Replacing a 360 disc drive - Help please

[Anti-Syne]

I'm no good with anything xbox, so hopefully someone here can help me.

So basically my disc drive is broken, I've tried repairing it myself (as it's way out of warranty) but to no avail, so now it's looking like if i want it to work i'll have to buy a new drive.

So I have two questions:

1) Does the replacement drive have to be the exact same make and model as the original?

2) Will this new drive be plug and play ready?

Thanks for any help

[Vimk]

You could use any 360 drive but to swap them you need the pairing key for the motherboard which requires you to pull open the xbox and hotswap the dvd drive to a computer via sata cable, backup thwe firmware and then pull the key from there. Long story short, it's a huge pain in the ass and requires you to reflash firmware which can be bricked by mistyping the key so I suggest not trying unless you are 100% sure you can manage it.

tl;dr get a new 360 people are throwing them away for the slims anyway.

[prophetik music]

the drives have to be exactly the same, and i'm fairly sure you'll have to flash the firmware from your old drive onto the new one, required either a computer with an addon VIA 6421 SATA card or a motherboard based on the nForce chipsets or certain VIA chipsets. i only know how to flash BenQ (falcon consoles) drives - hitachi (second-gen) and samsung (launch models) are beyond my knowledge, but they're supposedly modifiable. lite-on drives, with jasper 360s, require minor surgery (read: soldering) on the drive itself to allow it to recieve other firmwares. this route shouldn't ban your xbox, since you're not accessing the net with customized firmware.

long story? you can get used jasper 360s on ebay for under a hundred dollars. they don't come with hard drives, but they do have controllers and cords. just make sure it's a jasper, and it hasn't been banned. that's the route i'd take. if you've got a system that's not under warranty, it's not a jasper system anyways (back sticker says 12.1v instead of 14.2v or something else similar). jasper power bricks are plastic as well.

[kitty]

Short answers: No and No.

Long answers:

Contrary to what our fellow OCRers are saying, you DO NOT need to have the same exact drive. "Drive spoofing" has been a reliable and tested technique used to replace Xbox 360s. I have done it myself, specifically with the Hitachi spoofed as a Samsung and vice versa. And the only way to "brick" your drive is to smash it with a hammer or shorting it out. You can mistype your key all you want and keep reflashing it. This is, of course, is if you have your original drive key written down somewhere else. More information about this can be looked up using the resources I've referenced below.

I suggest you Google "jungleflasher" and read the tutorial .pdf that is widely available on the internet. This tutorial has everything software/firmware related you need to know for replacing your drive. You DO NOT have to mod your drive, you're only replacing the original firmware with your Xbox's "key." This is in no way illegal or will let you run illegal copies of games on your system. Here's the link to the tutorial: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X0I9TGOZ

For physically replacing your drive, I assume you already opened your Xbox to attempt repairs on the drive. After you have flashed your new drive with the new firmware, place the new drive where your old one was and plug in the cables. No matter what model drive you use (as long as it's one from another Xbox) it will have the same power and SATA hookups as the others. I recommend getting a Hitachi.

EDIT: Also if you have DLC on your Xbox and you get a new one, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY THE DLC WITHOUT LOGGING IN ON THE PROFILE THAT YOU PURCHASED THE CONTENT WITH. When you purchase DLC or anything on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, it gives you a license to play the content on the LIVE profile you purchased it on and another license for the Xbox. If your hard drive is in another console, the only license that is recognized is the one for your profile.

[Brandon Strader]

Yeah, I agree with Vimk. The new model is the way to go. When/if my elite craps out, that's what I'll do.

[kitty]

If you have the money, Vimk has a good point. What I described above took me hours of reading to be able to perform with complete confidence.

[Vimk]

I have definitely bricked a drive or two because I forgot to grab a pairing key, it's not very fun.