Original XBOX Hard Drive Upgrade

This instructable details the installation of a larger hard drive into a soft-modded original XBox.

Here I recount my experience upgrading the original factory hard drive of the XBox to a WD Caviar Blue 500 GB Desktop (3.5") drive (WD5000AAKB).

Step 1: Parts / Tools

For this instructable the following parts and tools are required:

- A Torx screwdriver
- A Molex hard drive power cable "Y" splitter
- A new hard drive for installation
- A modded XBox
- Chimp XBox Hard Drive cloning software (available at "usual places")

A list of compatible hard drives can be found at the Xbox Hard Drive Compatibility Chart.

Details on soft-modding the Xbox can be found in my previous instructable, Original XBOX Softmodding.

Comments

[gwood1234]

Hi. Can this be done using a laptop hard drive? I have an old G4 iBook lying around with a 60gb drive that I could use! Thanks

[dfalk]

Does its support 500gb??

[jgosselin]

the fact he completed the instructable and says its working with his partition layout. your answer is yes.

[The Dark Lord]

Can it be done without partitioning?

[wolfemanpa]

There are a couple things that need to be pointed out that are not in this tutorial and others I have seen. After a softmod is performed, there is not automatically an Apps folder created, in fact, one would be led to believe that a directory named APPLICATIONS, would be there given the evox dashboard listing, along with an EMULATORS, GAMES, et al.

You must install the chimp folder via ftp into a directory named "Apps". and the linux config file inside the chimp folder into the root of the E directory. Otherwise you will get errors when booting chimp and trying to start the app.

The other point is, well more of a question really, how do you merge the resulting partitions? I can not install my games or emulators, as far as I can tell, on any other partition than the E partition... so how do you make use of all that extra space if after the clone, you are left with a 4GB sized E partition?

[Jon316]

This is really easy to do all you have to do is connect hdd to computer and use xboxhdm. I did though explore some tuttorials first just to get comfortable with xboxhdm.

[ricardo10452]

While my HDD is cloning, the screen goes black. How will I know when the cloning is done? Is there an on screen message? When I hit the button on the controller it goes straight to the menu screen. Does this mean its done or did I interrupt the process? Any information will be highly appreciated. Thanks! =)

[MichaeLeon88]

Trial and error is a little scary. I had to plug the jumper back into the hard drive to restore it to master for the dashboard to fully load.
Otherwise I was given the xbox needs service screen.

[MichaeLeon88]

I wish it was as easy as clone master to slave. You have to select a few settings before it does. I was kinda lost but I just said yes to everything.

[bjk311]

Can i use the same HDD listed above for my xbox or does it have to be specific version?

If so, how can i find out which version xbox i have?


thanks for the help

[zack247]

any IDE hard drive should work, so long as its properly formatted.

[Treborabc]

You can do this much more easily with xboxhdm and a ftp client

[Snaffle J. Bean]

Will this keep my softmod, or will I need to re-softmod my Xbox after I put a new hard drive in?

[myles_h]

The new hard drive will be cloned from the old one (Step 6), so no, you shouldn't have to. Good luck.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

Okay. One last question: I'm going to be using an old hard drive with data on it from a previous computer. Will I have to format this hard drive, or will Chimp do it?

[Sirppi]

Thanks a lot (: i finally managed to change the HDD using this tut (:

[junits15]

I believe its an IDE cable :)