I never understood what poker players meant when they said they were on a bad run. My game is good, but I keep losing important hands - usually on the river; they say. I thought they must be misplaying their hands, or playing on the wrong stakes.  But now I know exactly what they mean ! I've been on a bad run for over 2 weeks now and the end is not in sight yet. I'm going to play another tournament at a friends house tonight, so we'll see what happens. But the last few times I played in a live game where just unbelievable.

I keep getting great starting hands and hitting the flop hard. I get people to commit all their chips on an underpair, when I have top two pair. Then the rivercard comes and trips them up. I rebuy and 2 hands later the exact same thing happens. Because I'm constantly losing, I get no rspect at the table either. So I raise with AK, I get called with K3o ... the flop shows a K which I check because I expect the button to bet. He does and I move all in to take down the pot right there. The button doesn't believe me (even though I show them the mortal nuts every time I move my chips in) and calls me with his K with no kicker. The dealer rivers a 3 and I'm busted by another 3 outer.

i really hope my luck will turn around soon. At the moment I'm still confident I played everything correctly and I'm just having an incredibl bad run of cards. But if this keeps up for much longer, I don't know if my confidence will stay so strong. Sometimes ... it's hard just to make a pair. Other times you flop hard and it doesn't help you at all in the end. it's all down to the turn of the cards. 

How v-syncing works 

I had to upgrade the hard disk in my XBOX today, before I'm sending it off to Denmark to my little nephew. I'm using a 360 now and play my media in other ways .. so I have no more use for it. Ran into this guide somewhere, I'm following it now. Hope it works ;) If I have not removed this guide by tomorrow, it must have worked.

Anwyay, you know how these webpages tend to disappear on you .. you're like, I'm sure it was here somewhere. it was the top hit in Google just yesterday. Where did it go ? So for this purpose I have backed it up for myself on my own site. Might come in handy again one day, even though I won't have an XBOX anymore anyway. 

Upgrading the Xbox Hard Drive

Replacing the standard 8GB or 10GB Xbox harddrive with a larger hdd is actually a very simple process.

1. First, you want to make sure that the new hdd that you buy for your Xbox is lockable. If you have any intention of ever using your Xbox on Xbox Live, then your hard drive MUST be locked. Microsoft will check to see that the hard drive is locked when you sign onto Xbox live. What does it mean that an Xbox hard drive is "lockable"? Well, the original Xbox hard drive ships from Microsoft in a "locked" condition. This is a security feature that is designed to prevent consumers from looking at the contents of the original harddrive. If you place the original Xbox hdd into a regular computer, the computer will be unable to "unlock" the Xbox hard drive, and the hard drive will not be able to communicate with your computer. By locking your replacement hard drive, the Xbox will be able to communicate with the replacement as if it were the original hard drive. Unfortunately however, not all replacement Xbox hard drives are lockable. Before you buy and install a replacement Xbox harddrive, please visit the website below to make sure that someone else has been able to lock the xbox hard drive replacement you are planning to purchase.

Xboxdrives.x-pec.com A very good resource to make sure that the new Xbox harddrive that you buy to replace your standard Xbox hdd is lockable. Xboxdrives.x-pec.com keeps an up-to-date database of user's experiences locking Xbox hard drives.

Personally, I prefer and have used many times the Western Digital 120 gig JB hard drive. The exact model number of this drive is WD1200JB. Note that there are several versions of the WD1200, and the "JB" is the only one that I have ever used, but it works flawlessly every time. I can always lock this drive. Also, this particular drive tends to be relatively inexpensive. I bought several of them at Circuit City for around $100.

The latest versions of the EvolutionX dashboard will allow you to lock the HDD with only a simple menu command.

Okay, so lets assume that you have purchased a new Xbox hard drive (like the WD1200JB). Now you just have to follow these simple instructions to install it.

2. Backup your Xbox's critical settings. This is the information that you will need to have on your new hard drive so your Xbox will recognize it. To obtain this information, Boot your Xbox to the EvolutionX dashboard. Then, Under "Systems Utils" , select "Backup". (this is the location of the backup utility if you didn't change the menu structure in the original evox.ini file). This should have made a backup of some important settings of your xbox. If everything worked fine it made a directory /backup in the C drive of your Xbox HD.

3. Backup the C: and E: on your original Xbox hard drive to your pc. Connect with FTP to your Xbox and copy the whole "C" and "E" drive to your PC HD. ("C" is pretty small , the size of "E" depends on what u uploaded there already). Make 100% sure you have a FULL backup of the Xbox C & E drive on your PC. This is VERY important. Also check that in C you have a directory /backup with 5 files in it. If you don't have this it means something went wrong in step 2. So, you should have on your PC hard drive copies of the C: and E: from your Xbox, making sure that /backup directory exists.

4. Now we are going to create a NEW EvolutionX boot cd. To make this boot cd we are going to need to modify a few setting in the evox.ini file, to tell this new version of Evox that you plan to use it to upgrade the Xbox harddrive. These are the files you need on your Evox Install HD CD :

* The EvoX XBE file , should be placed in the disk root and called "default.xbe"
* The "evox.ini" should be changed , open it in notepad.
Make sure the network settings are set correctly for your home network.
Under "[Misc]"
put "UseFDrive" to "Yes"
If you have a +137gb HD and want to use partition7 (drive G), also put "UseGDrive" to "Yes", else leave it to "No".
Delete everything what's under "[Menu]" it and replace by this :

For EvolutionX version 1.8.2594 till v1.8.3285 (if your HD is +137gb and you have a bios with LBA48-rest-to-part6 support it will make 1big F drive)

Make sure that your evox.ini file contains all of the below information. Just edit the file with a simple text editor (such as MS notepad )

Section "Install Menu"
{
Item "Install New drive",@210
Item "MS Dashboard",@3
Item "Reboot",@5
Item "Power Off",@10
}

[Action_10]
Info "Install HDD - Xbox-Scene"
Warning "This will format all drives"
Warning "Make sure you have a backup of C & E"
Progress "Formatting drives"

ConfigSector "\backup\disk.bin"
Format c:
Format e:
Format f:
Format x:
Format y:
Format z:

For EvolutionX v1.8.3682 or higher/newer (if your HD is +137gb and you have a bios with LBA48-rest-to-part6 support it will make 1big F drive)

Section "Install Menu"
{
Item "Install New drive",@210
Item "MS Dashboard",ID_MS_Dash
Item "Reboot",ID_Quick_Reboot
Item "Power Off",ID_Power_Off
}

[Action_10]
Info "Install HDD"
Warning "This will format all drives"
Warning "Make sure you have a backup of C & E"
Progress "Formatting drives"

ConfigSector "\backup\disk.bin"
Format c:
Format e:
Format f:
Format x:
Format y:
Format z:

Now, if your HD is +137gb and you want to use partition7 (dirve G), you need EvolutionX 1.8.3921 or higher/newer and a bios with LBA48-137-to-part6-rest-to-part7 support. Use this:

Section "Install Menu"
{
Item "Install New drive",@210
Item "MS Dashboard",ID_MS_Dash
Item "Reboot",ID_Quick_Reboot
Item "Power Off",ID_Power_Off
}

[Action_10]
Info "Install HDD - Xbox-Scene"
Warning "This will format all drives"
Warning "Make sure you have a backup of C & E"
Progress "Formatting drives"

ConfigSector "\backup\disk.bin"
Format c:
Format e:
Format f:
Format g:
Format x:
Format y:
Format z:

You might need to change the network settings of the evox.ini for your configuration. (use the same network settings as on your EvoX dashboard installed on your original Xbox HD).

* You should also add the complete /backup directory from the C drive on your Xbox.

* So , the complete CD should contain :

default.xbe (the evox dash executable)
evox.ini (the evox ini file you configured above)
/backup/bios.bin (from /c/backup on Xbox HD)
/backup/disk.bin (from /c/backup on Xbox HD)
/backup/eeprom.bin (from /c/backup on Xbox HD)
/backup/hddinfo.txt (from /c/backup on Xbox HD)
/backup/hddkey.bin (from /c/backup on Xbox HD)

Now make an xiso of the disk content with any xiso creator (tutorials: Craxtion, SimpleX ISO, yursoft xiso), then burn it with PrimoDVD or Nero (tutorial) on media compatible with your xbox (most xbox drives will read cd-rw/dvd-rw/dvd-r, the samsung xbox drive will also read cd-r fine).

5. Replace HD

Open your xbox (tutorial) and replace the HD. Make sure your new HD is set to "cable-select" and don't forget to plug-in both the electricity-cable & IDE-cable.

I strongly suggest to keep your old harddrive untouched... you might need it later if something goes wrong.


6. Try booting the CD & FTP

Boot your Xbox (it will give a red light after some secs) and put the Evox Install HD disk in the drive.
Power off your xbox and restart it (with disk in the drive).
Evox should boot.
Now make sure that your network settings (in the evox.ini file) are correct ... try to FTP to your xbox. (if it doesn't work, correct evox.ini and reburn a new evox Install HD disk)
If EvoX doesn't even boot , it means :

* you used media your xbox can't read.
* your evox dashboard isn't called default.xbe
* you made an error in the evox.ini
* you didn't make a "xiso" before burning.
* you didn't burn the "xiso" correctly
* your modchip doesn't have the HDD-swap feature
* the disk has no /backup directory with 5files
* your modchip is disabled


7. Format the drives

If everything above is OK , just select "Install New drive" and then confirm ("Yes").
The software will now format the drives.
When finished , it will return the EvoX dashboard.


8. Transfer C & E

Now connect with FTP to your xbox. You should see all drivenames.
Transfer the whole C & E backup u made on your PC to the C & E on your new Xbox HD.
Remove the disk from your Xbox , and reboot.
The Xbox should now reboot from your new xbox HD.
If not , you probably did something wrong while restoring the drives.
Just boot the Evox Install HD disk and you can FTP to your xbox again and check what might have gone wrong.
If needed you can always reinstall your old xbox HD.

9. Change evox.ini on C
Under "[Misc]"
put "UseFDrive" to "Yes"
If you have a +137gb HD and you partition7 (drive G), put "UseGDrive" to "Yes", else leave it on "No"
else you can't use the F/G drive correctly.

Finally, there should be a menu command on your EvolutionX dashboard that says ?lock drive?. Go ahead and execute this command to make sure that your drive is locked, this is important if you ever want to use the XBOX on XBL (XBOX Live) again because Mircrosoft will try to detect wether the drive is set to its locked state.

Congratulations, Your new xbox HD is installed :-)