# Is flashing an XBOX 360 DVD drive necessary?



## mjoliat

I am going to replace the Hitachi DVD drive in my son's XBOX 360. Everything I have seen about replacing it says that you need to flash the drive or it won't work. But then everything I have seen about flashing the drive says the purpose of flashing is to allow playing burned disks. But what I'm wondering is if we don't play burned disks, do I still need to flash it? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.


----------



## ROFLcopter

You're going to void the warranty if you want to replace the DVD drive. If it's still warranty just send it in. I don't know the forum's stance on modding 360's tho.


----------



## JlCollins005

no to replace a drive it still has to be flashed.

Your original drive has a drive key that is locked to your motherboard of your 360, you have to really read and follow tutorials step by step or you will have a paperweight. 

you have backup the drive key off your original drive and flash the drivekey to the new drive, its much different than flashing the custom fw to play burned games.

360mods.net may have some tutorials that will help they also have forums that would be more dedicated to helping out with your situation.


----------



## louism92

You HAVE to flash the drive, but not with custom firmware if you dont want to, all drives have original firmwares which dont let you play burned games, your best off buying a new benq drive, they are the best around, if your in the UK then i can do all the flashing for you if you like  gunna cost ya though


----------



## bomberboysk

louism92 said:


> You HAVE to flash the drive, but not with custom firmware if you dont want to, all drives have original firmwares which dont let you play burned games, your best off buying a new benq drive, they are the best around, if your in the UK then i can do all the flashing for you if you like  gunna cost ya though





> *10.* Only members with *100* posts are able to send Private messages and post in the computer equipment for sale section. Members are not allowed to pm other users and attempt to sell them anything. Any member who sends you a pm trying to sell you something should be reported directly to an admin and/or moderator. Their account will be banned immediately.



That includes trying to sell stuff from your signature as well. Not to mention, such services could also fall under another rule as this is borderline illegal:



> *1.* Posting/discussion about software cracks, serial no's, and illegal downloading and duplication of software is prohibited.
> *2.* Discussions which actively encourage illegal activities including but not limited to hacking/malicious harm to computers/networks/breaking terms of service is prohibited.


----------



## mjoliat

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not interested in flashing this drive to run burned games. The drive failed because it appears it doesn't spin the disk. So I am replacing it. I was wondering if I replaced the old board on the new drive if this would let me not have to flash it. Is this even possible? Thanks again


----------



## Nightrain

If you get the same model drive you can just swap the boards and not have to worry about flashing. This is assuming that the issue with the drive was purely mechanical, and the board itself was not the culprit.


----------



## louism92

I can bet no one on this forum has ever done or had anything illegal, its no biggy, ill change my sig to say something else then if it make you happy, back to the drive, you can get the same model if you like but if its the board thats the problem then you need a drive, personally i would get a new drive as hitachis are pure outdated


----------



## louism92

1. Posting/discussion about software cracks, serial no's, and illegal downloading and duplication of software is prohibited.
2. Discussions which actively encourage illegal activities including but not limited to hacking/malicious harm to computers/networks/breaking terms of service is prohibited. 

Also anyone who owns something and is out of warranty can do whatever they like with it, in this case an xbox 360, he clearly said he doesnt want a flashed drive to play backups, he just wants to replace the drive but with me being a pro at this and him not really knowing how to replace the drive properly im just trying to help


----------



## JlCollins005

mjoliat said:


> Thanks for all the replies. I'm not interested in flashing this drive to run burned games. The drive failed because it appears it doesn't spin the disk. So I am replacing it. I was wondering if I replaced the old board on the new drive if this would let me not have to flash it. Is this even possible? Thanks again



i would just buy a new drive, head over to 360mods.net theres plenty of people willing to help you step by step get your drive key flash it to the new drive and your good its pretty simple


----------



## louism92

360mods.net are good, a bit crowded though, goto www.robinhoodsplayground.com there no crowding and let me tell you the site is great


----------



## JlCollins005

im not gunna debate whos site is better but crowded lol the more people there the more people to help, not to mention id rather go to the site that the owner is textbook who wrote the tutorials for doing it all.

either way to the op your best bet is to upgrade drives


----------



## louism92

what i mean by crowded is that when you ask a question you either dont get an answer for ages or you dont get one at all! beacuse theres so many people asking questions too, thats why i dont use the site. textbook hasnt made a tutorial in a long time, at robinhoodsplaygroud there is a tutorial section with loads of videos with clear explanation on how to flash drives and so on, also you can make your own guides and post them up. but its totaly up to you what site you want to sign up to but after using both websites myself i say go for www.robinhoodsplayground.com


----------



## JlCollins005

textbooks still around believe me but thats why if i have question i just the built in irc client. well my stuff always gets answered because i live 5 minutes away from textbook lol went to high school together and im a mod on the site. im not dogging your site at all btw i went to it, it dont look to bad but the guys on 360 are really into the scene some are actual fw devs and such.

But as we said upgrade drives although i just remember if he plays live, i would replace the drive with the same kind he has.  there has been known bans on consoles of people that only changed to a dif drive.


----------



## louism92

yeahh i know your not dogging the forum  both are good  back to what you said about replacing the drive, you are right about using a different drive, if you go on live your best off getting the exact same model, if not then would you agree benq would be the best for the job?


----------



## Fatback

louism92 said:


> 360mods.net are good, a bit crowded though, goto www.robinhoodsplayground.com there no crowding and let me tell you the site is great



4. Spam, multiple posting of same topic, *promoting your own site/forum* and posting of sites with affiliate ID's is not allowed.

As you can see promoting your own site is against the rules.


----------



## JlCollins005

Fatback said:


> 4. Spam, multiple posting of same topic, *promoting your own site/forum* and posting of sites with affiliate ID's is not allowed.
> 
> As you can see promoting your own site is against the rules.



its my fault i brought it up multiple times, wasnt trying to promote the site though but tell him that the sites are dedicated to 360s he had much better luck there than here. but im the reason he kept bringing his site up so he shouldnt get into trouble.


----------



## louism92

nah dont take all the blame, we were both promotting the sites but at the same time just trying to help  this website obviously is not the best place to get answers for what he asked for so we thought that telling him to goto another site which specialize in it would help him


----------



## mjoliat

Thanks for the replies everybody. The DVD drive arrived the other day, and I finally got around to replacing it tonight. I swapped the board from the old drive to the new drive, and I'm happy to report it works great. I plugged it in and opened the drive to put a game in. It came up and worked right away.

Thanks again for the advice.


----------

