Original Xbox FAQ
What can I do about an original Xbox hard drive failure?
What causes a hard drive failure?
Most of the time the age of the hard drive is the cause. An IDE hard drive like the ones in the original Xbox have a lot of mechanical parts that will eventually go bad. A hard drive can also "brick" due to user errors. This usually happens on a modded console where files accidentally get moved or deleted and cause the console issues. Hard drives can also have corupted data on them for many reasons. Sectors can go bad, power surges can happen an bad times that interrupt a hard drive function. (Ever see a game boot up screen that says don't turn off the console while the save icon is displayed? That's why!) So... what are your options when dealing with an original Xbox hard drive failure?
What to do about it
Well for starters, if you have a modded original Xbox console you have more options! If you have the EEPROM saved elsewhere you can use that to build a new hard drive and lock it with that EEPROM. I won't be able to cover that entire process here. But if you have an original Xbox console that was soft modded or hard modded, your next step is to research how to use the EEPROM to build a new hard drive for the console. (It's actually not as complicated as you might think) In fact, if you have a console with a mod chip and flashed bios, you may well not have to do much of anything besides installing a new hard drive with a dashboard installed. This works differently depending on how you have everything set up, so it would again be too much to dive into here. But it's a good place for you to start! If it isn't modded then read on.
If the console wasn't modded then you don't have many options. Your best bet would be replacing the motherboard/HDD with an original Xbox motherboard replacement like one of these. The hard drive and motherboard are married together and come as a set. That's why you would have to replace the motherboard as well as the hard drive. Unfortunately If you have an original Xbox hard drive failure there is no other way to replace the hard drive when you don't have access to the EEPROM. Buying a new motherboard is also easy because you just have to unscrew the old parts and screw in the new set. This is also going to be MUCH cheaper than buying a whole new console.
