Connecting my XBOX 360's DVD Drive to my Inspiron 1720

Before I go forth taking apart my laptop, I was wondering if it is possible to connect my XBOX 360's DVD player to my Dell Inspiron 1720 in order to mod the firmware. In other words, will the SATA connection match up?

Thanks in advance

 

How would you fit one big DVD-drive in a notebook in the first place?

 

you leave the drive in the XBOX and just connect it with a standard sata cable (i believe the power is non standard), the question is does the notebook optical SATA connector match up with a "standard" sata cable really, which i dont personally know the answer to, the pictures ive seen look similar but i couldnt tell one way or the other.

Edit: Actually duh, its probably a female on the laptop side anyways, which means a cable wont hook to it, so probably this would be a no go. Looking at a bare drive on newegg it appears to have standard male connectors, meaning that the laptop will just have a female type connector, so unless you can somehow go from female back to male this isn't gonna work.

 

Yeah that's why i was wondering ofcourse the notebook will have a female type as all SATA-devices has only one standard connector




The only thing you could do otherwise is to get a USB to SATA adapter, there is one who can use SATA/PATA and the smaller PATA that the 2.5" notebook hdd's use, all in one connected to an USB-port.
Though i wouldn't know if you'd be able to flash it when it's connected via USB.

Easiest would be to just flash it on the xbox straight away?! It should be an option in some way? I know i could do lots of stuf on my old xbox that had to do with region firmware and such.
Otherwise connect it to a desktop computer like a regular DVD-drive.


Why is this flash(modded firmware) needed anyways?!

 

Typically it can be used to bypass the DVD ROM's check of the DVD to make sure its a genuine Xbox disc, useful for playing (ahem) backups.

 

Can't microsoft ban the console from XBOX live if the box components have been tampered with??? What would be the point of that, especially as lots of newer games these days a geared towards online gaming.

 

Hi, just thought i'd join up as I can answer a few questions.

av6ftguy: I am about to attempt to do this with a Samsung R20. I have purchased a sata female to male + power lead http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/15-7-Pin-SATA-Serial-ATA-Male-to-Female-Power-Cable-NEW_W0QQitemZ150299134342QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL?hash=item150299134342&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318 and a male to female cable too http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14062

I realised afterwards That I only need the second cable because I was hoping I could power my drive from the sata power connection but Sata 2.5 is only 5v?

You also Need some way of powering the drive, You can get a connectivity kit which just plugs into a molex pc psu connection or you can use the xbox to power the drive (make sure you have the AV cable in or it auto shuts off in 5 mins)

It also depends on if your Sata connection is easily gotten to, with the R20, I can just take the bottom cover off and can see the plug, if say you had a Dell Inspiron 1520, the HDD is in a caddy so the sata connection is deeply recessed.

Of course, you will only be able to use Dos and dosflash to flash as you have removed your boot device, unless you use a USB stick to boot Windows and all your drivers.

BTW I hope you know about the DVD key? its keyed to the motherboard and if you overwite or lose it your xbox wil no longer play games. When you dump the firmware, remember to backup the key somewhere safe.

Michel.K: USB to sata devices only work for one make of drive and even then are quite flaky to use.

 

Just to let the OP know, my cables arrived today but it didn't work

The R20 locked up When the drive was switched on and a Dell inspiron 1520 didnt even pick it up.

Dont waste your time trying this method