Formatting an Xbox Hard Drive on a Windows Computer

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2006-10-06 05:40pm

So, I have a hard drive that my little brother was previously using as his Xbox drive before he got a better one, and now I want to format it so I can use it as a second hard drive on my desktop. The problem is that no matter how I set the drive, I can't any of our computers to recognize the drive long enough for me to wipe it.

Any suggestions?

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-10-06 06:29pm

Should just be a standard IDE drive, nothing funky about them at all. Check the connectors.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-10-06 08:34pm

It may be a long shot, but perhaps you could use Dban Nuke to format it? Handy little linux based program made specifically for wiping any bootable hard drive clean. Only caveat is once you burn it to a disc the machine has to be bootable from the cd. (I'm not so sure about the X-box having this capability).

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-10-06 10:27pm

If I remember right, the Xbox hard drive was actually locked. I seem to recall reading an article about some intrepid hacker who wound up powering up the Xbox with the hard drive still attached, then very carefully unplugging the IDE ribbon and then plugging it into his computer, which was then itself turned on.

In doing so, he got the Xbox to send the hard drive the secret unlock code which would then permit access to the hard drive from then on.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2006-10-06 10:58pm

Vendetta wrote:Should just be a standard IDE drive, nothing funky about them at all. Check the connectors.

That's what I thought at first. Heck, I even set it in an old external CD-R mount with the top off (suitably isolated as to not not be an issue) so I could make sure with my own eyes. It was connected, and the computer could detect it, it just couldn't do anything to it.

Uraniun235 wrote:If I remember right, the Xbox hard drive was actually locked. I seem to recall reading an article about some intrepid hacker who wound up powering up the Xbox with the hard drive still attached, then very carefully unplugging the IDE ribbon and then plugging it into his computer, which was then itself turned on.

In doing so, he got the Xbox to send the hard drive the secret unlock code which would then permit access to the hard drive from then on.

That might be the issue here, and me without an Xbox handy.
Just for clarification if I can get my hands on one (I'm sure a friend in the area can give me some help in that regard), that's IDE ribbon from the Xbox and into the computer, correct?

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-10-06 11:21pm

I know that 2.5 IDE laptop drives can be locked, but I wasn't aware that 3.5 desktop drives could.
Can all 3.5 drives be locked, or is this something specific to the drives made for the XBox?