Xbox:FATXplorer

FATXplorer is a Windows-based PC utility that allows users to format, read, and write a hard drive. Its main use is to construct new hard drives for use in a modified Xbox. Version 3.0 of FATXplorer is the first version to support the original Xbox, with previous versions only supporting the Xbox 360.

Only unlocked hard drives are supported, as the contents of locked hard drives cannot be read or modified by any software. In order to use a FATXplorer-formatted hard drive with unmodified or software modified Xboxes, the user must lock the hard drive using a hard drive locking utility. Before using an already-locked hard drive with FATXplorer, it must be unlocked first, using a hard drive unlocking utility.

SATA and IDE hard drives are supported. All SATA-to-IDE adapters that work with Windows will work with FATXplorer.

Formatting an Xbox Hard Drive

The following steps can be followed to format a hard drive.

1. On a Windows PC, download and extract FATXplorer 3.0 Beta.
   • The beta builds are free but expire eventually, while the full releases can be purchased.
2. Open FATXplorer and click Formatting Tools.
3. Select Original Xbox HDD.
4. Select your XBOX drive. Do not select a drive that contains your personal data or operating system on, because the contents of the drive will be erased. Press Next once selected.
5. Select LBA Increasing Bios Partition Table. Then press Next.
   • FATXplorer offers an explanation of the benefits, drawbacks, and requirements of each choice. LBA Increasing Bios Partition Table is usually the most desirable choice.
   • Almost all modified Xboxes use a BIOS will respect a hard drive's partition table, and they will fall back to the BIOS built in partition table if a hard drive does not have its own partition table. In contrast, the unmodified retail Xbox BIOS does not read a hard drive partition table and requires that the hard drive conform to the BIOS partition table.
6. Change partitions as desired. Then press Next.
   • The changes that can be made in this screen depend on what option was selected in the previous step; a choice of LBA Increasing Bios Partition Table allows the most freedom to make desired changes and allows use of high-capacity hard drives.
   • The default settings should be kept for the C and E partitions; changing those partitions will cause compatibility issues with the Microsoft Dashboard and some homebrew software.
   • The settings for the F and G partitions (and all other partitions that are not C and E) are safe to change. Note that the maximum partition size is 927.78 GB, and the allocation unit/cluster size for these partitions should always be 65536 bytes.
     • The allocation unit/cluster size is technically allowed to be smaller when using small partition sizes, but there is really no need to mess with it.
7. At this point, you are given the option to preload partitions. You can create a zip file with the desired contents of a partition, and tell FATXplorer the location of the zip file for each partition that you want to preload. Then press Next.
   • The preload step may be useful for setting up the C and E partitions. If you skip this step, you can still add the files later by mounting the partitions through the Devices section in FATXplorer.
8. A summary is presented. Make sure everything looks right, then choose Format. The formatting process is complete.
   • If the C and E partitions were preloaded, then the hard drive is ready for use in an Xbox. If the C and E partitions were not preloaded, or if you want to add files such as games, then continue reading.

The following steps can be followed to add files to a hard drive.

1. If you want to add content, or if you did not preload anything at all, then select Devices in FATXplorer.
2. Select a partition to mount.
   • Only one partition can be mounted at a time.
3. A Windows Explorer window will open. You may add files in the normal manner.
4. Go back to the Devices menu in FATXplorer to unmount the current partition and mount another partition, then add files. Repeat until all files are added as desired.

FATX limitations

Xbox hard drives are formatted with the FATX file system. FATXplorer automatically prevents users from exceeding the limitations of the file system when adding files.

The FATX file system has the following limits:

Attribute	Limitation
Maximum filename length	42 characters
Maximum path length	240 characters
Maximum file size	4 GB (4294967296 bytes)
Maximum files/folders per root folder	4096 files
Maximum files/folders per folder	240 files
Maximum folder depth	240
Possible cluster sizes	4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB
Allowed characters for files/folders	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!#$%&'()-.@[]^_`{}~(SPACE)

Troubleshooting

• Apps, emulators, or other homebrew do not work with a hard drive that was recently formatted with FATXplorer
  • This issue may occur if the software you are trying to run makes use of the cache partitions (X, Y, and Z partitions), but does not format them if they are unformatted.
  • A workaround is to simply play a retail Xbox game (not homebrew). The retail game will format the cache partitions. This fixes the issue permanently, so you can use any apps, emulators, or other homebrew. You only need to play a retail game once, because once the cache partitions are formatted, they do not need to ever be formatted again.
  • FATXplorer creates the cache partitions but does not format the cache partitions; it leaves that task for the first Xbox game you play. A future version of FATXplorer will format the cache partitions so that people do not experience this issue when running some Xbox software without playing a game first.
• When trying to unmount the hard drive, FATXplorer says that the drive is being used
  • This can usually be ignored, meaning you can just unmount the drive anyways.
  • This issue seems to be caused by having any Windows Explorer window open, even if the window is not viewing a directory on the Xbox hard drive. So, you can close all instances of Windows Explorer, and FATXplorer will no longer say that the drive is in use.
• A file does not copy to the Xbox hard drive, and an error message about file size, filename characters, filename length, etc. is presented.
  • This is caused by the FATX file system used by Xbox hard drives. The FATX file system has different limits compared to typical file systems that you may be used to. Review the FATX limitations.
  • This can be solved by changing the file attributes or destination as appropriate for the given limitation.

See also

• Xbox Hard Drive Maker (XboxHDM)