Xbox 360:Creating Game Backups

Circumventing DRM mechanisms and/or creating backup copies of games and media for personal use is a right granted only in some countries. It is your sole responsibility to stay up to date with the law in your respective country. The information provided within this wiki is solely educational and its editors take no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information.

As Xbox 360s age, their lasers begin to degrade with use. Because of this, it is smart to keep a backup of your game library to be played digitally. Game backups can also be useful for emulators, such as Xenia.

On an unmodified console, you have the option to rip games to the hard drive, playable off of the hard drive by inserting the disc for a license check. On a RGH/JTAG, you can make a complete rip of the disc, which is playable without having the disc inserted. Alternatively, you can install games to hard drive with an unmodified console, move them to a USB device, put them on an RGH/JTAG, and play them that way.

A video demonstration of how to rip game backups can be found on Modded Warfare's channel.

This process also applies to original Xbox games and DVDs.

Ripping with Stock Dashboard

Using the stock dashboard's installation feature does make a complete backup of a disc (including padding) inside a Game on Demand-like SVOD package (also called NXE Installation) with the downside of it being the largest size and requiring the original disc to play on an unmodified console. It is also unsupported with a few games.

1. With the desired disc in the console, navigate to the game disc icon and press X to open the game's details.
2. Press the Install button.
3. Select the storage device you want to install the game to.
4. Once the installation is completed, press A to continue.

On a modded console, you can use the NXE2GOD application to convert officially installed games into Games on Demand. This isn't too necessary, as official disc installations will still play without the disc on a modded console anyway. However, it will allow you to copy and move the game using the storage settings on the official dashboard when converted to GOD. It also means they will no longer be signed to the console they were originally installed with, so they can be easily transferred between modded systems.

Blacklisted Games

Credit to this list goes to Discord user brokenscholar. The location of this blacklist on the NAND is unknown, but it has precedent to be updated. An example of this is Crackdown not being able to install on 7xxx dashboard revisions, but was later whitelisted.

XGD1 hybrid discs, like all Original Xbox games, cannot be NXE installed. These are pressed on the same media and contain executables for the Xbox and Xbox 360, assuming default.xex in root dir>default.xbe root directory (?)

Please note that this list isn't exhaustive. Some games that have NXE installation blocked may not be documented here. If your game isn't on the list but has NXE installation blocked, please message the moderators/admins or document it here!

• Alien Breed Trilogy (XBLA launcher)
• Batman: Arkham Origins Disc 2 (multiplayer, dead for years)
• Battlefield Hardline
• Big Bumpin (XGD1 hybrid release)
• Cabela's Outdoor Adventures
• Capcom Digital Collection (XBLA launcher)
• College Hoops 2K7
• Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (Likely to prevent nude mod hotswapping, but this is speculation)
• Dreamcast Collection (XBLA launcher)
• Final Fantasy XI (all versions, demo title launcher + mandatory install in non SVOD format (0000003)
• Hasbro Family Game Night
• Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (XBLA + demo title launcher)
• Minecraft (XBLA launcher)
• NBA 2K7
• NBA 2K8
• NBA Ballers: Chosen One
• Ping17 Test Disc November 2006 (demo title launcher, MS internal)
• Pocket Bike Racers (XGD1 hybrid release)
• PopCap Arcade Volume 2 (XBLA launcher)
• Official Xbox Magazine North America - 52, 54-64 (XGD1 hybrid discs)
• Official Xbox Magazine North America - 53, 65-131 (Demo title launcher)
• Official Xbox Magazine discs in general (unknown)
• Quake 4 Bonus Disc/Quake II (demo title launcher)
• Serious Sam Collection (XBLA launcher)
• Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack The Ripper
• Sneak King (XGD1 hybrid disc)
• Supremacy MMA
• Titanfall (uses DVD drive and HDD cache to optimize I/O. Digital version exists, disc was never whitelisted)
• The Crew (mandatory install across two discs!)
• Worms Collection (XBLA launcher)
• Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1 (redirects to games library, it's just a shortcut XEX)
• Any Installation discs (discs that only serve to install CON/PIRS content to the HDD - GTA V, COD Ghosts/AW, game add on discs as examples)
• Bonus discs with no games included
• Kiosk discs up to v3.4, 4.x and up require full format of HDD to install in GOD format, so those qualify as NXE install required.
• Anything pressed on a CD or DVD (some game demos, some magazine discs, update discs, iptv installer discs)

Ripping with Aurora

Disc to GOD

Aurora's disc to GOD script is similar to installing the game with the Microsoft dashboard, but it is signed as a digital GOD instead of a console signed disc installation.

1. While in Aurora, press the Back button on the controller and select "Scripts".
2. If the Disc to GOD installer is not already installed, open the Aurora Repo Browser > Utility Scripts > Aurora Disc to GOD installer v1 by Phoenix, then press the B button twice to return to your installed scripts.
3. Open the Disc to GOD installer script.
4. After launching the script, it will prompt you where the game should be backed up to. If you want the game to also show up in the Microsoft dashboard, it can be placed in the Content\0000000000000000 on either the internal HDD or USB storage.
5. Once a folder has been selected, it will show a prompt asking if you want to create content directories.
   • If the game is being installed the Content\0000000000000000 folder, you will need to create the content folders so the game is visible in the Microsoft dashboard.
   • If you are installing the game to its own folder outside the Content directory, then this setting is optional.
6. After the disc is done installing, Aurora will prompt you to scan for new content. You can select Yes so the game will be visible after installation.

Disc Ripper Script

1. While in Aurora, press the Back button on the controller and select "Scripts".
2. If the Disc Ripper script is not already installed, download it by selecting the Aurora Repo Browser > Utility Scripts > Disc Ripper v1 by Derf, then press the B button twice to return to your installed scripts.
   • Alternatively, you can directly download it, unzip it, and place it in hdd1:\Aurora\User\Scripts\UtilityScripts\.
3. Open the Disc Ripper script.
4. Browse through your file system and highlight the folder you'd like to dump the game to and press the Y button. You can press X to create a new folder if needed.
5. It will dump the disc to the selected folder.

Manual File Extraction from Disc

1. While in Aurora, press the Back button on the controller and select "File Manager".
2. Select Dvd. This is the current disc in the DVD drive.
3. Select all of the folders and files on the DVD. After selecting everything, navigate to the left and select the copy button.
4. Press the right bumper and navigate to the storage device you would like to install the game to, then select the folder you want to install the game to.
   • Make sure you are in a folder dedicated for the game itself. An example file path would be Hdd1:\Games\Halo 3
5. Navigate to the left and select the paste button. Once the game's files are finished copying, you can press the back button again to return to the dashboard.
   • Keep in mind that your dashboard must be set to scan the containing folder if you want it to show up in a category listing.

Ripping with FSD

1. Navigate to Utilities > DVD Extract.
2. Select Change, browse to where you want to save the disc contents, and press Y. The program will create a folder with the name specified inside of the selected folder.
3. If you want to change the title of the ripped content, click the second Change button.
4. Select Start Copy and the disc will be ripped to that location. When the process is finished, the Cancel button will disappear and you will need to press B to go back.
   • Keep in mind that your dashboard must be set to scan the containing folder if you want it to show up in a category listing.

Ripping with XeXmenu

1. Navigate to the file manager and to the folder you want to rip files to. Note that it will *not* create a directory, so it's recommended to make a folder for the game and enter it.
2. Press Y and scroll down to the second to bottom option, CopyDVD. Press A on it and it will open the disc tray.
3. Place the DVD in the disc tray, close it, and press Confirm. The disc will be ripped to that location.
   • In XeXmenu, the game's folder has to be in a folder called Games, Applications, or Emulators in order for XeXmenu to show it in the discovery menu.

Ripping with a PC

Tutorial from the Redump Wiki