Xbox 360:FATXplorer

FATXplorer

Information
Author	Eaton
Type	Xbox Storage Tool
Version	2.5.4.15047 (Stable) 3.0.0.25903 (Beta)
License	Propritary
Links
Website	https://fatxplorer.eaton-works.com/
Source	N/A
Download(s)	https://fatxplorer.eaton-works.com/download/

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 and managing Xbox 360 hard drives. Version 3.0 of FATXplorer is the first version to support the original Xbox, with previous versions only supporting the Xbox 360.

Notably, FATXplorer is the first tool capable of formatting up to 16 TB. Previously, attempting to format a 3 TB hard drive would result in 2.2 TB of usable space.

Formatting an Xbox 360 Hard Drive (3.0 Beta)

The following steps can be followed to format an internal hard drive, either with or without XL patches.

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.
   • If you want to format a standard HDD that is 2 TB or less, select Xbox 360 HDD.
   • If you want to format an internal HDD up to 16 TB for a modded console with XL patches, select Xbox 360 XL HDD. A USB HDD would instead use Xbox 360 XL USB.
3. Select your Xbox 360 hard 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.
4. You will be asked to provide the original security sector for your hard drive if you're formatting it as an internal drive. The security sector contains information about the hard drive's serial number, firmware, make, and model.
   • If you are formatting a hard drive for a JTAG/RGH console, you can tick the checkbox on the bottom left and skip it.
   • Retail consoles require a hard drive with the original security sector in order to be detected. If the security sector doesn't exist or is invalid, the hard drive will be undetected. If you have a Western Digital HDD that's 500 GB or less & manufactured before 2020, you can try using FATXplorer's Xbox 360 HDD Maker wizard to make it compatible with retail consoles before going through the formatting wizard.
5. Change partitions as desired, then press Next.
6. Change the hard drive's name as desired, then press Next.
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.
   • If you need the original unmodded files for the backwards compatability partition, they can be downloaded from the FATXplorer website. Extract the Compatibility folder from the zip file to somewhere on the computer, click Browse for Folder in FatXplorer, and navigate to the extracted Compatibility folder to select it.
8. A summary is presented. Make sure everything looks right, then choose Format. The formatting process is complete.

Modifiying Western Digitial HDDs to work on Retail consoles

For stock consoles, you must have a 500GB, 320GB, 250GB, 120GB, 60GB or 20GB Western Digital hard drive with a serial number ending in BEAS/BEVS/BEVT/BPVT/LPVT/BEKT/BJKT/BPKT/BUDT/HLFS/BLFS. Non-Western Digital drives may be forced to work via this tutorial, but it is risky and may render the drive unusable.

1. Download & install the latest FATXplorer beta if it isn't already on your computer.
2. Connect the compatible WD HDD to your computer.
3. Open FATXplorer and click Xbox 360 HDD Maker.
4. Select the HDD you are going to modify, and click Backup & Flash. FATXplorer will ask you a location to store the UNDO.BIN file so you can revert the modified HDD firmware in the future.
5. Once the custom firmware on the HDD has been flashed, it should be good to go for the standard formatting process for an Xbox 360 HDD shown above. If FATXplorer popped up with an error about not beign able to restart the hard drive, simply eject the hard drive from the computer safely reconnect it.

Managing Files on Internal Xbox 360 Hard Drives

The following steps can be followed to manage or add new 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. On Xbox 360 hard drives, you only need to worry about the Content and Backwards Compatability partitions.
   • Only one partition can be mounted at a time.
   • The Content partition is the main partition for Xbox 360 content, and can also be used for homebrew applications or plugins.
   • The Backwards Compatability partition is for the original Xbox emulator, and is also where save files and DLC for original Xbox games are stored.
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.
   • If you access an Xbox 360 formatted HDD in FATXplorer for the first time, the program will ask you to create a cache folder. Enable it for faster transfer speeds while accessing it on the computer.

FATX limitations

Xbox 360 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 volume size	64 GB (with 4 KB clusters) 128 GB (with 8 KB clusters) 256 GB (with 16 KB clusters) 512 GB (with 32 KB clusters) 1 TB (with 64 KB clusters) 2 TB (with 128 KB clusters) 4 TB (with 256 KB clusters) 8 TB (with 512 KB clusters) 16 TB (with 1 MB clusters)
Maximum file size	4 GB (232 / 4,294,967,296 bytes), minus one cluster
Maximum filename length	42 characters
Maximum path length	240 characters
Maximum files and folders per root folder	4,096
Maximum files and folders per folder	240
Maximum folder depth	240
Possible cluster sizes	4 KB, 8 KB, 16 KB, 32 KB, 64 KB, 128 KB, 256 KB, 512 KB, 1 MB
Allowed characters for filenames and folders	ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!#$%&'()-.@[]^_`{}~(SPACE)

Troubleshooting

• The hard drive says "Unformatted" on an Xbox 360 and can't be accessed properly on a PC.
  • This is caused by a defective hard drive. It cannot be fixed, and data recovery on a drive from this state requires special tools.
• 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 360 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 360 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. FAT32 USB storage also isn't effected by the FATX limitations.
• My Xbox 360 shows an E70 error code.
  • This is caused by trying to use a 4K Native hard drive internally. FATXplorer cannot format 4K Native hard drives as FATX, but could potentially be converted to a compatible format.