Anyone who has done any sort of tinkering with Xbox 360 knows about HDDHackr. For many years, HDDHackr was the only way to make a hard-drive compatible on retail Xbox 360s. It has been an incredibly useful tool and was so far ahead of its time. The developers should be commended for their work. Unfortunately, development on it stopped more than 10 years ago and it has grown more difficult to use due to modern chipset compatibility issues. OEM Xbox 360 hard-drives are also no longer in production. As these OEM drives start to fail, the need for a tool to make compatible drives has been growing.

FATXplorer 3.0 beta 32 has a brand-new solution, a tool named Xbox 360 HDD Maker:

The goal of the project was to try and create a more accessible and easy to use alternative to HDDHackr. When you want to use HDDHackr, you have to create a bootable USB, mess around with BIOS settings, and then hope your PC’s chipset will work with it. It’s a bit unwieldy and can be difficult for beginners. Xbox 360 HDD Maker requires none of those steps and is simply another tool you can use inside FATXplorer.

Features

  • It works on Windows desktop! No more bootable USBs or messing around with BIOS settings.
  • It works over USB! If you have a laptop without a SATA port, no problem – just get a SATA to USB adapter and you’ll be in business.
  • Compatible with any PC that can run FATXplorer. Chipset compatibility is no longer relevant.
  • Existing UNDO.bins are compatible. Xbox 360 HDD Maker utilizes the same UNDO.bin format HDDHackr does. UNDO.bin is a file containing the original firmware modules. The Options menu in Xbox 360 HDD Maker provides functions to create and restore UNDO.bins.

Drive Compatibility

A simple test was done earlier this month: buy WD Blue and WD Black 2.5″ drives through the Western Digital store to check if they worked. Both drives were manufactured in 2024. Unfortunately, the test failed and it was not possible to make them Xbox 360 compatible. The general advice is to find drives manufactured before 2020. After that, there is a high chance the drive comes with a locked-down firmware that cannot be accessed without physically taking the drive apart. A tutorial on how to flash newer drives may come in the future for technically advanced users, but for now, make sure to purchase a drive made before 2020.

To help with purchase decision making, Xbox 360 HDD Maker has a compatibility list feature that is updated every time someone successfully flashes a drive (internet access required). This list will continue to grow over time and should help paint a picture of what drives can be safely purchased. Find it in the Options menu!

FAQ

Q: Does Xbox 360 HDD Maker benefit RGH or JTAG consoles?
A: If you want to use the same drive on retail and modded kernels, then yes. Otherwise, there is no benefit to flashing a drive that will be exclusively used on RGH or JTAG consoles.

Q: Do I need any special hardware to use Xbox 360 HDD Maker?
A: All you need is a USB to SATA adapter, or a motherboard with a spare SATA connector.

Q: After all these years, why is Western Digital is still the only supported brand?
A: Most Western Digital hard-drives share a standard firmware which makes it easy to make a universal solution.

Q: Can I get banned if I use a custom drive?
A: No, this has never happened. Don’t worry about it.

Q: Is original Xbox backwards compatibility supported on custom drives?
A: Yes, see here for how to set it up.

Q: I want to upgrade my hard-drive, how can I transfer all my content from my old one?
A: View the content transfer tutorial here.

Q: Does Xbox 360 HDD Maker work with 3.5″ HDDs?
A: Yes. You’ll need to do a 12v mod on the Xbox 360 for it to be sufficiently powered, though. It’s best to stick with 2.5″ HDDs.

Q: I saw a post on X about an SSD working in retail consoles. Can Xbox 360 HDD Maker be used to make retail-compatible SSDs?
A: This is a new development and Xbox 360 HDD Maker does not have SSD support right now. Specific SSDs may be supported in the future. An announcement will be made if/when this happens.

Q: Is there any risk of bricking the HDD when flashing it?
A: Safeguards are in place to prevent incorrect firmware updates. If Xbox 360 HDD Maker runs into firmware it can’t reliably update, it’ll throw an error to let you know. Firmware from 2006 to 2018 have been checked for compatibility. Also, no drives were bricked during development & testing. 🙂

Q: Do I have to pay to use Xbox 360 HDD Maker?
A: Xbox 360 HDD Maker is a part of FATXplorer, which requires a license for some features, but Xbox 360 HDD Maker is not one of them – it is free to use.

Q: What is the largest drive I can use?
A: With the currently available security sectors, the maximum space the retail Xbox 360 kernel will allow you to use is 465.76 GB. While you can flash and use larger drives up to 2 TB, only 465.76 GB will be utilized. It is not possible to raise this utilization limit on retail. This is an entirely different challenge and 465.76 GB will probably be the limit forever. Also note RGH and JTAG consoles do not have this limit.

Q: How can I check if my drive is compatible without flashing it?
A: First, check the manufacture date on the sticker/label. If it’s before 2020, it will probably work. Anything after 2020 warrants caution. To definitively find out, use Options -> Create UNDO.bin and if the operation is successful, it means your drive is compatible. If it’s not successful, you can try changing the Device Type in the Options menu too. If it still doesn’t work and FATXplorer displays one of the below errors, it’s likely the drive is not compatible.

  • Command was aborted. – This will happen over USB.
  • JMicron error. – This will happen over USB with a JMicron chipset.
  • I/O error. – This will happen over direct SATA connection.

If you get a different error and are using USB, you should contact FATXplorer support to rule out the USB adapter or docking station being the problem.

Q: I’ve flashed a drive, but my Xbox 360 doesn’t recognize it! Why?
A: First, try reconnecting it and make sure it’s pushed in all the way. Put your ear to the case when you turn on the console to determine if the drive powers on and spins up. If it does, Xbox 360 HDD Maker might have a bug and you should report it.

Q: My custom drive is showing up unformatted on the Xbox 360 dash! Why?
A: That means it’s working! You just skipped the FATXplorer formatting process. You can connect it back to your PC to format it in FATXplorer, or just format it through the dash.

Q: I want to restore my HDD to its factory state, but have lost my UNDO.bin! What can I do?
A: Create a current UNDO.bin backup using Xbox 360 HDD Maker and then take a picture of the HDD. Send both to FATXplorer support for further assistance.

Other changes in beta 32

Beta 32 includes many other exciting changes! The highlights are below, and full release notes here.

  • Reports of device detection finishing prematurely due to an expected error have increased enough to warrant the creation of a WMI repository repair feature. FATXplorer uses WMI to enumerate connected devices. If your WMI repository is corrupt, FATXplorer will now automatically repair it in the background, which should resolve the problem.
  • SATA hotpluggers rejoice – FATXplorer now implements Windows Device Manager’s Rescan Disks functionality, which was necessary to use when swapping drives over SATA. This is done automatically during device detection.
  • The last FATXplorer beta release included a new Recover WD password function to help recover lost passwords for original Xbox HDDs. It worked great on OEM WD drives, but ran into issues on newer ones. It has been improved to now generally work on all drives manufactured before 2020.
  • Cerbios secondary HDD formatting support is now available. When formatting in the Cerbios format, you are now asked to choose between Primary or Secondary HDD. The Secondary HDD format does not include X, Y, or Z cache partitions because those are only needed for the primary/boot disk. All other partitions (E, C, F, G, Extras 8-14) are available for formatting/customization. Secondary HDDs take the place of the disc/DVD drive. More information will be in the upcoming Cerbios release.

Special thanks to Skye for helping test and continuing to provide invaluable information.