Hard Drive

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The original Xbox hard disk drive was 8GB in size. Later releases, 1.3 and 1.4's had Seagate 10GB drives; however, only the first 8GB of the drive was used.

Models

Xbox Version Manufacturer Model Number Capacity
1.0?  ?  ? 8G
1.3+ Seagate  ? 10G

Partitions

The Xbox hard disk contains multiple partitions. Unlike a PC, which typically contains either a Master Boot Record or GUID Partition Table to specify the partition information, the Xbox kernel uses a fixed partition layout. The file system used on the Xbox is FATX, a variant of FAT16/32 developed by Microsoft specifically for the Xbox.

Drive Letter Description Offset (bytes) Size (bytes) Filesystem
N/A Config Area 0x00000000 0x00080000 Fixed Structure
X Game Cache 0x00080000 0x2ee00000 FATX
Y Game Cache 0x2ee80000 0x2ee00000 FATX
Z Game Cache 0x5dc80000 0x2ee00000 FATX
C System 0x8ca80000 0x1f400000 FATX
E Data 0xabe80000 0x131f00000 FATX

FIXME:

  • Add info on how extended partitions are added.

Locking

The hard drives in the Xbox are locked with a key which is unique to the specific Xbox. The drive is unlocked by the kernel at boot.

FIXME:

  • Provide more info on locking/unlocking procedure.
  • Provide details about the key and how it can be derived from the EEPROM data.

How To: Backup an HDD

FIXME

Further Reading