Featured
Featured Guide
Difficulty
Easy
Steps
9
Time Required
10 - 15 minutes
Sections
1
- Hard Drive
- 9 steps
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Featured Guide
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Introduction
What you need
Step 1
Hard Drive
- Make sure your Xbox is safely unplugged and is laying on a flat, stable surface.
Make sure your Xbox is safely unplugged and is laying on a flat, stable surface.
1024
Step 2
- Turn the Xbox over to reveal the four rubber feet.
- Use a metal spudger to pry off the four rubber feet.
Turn the Xbox over to reveal the four rubber feet.
Use a metal spudger to pry off the four rubber feet.
Step 3
- There are 2 more screws hidden under the two labels on the bottom of the case.
- You can either remove the labels or simply feel for the screw holes through the labels and then cut or punch a hole through them.
There are 2 more screws hidden under the two labels on the bottom of the case.
You can either remove the labels or simply feel for the screw holes through the labels and then cut or punch a hole through them.
Step 4
- Remove the six T20 Torx screws securing the top cover to the bottom cover.
Remove the six T20 Torx screws securing the top cover to the bottom cover.
Step 5
- Once the bottom and top shells are no longer attached, carefully turn the Xbox right-side-up, lift and remove the top cover.
Once the bottom and top shells are no longer attached, carefully turn the Xbox right-side-up, lift and remove the top cover.
Step 6
- Remove the three 3 mm T10 screws securing the hard drive to the Xbox.
- There is one screw on the rear left side of the hard drive that is only visible when the IDE ribbon cable is lifted up. The other two are at the front right and left sides of the hard drive.
- The screw on the lower left corner of the disk drive is not in the hole that it appears to be in, but rather just closer to the corner.
Remove the three 3 mm T10 screws securing the hard drive to the Xbox.
There is one screw on the rear left side of the hard drive that is only visible when the IDE ribbon cable is lifted up. The other two are at the front right and left sides of the hard drive.
The screw on the lower left corner of the disk drive is not in the hole that it appears to be in, but rather just closer to the corner.
Step 7
- Free the hard drive power cable from the carrier for sufficient slack to lift the hard drive out.
- Lift the plastic hard drive carrier out of the Xbox case.
Free the hard drive power cable from the carrier for sufficient slack to lift the hard drive out.
Lift the plastic hard drive carrier out of the Xbox case.
Step 8
- Remove the four 3.4 mm T15 Torx screws from the plastic hard drive carrier (two screws per side).
- Carefully remove the hard drive from the plastic carrier. Gentle rocking will see the hard drive come out quite easily.
Remove the four 3.4 mm T15 Torx screws from the plastic hard drive carrier (two screws per side).
Carefully remove the hard drive from the plastic carrier. Gentle rocking will see the hard drive come out quite easily.
Step 9
- Pull both the hard drive data ribbon cable and the power cable straight up from the hard drive.
- They may be firmly seated, so be careful trying to remove them. DO NOT pull the wires as you may damage the cable assembly.
Pull both the hard drive data ribbon cable and the power cable straight up from the hard drive.
They may be firmly seated, so be careful trying to remove them. DO NOT pull the wires as you may damage the cable assembly.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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rmarstel
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Cal Poly, Team 18-2, Maness Fall 2009
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18 Guides authored
Alex Matthiessen - May 31, 2014
Reply
can you replace the hard drive with one that has windows or linux on it and run windows or linux from the hdd and turn the xbox into a media pc or is the xbox OS not in the hdd but in a chip on the motherboard that cannot be overridden so that it boots from the hdd
kaos_engr - May 9, 2018
NO, you cannot.
D C - Jan 21, 2020
kaos_engr is wrong. You CAN run Linux on a modded Xbox. Although since you also asked about REPLACING the hard drive: I don’t know whether you have to use the original hard drive or can use any IDE hard drive. But Linux is apparently possible on a modded Xbox. See here, and there are more resources on the web too, just search the web for “original Xbox linux”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Linux
As for Windows on an original Xbox. I’m sure I read once that proper drivers wouldn’t exist. Because nobody would have written them. Certainly Microsoft didn’t want you putting Windows on your Xbox. However I just came across this video of someone allegedly running Windows 98 on an Xbox. I’m not sure if they’re somehow virtualising Windows using Linux or something. Maybe have a look and figure out what’s going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erk_XE-D…
But Linux on an Xbox does look possible, IF you have a modded Xbox.
Navy Vet 2015 - Jun 12, 2016
Reply
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-To-Determine…
Utilize the information on this website to determine what Xbox version you have so you know what replacement parts to look for.
Stephen Kymn - Oct 3, 2016
Reply
The repairability score varies on the model…
