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Thread: Can I change my Xbox BIOS without damaging my file system?

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    Default Can I change my Xbox BIOS without damaging my file system?

    Hiya, I have a chip modded Xbox, and have put a 500GB hard drive into it. Everything works fine (Evolution X M8+), except the guy who put the drive in did not know what he was doing, so the F drive is set to just 127GB.

    I have backed up all the games on the F drive, so that I can update the bios to one that is compatible with LBA48, then I can repartition and format the hard drive with 32 sectors, and access the full 500GB. My big question is this:

    If I flash to a new BIOS compatible with LBA48, will that screw up the file system I already have on the Xbox or anything, or do I just flash the new bios and reboot the system and everything will work as before? Also, is there anything else wrong with my plan as described above?



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    Quote Originally Posted by jfahlman View Post
    Hiya, I have a chip modded Xbox, and have put a 500GB hard drive into it. Everything works fine (Evolution X M8+), except the guy who put the drive in did not know what he was doing, so the F drive is set to just 127GB.

    I have backed up all the games on the F drive, so that I can update the bios to one that is compatible with LBA48, then I can repartition and format the hard drive with 32 sectors, and access the full 500GB. My big question is this:

    If I flash to a new BIOS compatible with LBA48, will that screw up the file system I already have on the Xbox or anything, or do I just flash the new bios and reboot the system and everything will work as before? Also, is there anything else wrong with my plan as described above?
    flash with a .67 bios, then format ONLY G drive.

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    Thanks Mick! From all the other posts I have read, they all talk about formatting the F drive as a big drive, nobody mentioned G at all. Can you give me a little more info why you say t do the G?

    If I do a big G, can I just wipe out the F then? I don't really want to have a 127GB F and a 313GB G, I'd really prefer to have one big drive.

    Can you confirm that it's o.k. to go beyond 256GB so long as I format using 32 sectors?

    Thanks for your time and thought by the way, I have spent over eight hours researching all this, it's nice to get some sort of discussion and confirmation!

    P.S. If anybody cares, the chip I have is a Xenium with the numbers 0449 05 & m6 & MT on it. I know from an application I installed that the Evox I have is M8+, whatever all that means!

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    Now am I flashing the Xenium, or the TSOP or both?

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    do as mick says and make a g drive
    large f drives are unstable if you dont use correct bios
    but if you want a large f make sure you save the apps if any on thier
    also if you have m8+ on thier check to see your m/b is not a 1.6b cause you will need a bios to suit

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    Quote Originally Posted by mickc View Post
    do as mick says and make a g drive
    large f drives are unstable if you dont use correct bios
    but if you want a large f make sure you save the apps if any on thier
    also if you have m8+ on thier check to see your m/b is not a 1.6b cause you will need a bios to suit
    Yes mate, flash Xenium only!
    Last edited by Micksxboxmods; 29-02-08 at 02:39 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfahlman View Post

    Can you confirm that it's o.k. to go beyond 256GB so long as I format using 32 sectors?
    yes, if you know how to!
    better off with 2 partitions F & G in your case mate.
    Cheers
    Mick

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    O.k., great, thanks so much guys, VERY helpful.

    1. Since I have a 500GB drive, with a 137GB F: already used up, aren't I going to have to go through the extra hoops to make a big drive anyways, since 500-137=363, and 363>256?

    2. I might as well flash my Xenium 0.67 anyways right, since I'll need it for any partition to be bigger than 256GB right? Theoretically, it wouldn't hurt to have the 0.67 even if I only had a 100GB drive anyways right?

    3. My mobo is 1.0, so I don't have to worry about the 1.6 nonsense, FYI.

    4. I have some working games on my F:. Can I just copy those folders to my PC, then hook the Xbox hard drive up to the PC & wipe out the 137GB partition, put it back in the Xbox, create the bigger partition(s), format those, and then copy my games back and they will work or no?

    5. I have XBEpartitioner, which is what I'll need to use to partition/repartition my drives. Is there any sort of convenient and simple tool I can use for the fromatting job, or do I have to mess with the weird FTP formatting that I have seen in a number of forum posts all over the web?

    6. If I don't touch my C, E, X, Y, & Z partitions, and the Xbox works now, it should stay working right?

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    7. Am seeing very conflicting forums posts about what will happen with a new Bios, even the FAQ pages on the modchip manufcaturer's pages conflict. If I flash .6 or .67 to my Xenium, will the Xbox then boot up to software in the BIOS, or will I still go straight to my Evolution-X dashboard?

    8. Does Xenium make anything other than an "Ice" chip? Some places refer to them as Xenium Ice, some do not, and their own site is also unclear. I have some sort of Xenium modchip, does that automatically mean it must be an "Ice"?

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    9. If I have both an F & G drive, when I go to my Evolution X dashboard to play a game on one of my drives, will it bring up a listing that includes everything on both drives, or will I have to navigate between two lists, with the games on the F: drive on one list and the ones on the G: drive on a separate list? That would be a pain, that's what I am primarily hoping to avoid!

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfahlman View Post
    9. If I have both an F & G drive, when I go to my Evolution X dashboard to play a game on one of my drives, will it bring up a listing that includes everything on both drives, or will I have to navigate between two lists, with the games on the F: drive on one list and the ones on the G: drive on a separate list? That would be a pain, that's what I am primarily hoping to avoid!
    depends on your autoinstaller.
    I know that SlaYers 2.7 will as I wrote it!

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfahlman View Post
    7. Am seeing very conflicting forums posts about what will happen with a new Bios, even the FAQ pages on the modchip manufcaturer's pages conflict. If I flash .6 or .67 to my Xenium, will the Xbox then boot up to software in the BIOS, or will I still go straight to my Evolution-X dashboard?

    8. Does Xenium make anything other than an "Ice" chip? Some places refer to them as Xenium Ice, some do not, and their own site is also unclear. I have some sort of Xenium modchip, does that automatically mean it must be an "Ice"?
    whats conflicting, is it xbox-scene you are referring to, if so ignore it as there are way too many wankers on there that know f all!

    boot up to software in bios...you've lost me?

    Your bios dictates what partition and what file to load up as a dash.

    Xenuim's are not popular in Oz mate. post a piccy and we should be able to tell what it is.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jfahlman View Post
    O.k., great, thanks so much guys, VERY helpful.

    1. Since I have a 500GB drive, with a 137GB F: already used up, aren't I going to have to go through the extra hoops to make a big drive anyways, since 500-137=363, and 363>256? YES

    2. I might as well flash my Xenium 0.67 anyways right, since I'll need it for any partition to be bigger than 256GB right? Theoretically, it wouldn't hurt to have the 0.67 even if I only had a 100GB drive anyways right? .67 on 100GB is a waste of time as it will only have F(not G)

    3. My mobo is 1.0, so I don't have to worry about the 1.6 nonsense, FYI.

    4. I have some working games on my F:. Can I just copy those folders to my PC, then hook the Xbox hard drive up to the PC & wipe out the 137GB partition, put it back in the Xbox, create the bigger partition(s), format those, and then copy my games back and they will work or no? FTP to PC and then FTP back, very slow though.

    5. I have XBEpartitioner, which is what I'll need to use to partition/repartition my drives. Is there any sort of convenient and simple tool I can use for the fromatting job, or do I have to mess with the weird FTP formatting that I have seen in a number of forum posts all over the web?XBpartitioner will do the job fine

    6. If I don't touch my C, E, X, Y, & Z partitions, and the Xbox works now, it should stay working right?unless you fill past the 256GB mark on G drive.
    my answers in red

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    O.k., so apparently I cannot simply flash my bios, since I have a Winbond chip on it. When I try to, it simply hangs on the "erasing" stage and does nothing more, although thankfully, resetting the Xbox brings me back to where I want to go, so it's not managing to start the erase process at all. After many, many, many hours of research, apparently I need to use something called Raincoat, which I have downloaded.

    Can anybody tell me exactly how to use Raincoat to perform the function I desire (flashing a bios with a winbond chip on it)?

    Am I correct in beliveing that I will somehow need to install Linux on something before I can use Raincoat? Is it my PC or Xbox that needs linux?

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    if you cant flash with what you have raincoat maynot help you
    your flasher needs the chip id in its system files
    some of the first windbonds never had the chip write enable pin active so you will need to remove the chip and flash with a programer
    the price of chips it is easier to replace

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    Quote Originally Posted by mickc View Post
    if you cant flash with what you have raincoat maynot help you
    your flasher needs the chip id in its system files
    some of the first windbonds never had the chip write enable pin active so you will need to remove the chip and flash with a programer
    the price of chips it is easier to replace
    mickc is right here, raincoat will do nothing to your windbond chip, would be heaps less hassle just to replace the chip.

    I thought you had a xenuim???

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    Attached is a picture of my system information, in particular, the BIOS section. I gather this means I have a an EvolutionX bios, 256MB in size, is that correct?


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    Attached is a picture of what happens when I try and flash the bios, the system just hangs here at erasing for as long as you let it. I'm pretty sure it's not really erasing anything, because if I hard reset the system, it boots up just fine.

    The info in this picture is what makes me think the problem with flashing is due to the Winbond chip being on the Xenium modchip.



    I'll post actual photographs of my modchip later, but right now my camera is dead and needs to be recharged. Rest assured, the words "Xenium 0449 05", "m6", and "MT" are all stamped on the top of this white coloured modchip.

    Does this clarify the problem to anybody, why I can't write the .67 BIOS, and then repartition my F drive, and then format it with 32k clusters so it's safe to use the ful 500GB drive without overwriting when it hits 256GB of data?

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    I tried to cut and paste the contents of my evox.ini file in here, but both times when I tried the post just showed up as blank, so maybe it's too big for the forums to handle or something. Anyways, I had tried adding a flashbios line to the evox.ini file in different places, each time copying over to the Xbox and then resatrting it, but none of my three or four attempts did anything so I went back to the original evox.ini.

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    According to my Xbox startup menu, I'm running EvolutionX V+3935.

    Slayers 2.7 says I have M8 plus official .06. kernel is 1.00.5838.01

    Last edited by jfahlman; 05-03-08 at 05:47 AM.

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