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How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

eaton-works.com

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Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#31

Post by Lammy »

robotnikman wrote: post #14

I thought I remember there being adapters which allowed you to use regular 2.5inch hard drives on the xbox 360. Maybe my mind is just tricking me again though.

That was possible over USB later on in the life of the console: https://www.se7ensins.com/forums/threads/complete-history-of...

- 2.0.9199.0 — April 6, 2010 — Allows up to two USB flash drives or external hard drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more up to 16 GB each, 32GB combined.

- 2.0.16197.0 — October 16, 2012 — Added support for up to 32GB USB drives.

- 2.0.17349.0 — April 30, 2015 — Added: Able to use USB Storage up to 2TB for Xbox Content.

There was also the "Hard Drive Transfer Kit" SATA–USB adapter that became available alongside the 120GB HDD: https://www.engadget.com/2007-04-26-xbox-360-hard-drive-tran...

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#32

Post by Graziano_M »

robotnikman wrote: post #14

I thought I remember there being adapters which allowed you to use regular 2.5inch hard drives on the xbox 360. Maybe my mind is just tricking me again though.

It's possible that the adapter MITM'd requests for this security sector and would return a valid blob.

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#33

Post by alerighi »

haunter wrote: post #7
everyone wrote: post #2

I will never understand why people buy that locked down, proprietary, DRM infested shit (gaming consoles, "smart" appliances, smartphones, apple stuff etc.) in the first place. .. I would rather have nothing.

Life is too short to not enjoy things. Sure I can choose to have nothing either but personally to me that's not fun.

The fact is that you don't enjoy these things. These things generate only frustration, its more the time you want to throw these things out of the window than the one you enjoy them. A console that you have to mod just to upgrade/replace its internal hard drive? What the hell? Just because Microsoft can sell you a normal SATA disk for double the price?

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#34

Post by jaywalk »

jbverschoor wrote: post #19

Of all components, a disk is the only thing that “regularly” fail, that become too small, and have no other security impact, no profit margin (I think) It’s idiotic MS took this route. And what’s the downside/risk for MS? Nothing.. if the Xbox doesn’t work anymore, just don’t give any support on that disk

No profit margin? What? They were making a massive profit off the hard drives, and this security was meant to preserve those profits.

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#35

Post by jaywalk »

alerighi wrote: post #33
haunter wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life is too short to not enjoy things. Sure I can choose to have nothing either but personally to me that's not fun.

The fact is that you don't enjoy these things. These things generate only frustration, its more the time you want to throw these things out of the window than the one you enjoy them. A console that you have to mod just to upgrade/replace its internal hard drive? What the hell? Just because Microsoft can sell you a normal SATA disk for double the price?

> The fact is that you don't enjoy these things.

I definitely enjoyed my Xbox 360 and didn't give a single damn about not being able to use a non-Microsoft hard drive. I doubt I ever really thought about the fact that I couldn't, it just wasn't an issue.

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#36

Post by Drakim »

anamexis wrote: post #23
nywles wrote: post #15

May the logo have been included so that the security sector could not be distributed under copyright law?

That was my thought upon reading that as well. I think Nintendo pioneered this strategy with the Gameboy - if the cartridge didn't start by showing the Nintendo logo, the Gameboy would not boot. And if you used the Nintendo logo without licensing it, it was trademark infringement. Clever way to prevent un-licensed third-party cartridges.

Funny enough, it only checked about half the logo, meaning you could change the bottom half to something else.

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#37

Post by nfriedly »

EatonZ wrote: post #29
beardog wrote: post #12

Eaton, if you are planning to write more interesting posts like this, please consider adding RSS/Atom (or making it more obvious if it is already there).

I have received other requests for this. I thought about it when I redesigned the site, but didn't think people really used RSS that much anymore. I have it on my list to implement (:

I use RSS, so you'd have at least two subscribers :)

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#38

Post by p1necone »

everyone wrote: post #2

I will never understand why people buy that locked down, proprietary, DRM infested shit (gaming consoles, "smart" appliances, smartphones, apple stuff etc.) in the first place. .. I would rather have nothing.

> I would rather have nothing.

Nothing can't play Halo.

Re: How the Xbox 360 knows if your hard drive is genuine

#39

Post by EMIRELADERO »

anamexis wrote: post #28
Operyl wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modders could have just as easily decided to go the "you must find the logo on your own" route and written a "select the logo" file prompt into the tools. I find the "they intended to let others sell HDDs" then changed their minds later route more plausible, especially since they never went after the "hacked" drives with bans or anything.

However, it would have been effective at preventing people from selling modified HDDs commercially.

It really wouldn't. Courts don't like it when you misuse copyright like that.
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