Standardizing the HDD Key on an Original Xbox - Nulling, Resigning Content, and More!

Every original Xbox console contains a hard drive with a hard drive key, with the intention of that hard drive being paired and locked to a console expecting that matching key. While a console with a custom BIOS can accept any storage medium and keys do not have to be matching, softmodded and stock consoles running a retail BIOS require a locked hard drive with a matching hard drive key. As these keys are randomized 32 character values, years ago it was determined for safety and ease of use that you could “null” a hard drive key to 32 0’s. This means anyone who is aware that a lock hard drive’s key has been nulled can unlock it easily without the console’s EEPROM backup, and hard drives can even be swapped between consoles expecting nulled hard drive keys!

Unfortunately it was discovered that nulled out consoles and hard drives with a key set to all 0’s would not work online with Insignia. However the process of “unoing” a key surfaced, setting the key to 32 1’s instead of 32 0’s, and it was confirmed to work online! This might be beneficial for some softmodded console owners out there worried about losing their HDD key, but there are a few precautions to keep in mind before making the decision to change the HDD key. This video will walk through the history of key nulling, benefits of it, downsides, precautions to keep in mind, and will show how to resolve several issues which might arise after changing the key!

Some personal thanks go out to a couple friends for their helpful information on this topic!

Harcroft:
https://twitter.com/OGX_Harcroft

Billy:
https://twitter.com/InternalLoss

#Xbox #OGXbox #XboxModding

This video has been made with Fair Use in mind and has been created as an educational piece of media.

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Timestamps!

0:00 – Intro
1:15 – Background on Changing Keys
4:19 – Precautions with Changing HDD Key
7:37 – Prerequisites
8:42 – Updating to the Latest Xbox Softmodding Tool
13:32 – Standardizing Key with NKPatcher
17:01 – Resign DLC/Updates with Content Recovery Tool
18:37 – Discuss Save Resigns
22:44 – Outro

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Product Affiliate Links:

Original Xbox Console:
Amazon – http://geni.us/tQUtt9
eBay – https://ebay.us/VgCKjw

Video Hardware I Use:
US – https://www.amazon.com/shop/mrmario2011
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/mrmario2011

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Downloads & Links!

Standardizing Your HDD Key Article:
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:ENDGAME

Rocky5 Xbox Softmodding Tool:
https://github.com/Rocky5/Xbox-Softmodding-Tool

WinSCP FTP Client:
https://winscp.net/eng/index.php

7-Zip:
https://www.7-zip.org/

Content Recovery Tool:
https://github.com/feudalnate/Content-Recovery-Tool

Games with Non-Roamable Saves:
https://consolemods.org/wiki/Xbox:Games_with_Non-Roamable_(EEPROM-Locked)_Saves