Review: Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Shell

[bandit]

Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Shell
Manufacturer: N/A
Site: Buy from LighTake (black) / Buy from LighTake (red) / Buy from LighTake (pink) / Buy from LighTake (white) / Buy from LighTake (teal) / Buy from LighTake (green) / Buy from LighTake (blue) / Buy from LighTake (black w/transfer cable)
Price: $10.28 (black) / $7.40 (all other colors) / $18.99 (w/transfer cable)

Pre-installed HDDs with Shell Case
Site: Buy from LightTake (250GB)
Price: $57.20

Overview :

Features :

• Compatible only with Xbox 360 Slim consoles
• Replacing your old, damaged, broken hard drive or case
• Ability to use your own HDD or old Xbox 360 HDDs
• More room to grow your entertainment
• Play, watch, save, store – expand your entertainment possibilities
• Plenty of room to store all of your favorites from Live!
• It’s the easiest way to get the most from your Xbox 360

Quality/Usability : For those who purchased or received an Xbox 360 Slim 4GB version, will sooner or later find out that they will probably need more HDD space, once you factor in downloading content, movies and game saves. You can go out and spend $130USD on Microsoft's own 250GB HDD but like all OEM products, they are overpriced. You can even use your own HDD but this requires some precision aiming to get the HDD to land correctly onto the connections, as seen below:

Just dropping in the HDD into the Xbox 360 Slim is not stable as the HDD can wobble around inside the bay and may even damage the connections. If there is a way, there are accessories. Never count out 3rd party manufacturers. To help gamers fix the wobble issue and to provide a cheaper solution and alternative, there is the Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Shell. This allows you to use your own HDD or from an old Xbox 360 without the risk of damaging the HDD or Xbox 360 Slim console. The case is made of plastic. There are no screws to hold hard drive in place and no screws to hold case together.

If you're using your own hard drive that you bought from a store or had laying around (it must be Western Digital 2.5"), you'll need to do more than just dropping the HDD into the Xbox 360 Slim. The new HDD will need to be formatted to work with the Xbox 360 Slim console using HDDHackr and a PC.

The following Western Digital (WD) HDD's work on the Xbox 360 with HDDHackr (20GB, 60GB, 120GB or 250GB):

• WD Scorpio Series BEVS/BEAS
• WD Scorpio Blue Series BEVS/BEVT/BPVT
• WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
• WD VelociRaptor Series
• WD AV-25 Series BUDT

How to use HDDHackr : (file attached and does not contain any copyrighted files)
- HDDHackr is made only for real MS-DOS, not for Windows Command Prompt or even Windows XP/Vista/7!

HddHacker supports two flashing modes, Auto and Manual. Typing HddHackr at a DOS prompt will start auto mode. In auto mode all hard drives will be detected automatically. In manual mode you can enter all the parameters used for flashing by hand.

The following help screen is displayed if you start HddHacker with a wrong number of arguments:

HDDHACKR [C|D|F|R] [PORT] [DRIVE POS] [SECTOR FILE] [RESTORE FILE]
C: Create Partitions 0/2/3
D: Dump sector 16-22 from XBOX360 HDD to file
F: Flash Western Digital firmware
R: Restore Western Digital firmware
PORT: Port to send command to e.g. 09F0
DRIVE POS: A0 for Master, B0 for Slave
SECTOR FILE: Sector dump file e.g. HDDSS.BIN
RESTORE FILE: Firmware restore file e.g. UNDO.BIN

Example for create, dump, flash and restore:
HDDHACKR C 09F0 A0
HDDHACKR D 09F0 A0 HDDSS.BIN
HDDHACKR F 09F0 A0 HDDSS.BIN UNDO.BIN
HDDHACKR R 09F0 A0 UNDO.BIN

Explanation of the Parameters

[C|D|F|R]
- this will set the mode of operation, it is recommended to first try to dump the XBOX360 hard drive data, if the dump will fail, it is highly unlikely that a flash or restore will succeed on the Western Digital drive

[PORT]
- the port to which the Hard Drive is connected, a port number should always be entered in hexadecimal and have 4 hex digits, valid ports are: 01F0, 09F0, .....
- this option can be used if your PCI adapter card or on board SATA ports are not identified by the auto mode

[DRIVE POS]
- on SATA ports this value is always A0, cause you can only connect a master drive to a SATA port, so for SATA you will always type A0 here

[SECTOR FILE]
- name of the sector 16-22 dump file better known as HDDSS.BIN

[RESTORE FILE]
- name of the firmware restore file e.g. UNDO.BIN

Using HddHacker in manual mode
* Dumping the HDDSS.BIN file *
Boot to MS-DOS from a writeable medium (like a floppy or UBS Stick).
Connect an *original* Xbox360 HDD to your SATA controller. Make sure it is the only SATA device that is connected. Now run 'HDDHACKR D [PORT] A0 HDDSS.BIN' and it will create the file 'HDDSS.BIN' and save it to the path you've started HddHacker from.

* Creating Partitions 0/2/3 *
In auto-mode the Partition 0/2/3 will be created automaticly to make the drive compatible with "Xplorer360" and XBOX360 Console. In manual-mode you have to type 'HDDHACKR C [PORT] A0'.

* Flashing your Western Digital *
Turn off your PC and connect the Western Digital hard drive. Boot to MS-DOS again.
Type 'HDDHACKR F [PORT] A0 HDDSS.BIN UNDO.BIN' from the same path you have saved the HDDSS.BIN file to. This will create an 'UNDO.BIN' file that you need if you want to undo the hack and flash your firmware back to the original state.

* Restoring your WD to original state *
If you don't want to use your modded WD HDD in your XBOX360 anymore and you want to flash it back to its original size/state, then you can now do so. Boot to MS-DOS and run 'HDDHACKR R [PORT] A0 UNDO.BIN'. This will use the UNDO.BIN file you created before to restore the drive to its original state.

* Vendor Intro Power Brute for misflashed drives *
To enter the recovery mode you should boot to MS-DOS, connect your hard drive to PC and type 'HDDHACKR R [PORT] A0 UNDO.BIN'. If the hard drive is misflashed you will be prompted with:
"Western Digital Vendor Intro failed on port [PORT]"
"Do you want to resend the command until the drive responds (Y/N)?"
Press YES, disconnect the hard drive from power and connect it again.
You should get Status 0x50 and the drive will be reflashed.

If you plan on using your hard drive from your old Xbox 360, you won't need to do any formatting to get it to work as its already formatted but you'll need tools to help you dismantle the old hard drive case. I suggest picking up the Shinobii Tool Kit to make things easier. This has all the tools needed and more, which can be used for other electronic devices. Below are instructions on how to dismantle your old Xbox 360 hard drive: (performing this will void your old Xbox 360's hard drive warranty)

Opening the Xbox 360 drive enclosure

To open your Xbox 360 hard drive, you will need a Torx T6 screwdriver. Remove the 3 screws and the 4th screw is behind the hologram sticker. You can either poke through the sticker or remove the sticker. Either one of these will void the warranty on the hard drive:


You can now remove the top cover. Next, you have to remove 4 screws from the metal plate. These require a Torx T10 screwdriver:


You can now remove the metal plate. All that is left is to slide the hard drive out.


To insert the new Xbox 360 Slim HDD Case, simple remove the bottom grille plate from the bottom of the Xbox 360. Pulling this plate back will reveal the hard drive bay. Simply insert the new hard drive case into the bay and push it in until you hear a click. This click will let you know that the HDD is in place and connected to the Xbox 360 Slim. Just make sure that he ribbon is facing out. This allows you to grab and pull out the hard drive when you need to.

Once you format a new hard drive using HDDHackr or removed the hard drive from your old Xbox 360 hard drive, you can insert it into the Xbox 360 Slim HDD case. Simply place the HDD inside the case and snap the cover to the case. Since there are no screws to hold the HDD in place, you can get some double sided mounting tape and cut off two small rectangle pieces and place it on the inside of the case to prevent the HDD from moving. Once the cover is snapped on, its fit snuggly and will not easily come off. When inserting the hard drive into the Xbox 360 Slim, the connector goes in first. Once inserted, push down on the hard drive until you here it click. The tab on the hard drive shell case allows you to easily remove the hard drive when needed.

Conclusion : Overall, the Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Shell is a must have for those planning to take their old Xbox 360 hard drive or their own and placing it into the Xbox 360 Slim. The case gives support for the HDD and fits perfectly into the Xbox 360 Slim. Even if you purchase a pre-installed aftermarket 250GB Xbox 360 Slim HDD, you're only paying $57. That's more than half the price of what Microsoft would charge you for their Official 250GB hard drive.

What I have noticed in our video was that a lot of people have asked if this would void your warranty and would you get banned. Lets start with the warranty concern. You will NOT void your warranty on your Xbox 360 Slim. If your Xbox 360 Slim fails and needs to be sent to MS to be repaired, simply remove the HDD. Nothing is permanent and MS won't know it was installed. The only warranty you will void however is your old Xbox 360 hard drive. There is a screw behind the warranty sticker so this would need to be removed or punctured to get to it. If you're going to use your old hard drive, you probably don't care by now as the warranty has probably expired.

As for being banned, you will NOT get banned. There is no hacking or cheating involved and no change the Xbox 360 firmware/dashboard. You're simply increasing storage space. The concept is the same as buying Microsoft's own 250GB hard drive just that you're using own you and more work is required. With the case of the old Xbox 360 hard drive, just think of it as putting it in a new case. So do not be afraid.

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[vjukumar1]

Most of the time I spend this Review: Xbox 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Shell because I am hardware of engineer I like this profession and It's my dream to know about every things of hardware