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[211]

My eyes hurt! I've spent the last two days reading tutorial after tutorial, but I'm still not quite sure "where to start". Yes I know step one is to flash your drive, but there's a lot of steps in that first step.

One question I have is; I see these connectivity kits for sale, do these make flashing your drive any easier? Does this bypass having a SATA driver package and whatnot?
Also, I think my drive is a BenQ. Are these easy to flash with the iXtreme flash or should I look for a different drive on ebay or something?

And for the million dollar question, would someone be so kind as to put a short step-by-step list together for me?
I don't need links to tutorials or anything, I can do the research, I just need to know where to start.

[FoxFang]

same problem here 211. I have read until now hacking xbox 360 for noobs and Jungle flasher tutorials. Alot of risking in flashing. So I think we should take it slower until gain more experience. Do you Know any tutorial for Dosflash?

[aswilbourn]

I know it can be an overwhelming task modifying your first xbox but just take your time and you'll be fine...it is actually pretty hard to brick your DVD drive. My first xbox took me nearly 2 days to do!!...it took me nearly 4 hours to remove the f*ckin case! But now I can do one in less than 15 mins from start to finish. So just take your time and research. I know you didn't want links to tutorials but I can not guide you any better then you can be by reading both

Textbooks Hacking 360s for Noobs

AND

Jungleflasher user Guide

If theres particular areas you are unsure of just let me know.

[blong579]

if you do have a beng drive then that would mean your xbox is one of the older ones. in that case a ck3 kit is not a must buy. it will make life a little easier when it comes to powering up the drive during flashing but i wouldnt buy one just for a one time flash. if you do get a ck3 and do have a beng drive you do not need the prob. so buy one with out the probe. with a benq the ck3 only lets you disconnet the drive from the xbox and use your computer as the power source instead of using the xbox. so its nice to have but not worth the money if your only going to flash a benq once or twice. you still need a via card reguardless if you have a ck3 or not.

you already have one of the easiest drives for flashing so you dont really need a new drive. you will still need to read the key from your old drive if you get a new drive or not. what you can do is buy a cheap benq on ebay (about $20) read the key off of the drive you have now and if you screw up you can always put the old drive back in.

as far as tuts go i understand your pain. here some links to some video tuts for diffrent drives. theres one for flashing the benq with iprep but i didnt see one for jungleflasher.  do a search on youtube for flashing benq with jungle flasher.  hope this helps and dont forget to save your key. if you read your key first and save the ofw.bin you can fix most of any screw ups.

also alot of guys on this forum will flash your drive for you for a small fee. you can pull your drive out and sens it to them or just send the whole xbox. that may be your best way out since your going to need to buy a card and all.

[Ranger72]

The biggest thing to remember is to always make sure you have a proper dump of your drives firmware and drive key BEFORE you eras or flash anything. If need be make multiple dumps of the drive key and back them up before you flash. Verify that each dump contains the same drive key.

As long as you have this info there is no way you can brick your console. Worst case you would have to replace your drive.


The key word here is DRIVE KEY. It is everything when it comes to drive flashing and without it your console is trashed.

[211]

Thanks for the positive replies guys. I was really nervous asking such NooB questions right out the gate.
I've had a chance to scour the web and found a really informative tutorial on another site. I'd like to link to it but I'm not sure xbox-scene's policy on outside linking. If some one would like to take a look at if for me please PM me and I'll send you the link I'd really like to know if this tut I'm looking at is outdated or not or if there's an "easier" way to flash. Otherwise if it's not against the rules I'll post it in my next reply.
But to sum up what the tut has to say, here are the steps involved and the tools needed:

Requirements:

- A desktop computer with a free PCI slot on the motherboard.
- A USB Flash Drive.
- A VIA 6421A PCI card.
- Know which drive you have (in my case it's the BenQ- already looked in the face plate hole and see the white wire)
- iPrep tool (utility, whatever you call it)

Procedure for BenQ:

1.) Install VIA 6421A PCI Card and update drivers
2.) Open the iPrep 101 (it says iPrep will automatically load ixtreme 1.6 firmware for both BenQ and Samsung DVD Drives)
3.) It goes on to explain how to format and make bootable your USB pen drive
4.)Goes on to explainhow to plug in the Xbox to your PC and boot from the USB drive. As well as step-by-step instructions for running dosflash and something about sending the "Magic Keys"
5.) Then it has you run 360FwTb.exe and flash the iExtreme 1.6 firmware

That's heavily summarized but other than specific step by step details and lots of screenshots, that's pretty much it.

Again, I'd like for someone to take a look at the tut if they would. I don't want to break any rules so I won't link to the tutorial directly.

[aswilbourn]

Don't think theres any rules about outside links. Post it and we can have a look. It sounds like the 'old school' way of doing it that I use to use before Jungle Flasher came along....ahhhh! Memories!

This post has been edited by aswilbourn: Sep 9 2009, 12:25 PM

[blong579]

you can go ahead and post the tut link. it just sounds like your using iprep instead of jungleflasher.
iprep is good method.

[Ranger72]

QUOTE(211 @ Sep 9 2009, 01:02 AM)

Thanks for the positive replies guys. I was really nervous asking such NooB questions right out the gate.
I've had a chance to scour the web and found a really informative tutorial on another site. I'd like to link to it but I'm not sure xbox-scene's policy on outside linking. If some one would like to take a look at if for me please PM me and I'll send you the link I'd really like to know if this tut I'm looking at is outdated or not or if there's an "easier" way to flash. Otherwise if it's not against the rules I'll post it in my next reply.
But to sum up what the tut has to say, here are the steps involved and the tools needed:

Requirements:

- A desktop computer with a free PCI slot on the motherboard.
- A USB Flash Drive.
- A VIA 6421A PCI card.
- Know which drive you have (in my case it's the BenQ- already looked in the face plate hole and see the white wire)
- iPrep tool (utility, whatever you call it)

Procedure for BenQ:

1.) Install VIA 6421A PCI Card and update drivers
2.) Open the iPrep 101 (it says iPrep will automatically load ixtreme 1.6 firmware for both BenQ and Samsung DVD Drives)
3.) It goes on to explain how to format and make bootable your USB pen drive
4.)Goes on to explainhow to plug in the Xbox to your PC and boot from the USB drive. As well as step-by-step instructions for running dosflash and something about sending the "Magic Keys"
5.) Then it has you run 360FwTb.exe and flash the iExtreme 1.6 firmware

That's heavily summarized but other than specific step by step details and lots of screenshots, that's pretty much it.

Again, I'd like for someone to take a look at the tut if they would. I don't want to break any rules so I won't link to the tutorial directly.

Looks about right.

You may want to look into doing it with Jungle Flasher from within Windows. It may be a little easier with less steps doing it that way.

[211]

So hopefully you don't need to register to view the tutorials. These are from the xbox320iso.com forums.
This one covers the iPrep Flash as I mentioned in the OP.
But here's one I found detailing the JungleFlash although it looks like it only covers up to 1.51.

Are these tuts legit? I'm new to the xbox360iso forums so I don't know how credible the info is there. I've been an X-S member for years though and I've always got good info here!

~EDIT~
I just cleared my cache and followed the links from above. Turns out you need to register. Its free though of course. Maybe some of you already have an account over there.
I'll try and post the tuts over here somehow...

This post has been edited by 211: Sep 10 2009, 01:15 AM

[211]

Hmmm... I'm starting to have questions.
I'll keep posting here in this thread since it's a general "help me!" thread.

Anyway, I'm reading through old posts that talk about flashing DVD drives with Kreon and something about a lot of Kreon flashed drives are getting banned due to the way different drives handle the flash? Some of these posts were from 2007 so have there been updates or does anyone know what drive will be best?

Eventually I'd like to get a drive for my PC...

[Ranger72]

QUOTE(211 @ Sep 9 2009, 11:09 PM)

Hmmm... I'm starting to have questions.
I'll keep posting here in this thread since it's a general "help me!" thread.

Anyway, I'm reading through old posts that talk about flashing DVD drives with Kreon and something about a lot of Kreon flashed drives are getting banned due to the way different drives handle the flash? Some of these posts were from 2007 so have there been updates or does anyone know what drive will be best?

Eventually I'd like to get a drive for my PC...

Kreon is a firmware for PC drives not 360 drives. This is to flash some types of Samsung PC drives so you can create backup images of original retail game disks to your PC. A Kreon flashed PC drive does not go into a 360.

[211]

QUOTE(Ranger72 @ Sep 10 2009, 05:37 AM)

Kreon is a firmware for PC drives not 360 drives. This is to flash some types of Samsung PC drives so you can create backup images of original retail game disks to your PC. A Kreon flashed PC drive does not go into a 360.

Yes, I realize that kreon is for PC drives. I was directing my question toward PC DVD drives; sorry if that was not clarified.
Unless I misunderstood the threads I’ve been reading there’s something about some drives (which used to be stable at creating backups) that now mishandle some of the newer encryption.
Again, I may be off base or totally misunderstanding the original topic but does this ring a bell for anyone? I’ll try to find the exact post when I get home; it’s from the XS forums back in ’07.

[Ranger72]

kreon PC drive with the latest Kreon firmware and the latest Xbox Backup Creator and new ixtreme firmware makes backups as safe as can be.

A couple years ago there was a problem with 360 custom firmware reporting wrong data with Kreon rips. This has long since been fixed with any ixtreme firmware out within the past year or so.

[211]

Ah! Roger Ranger

Thanks for the clarification.