Make your HDD identified by 360 again without formating
Make your HDD identified by 360 again without formating
Published byjhonnyp0lak on 2011-03-19 Category: HardDrive | Page Views: 4481
The Credits for this tutorial go to jhonnyp0lak @xboxhacker
Introduction
So you connected your original 20GB hdd to your PC, wanting to use Xplorer360 to dump data and probably upgrade to a bigger HDD or add remove some data. But when you connected your original 20GB HDD back to your xbox .... all of a sudden it doesn't recognize the disk.
Don't worry you can fix it!!!
The problem is not Xplorer360, lets get that straight right off the bat. The culprit is your motherboard. You see, when you connect your HDD to your PC, your motherboard created a HPA. A HPA is a protected area of your HDD that the motherboard or hardware vendor can use to store vital data. Some motherboards will do this, some won't, hence why some people experience the problem and some don't. This change is enough for your xbox to have a hissy-fit and not want to play nice with the hard drive anymore.
You may have tried to connect that broken HDD to another PC, and use Xplorer360 to do a full image restore on the disk and still fail. The reason is, even though your 2nd pc may not create the HPA automatically, the HPA that was initially on the 1st PC is still active. The HPA affects the LBA size, so the XBOX sees a smaller disk than it originally did, hence why it doesn't recognize it. So, to give you an example, my Gigabyte motherboard (ICH9R chipset), changed my LBA: from: 39,070,080 to: 39,067,967 (these values will be different for 60GB and 120GB drives)
So to change it back i tried using multiple programs to access the HPA and remove it. The problem was that once i restarted the computer the HPA came back and my LBA size was once again changed. And this is the part i couldn't work out, how to keep the LBA the same, even after restart. Then I though of a brilliant idea (brilliant meaning it could potentially damage your motherboard - but it just might work ) i tried removing the HDD right after the program unlocked the HPA and changed the LBA size. And voila !!!! It works !!
So 1 more bit of theory before we get into the tutorial, Why doesn't this affect WD hacked 120GB disks or larger ? The reason is simple. If you bought a 160GB disk like me and flashed it with 120GB HDD ss.bin, you have these HPA security sectors on your hard disk, your xbox just doesn't know about them. The HPA sectors are created at the end of your hard disk. and since the XBox can only see the first 120GB, it doesn't care what's on the 121st GB, 122GB etc etc ...
This is for people who still have all their data on their 20GB hdd just want to get the 360 to identify it.
360-Hq.Com and it's staff DO NOT and WILL NOT take responsibility for users who damage their own equipment in any way, shape or form.
1. Things You Need:
1.1. Your Xbox 360 HDD plugled via SATA (USB wont work)
1.2. A PC with Sata ports
1.3. - MHDD (http://hddguru.com/download/software/mhdd/mhdd32ver4.6iso.zip or http://hddguru.com/download/software/mhdd/mhdd32ver4.6archive.zip)
1.4 - WinHex (registered version) - http://www.x-ways.net/winhex/
1. Connect your original 20GB drive to the PC.
2. Start your PC up and in your BIOS make sure you select boot from CD first.
3. Restart the PC booting off the MHDD bootable CD.
4. If MHDD doesn't start automatically for you, or you're using a USB Boot disk type: MHDD and press enter
5. MHDD will identify hard drives connected to your PC. for example, for me it identified:
3. FUJITSU MHV2020BH 0093002C NWxxxxxxxxxx 39,067,967
6. Enter the number corresponding to your xbox 360 HDD and press Enter. (in my case number 3)
7. You will now get to a blue prompt:
MHDD>
Type: NHPA (and press Enter)
8. Do you want to set Native LBA address (y/N)? - type: Y
9. Native Maximum LBA address: 39070079 Continue (y/N)? - type Y (these values will be different on 60GB and 120GB drives)
10. You will get the following message:
Fail. Try to re-power HDD.
Done.
11. Unplug the power cable from your xbox 360 hdd
12. wait 10 seconds
13. Plug the power cable back in.
14. Type NHPA (and press Enter)
15. Do you want to set Native LBA address (y/N)? - type: Y
16. You will get the following message:
Working ...
Done.
17. Now unplug your power and data cables from your xbox 360 HDD (in that order: first power cable, then data cable) and connect the HDD to your xbox 360.
That's it, you got your HDD working again without loosing any data.
The Credits for this tutorial go to jhonnyp0lak @xboxhacker
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jhonnyp0lak on 2011-03-19
