After all the weeks of trouble I went through to get my games to backup, I decided I would write this tutorial, hopefully to help out people who (like me) found this task to be almost impossible .

This might also be useful for people who (a) Don't want to buy a pre-flashed Samsung, or (b) Have a spare non-working 360 around.  This tutorial will tell you how to make backups of your 360 games, using only your Hitachi 360 DVD drive.  As it turns out, you cannot make backups using ISO-Buster, or Xbox Backup Creator with this drive, because the game partition cannot be unlocked.  Instead I will be using a different app, which many people are probably familiar with .

OK, lets get started...


You're going to need:

- 1 Torx Size 10 Screwdriver -
- 1 Xbox 360 with Hitachi drive, working or bricked -
- 1 Decent Length SATA cable -
- 1 Small Flat-Head Screwdriver -
- 1 PC With SATA Inputs On Motherboard -
- 1 Slax Custom ModeB CD (Optional if your drive has latest FW) -
- 1 Copy Of WxRipper -
- 1 Windows/Vista Based OS Installed -
- 1 Data/Video DVD+R DL Atleast 7.5GB In Size -
- 1 Philips-Head Screwdriver -
- 1-2Hrs Of Spare Time -


First you will need to set everything up, here are the download locations for the various applications required:

Slax Custom ModeB CD: http://rapidshare.com/files/8454344/pSlax21.iso.html

WxRipper:http://www.dwl.xbox-scene.com/xbox360pc … er-1.2.rar

(Optional, if you can modify your own) Required Layout File:http://xbox-fusion.net/layout.rar

Once you have these files, you will need to open your 360.  Here is a good tutorial:

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdo … 10&p=3  -  Only go as far as the second page.

Now that you have the 360 opened, you will need to connect it to the power brick and a video cable.  Place the 360 near your PC and connect the SATA cable from your 360 drive to your PC's SATA socket.  You may need to remove the drive from the 360 first, to make sure the cable will reach, and that you have enough access to the drive.  Next, use the philips-head screwdriver to remove the four screws at the sides of the 360 drive.

Now you have two options:  If you have the latest FW, follow (a).  If you have a slightly older FW, follow (b).


A:  Power on your 360, and eject the DVD drive.  Then disconnect the power brick from the 360, so that the drive stays open when the power is cut-off.  Power on your 360 and PC.  The 360 drive is now in ModeB.  This means it can be read in windows like a regular DVD drive.  When you reach windows, your drive will be detected and installed.


                                                                                        OR


B:  Burn the Slax Custom ISO to a CD, eject it, and turn off your PC.  Turn on your 360 and PC.  Insert the Slax CD and wait for the PC to boot from it.  You will get a screen asking you what you want to do, just wait, and the software will handle it's self.  If you watch the next boot messages, you should see something like "HL-3120L Found!  Switching to modeB!"  After many more boot messages, you will see a text login screen.  Reboot your PC ONLY and eject the CD.  When you reach windows, it should say new device found, and install it for you.  Now if you go into "My Computer", you will see your 360 drive listed there as a DVD drive.


Next, you will need to unzip the WxRipper package to somewhere.  The desktop is a good place.  In the "My Computer" window, choose eject for your 360 drive and insert your 7.5GB DVD.  It would be a good idea to check that the 360 drive is not half open from a lack of screws before you do this.  There is nothing worse that a ruined swap disc! .  If all is good, close the 360 drive and wait for windows to detect a disc change.
    Run WxRipper from where you unzipped it, and choose your drive from the drop-down menu.  Then click the Hotswap menu and choose "Find Magic Number".  You will get a few lines of numbers in the box below, but for now, they don't have any real relevance, since we are going to replace them anyway.  Go back into the Hotswap menu and choose the option which says "Stop Drive".  You should now hear your 360 drive slowing down.  When it has stopped, remove the cover of the 360 drive (which should now be screw-less), and take out the DVD, putting any 360 game of your choice in it's place.  Replace the cover, making sure it is fully closed.  Back in WxRipper, go back to the Hotswap menu and choose "Spin Drive".  In the file menu, choose "Open Layout File...", navigate to where you downloaded your Layout file to, and open it.  This numbers in the box below will have changed now, and you will notice that a new line has been added.  You will notice that the 3rd line now reads "89087", this is because there is an error at "89088" on all games, which will cause the ripping process to crash.  Before the numbers are either the letters C, or D.  This just tells WxRipper, wether to copy a certain part of the disc, or fake it. 

Now for the final task.  Open the file menu and choose "Start Dump".  Navigate to where you want to save the backup and click save.  Your game will now be backed up.  While this is happening, don't open any other programs.  Leave the PC to do it's work.  Maybe you should get a coffee?  This is going to take a while .  To my knowledge, this tutorial can be used to backup any game, with no errors.  The procedure is exactly the same for every game.

I hope this tutorial will be of some use to someone .

EDIT:  Layout file is down.  Will upload new one ASAP.

EDIT 2:  Layout file has been re-uploaded to my sever.

Last edited by troy2000 (10/13/08 13:45:58)