Original Xbox unlocking xbox hard drive for pc use

eatonpusey

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So, I was given a non-working Xbox for free. After diagnosis, the optical (DVD) drive is bad. I am going to scrap the console, but I want to keep the hard drive as an external drive for the pc. Internet searches tell me that I need to unlock it. OK. I found lots of info on this, but most of it is written for people who "speak geek". I, unfortunately, do not. I followed two videos on Youtube, to no avail. I simply need to know how to do this, in plain English, please.

The Xbox is fully functional, save for reading or recognizing any discs. A replacement optical drive costs more than a functional Xbox in my location, so repair is out. I simply want to salvage what I can from this unit. The rest is going to the scrapyard.

Thanks in advance for helpful replies. BTW, I'm not what you would call "computer saavy". Thanks again.
 
Perhaps I could have been more specific. Both Youtube videos instructed me to power up the Xbox, with the lid off, and the DVD drive unplugged. Then, unplug the (now unlocked) hard drive and plug it into the computer. I tried this with a IDE to USB cable from Newegg that I use with all of my external drives. My computer never saw it, found it, whatever. It is a Samsung laptop, with windows 8. OK, that didn't work.

The text instructions from Google all more or less tell me to retrieve the "unlock code" from the EEPROM while the unit is on, then plug the hard drive into my computer and enter the "unlock code". These all failed from the get-go, as I don't know what an eeprom is, nor how to get to it from the Xbox startup menu. Google results on the topic are either equally ambiguous, or technically confusing.

Perhaps if I had said this in the initial post, maybe the responses would have been... any. I thank you all again for any forthcoming help. Eaton.
 
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