hard drive mayhem

[deltaQ]

All right guys, here's the scenario. I'm about to mod my box with the whole shebang. I'm updating the hdd and the EEPROM (b/c I've played on live before, and want to continue to play on live), and will be copying the stock hard drive over to the C and E drives on the new hdd (freeing the D and F drives for whatever apps/files I want, correct me if this proposal won't work, but I think it will).

right now I have 3 250gb (2 WD and 1 Hitachi) and 1 160gb external hdd's hooked up to a hub for my laptop. The main reason I wanted to mod the box was to make watching my movies easier on the ole' TV (instead of transferring the movie to my laptop, then hooking that up to the computer, I want to be able to just watch them from the xbox). Originally, I wanted to get the Hydra Xtender to add two more 250's (3 total), but everyone on these forums says the xtender is ugly. Also, I bought a X3CP (black because I originally wanted the xtender, which only comes with black side panelling), but now people say the CP doesn't quite fit in the first place, let alone with the xtender. Also, I've heard COUNTLESS troubleshooting stories with the Xtender, even though most came from the earlier stages of the product.

Could anyone recommend what I should do? Should I get the xtender and keep my X3CP, or get an Xtender and sell the X3CP, or skip the xtender and have some sort of hot swappable configuration, or mini server going with all of the hard drives in it (I'd like to know more about this option, as it would be a HELLUVA lot more convenient to have all 4 of my external hard drives accessible via IDE or USB2)?

PS - my original plan was to just put one hdd in for game back ups and buy one of those wireless media transmitters that allows me to play my video and audio files on the TV from my computer (and thus USB hard drives), but every damn review I've read for a device under $200 says the product sucks (if anyone can help me here as well, I'd appreciate it).

Jason

 

[swgstaeven]

I have the Blue X3CP. It fit PERFECTLY with the Black stock XBOX case and my LE Kusami Blue XBOX case. But one thing I did that from I read in most of the Tut's is removed ALL the metal sidings inside my xbox.


Lets go over what I recommend for the steps to get your xbox setup for the initial.

Install the mod chip (don't worry about the CP right now)
FTP into your xbox and backup C and E to your HDD (C is where the MS Dashboard is installed for xbox live etc. and E is where all your save games and game updates (IE Halo 2 1.1 update and map packs from bungie) are installed.
Unlock that HDD
Put in the new hdd
Format and setup each partion (I recommend setting up a F drive but don't worry about a G drive)
FTP C and E back to C and E drives
FTP your dashboard of choice (XBMC is great if you want to use it to watch movies from etc fyi) to F along with the directory structure it needs.
Setup X3CL to look at the F drive for the dashboard.

Ok now for the looks. put in and hookup your CP. You notice the USB ports? I believe XBMC as well as Unleash and Avalaunch all support USB HDD's hooked up. I believe the X3CE will as well if the scripts are loaded in. Do some research on it and see if you can plug them into the USB ports.

OR Get the Xtender and install it. I think what people don't like about the Xtender is from what I read mainly the fact that it is not a "perfect" fit and takes some playing with to get it setup.

However understand only 1 HDD will be active at a time as the XBOX can only handle 2 IDE devices (1 DVD and 1 HDD).

If you have any other questions let me know and I will try and help.

 

[Devastater]

i first installed the x3 cp, then the x3 ce because i wanted to avoid hurting my solder points cause i heard it took soom playing with the get the x3 cp panel installed, which it did for me, so i put the cp on first then the x3 ce, i currently have a 160 gig hd installed now and am throwing all my movies to it for the same reason u want to, so i don't have to get up and put a dvd into my dvd player, lol, but i have 10 gig left and only half my movies backed up, and havn't even started on my friends movies, so right now im looking online to get a 400 gig hd to replace my 160, so i guess thats what i recomend to you, sell 1 of ur 250's somewhere and i'll bet u'll have enough for a 400 gb hd on ebay. i would also recomend getting an ir mod so u don't have to get up and turn it on either, thats what i plan to do, lol
and have ur main dash as xbox media center so when u turn it on w/remote u can just select a movie, but have the quickstart option go to evox for u to boot a game, (when u quickstart u have to hold down the right trigger button) so the only time u have to touch ur controller or even see a menu that will launch ur games is when u want to play 1.

oh and by the way, id say the best way to get ur movies on ur hd into 1 file is using dvd decrypters ifo mode and get 1 vob file (quite large usually, but absolute dvd quality)
then just ftp to ur box and watch!

hope my extremly long post helped!

oh ya and if u like my post plz add to my rep cause this is probly the only time i'l ever be able to give advice on anything

 

[FritzThePirate]

If you have the network cable for it, a great way to set up for streaming video to your TV is to hook the XBox up to your computer or router via a network, and then use XBMC to stream the video right off of the computer. That is the way I do it. Saves a lot of copyong time.

 

[Sidphoenix]

If you have the network cable for it, a great way to set up for streaming video to your TV is to hook the XBox up to your computer or router via a network, and then use XBMC to stream the video right off of the computer. That is the way I do it. Saves a lot of copyong time.

Exactly what I do

 

[yodasatomicweed]

and will be copying the stock hard drive over to the C and E drives on the new hdd (freeing the D and F drives for whatever apps/files I want, correct me if this proposal won't work, but I think it will).

i didnt see anyone correct you, and you might just have hit the wrong key, but you do realize that the D drive is the DVD drive, right? you cant store apps and stuff on it the way you can with your F drive. just thought id point that out...

 

[Sidphoenix]

Well, you CAN store apps and games on the D drive if you get a DVD-R/W drive and the special software.

 

[Rookio]

Well, you CAN store apps and games on the D drive if you get a DVD-R/W drive and the special software.

What's the name of this special software?

 

[Sidphoenix]

I dont know, but it is possible. Try running *nix on your XBOX.

 

[deltaQ]

just to update you guys (I posted in another thread, but I'll give you the details here).

I did what I thought was the correct process to upgrade the box with a previous live account. I installed the x3 and x3cp, backed up my stock hdd to my computer, formatted/installed the new hdd, FTP'd the old hdd C and E drives to the new hdd, installed some dashboards and whatnot to the F drive, locked it and let her rip.

Everything was fine, I was able to play some backed up xbox games, run emulators, watch movies, etc.

Then came the fun part, xbox live play. I utilized config magic for my EEPROM flashing, and successfully put a virgin, version matching eeprom configuration on the xbox. I locked the drive back, rebooted and played on xbox live for a day (with the mod chip off of course, I don't think the x3 will even let you get on with the chip enabled). I had auto-login disabled for halo2, and didn't even have the ethernet cable in until I was ready to get on live. After that day of xbl play I came back and found out I was banned.

Why? I don't know. I DIDN'T have modded halo maps, or any hacked data for that matter. I didn't run halo2 from a backup, as I own a copy of the game. I've never cheated so my GT shouldn't be flagged. The ONLY possible explanations I've come up with are:

either A) I shouldn't have copied my stock drive to the new drive. I should have rebuilt the MS dash with an Auto-installer, or only copied the C drive and E/UDATA. I heard somewhere that some of the gamesave information in the TDATA folder might be linked to one's EEPROM, but it's just a rumor at this point. I think it would have been better just to rebuild the entire thing, but who knows.

or B) my GT was mysteriously flagged...

Either way, I can't get back on to live again unless I reinstall my stock hdd and reflash my previous EEPROM with a config magic CD (a process I still haven't figured out, as you have to FTP your previous eeprom config file to the DATA folder in the config magic directory, but the config magic program is being run from a disc...)

 

[Hellsredeemr]

You transferred you E: files to your new HD which contain your old hard drive code, so when they saw they didn't match, your old and new hard drive codes, they banned you.