Xbox:ISO Extraction & Repacking

This guide will walk you through the various methods and programs for extracting the files from an ISO image of an Xbox DVD. Extracted files can be used to play your game from the external drive or repack the game into an "XISO", where only the XDVDFS partiton for the game files is on the ISO image without any of the padding, security sector, or video partition. XISOs can be used for either the Xemu emulator, or direct installation on an Xbox with XISO attachers.

xdvdfs

xdvdfs is a more robust and modern equivilent of extract-xiso, and it features many options of managing Xbox ISO images.

Web Browser (Chromium)

This is the easiest method of extracting & rebuilding games with xdvdfs, as it provides the user with a nice GUI.

Unfortunately, this will not work on non-Chromium web browsers like Safari or Firefox due to them not implimenting the file system API. Brave is a notible exception to this, but it can be easily turned back on with a flag.

Simply go to xiso.antangelo.com, click the tab labeled Unpack, and follow the on-screen instructions. Pack can be used to convert an extracted folder of a game back into an XISO, and Compress can also be used to compress a folder/ISO into a .cso file for usage with Project Stellar.

Command Line (Windows, Linux, & MacOS)

1. Download the latest binary for xdvdfs for your operating system.
   • On a Windows machine, you can optionally add it to your PATH so you don't have to always point to the binary in the command line.
2. Run the following command for extracting the content from an ISO:
   • xdvdfs unpack <path to image> [optional output path]
     • You can also replace unpack with pack if you would like to make the ISO directly playable with an XBE attacher or Xemu.
     • If you would like to compress ISOs for use with Project Stellar, you can instead type compress.

extract-xiso

Extract-xiso is an old yet decently trustworthy application that has the ability of either extracting the contents from Xbox & Xbox 360 ISOs, or repackaging an Xbox ISO to be in "XISO" format.

GUI (Windows)

KilLo445's GUI

1. Download the latest extract-xiso-gui and extract it to somewhere on your computer. This is a GUI frontend for extract-xiso, which is normally a terminal/command line application.
2. Click the "Browse" button and select the ISO.
3. On the drop down menu, change it to Extract. Now you can click the big Go! button to start the conversion.
   • if you would like to make the ISO directly playable with an XBE attacher or Xemu, select Rewrite instead.
4. Once finished, you can now copy the game folder to your Xbox 360 with USB or FTP.

Swizzy's GUI

1. Download Exiso GUI from the link provided here. Extract the contents to a folder somewhere on your computer.
2. Select Extract ISO as your operation.
3. Add your game by clicking the Open button. You can also change where the game is extracted to by clicking the Save button below it.
4. Once you are ready, click Ok in the bottom left to start the extraction.
5. Once finished, you can now copy the game folder to your Xbox with FATXplorer or FTP.

XBOX360 ISO Extract by somski

Unlike other GUI front ends for extract-xiso, this provides support for batch extraction. It's intended for usage with Xbox 360 games, but it works with original Xbox games as well.

1. Download XBOX360 ISO Extract from the link provided here.
   • On a Windows machine, you can optionally add it to your PATH so you don't have to always point to the binary in the command line.
2. Input the directory where all of your ISOs are kept, and enter the directory where you want the ISOs to be extracted to.
   • Keep in mind that this tool expects each ISO in your ISO directory to each be inside their own folders individually. If you store each ISO file in one folder, the app will just try to extract the game files for every game you select direct into the output folder rather than creating an individual folder for the game.
3. Select the ISOs you want to extract, and click the Go! button.
4. Once finished, you can now copy the game folder to your Xbox with FATXplorer or FTP.

Command Line (Windows, Linux, & MacOS)

1. Download and install the latest version of extract-xiso. You can optionally add it to your PATH so you don't have to always point to the binary in the command line.
2. Run the tool like this to extract here:
   • ./extract-xiso -m [optional output path] <path to image>
   • You can also drag and drop your ISO file or output directory into the command line to easily fill in the file paths.
   • If you want the ability to convert original Xbox games to be compatible with an XBE Attacher or Xemu, add -r before the line that contains the path to your image.
3. Once finished, you can now copy the game folder to your Xbox with FATXplorer or FTP.

Xbox Image Browser

This is a simple Windows app that just acts as a file browser for Xbox and Xbox 360 ISOs. It can be quite useful if you only need to extract specific files from a game, or install XBE patches.

1. Download and execute Xbox Image Browser 2.9.0.350.
2. Click "File → Open" and select the ISO image file.
3. Right-click the content and choose "Extract" as shown below. You can also replace files by right clicking them if necessary.

   

4. Select the output directory for your extracted files.
5. Once finished, you can now copy the game folder to your Xbox with FTP or FATXplorer. You can also re-pack it into an XISO at a later date.