Information

*This page is subject to a lot of updates as features are added and improved.

What is FATXplorer?

FATXplorer is the culmination of over a year’s worth of research on the little known Xbox storage device file system called FATX. FATX is not supported natively by any operating system, which means that custom applications and drivers needed to be developed in order to browse the contents of this file system. FATXplorer uses a custom in-house driver to communicate with FATX formatted storage devices. FATXplorer’s driver is state of the art and was engineered for performance and reliability. FATXplorer was built around this driver and it provides many features to manipulate the file system. Which includes the most common operation: exploration! FATXplorer is not the first program to be able to communicate with FATX formatted devices. Several other applications have been developed by the Xbox community, but never one of this scale and grandeur. FATXplorer was build on a very strong and clean codebase. Snippets of FATXplorer may even come out in the future to show the Xbox community what a true marvel FATXplorer really is.

Who is it for?

FATXplorer is for anyone willing to take their Xbox experience to the next level. FATXplorer allows you to go deep into one of the Xbox’s most mysterious file systems.

FATXplorer is for anyone who cares about the Xbox storage device that they paid good money for. You deserve an application that complies with FATX standards and one that just works without throwing errors at you right and left.

FATXplorer is for anyone who has a need for speed. Everything from device load time to transferring files in the tens of gigabytes has been optimized for lightning fast speeds.

What can it do?

Everything you will ever need and more. Here are the features:

Online Based Licensing

Two months was dedicated to making a secure and easy to use license server. If you bought v1.x, you are aware of how extremely inefficient the licensing system was compared to other commercial software. Here are the highlights:

-Pay and expect an e-mail instantly. All you have to do is enter the serial number, click an activate button, and enjoy! No license requests, emails, etc.

-Ability to deactivate your license for use on another computer.

-The overall license form has been updated with better graphics and styles.

-Improved compatibility.

Licensing should now be the least of your worries.

 

Digitally Signed

This is the first Xbox related program in history to be signed.

What does this mean?

This means that instead of all of those evil unidentified publisher warnings, it will display my name there. If a single byte of the program is modified, it will invalidate the signature and it will show up with unidentified publisher again.

This should greatly influence your decision about running FATXplorer on your computer.

 

Updater

FATXplorer features a simple updater that automatically downloads, installs, and completely updates the application at the click of a button. FATXplorer also checks for updates on startup, unless specified otherwise in Settings/General/Other Settings/Check for Updates on Startup.

-Checks for updates on startup.

-Easy to use, just click a few buttons and you will be running the latest version.

-Intuitive labels to give you an idea of the progress being made.

 

Ribbon Based GUI

The GUI is ribbon-based to provide you with a better experience overall. It makes the menus easy to navigate and every option is exemplified with high quality icons and tooltips. The quick launch toolbar is fully usable and if you do not like the ribbon, feel free to minimize it and get more room to view your devices!

-36 different skins.

-3 different ribbon styles.

-Quick launch toolbar is usable.

-High quality icons and tooltips.

-Clean. Polished. Simple. Beautiful.

 

Start Page

FATXplorer’s Start Page is your gateway to the latest news on FATXplorer. The bright and welcoming Information tab is complimented with the News Feed tab, which syncs to this website to read the latest FATXplorer news.

-Welcoming.

-Provides a view of the latest FATXplorer news without you needing to open up your browser.

 

Settings

The settings form is your gateway to customizing your experience the way you want.

-Real-time updates without restarting.

-Organized layout.

-Tooltips over each setting to describe the setting in detail.

-Provides control over many settings.

 

Compatibility

Compatibility is a problem that plagues almost every other device explorer. Some don’t support USBs, some do not support any sized HDDs, etc.. FATXplorer was designed to give you support and full compatibility for everything.

In development, FATXplorer was always tested in extreme conditions. Such as loading a 1 TB HDD, transferring 4,096 files, transferring items to a heavily fragmented device, etc. Since FATXplorer has been optimized for these extreme conditions, its read and write speeds have reached astounding levels. FATXplorer was engineered to provide full support for everything you want to do. You should never have to swap between other explorers because FATXplorer doesn’t support something. It supports all of the current Xbox storage devices.

-Support for HDDs, MUs, and USBs.

-Support for binary backups. (.bin)

-Support for USB data directories.

-Supports devices of any size.

-No editing the executable is needed to “fix” support for different sized devices. FATXplorer can handle any size, even up to the FATX maximum volume size of 8 TB.

-Engineered not just to work.. to work well.

-Designed to provide a great experience from top to bottom for beginners and even advanced adepts.

 

Custom FATX driver

In the v1.x series, the FATXplorer driver was a heavily modified version of Anthony’s (a well-known Xbox community member) version.

In the v2.x series, FATXplorer uses a custom built driver that is 100% unique. No code from anyone else was stolen or used.

You can see the differences below. The code behind the v2.x driver is state of the art, clean, and efficient. The competition doesn’t even come close to mimicking these results. The experience it will deliver to you will easily surpass what you have come to expect from a device explorer.

File Transfers on a 500 GB HDD

v1.2

-ONE 1 KB file took 30 seconds

-ONE 933 MB file took 14 minutes and 5 seconds

v2.0

–1,896 1 KB files took 30 seconds

–ONE 933 MB file took 45 seconds

File Transfers on a 512 MB MU

v1.2

-4,096 files made it crash, but it was around 20 minutes.

v2.0

-4,096 files took 2 minutes and 15 seconds

Enhanced Windows 7 Support

Windows 7 is the preferred operating system when using FATXplorer. It shows total progress and progress states in the taskbar. Windows 7 is required to see the effects listed below. If you do not use Windows 7, these effects will not be shown.

-Indeterminate: Shows when FATXplorer is performing an operation where the end cannot be determined.

-Normal: Shows the total progress of the operation FATXplorer is performing.

-Paused: Shows when FATXplorer has stopped and is awaiting some sort of user input. (A message box in the middle of a transfer operation, for example.)

-Error: Shows when an error has occurred.

 

Keyboard Shortcut Support

FATXplorer has support for common keyboard shortcuts to make life a little easier.

Main Form

-Ctrl + U (Opens the Updater)

-Ctrl + S (Opens the Settings)

-Ctrl + D (Opens up a folder browser dialog)

-Ctrl + B (Opens up an open file dialog)

-Ctrl + R (Refreshes the list of storage devices)

Device Form

-Del (Deletes the selection)

-Enter (Opens the selected folder)

-Back (Goes to the parent directory)

-Ctrl + A (Selects all items)

-F5 (Refreshes the opened folder)

-F2 (Renames the selected item)

Tabbed MDI and VS2010 Docking

FATXplorer uses MDI (multiple document interface) so you can have more than one device open in one instance. Better yet, the MDI is tabbed!

Here is what it looks like when you have more than one device open:

Now here is what makes FATXplorer different. Do you have another monitor? Do you want to view your device in the best resolution possible?

Then you will fancy this. Simply double click a tab or drag it out of FATXplorer and it will become its own window! Look:

Examine that picture closely. There are two monitors. The top has a device form maximized and the bottom has a device form undocked and two more still docked.

Want to dock it back? You can! And in lots of places, too:

For those who spend most of their day in Visual Studio 2010, this is a feature you will surely enjoy.

 

Bookmarks

Bookmarks are an easy way to get to your favorite folders quickly and without the hassle of navigating the file system.

-Seamlessly integrated with the exploration experience.

-Built in manager to view, edit, delete, and check your bookmark collection.

-Available for both browser windows.

 

Supports every Partition

On a FATX formatted storage device, there can be multiple partitions. Partitions are spaces on the device that can store data. Unlike other explorers, FATXplorer has full support for every single partition on every type of storage device.

Keep in mind that a device may not have every partition. Some are added only when they are needed by the system.

-Supports all 6 HDD partitions.

-Supports all 3 MU partitions.

-Supports all 5 USB partitions.

 

Device Specific Editors

Every device, excluding MUs, has some sort of special data block. FATXplorer has full support for every device specific block of data.

Security Sector Tools

More information about the Security Sector.

Configuration Data Tools

*Paid editions only.

For USBs, this tool allows you to edit/view various aspects of your USB’s configuration data. The only useful property to edit is the Performance Rating, which changes how the system treats the device.

 

Navigation System

The navigation system was created from the ground up to provide you with an easy exploration interface.

-Features a complete Windows Explorer clone and Device Browser.

-Full drag and drop support between both browsers.

-Easy to use right-click options.

-Fast, efficient.

-Uses Windows Explorer like file/folder icons.

-Complimented by a fully functional navigation bar.

-Option to view either large or small icons.

Formatting Tools

*Paid editions only.

The world’s first and only. FATXplorer’s formatting tool can format and physical device to FATX specifications. It is quick, easy, and very useful.

More information about formatting.

-Formats both MUs and HDDs.

-Intuitive and easy to follow wizard.

-Formats any device connected to your computer.

-Customize cluster sizes. More information.

-Name your HDD without having to do it on the Xbox dashboard.

-Make sure what you have specified is what you truly want.

-Formats very large devices in the blink of an eye. (500 GB HDDs take about 5 seconds.)

 

Sector Tools

If you need to dump/write the sectors of your storage device for some reason, FATXplorer’s Sector Tools will allow you to do that.

Cluster Tools

If you need to dump/write the clusters of your storage device’s partitions for some reason, FATXplorer’s Cluster Tools will allow you to do that.

 

Operation Dialog

FATXplorer uses a custom operations dialog for delete/transfer operations.

-Shows transfer rate.

-Shows a VERY accurate estimated completion time.

-Shows how much time has elapsed since the dialog was opened.

-Shows the total progress in the second progress bar and on the Windows 7 taskbar.

-Shows the progress on the current item in the top progress bar.

 

Properties

FATXplorer has a right-click Property item to view item properties.

-Available for both browser windows.

-Shows name, type, location, size, attribute(s), counts, and timestamps.

-Multiselection support.

-Now here is a cool feature. Let’s say you select all folders in view and view the properties. If it was able to get the size successfully, it will update the Size column for each folder with the appropriate size! Sorting that column works as well! However, the values will go away when you refresh or go somewhere else.

 

View Deleted Items

When enabled in the Settings under Device Form/View and Display Settings/View Deleted Items, deleted items will be shown when browsing.

-Recovers you deleted files and folders in the event of an accidental deletion.

-As you transfer new files, you can see deleted items being replaced.

-Seamlessly integrated with the exploration experience.

 

Device Analyzer

*Paid editions only.

This tool is one of the main highlights of FATXplorer.

-Analyzes your entire storage device for fragmented items.

-Counts corrupted items.

-Displays the slowest items on your device. (The column is sortable!)

-Displays the total fragmentation percentage.

 

Item Analyzer

*Paid editions only.

This tool is a scaled down version of the Device Analyzer. It is available as a right click item on the device browser.

-See how fragmented individual items are.

-If you use this on a deleted item, you can see how good the chances of recovering the item are!

Smart Features

*Settings option: Paid editions only.

This is where you will see the true power of FATXplorer’s custom driver. The smart features in FATXplorer will assist in transferring items to the device while eliminating fragmentation.

There are currently two smart features.

 

The first is an option you can enable in the FATXplorer Settings under Device Form/Advanced. Like the tooltip says, with this setting enabled, items transferred to your device will not be fragmented at all. More information.

Let’s take a look at some before and after shots.

Before

After

Now this would be considered light fragmentation. However, it is often much worse and sometimes the entire item can be fragmented. With the Smart Transfer Mode option, it uses a special trick to find a block of contiguous space on your storage device. In some cases, you will not be able to use this option due to the lack of suitable free space. If this is the case, FATXplorer will let you know.

 

The second feature is specifically for folders. Let’s consider the following scenario. You have a folder packed full of files you want to transfer to your storage device. This folder is going to span multiple clusters in order to store all of the files. The system and other device explorers create the folder’s first cluster and then start transferring the files. There is a fatal flaw with this that can severely cripple that folder. After the inital first cluster has run out of space for the files, another one will be allocated, but oh no! The possibility of a contiguous range is impossible because (let’s say the folder’s first cluster is 2) the files have allocated all of the clusters up to 48. So when something reads that folder, it will read cluster 2 and then it will have to perform a step of seeking all the way to cluster 49 to read the second batch of stored files. Which takes up a lot of time and degrades performance.

The solution? Allocate before-hand! When transferring folders full of files, FATXplorer will count the number of clusters needed to store all of the files and then allocate them before it starts transferring the files. So instead of an allocation of 2, 49, 737, 666 you could have a contiguous range of 2, 3, 4, 5. This GREATLY decreases fragmentation and can speed up the performance of that folder by as much as 50%!

NOTE: If Smart Transfer Mode is NOT enabled when transferring a folder full of files, it could still be fragmented because the true smart functionality is not turned available in non-paid editions.

 

Backup and Restore

Being addicted to making daily backups of your storage device is nothing to be ashamed of. In the event of a device failure or loss, having a backup can save you from many hours of frustration and anger attempting to recover files.

-Creates complete binary level backups.

-Restores devices using backups created by itself or another application.

-A very fast, efficient, and informative dialog with Windows 7 taskbar integration.

 

Problems and Warnings

If you think something is wrong with your storage device, all you need to do is open it in FATXplorer to find out.

-A desktop alert is displayed after a storage device is loaded if any problems/warnings need to be relayed to you.

-Verifies the validity of the HDD Security Sector.

-Checks the HDD Security Sector to see if you are using the correct one.

-Verifies the validity of the USB Configuration Data.

-Warns you if one or more partitions are running low on free space.

 

Partition Information

View technical information and a free space report.

-FATXplorer is the first application to finally offer a 100% accurate view of partition free space. The accuracy has been verified by using an application on the console that fetches free space.

-Lists several technical properties for advanced users.

 

Install Optimized System Folders

*Paid editions only.

Is your Xbox guide slow? Does it take forever to load content? Don’t go out an buy a new storage device when installing optimized system folders could be the solution! More information about Optimized System Folders.

-Installs an optimized Cache folder for optimal Xbox guide performance.

-Installs an optimized Content folder for improvements when listing and accessing content.

 

Miscellaneous Points and Smaller Features

-FATXplorer is available in 32bit and 64bit versions. When dealing with demanding tasks, the 64bit version will allow it to access more memory and allow it to use your 64bit processor to its full potential.

-FATXplorer is built on the latest .NET Framework: v4.0 for improved compatibility and speed.

-FATXplorer has been profiled using 3 different performance profilers. FATXplorer is very fast and very efficient on memory.

-FATXplorer has been built to not crash. In the event of an error, a detailed error log file is created to help support (or maybe even you) find the cause of the problem.

-Editable/viewable text boxes have a nice highlight.

-If you analyze a connected device and then unplug it, FATXplorer won’t even notice and you can still browse it! (Caching systems are still operational.)

-Not every column is available on the browsers. Right click a column, click Column Browser, and you can remove/add columns.

-Check out the Links menu, there are a lot of useful resources.

-The status bar gives you an update on the current action(s) being performed.

-The small panel at the bottom of the browsers tells you how many items there are and how many you have selected.

-You can edit the path of the navigation bar by right clicking it and clicking on Edit Path

-You can refresh the navigation bar by right clicking it and clicking on Refresh.

-The status bar will tell you how long it took to load your device.