The New Xbox Experience

The New Xbox Experience is now live.

You can find more information about it at any of the following sites:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/nxe/
http://kotaku.com/5025143/the-new-xbox-experience-just-the-facts-and-maybe-some-conjecture
http://kotaku.com/5055905/new-xbox-experience-site-launches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQMAz1qIWvs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97aBwgfMoic
http://gizmodo.com/5070189/new-xbox-experience-nxe-review-its-pure-improvement

Indian probe set to impact moon surface

An Indian Impacter is set to hit the moon's surface sometime later
this week. The information gained from this experiment will help India
in it's own manned mission to the moon in 2010.

You can read the article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16015-tvsized-probe-to-strike-moons-surface.html

Rudolph

Step 5: Burn the image

If you created the image with Xbox Backup Creator, you do not need to
patch the image or include any other steps. You can now switch to the
write tab, select your dvd burned, insert your DVD+R DL disk into the
drive and hit start.

It will then ask you to select the image you want to burn from. Open
it and you are A for away. Noe I suggest going out and mowing the laws
because this step will take 40 minutes. Only burn at 2.4x to ensure
reliability.

Done

Done

Nearly done. Xbox Backup Creator is now adding special filler layers
and video layers to make the disk play back on Xbox 360 consoles.

Still sitting back

My drive can read at 16x but it seems that 12x is a safer option and
will make more reliable copies. It's a small difference in any case.

Notice the messages passing by. It will find a key and then unlock the
game partition. The Xbox title uses a special file system called
XDVDFS which can be read by Xbox Backup Creator. After all of this is
done it will begin reading the game partition to harddrive. Perhaps I
need to clarify that you have to make a image onto the hard drive and
then burn it from the image. You cannot do this from disk to disk.

Step 4: Sit and enjoy your cafe latte.

The next few minutes will pass essentially without you having to do
anything. It can take 10-15 minutes to copy the Xbox 360 image to
harddrive at 12x. Burning it back to empty disks at 2.4x will take far
longer at around 40 minutes.

Step 3: File name

After clicking start, enter a file name that will make sense to you.
Keep all of your Xbox 360 images together on the harddrive. This is
another way of keeping the titles safe even if you don't have disks to
burn them to at the moment.

Step 2: Select your drive and partition

Now select the drive you want to use to rip the Xbox 360 title. In
case you missed it. You will need a drive with a special Kreon
firmware to do this. Any other drive or any other firmware won't work.

Then select complete backup. Current partition will only copy the
first partition off the disks which is essentially worthless.

Step 1: Open Xbox Backup Creator

You will see the following after opening the Xbox Backup Creator. I
used the newest version and build available at the time.
You will notice a drive selection drop down menu on the top. This is
essential as you will have to switch between your Samsung SH-162D for
reading and other dvd burner for burning the image to disk. I am using
a Lg Drive without any problem.

Undernearth of the drive selection menu, there are a number of tabs
layed out logically.

Read is for reading original Xbox 360 titles to disk images. The
images are in .iso format with a special .dvd layer break file
included in the folder. This file is important because it will tell
your image burning software where to insert a layer break between the
1st and 2nd layer on the dvd. Xbox 360 disks have a layer break at a
different location than normal pc or video disks. They have a number
of other security mechanisms built in as well but Xbox Backup Creator
is able to bypass all of those and replace them on the written disks.
It is the ONLY program you will need. It is definately the preferred
method for creating backups.

Although I have tried downloading Xbox 360 images through the torrent
network, I had a few problems including the size of the images,
passwords, missing rar files, wrong region codes etc. I would
therefore recommend that you do not go that route unless you have a
fast broadband connection and no data cap.

Copying Xbox 360 titles 101

The following steps will guide you through the steps needed to make
backups of your Xbox 360 titles.

Information about the disks

From the pictures you can see that you need Verbatim DVD+R DL disks.
The disks have a write speed of 8x and they indicate a capacity of
8.5GB although Xbox 360 titles won't completely fill them up. They do
need to be + disks and not - disks. These disks are relatively
expensive so I found the spindle below for around half the price per
disk even if the write speed is only 2.4x. I wouldn't recommend
writing at any other speed than 2.4x even with the faster 8x disks
since it make more reliable copies.

I have finally perfected the ritual op making backup copies and will
update this blog with the information soon.

The disks

I have tried to copy Xbox 360 titles to a few different disk types.
Some of the makes of disk will burn but won't be recognized by the
Xbox 360 console. The following disks actually did the trick:

My new Dvd-rom drive

Hi

I have finally received my Samsung SH-D162C Dvd-Rom drive! I have
installed the drive and have uploaded some photos of the drive nested
in my pc.

I have already been able to make backup copies of some of my Xbox 360
titles and will now write the step by step guide to making backup
copies of your own Xbox 360 titles with Xbox Backup Creator (XBC). I
will try to upload it within a week or so.

Underneath is a photo of the Samsung SH-D162C Dvd-Rom needed for
making the copies. It is probably important at this stage that I need
to mention that the drive's firmware has been changed in order to see
the Xbox 360 disks. Note that it is the black bottom drive. You will
need a second DVD-RW drive to actually burn the images created with
the Dvd-rom.