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By UNICRON
First my
story..... Hi all,
first I would like to say thanks to everyone who helped me with information and
suggestions on the forums and to Llamma for the posting of this HOW TO guide. I
hope it helps a lot of people who have had the same head ach I have about
getting to the secret key to unlock the XBOX's Hard drive. My
problem started when I purchased an XBOX off EBay for a cheap price, I knew in advance it was broken but the
promise of fixing it myself was to be a challenge, and boy was it! Not that I couldn't do it after all I do have
a paper that says I know how to fix electronics, even if I can't spell very
well ;) My
package arrived and I tore into it, first thing taking the Xbox apart. Hum I thought didn't
look like much, boy I thought it would be more
like a computer motherboard, seeing how everyone says it's a computer
basically. Well first thing I did was
clean off the old paste on the CPU that cheap thermal paste, and replace it with high quality
Arctic Silver paste. Then I checked the board out for any signs of burnt traces
or other fixable problems and found none. My next
step was to check out the XBOX to see if she would power up. I plugged it in and with the push of the
button it came on, with the flubber screen or whatever it is and booted up to a
screen that said "XBOX LIVE UPDATE, Please do not turn off the power until
update is finished." Great I
thought I'll just plug it up to the network and let it do its thing, WOW this
will be an easy fix. NOPE, it came up
with a screen saying "XBOX LIVE cannot connect at this time Please try
again later", so I click OK to go on, after all I don't need to update
XBOX live I'm not going to be on it anyways. I clicked
OK and the screen went back to the XBOX LIVE UPDATER screen again, then it went
to the cannot connect screen with the OK button. I click it and it just looped around again
and again. Well I thought this is grim,
So I called Micro... well you know who and they take four techs and 30 minutes
to come up with the answer, throw it
away and buy a XBOX 360!!! WHAT!! That’s
your solution!! So I read around on the forums and find out there is some nice
software (homebrew) that can clean the hard drive and restore it to
"new", so I am all up for that. The
problem I get though is all of them expect you to have Modded your XBOX or at
least have the Hard Drive KEY (PASSWORD) to use them! Well I am in a pickle now seeing how I can't
MOD the XBOX cause it won't boot a CD and only goes to that UPDATER screen. Man
what to do. Then I find out the XBOX
hard drive password is stored in an EEPROM on the board. That’s when the light went on! Hey if the EEPROM isn't locked and I can read
the contents I can get the hard drive password from it myself. Then I find out that the password is
encrypted. Crap I think... but wait! I
find out that there is a program that will give me the Password if I have the
EEPROM.BIN file, (the EEPROM.BIN file is just a dump of the contents of the
EEPROM) - which is what I was going to do anyways so that brings me to building
the EEPROM READER. I built
the reader and read the contents of my EEPROM in my XBOX and saved it as EEPROM.BIN,
what else? Then I used the program I had
found and made my first XBOX recover CD.
After that I was able to easily unlock my hard drive, and use a file
browser to look around on it and fix the corrupted files on the drive
(apparently someone had installed a soft mod and then somehow screwed it up
pretty good) but I was able to copy the original XBOX backup files to the C
drive. Afterward I installed the drive
back into the XBOX and powered it on and it came up all happy in the Micro...
well Dash like a new XBOX!! THEN I
found out the DVD drive didn't read... So I
borrowed my buddies XBOX that was modded and FTP into it and copied his C drive and some files off of E drive then REMAKE
the XBOX restore CD and wiped my drive clean and restored it with HIS XBOX hard
drive files and now I have a happily modded XBOX.... with a broken DVD drive
:( but I am working on the laser fix,
but that’s for another HOW TO.... so now
that your all sleeping pretty good now I guess I get to the steps to build and
fix your XBOX, and the software that I used. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO
READ A XBOX EEPROM!! (Without
de soldering it) First you
will have to build this simple EEPROM reader. The Original device was much more
complicated so I cut out all the stuff not needed by
us for this project. The
original device and software that goes with it can be gotten at
http://www.lancos.com/prog.html... stop in and say thanks for the program and
device! Here is
my easy to build design, it uses off the shelf parts from RADIO SHACK. You need
the following: 1 PAK (5v
Zenor Diodes comes 2 to a pack). Catalog #:
276-565 Wire, I
use the following for the jumpers from the EEPROM reader to the XBOX Blue
insulated wrapping wire (30 AWG) Catalog #. 278-503
Of course
you need solder, solder iron (lo watt) so as NOT to burn off any traces!!
And now
that you have it built you need to know what to do with it. First, make sure you XBOX is UNPLUGGED!!! I don’t want anyone to get FRIED or fry your
XBOX! Now there
are two options, first if your XBOX is dead no power or it is a bad
motherboard but you still want to use the drive or if you just want to copy the
EEPROM to use on another XBOX then you will need to supply an EXTERNAL
3.3 Volts or 5 Volts to one of two places. Meaning choose one of the following
the EEPROM or the LPC pads, shown below.
First you
can connect your readers SCL and SDA and GND wires to the spots I list above or
in the following pictures, and connect your power supply (3.3V or 5V) to pin 8
of the EEPROM or the spot listed on LPC picture above. (NOTICE: I DIDN’T use
the LPC connections when I read mine but according to BUNNIE’S Book and my own
observations it should be OK to use. – maybe better for those who aren’t good
solders cause the pins on the EEPROM are VERY small!) Take a
look at the two following pictures, Mind you that if your XBOX DOES have power and works DO
NOT ADD A EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY!!!!!!!!!!
Verson 1.6 XBOX No matter
what XBOX you have the EEPROM is the same design Pins 1,2,3,4 will always be GND
and 5,6,7,8 will be 5 = SDA, 6 = SCL, 7 = WDC (We don’t Care), 8 = 3.3V or 5V.
After
making your connections, wait to apply power, we need to setup the reader
software next!! I used a
program called PONYPROG (http://www.lancos.com/prog.html) to read my EEPROM with, it is easy to use and well
written and the original EEPROM reader was what I cut down to make our EEPROM
reader for this project. Install
Ponyprog on your computer, I got the old and new 2000 versions, I like the old
but the new one is easier to use so I used it in the following examples. Setup
is easy just do what the pictures I have say and you should have it installed
and ready to read in about 5 Min. SETUP…..
Now after
that make sure to Calibrate!!!
Now you
can apply power to your READER or XBOX, wait for an ERROR SCREEN to show up on
the XBOX by disconnecting the Hard drive (on a working XBOX) if it’s one that
has no power or broken then apply your EXTERNAL
power now. Now try
to do a read…. The Icon on the far left looks like a chip with an arrow
pointing to a paper.
If you read your EEPROM it should look like this picture, notice that on the PURPLE TEXT line 4 down a bunch of numbers 449836153119 (These aren’t real #’s!), this should be YOUR XBOX serial number on the bottom of your XBOX!!! If you had a GOOD read. If not try again and check ALL connections and power. Now
SAVEAS your file and save it as EEPROM.BIN ß- MUST be this name. Now
disconnect external power- or turn off XBOX and UNPLUG. Disconnect all wires
from XBOX LPC port or EEPROM. Make SURE
you know where you saved the EEPROM.BIN file to before you exit Ponyprog
program. Now you
can look at your XBOX HDD password with LIVEINFO BETA 3, Search Google just put it in the same folder as your EEPROM.BIN
file and run it and click Load EEPROM and it should load up your EEPROM.BIN and
give you’re a screen like this…
RIGHT
there! In the box that says Unique HDD
Key is your Password to the Hard Drive. Thanks
goes out to Yoshihiro and group for this great Program. But WAIT!
We aren’t totally done yet. Now you have your Key/Password what to do with it?? Well now I am going to give you a Quick walk thru of how to make a Backup and Restore CD for working on your Xbox in the future when you want to wipe it clean and start all over again! (Some times we just have to wipe our drives because we put so much junk on them that we need to just clean it all out and start over again, and I’ll show you how!!!) SO YOU
WANT TO MAKE A BACKUP/RESTORE CD HUH? OK Here’s
the HOW TO MAKE A BACKUP/RESTORE CDROM FOR YOUR XBOX Now that
you have your precious XBOX HDD KEY what are you really going to do with it?? You may want
to do some of the following things with it and I will show you the easy way to
do them! Read on Modders!
1.
Unlock you HDD
2.
Soft MOD your XBOX
3.
Be able to make a backup of your HDD
NOW even if it is modded incase…… (Yeah better do this one folks!)
4.
Just poke around and see what all
the fuss is about. I really
can’t say how important it is to make a backup of your XBOX
hard drive and software. Your
sitting there Modding the crap out of your XBOX when all of a sudden XBOX LIVE pops
up and wants to download an update, yeah
really you did read my story at the top right?
Next thing you know your XBOX is stuck in update limbo and you’re
screwed! Man o man if only I had
listened to UNICRON’S how to guide I’d be like ok mother …! I got your update right here! Pop that CD in and in a few minutes your back
up and running. Really,
would I write all this just to jerk you around??? And what’s so cool is how easy it is to do!! First off
if your XBOX was NEVER modded to begin with you’re going to be hurting…. I’m sorry but even with access to the HDD
it’s not easy to mod it, as far as I know at THIS time. So what do you need to
do? If you have a buddy who HAS modded
his/her XBOX that’s a great starting place for us…. Your
buddies XBOX…. Wow, your buddy has
modded his/her XBOX and you want to do it too. Start by
FTP into his/her XBOX, I used a great program called WEBDRIVE on my XP system,
it lets you set up ANY FTP site or HTTP site or other computer as a NETWORK
drive on YOUR computer!!! It works GREAT
with the XBOX, I just click on it as if it was X Drive on my system and open up
whatever drive I want and copy software to the XBOX easy!!! It has a 30 day trail and then you have to
buy it but hey, It’s a lot easier than using FTP software and you don’t even
think about it NOT being a Drive on your computer cause it works so great! (PS. Send advertising check to UNICRON at So
anyways, FTP into your buddies XBOX, go to C drive and copy the entire C
drive contents (all files and folders)
to your computer, copy it to a folder called XBOX-Cdrive. Now jump into the Xbox E drive. I used Evox Mod so this is what I did, others
will be different so you will have to figure out what you need to get here, but
for Evox here is what you need off of E drive.
On Xbox E
drive copy the following folders with ALL files in them.
1.
TDATA
2.
UDATA
3.
DASHBOARD
4.
BIOSLD Copy
these folders to your computer in a folder called XBOX-Edrive Now that is
done you can move onto the next step in creating a Backup/Restore CD. Now you
need to download and unzip a program/ file called Xboxhdm_V1.9 this is an easy
to use LINUX that has cool easy to use tools for working on your XBOX HDD. After it is unzipped you need to copy the
contents (all files and folders) from the folder you made XBOX-Cdrive to a
folder in Xboxhdm_V1.9/linux/C folder
the C folder. Now copy
folders you copied to the folder you made called XBOX-Edrive (the 4 folders) to
Xboxhdm_V1.9/linux/E folder the E folder. Now you
need to copy your EEPROM.BIN file you made with the reader for YOUR XBOX to the
Xboxhdm_V1.9/linux/EEPROM folder. Now were
cooking!! We now have everything to make
a BACKUP/RESTORE CD-ROM Disc!! (Notice –
for you who can FTP into your OWN XBOX I would copy the C drive and E drive
files I listed above to make your own BACKUP/RESTORE CD-ROM Disc, just copy the EEPROM.BIN file from your XBOX
E drive Located in the DASHBOARD – BACKUP folder names of course EEPROM.BIN!!) Now
change to the main folder of Xboxhdm_V1.9 - you will see a file called
MAKE-ISO-WIN. Bat This file
will create a bootable CD-ROM that we can use to work on our XBOX! Run this
file, afterward a file called LINUX.ISO will appear in this folder. Now using your favorite burning software
(mine is NERO) load it up and burn you a DISC. Now for
the fun part!! WHAT
DO I DO WITH THIS DISC?? You got
the Disc with your XBOX BACKUP and HDD KEY/PASSWORD on it. You’re ready to go! Now turn off your
computer. Now unhook all drives except your CD-ROM/DVD drive you need this!!! Now hook
up your XBOX HDD. It needs to have some
jumper changed first, look at the back of the drive, see the jumper between the
power connector and IDE cable? Here’s a
picture for you who don’t follow….
Notice
the 6 pins between the Power connector on the right and the IDE connector on
the left.
Here is a
HDD jumper block. Place it on the 2 pins
CLOSEST to the IDE Connector to set it as MASTER. See picture below.
Note also
that THIS is not how all hard drives are set up with the jumper block. Most
hard drives use the MASTER then SLAVE then CABLE SELECT or view CABLE SELECT
when no jumpers are present!! Confusing,
but when in doubt VIEW the HDD label for a diagram or go to the manufactures
web site for the correct jumper settings.
The above is just how the XBOX HDD is setup and as far as I know the
CABLE SELECT maybe a slave setting when used in a normal computer, but this is
what we are going with for now. Now after
setting the XBOX HDD to MASTER connect it to the Primary Master IDE cable and
make sure your CD ROM is on it’s own IDE cable and set as MASTER. After
that is all done, now boot your computer but hit DEL at boot up to get into
BIOS screen, or F1 on some systems, get into the bios and set it to boot
sequence CD-ROM - HDD- Floppy whatever as long as CDROM is first boot device. The LINUX
CD will boot up you'll see a bunch of stuff wait for the menu options. Reboot
(hit enter) XBOXHDM
(hit enter -this brings up the main menu) It will
Format the XBOX HDD then after that you'll be back at the main menu, select
option 8 to quit this program. Now type Reboot
(hit enter) Lock -a
(hit enter) Shutdown
(hit enter) (Only one
EEPROM.BIN file can be in the EPROM folder on the CD) Well I
hope this helps out a lot of people out there!
It was a testing time and I worked hard gathering all the info up in one
place so if anyone benefits from this feel free to PM me at
www.Llamma.com and let me know it helped! I’d like
to thank my proof readers Janrocks (hugs) and G-man (What up) for helping out!!
UNICRON That which does not serve me shall
become a part of me. |
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