thespecialist
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Mod your 360 with an off-the-shelf 120GB HDD, save $100
If there was any doubt in your mind that Microsoft is absolutely soaking us on the $179 pricetag of its new 120GB HDD, all should be laid aside by the fact that you can now brew one up yourself for a mere $80 -- the cost of the drive. The hack is based on that seemingly-useless HDD swap TheSpecialist unveiled a few months ago, but that was back when 20GB was the max size allowed my Microsoft for use with the 360, meaning a 40GB drive was no more useful than a 20 gigger. Now that 120GB is all legit with the console, you can run through pretty much the same hack -- which involves dumping a few sectors off of an original 360 HDD and onto your new drive -- and get your full 120GB to play with. Currently the hack only works with a certain type of Western Digital hard drive, with hopefully more drives to come and a more automated process, but for now it still shouldn't take an incredible amount of know-how to follow TheSpecialist's instructions and get a bit of leg room for you Marketplace downloads on the cheap.[Via Joystiq]
Hack lets you swap 20GB Xbox 360 drive with... 20GB drive
We suppose it's the principle of the thing, and on principle, TheSpecialist's new HDDHacker v0.5B really does let you use your very own HDD in lieu of Microsoft's $100 add-on number, but since Microsoft has firmly set the add-on HDD cap at 20GB (for legit Xbox Live-related usage), you won't be gaining much more than a moral win by following through with this hack. If you feel like really sticking it to The Man, you can use an 40GB 2.5-inch drive, but after running the hack it'll still show up as a 20 gigger for the 360's purposes. You'll also need the Microsoft enclosure to hook this up to your Xbox, so you might as well just fork over the $100 if you bought the Core 360 package and have been hankerin' for a HDD. Though, TheSpecialist seems to think the actual hook-up job shouldn't be too terribly hard for a competent hacker, so it really could be possible for you to drop a few bucks on a Western Digital BEVS Series drive (the only kind that works with the hack), copy the relevant sectors for a legit Xbox 360 drive, and have your very own Microsoft-free storage setup. The Man won't know what hit him.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
WSJ: Xbox 360 is home of hacker hoedown
The illustrious Wall Street Journal sullied its white gloves while getting down and dirty with the Xbox 360 hacking scene yesterday. They profiled superstar hacker Bunnie Huang (he wrote Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering) and his desire to duplicate his earlier success on the 360.When Microsoft bragged about how hack-proof their console was, we wrote, "Going out of your way to boast about how hack-proof your next product is going to be is probably the only surefire way to get an army of hackers on your ass." Turns out we were right. Huang says of his motivation, "It's about overcoming the challenge Microsoft has set out there ... They've bragged about the security for the Xbox 360, so now it's like: Well, let's see."While Huang hasn't had many successes himself, another 360 hacker (who goes by the hacker alias "Acid Burn" "The Specialist") has had a couple, exploiting the console's DVD-drive's firmware. Huang rightfully doesn't consider it a full decoding of the system, but acknowledges he might not be the one to do it either. "Things are different from a few years ago ... The stakes are higher for Microsoft and the hacking community has intensified its efforts."
