The release of the 120GB HDD for the Xbox 360 was something we’ve (read: fanboys) been waiting for since the 360 was released. But $179 is a lot for a HDD that we can purchase for much cheaper. Alas, the interwebs have shown me the light and there is a hack to add on a much cheaper 120GB HDD, Western Digital Scorpio BEVS-LAT SATA 2.5-inch PC/laptop, to my beloved Xbox 360.

• Xbox 360 250gb

Attached is the latest version of the hddhackr. It works with the new 120 gb signature. However, this current version can not dump the hddss.bin file automatically from that drive, you’ll have to manually dump sectors 16-22 with a tool like winhex and save them as ‘hddss.bin’. After that, continue as normal with the hddhackr and everything will be fine.

Anyway, Xbox-Scene has a good guide on how you can make your own working 120GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 at a much lower price. First you will need to get hold of a Western Digital Scorpio BEVS-LAT drive (it's not too expensive and it's the only drive that is known to work). May 16, 2018  Download HDDSS. Bin for 160gb samsung. Deal with my Hitachi tried to transfer data an old 20GB hdd my anyway get.Voici le temps attendu HDDSS.bin de 250Go afin de flasher vos disques dur WD Scorpio Blue ou Black pour qu'il soit reconnu sur votre Xbox 360 comme un disque dur officiel.I don't think I can link the SS.

Also, I’d like to stress that there are 2 versions of the WD BEVS drive out there: the ‘RST’ and the ‘LAT’ version. This tool currently ONLY supports the ‘LAT’ version ! You can find on the sticker of the HDD which version it is. I’ll hope to be able to support the RST version of the drive in a future version of this tool.

From the official readme:

Hddhacker v0.90 by the Specialist.

* DISCLAIMER:
This tool has only been tested by me. It worked for me. While great care has been taken, this tool may contain bugs and therefore may seriously harm your HDD. Use at own risk !!!

* What: This tool will allow you to use HDD’s that are not ‘certified’ by Microsoft. This specific tool is written for use with the Western Digital BEVS series only !

* How to use: Get yourself a Western Digital SATA BEVS HDD. To use this tool, you need a HDD security sector file (‘hddss.bin’). If you don’t have one, here’s how to create one from a valid xbox 360 HDD:
– Dumping the hddss.bin file
Boot to dos from a writeable medium (like a floppy). Connect an *original* xbox 360 HDD to your SATA controller. Make sure it is the only SATA device that is connected. Now run ‘hddhackr -d’. This will create a file ‘hddss.bin’ and it will save it to the path you’ve started the hddhackr from.
– Modding your Western Digital
Now turn off your PC and connect the Western Digital and boot to dos again.
Type ‘hddhackr -f’ from the same path you have saved the hddss.bin file to.
This will flash your FW. It will ask if you want to create an undo file. It is advised to do so. This will create an ‘undo.bin’ file that you need if you want to undo the hack.
– Check if it worked
Shut down your pc, reboot again to dos and again type ‘hddhackr -f’. It should now tell you that the drive should work in your x360. If so, connect it to your x360 and go to your dashboard/system/memory where you should be able to format the drive.
– Restoring your WD to original state
If you don’t want to use your modded WD in your x360 anymore and you want to flash it back to its original size, then you can now do so. Boot to dos again and run ‘hddhackr -u’. This will use the undo.bin file you created before to restore the drive to its original state.

FAQ:
Q. I get an error when I try to dump hddss.bin from a 120 gb HDD.
A. This version can’t dump from an elite drive yet. You’ll have to dump sectors 16-22 manually with a tool like winhex, save them as ‘hddss.bin’ and then continue like normal, with the hddhackr.

Q. Will this tool allow me to connect a 500 gb drive to my x360 ?
A. No. The information on sector 16 is signed and can’t be changed. You can only use size where you have a valid signature for. In otherwords, if a bigger HDD comes out, you can use that signature.

Q. With which HDD’s does this work ?
A. It currently only works with the ‘LAT’ version of the Western Digital Scorpio BEVS series. The ‘RST’ version of that drive is currently NOT supported

Q. Do I need the same size WD HDD as the size on sector 16 states ?
A. No. You can use bigger HDD’s, but you can’t use more than the size stated in sector 16. You can NOT use smaller HDD’s than the size on sector 16 states. For example, you can use a 40 GB HDD with a sector 16 from a 20 GB HDD, but not the other way around of course.

Q. Can I use the HDD in my PC again ?
A. Of course. The tool comes with an ‘undo’ option, that will restore the original size. For example, you use a 40 gb WD HDD, you used hddss.bin from a valid xbox 20 gb HDD, so the tool will transform your 40 GB HDD into a 20 gb HDD. However, you can restore it to 40 gb anytime you want with the undo option.

Q. I have a x360 core version and want to use this hack to buy a cheap HDD. But how do i connect it ?
A. If you don’t have a premium, you can make the HDD internal. One great tutorial that will show you how to do this here.

Xbox 360 250gb

Q. The tool doesn’t detect my HDD !
A. First, make sure you are running it from dos, not from a dos box under windows. If the hddhackr does not autodetect your SATA controller (if you have an nForce chipset for example), then you can manually edit the hddhackr to support it. To do this:

1. Find the two ports that your SATA chipset uses for data communication (see the MTKediting thread for more detailed info on how to do this), basically, you need to run ‘msinfo32’, then go to storage/scsi or storage/ide, depending on your SATA chipset and then look for the two ports that have a difference of 7 between them. For example:
I/O-port 0x0000EFE0-0x0000EFE7
I/O-port 0x0000EFAC-0x0000EFAF
I/O-port 0x0000EFA0-0x0000EFA7
I/O-port 0x0000EFA8-0x0000EFAB
I/O-port 0x0000EF90-0x0000EF9F
I/O-port 0x0000E800-0x0000E8FF

In this example the two ports you are looking for (with difference of 7) are 0xEFE0 and 0xEFA0
2. Open the hddhackr.com in a hexeditor and search for the string ‘port=MPRT’ (it is at the end of the file). Now, that ‘MPRT’ string is 4 bytes long: 0x4D 0x50 0x52 0x54. You have to replace these four bytes with the 2 port numbers (which are each 2 bytes long, so you replace the 4 bytes in total), so in the example above you replace these four bytes with: ‘0xEF 0xE0 0xEF 0xA0’.
3. If you then start the hddhackr, it will automatically detect that you have edited that string, so it will skip the SATA autodetector and instead use the port numbers you’ve supplied.

Q. Could you do this for my Seagate, Maxtor, Samsung or whatever drive too?
A. Yes, but I don’t have plans to do so. The cheapest WD drive (40 gb) ships for about $50 and thus is one of the cheapest. It is a lot of work to
convert this tool for usage with other brands and I don’t think it is worth the trouble.

Q. How do I find out if my BEVS drive is a ‘LAT’ drive ?
A. It’s printed on the sticker of the drive, in the model name. For example: WD1200BEVS-60LAT0

Q. Will there be support for the RST drive in the future ?
A. I’ll hope to receive an RST drive soon and then hopefully can find out what’s going wrong and be able to support it in a future version of this tool.

Q. Where can I donate ?
A. Nowhere. Just enjoy

Thanks to: Team MODFREAKz for his initial logic board experiments, Loser for his findings on the sector 16, Antman1 and Rutger1413 for supplying info about the new 120 gb signature and everybody else at XS/XBH.
TS in april 2007

via Xbox Scene

With all the new content for download and the ability to copy games to the hard drive, 20GB just would not cut it. So I decided to invest in an upgrade. I like to do a lot of research into things before I just jump in, especially expensive purchases.
A retail 120GB hard drive for the Xbox 360 cost around 130$. That seems somewhat expensive to me since I can get a 1TB hard drive for that much. I did some searching and finally found an answer I could live with.
A 'do it yourself' 120GB Xbox 360 hard drive upgrade for $50!!NO MOD CHIP IS REQUIRED!
DISCLAIMER: Do this mod at your own risk! You could damage your Xbox or your computer. You could lose your data, get banned from Xbox Live, void your warranty, the authorities take you to prison, Steve Balmer will hold you down while Bill Gates spits in your eye, yada, yada... Don't blame me if any of this happens!
Seriously, I did not have much on my hard drive that I would mind losing. This will void the warranty on the hard drive. I just paid for another 13 months of Xbox Live, so I was a little nervous... but I have not been kicked yet!
Some games have content and save games that are media locked. This means that it will not work if it has been moved to another media (new hard drive, memory card, etc.). I have not experienced it yet, but I have heard reports of it from others.