Hey guys, I'm a noob when it comes to the topic of flashing the Toshiba-Samsung drive in fact I have no clue how to even start this...and I'd apperciate any help, my 360 is out of warranty and as of late I've been getting overheating issues which I believe I've taken care of by opening my 360 and using canned air to blow out all of the dust on my fans and heatsinks (It was all over the place) and since then, No more overheating issues. but (And this has been going on for about 4 months now, even before I knocked the dust out of my 360) my DVD-ROM drive has been making sounds as if there is sand in it (grinding noises and such)...while playing Call of Duty 4 the other night, during a loading screen you can hear what sounds like it is spinning very fast and then silence and a few seconds later you get the "unable to read disc" message and are pretty much forced back out to the dashboard. So I run the game again and it is fine, and yes the noises are back too! but I've been searching online on how to fix this and I keep running into forums on how to replace the lens, replace the motors and belts but what I think I'd want to do is get a new drive and be done with it, however I know it is not as easy as that, I know there is firmware on it and I need to extract it and upload it to the new drive...if this is incorrect please let me know...but I want to fix this problem...I would also like to know what additional hardware I would need to get this done. Additionally I'm not intereseted in modding my DVD-ROM any further that what MS has on it, I intend to play games I buy and not games that you burn and such, not that I'm against that, to each his/her own, but I have no need to burn games and play them, I'll buy them, I just dont want to shell out $299.00 for a new system when I can learn something about Xbox 360 repair and fix it for $70.00 or $80.00 Thanks again guys!
You need to find a guide on how to open the 360 first off. Google "how to open the 360"
Basically you'll need a Torx-10 screwdriver and a way to open the outer shell.
Since you have a Samsung 360 drive, make sure to invest in a VIA 6421 PCI SATA adapter for your computer. You will need this in order to get the firmware key off the old samsung drive and also to inject the key into the new drive.
Then all you need to do is read up on how to get the firmware off the Samsung drive with a VIA6421. You can do that here
Once you the fw off the old drive, you then flash that fw onto the new drive.
Keep in mind that it's easiest to just swap drives for the same make/model. Samsung drives are either MS25 or MS28 now-a-days so get the same one as your broken drive.
I'm sorry for sounding like a complete newbie here but I want to make sure I understand this (and I've already taken apart my 360 by the way, Hella easy to take it apart!) when I get the card for my PC and whatever programs are needed (Which ones by the way?) It's as simple as taking the old firmware and applying it to the new drive? then all is good?....sounds simple...if incorrect...lemme know....now the next step is to look how to do that....thanks again!
Firmware is: MS25
Model Number: TS-H943
Part Number: X800473-016
With this info is the "VIA 6421 PCI SATA" the correct card to get in order to do this? When I did a seach on Yahoo I found at Newegg the "SYBA SY-VIA-150 PCI SATA / IDE Combo Controller Card" I assume this is the incorrect card to get...yes, yes? Thanks again!
