FOR THE OLD EARLY SAMSUNG HACK GUIDE GO HERE.

SAMSUNG FIRMWARE READ/WRITE GUIDE USING XTREME V4.2 (ADDED 1ST NOV 2006)

DOWNLOAD THE XTREME V4.2 PACK HERE (YOU WILL NEED THIS!)

STEP 1 - IDENTIFY XBOX360 DVD DRIVE

This is a hack for the Samsung drives only.  If you have the Hitachi drive please do not carry on, it will not work.  Look at your DVD tray and compare it to the following image, the little hole in the middle of the top of the DVD tray indicates a Samsung drive.  Look at the label on top of the DVD drive (once you are inside the XBOX36).  If it reads MS-25 then its pretty straight forward, and if it reads MS-28 there is a few more steps to take, but none include any desoldering or soldering and there is no need to open up the DVD drive!

STEP 2 - TAKING THE XBOX360 APART

This is by far the hardest part.  The console is fairly hard to get inside and your first time will be a little tricky, but just take care, go slowly and you will get there.

Click below for a great 2-page PDF guide on how to take the console apart.  Props to whoever wrote it.

Download it HERE.

STEP 3 - CREATE A BOOT DISC / BOOT FLOPPY

In this step you need to create a boot disc with mtkflash on it.

Download the boot disc creator HERE. Simply run bootdisk.exe - You will need a blank floppy disk.  This will create the entire boot disc for you!

STEP 4 - BACKING UP THE DRIVES ORIGINAL FIRMWARE AND WRITING NEW FIRMWARE

MS-25 MODELS (FOR MS-28 MODELS SEE BELOW)

In this step you will backup the DVD drive's original firmware should you ever need to use it again.  Once you have backed it up, I would recommend making multiple copies of it and storing it in a safe place!

Switch OFF! XBOX360 if on and remove the SATA cable from the back,
Power ON! XBOX360.
Power OFF! PC and connect a SATA cable to the motherboard/SATA PCI card.
Power ON! PC with boot disc in drive (make sure floppy drive is set to boot as 1st device!)
Select Option 4 ( Clean Boot )
At the A:/ ( DOS Prompt ) TYPE: mtkflash r /m ORIG.BIN ( Do NOT press return yet )
Plug the SATA cable that is attached to your PC into the back of the XBOX360 drive.
Press Return to run the program.
This will now BACKUP your drives original firmware.  This can take a few minutes, be patient.

Now turn off the PC and then turn off the XBOX360.  Boot back into Windows.

In Windows, copy orig.bin to same directory as this release (same directory as xtrem42a.bin/Xtreme42b.bin and X360SAM.exe)

In the next step you need to decide what version (A or B) of the 4.2 firmware you will use.  Here is the differences.

FOr Xtreme 4.2A default backup Read Speed is same as original game disks 12x. When Original Game disk is booted, all subsequent backup loading will be at Quiet/Slow
Read mode, Original Game disks are unaffected. Turn console off/on to reset back to Default backup read speed (12x). Quiet/Slow Read Speed is for quiet operation
and/or cheap DVD+R DL media.

FOr Xtreme 4.2B default backup Read Speed is Quiet/Slow 2-4x. When Original Game disk is booted, all subsequent backup loading will be at Fast Read mode 12x,
Original Game disks are unaffected. Turn console off/on to reset back to Default backup read speed for backups (2-4x).

Double click "Make X42a.bin" or "Make X42b.bin" to create x42a.bin (Xtreme4.2A firmware with your key from orig.bin) or x42b.bin (Xtreme4.2B firmware with your key
from orig.bin).

Copy x42a.bin or x42b.bin to boot disk.  Now for the writing new firmware:

Switch OFF! XBOX360 if on and remove the SATA cable from the back
Power ON! XBOX360
Power OFF! PC and connect a SATA cable to the motherboard/SATA PCI card
Power ON! PC with boot disc in drive
Select Option 4 ( Clean Boot )
At the A:\ ( DOS Prompt ) TYPE: "mtkflash w /m x42a.bin" or "mtkflash w /m x42b.bin" (Do NOT press return yet)
Plug the SATA cable that is attached to your PC into the back of the XBOX360 drive.
Press Return to run the program.
This will now FLASH your drive with the hacked firmware.  It may take a while but it will be quicker than backing up the firmware you performed earlier.

MS-28 MODELS (FOR MS-25 MODELS SEE ABOVE)

THIS MS-28 GUIDE IS SIMPLE AND THERE IS NO NEED FOR OPENING THE DRIVE OR PERFORMING ANY SOLDERING!!!!!

In this step you will backup the DVD drive's original firmware should you ever need to use it again. Once you have backed it up, I would recommend making multiple copies of it and storing it in a safe place!

For this step I recommend disconnecting all IDE harddrives and leaving 1 CD/DVD ROM plugged in on an IDE channel, this will help us slighly shortly.

Switch OFF! XBOX360 if on and remove the SATA cable from the back,
Power ON! XBOX360.
Power OFF! PC and connect a SATA cable to the motherboard/SATA PCI card.
Power ON! PC with boot disc in drive (make sure floppy drive is set to boot as 1st device!)
Select Option 4 ( Clean Boot )
At the A:/ ( DOS Prompt ) TYPE: mtkflash r /m ORIG.BIN
Connect the SATA cable to the XBOX drive.
Press ENTER
You will be asked to select either 1 or 2 (IDE or SATA or vice versa), make sure you only choose SATA option. Dont hit ENTER just yet.
Now turn the XBOX360 off!
Now choose the SATA option and HIT enter, it will start searching for the drive.
Count in seconds 1-10.
After 10 seconds turn the XBOX360 back on.
This will now BACKUP your drives original firmware. This can take a few minutes, be patient.

Now turn off the PC and then turn off the XBOX360.  Boot back into Windows.

In Windows, copy orig.bin to same directory as this release (same directory as xtrem42a.bin/Xtreme42b.bin and X360SAM.exe)

In the next step you need to decide what version (A or B) of the 4.2 firmware you will use.  Here is the differences.

FOr Xtreme 4.2A default backup Read Speed is same as original game disks 12x. When Original Game disk is booted, all subsequent backup loading will be at Quiet/Slow
Read mode, Original Game disks are unaffected. Turn console off/on to reset back to Default backup read speed (12x). Quiet/Slow Read Speed is for quiet operation
and/or cheap DVD+R DL media.

FOr Xtreme 4.2B default backup Read Speed is Quiet/Slow 2-4x. When Original Game disk is booted, all subsequent backup loading will be at Fast Read mode 12x,
Original Game disks are unaffected. Turn console off/on to reset back to Default backup read speed for backups (2-4x).

Double click "Make X42a.bin" or "Make X42b.bin" to create x42a.bin (Xtreme4.2A firmware with your key from orig.bin) or x42b.bin (Xtreme4.2B firmware with your key
from orig.bin).

Copy x42a.bin or x42b.bin to boot disk.  Now for the writing new firmware:

Switch OFF! XBOX360 if on and remove the SATA cable from the back,
Power ON! XBOX360.
Power OFF! PC and connect a SATA cable to the motherboard/SATA PCI card.
Power ON! PC with boot disc in drive (make sure floppy drive is set to boot as 1st device!)
Select Option 4 ( Clean Boot )
At the A:/ ( DOS Prompt ) TYPE: "mtkflash w /m x42a.bin" or "mtkflash w /m x42b.bin"
Connect the SATA cable to the XBOX drive.
Press ENTER
You will be asked to select either 1 or 2 (IDE or SATA or vice versa), make sure you only choose SATA option. Dont hit ENTER just yet.
Now turn the XBOX360 off!
Now choose the SATA option and HIT enter, it will start searching for the drive.
Count in seconds 1-10.
After 10 seconds turn the XBOX360 back on.
This will now write your drives new firmware. This can take a few minutes, be patient.

When done turn off PC and then XBOX360 and then you can test with a backup game.

I have personally done this myself and it has worked excellent!

STEP 5 - BURNING THE GAMES

Easiest way to burn the games is with CLONE CD.  If you don't have it grab it HERE.

Burning the games at 2-2.4x is recommended.

Please remember although now you can play backups, you CANNOT play all formats.  Games are still region locked.

And remember once you have tested a game out, if you like it then go out and buy it and support the game makers!