my PC on it (Router is in the basement much too far) so I assigned an IP to the Xbox and I tried to connect with my PC but I can't establish a connection. I can't seem to get it to work, I went into the Unleash-X options and setup the IP address, subnet, DNS, etc but nothing!. If you could help me out I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

EGM92

Glad to see you have it this far. Good job!

Now on to your ftp issue.

Since your using a hub, make sure that your using straight cables to connect the pc and the xbox to the hub.

Then check your tcp/ip settings on your computer. Computer settings should be IP address=192.168.0.1 subnet mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.0.1 DNS =192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.7

The xbox should then be setup with the ip=192.168.0.3 subnet mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.0.1 and dns=192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.7

All that really matters is that they are on the same subnet, but that should get you going.

I got my xbox to connect,thanks for all the help!!!, just a couple of more things since you seem so wise on the subject :D

Can I load Xbox Media Center? Are there any Dashboards that are animated like the stock Xbox dashboard? Is there some tutorial that will tell me where to put files like emulators/more dashboards/ etc?


Thanks,

EGM92

Can I load Xbox Media Center? Are there any Dashboards that are animated like the stock Xbox dashboard? Is there some tutorial that will tell me where to put files like emulators/more dashboards/ etc?


Thanks,

EGM92


Yes, You can install Xbox Media Center, I really like XBMC, you can even have it set to be your dashboard if you want. I use it as an app though. One of the best animated dashes around is UnleashX. It's default skin is more like the MS dashboard.

Search on xbox-scene forums for how to connect to xbins, they have a tutorial on how to connect and so forth.

What brand of memory stick did you use BTW?

Glad you got it working.

Thanks a lot I got everything working, I really appreciate all the help.