How to softmod your xbox...for FREE

Step 5 Booting from cd

Go into the BIOS and set your PC to boot on the cd drive.To check this, restart your computer. When it starts up, you will have to hit a key in order to enter the BIOS configuration screen. Usually it will say on screen to Hit key to enter Setup. Watch for this. If you cant see it anywhere, I have listed the following BIOS config keys for some computers.

Acer: - Ctrl+Alt+Esc
ALR PC: (F2) or (Ctrl)(Alt)Esc)
AMI BIOS: (Del), (F1) or (F2)
AST, Advantage, Award, Tandon: - Ctrl + Alt + Esc
Award BIOS: (Del) or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)
Compaq: (F10) (do this when the cursor is in the upper right corner of the screen blinking)
Dell: - F1 or Del.
Dell: - Some require pressing reset twice
Dell: - Ctrl + Alt + Enter
DTK BIOS: (Esc)
Gateway 2000: - F1
Hewlett Packard: - F1
IBM:
" Older Models - In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen (CMOS) screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during bootup.
" Aptiva - Press F1
" IBM PS/2: (Ctrl)(Alt)(Ins) after (Ctrl)(Alt)(Del)
" IBM PS/2 with reference partition: - Press Ins during boot
" Some PS/2s, such as 75 and 90: - Ctrl Alt ?
" Some PS/2s when pointer at top right of screen: - Ctrl + Ins
NEC: - F2
Packard Bell: - F1 or F2
Phoenix BIOS: (F1), (F2), or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc)
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt S
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl S
Phoenix BIOS: - Ctrl Alt Ins
Sharp Laptop 9020: - F2
Sony: (F3) while you are starting the PC, then (F2) or (F1)
Tandon computers: - Hold down the key after turning on power
Tandon: - Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Toshiba Laptops: - Toshiba Utility
Toshiba: - Press Esc during boot
Toshiba, Phoenix, late model PS/1 Value Point and 330s: - Press F1 during boot
Olivetti PC Pro: - Shift Ctrl Alt + Num Pad Del
Miscellaneous PC's: - Ctrl + Esc or Ctrl and Alt and +
Zenith: - Ctrl Alt Ins


MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWING ARE GOOD TO GO:
PC is set in BIOS to boot from CD
My xbox is close enough to my computer that the primary master cable can reach it.
My IDE cable that will be used for hotswapping is connected to the primary IDE channel.
My CD/DVD drive is connected to anywhere but the primary IDE connection.
My primary master IDE connection is vacant, as this is the one I will hotswap the Xbox drive to.

Softmod Time!

Make sure your XboxHDM disc is inside your CD/DVD drive. Boot up your Xbox and PC at the same time.

Your Xbox should go to the MS Dashboard.
and
Your PC should go to the XboxHDM main menu.(See picture 2)

Comments

[hansley]

my cd didn't boot why? help plzz!thx

[theend757]

Did you follow the guide to make the ISO. What software did you use to burn the ISO?

[theend757]

Seem like a lot of people are little confuse with the hot swap. I made a little simple picture. This is when you ready to hot swap.

First
Where you need to be and xbox and computer must be on when hot swap
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/sany1874.jpg/

Second when you hot swap
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/sany1862.jpg/

[joukam]

But what if my PC only has SATA ports?

[robbie_jay]

if ur pc has sata ports... either get a pci card, or get a 360 and flash that. there pritty easy to do

[luigirez1]

Getting a 360 doesn't help at all.

[SonicAce1]

what is the IDE? plz help me

[luigirez1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

Google is your best friend!

[Solidus-Snake]

Very nice tutorial! Thanks allot my oc pc is installing ndure atm on my xbox. The hotswap part is a bit confusing though. Search a tut on youtube!

[sk8ter00102]

wut is the link to the youtube tutorial

[Solidus-Snake]

Tip: make sure there is enough space available on your xbox hdd! I got an error that said: no free space available during step 2 if the ndure installer. I had 3 complete cds on my xbox

[danilo89]

hi i am having a problem when i try to hotswap. i have connected the hdd to the computer and booted the computer from the cd, but when i press "1" the system will load up and it will go to a screen with the linux penguin, then it will load up all the files but once it has done that, its saying "PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 00:03.3" right at the end.

can anyone pls help.
thank you.

[bendy14]

Im having trouble booting from the cd. Everytime I boot it up and enter 1 or 2 the computer just resarts. What did I do wrong?

[atlantic44]

I got to the part were I had to "hotswap" the Xbox, and when I type in "xbrowser" it said "lunex cd not found, please insert cd and try again" there is only 1 IDE slot on my computer's motherboard that has never been used and that's what I'm conneting to my xbox. is there some type of card or something that I can put in my computer to fix the IDE slot, if that's the problem?

[lexfirm]

Anyone confirm if booting from a usb key will do the same as booting off a CD? My dilemma is I got only 1 IDE port on my board and that's normally used by my DVD drive.

[robbie_jay]

you could solve this by either one getting a pc power pack extension and inserting the extension to the xbox power pack this will there fore allow u to have the hdd inside ur pc tower and if ur ide wire was 2 connectors on it set ur dvd drive to slave and plug ur hdd in like so.

[joukam]

I have the same problem! But is it possible to boot from a usb?

[macdjake]

I just tried booting from a USB and it says it's missing the OS.

[robbie_jay]

hi just a help with booting from usb dont no if u tried this or not but i may correct a daft misstake, if ur putting the iso file on ur usb stick and expecting it to work one it wont...... simple reasons iso files are for discs.... u need to get a program called 7-zip its free if u google it unpack the iso directly to the usb and try again

[joukam]

Ok I'll try it. Thanks!

[Prophessor]

hey can someone post pictures as to what cables go where im totally lost especially as in how the xbox is connected to the computer and when they say cd/dvd drive which one is he talking about the xbox? or the comp

[currinbrandon]

I've tried everything mentioned in this guide and tried everything listed in the comments, but to no evail, my computer either doesn't "see" the xbox drive, or it says its still locked and then it puts up the "no parititon found" It won't let me enter xbrowser or even the ndure folder at all. the only image that matches what I've seen is the Xbox Hard drive and recovery tool screen with the four options, if anyone can help me please e-mail me at [e-mail]

[Yacuzaboss]

Small issue I found while trying to use the linux/ndure iso cd. I swapped drives no problem. Told my comp to load the iso cd. Worked great. Selected option 1 (VGA mode) Linux app loaded up just as you said. Perfect. Then I noticed I had no control. The linux app did not recognize my usb keyboard. Tried again and caught the error message in the linux boot. Just something to watch for. Great toot

[drazalon]

Well i got to everything except for this part.

MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWING ARE GOOD TO GO:
a. PC is set in BIOS to boot from CD
b. My xbox is close enough to my computer that the primary master cable can reach it.
c. My IDE cable that will be used for hot swapping is connected to the primary IDE channel.
d. My CD/DVD drive is connected to anywhere but the primary IDE connection.
e. My primary master IDE connection is vacant, as this is the one I will hotswap the Xbox drive to.

It isnt quite clear.
a. I got that down
b. Which primary cable? XBOX or computer?
c. The IDE cable that will be used for hotswapping, which one is this? And specifically which primary IDE Channel? XBOX or computer?
d. CD/DVD Drive. Is this the computers CD/DVD Drive thats connecting to anything but primary? Or XBOX?
e. Is it the XBOX or Computer's IDE Channel that is vacant?

Sorry. But its just too vague. Thanks for the tut.

[drazalon]

Ok nevermind it was all refering to the PC's IDE and channels. I got it up to the boot screen but how do i boot it? Im stuck at a screen with ending lines.. " BOOT CD FROM: " and i have no idea what to do after that.

[drazalon]

ALRIGHT! Great tutorial. I appreciate it. Though you forgot one small detail. When burning the iso image (some drives may not be compatible with the ISO Recorder) make sure you go to Properties, and Change the Recording Speed to ONE. This is apsolutely crucial otherwise youll end up with a half-written and corupted Boot Disk that wont work. I found this out the hard way :/

[flavius-aetius]

Same problem as pyro. I've got the cd made with linux as only file, CD/DVD drive connected to secondary, primary channel connected with primary plug free and waiting for the xbox. Boot to BIOS -> boot from the CD/DVD drive but it reads as if nothing is there -> reboot and select appropriate drive or input bootable material into device. I've tried reburning the CD-R, as well as booting from my 2nd CD drive with CD in it but no luck. Have I overlooked something?

[pyrodudexiii]

i made the cd but when i start up my computer it says theres no disc or insert disc.i have only my dvd drive plugged in. is there something that i might have forgot like to plug the ide cables from the xbox into the computer as well?

[emman101]

Try inserting a different disk, and see if that works. If it doesn't then make sure you did everything in the BIOS correctly and that your cd/dvd drive is in the right slot (secondary).

[ehc68]

I've gotten this far but I can't get the ISO to boot fron the CD. I went into bios and selected the CD-ROM drive to boot first, but nothing. I just get an error message saying something like Please select another boot device. Another question...my Xbox had been softmodded before but apparently another game updated the dashboard and screwed it up but you can still see most (if not all) of the files used for the mod. Should I delete these old files before modding?

[triggernum5]

No offense, but its a real pain when ppl gloss over error messages.. Word for word, and at what point during bootup these kind of things occur is what ppl need to help you.. Also, you're being to vague about your previous softmod.. What package was unstalled on it? Regardless though, deleting saves in msdash accomplishes nothing..

[slavik19]

ok i got this far and i opened my gateway gt5404 and found out it has a sata but no IDE(( it took me forever to set everything up i had this stuff loaded on laptop burned the iso and yea i couldent do anything. but i though if i bought a ide usb cable. (i bought one) and it still doesn't work. i went to the bios and set the usb to boot first but it still didn't do it.:( it said it needs to be on primary master. can you please help me maybe theres some software i can buy that could do it from the pc like when i connect the hdd it installs some drivers and still doesnt show in my computer near all the hard drives. can you please help me i just want anything to work on it even demos. cause its just sitting there :(

[triggernum5]

Linux expects to address it on /dev/hda.. You're going to need acess to a pc with IDE interface.. Does your motherboard have IDE slots?

[slavik19]

ohh man that sucks well maybe it does idk ill check later.

[izzyburkett1]

is there a way to do this on an intel mac?

[kjholoday]

=can i do this on a windows 98 computer???? im soo lost

[VzjrZ]

Yeah sure as long as you have a cd burner.

[kjholoday]

i think so but does the disc drive need to be dvd or does the disc need to be dvd?????

[VzjrZ]

No you do not need either a dvd drive or a dvd. You can use a cd burner to burn the iso to a cd. But I would consider buying a dvd burner to "backup" your games once you get the softmod installed.

[SuperHumanly]

This lets you run burned games, right...?