320GB HDD Not Recognized After Formatting from PC

Problem: 320GB HDD (not built by Microsoft, but imitated) is not recognizable in my Xbox 360. Initially, it stayed unformatted even though I have formatted it through the Xbox itself.

Item: 320GB HDD bought from Amazon made by a third party.

Background: When the hard drive arrived, I inserted it in my Xbox for game use. It was working fine in the beginning aside from the Xbox Dashboard running more slowly than when I use the official Microsoft hard drive. When I was moving my game files around,
the 320GB hard drive suddenly becomes "Unformatted." I tried formatting it from the Xbox, but it refuses to. I entered the correct Serial Number, it goes to the progress bar, then back to storage screen as if I didn't format it at all. I tried to format
it several times and unplugging/replugging it. Not working.

My second attempt is formatting it from the PC. There, I tried several methods of formatting then tried it on the Xbox. Some methods did nothing where the hard drive stays Unformatted. Since my last attempt to create partitions of 32GB within Disk Management,
the hard drive was not visible in the Xbox at all--even after I deleted all the partitions and refreshed my hard drive as if I started on my first attempt. My Xbox no longer sees my 320GB hard drive.

I've spent several days researching and trying to solve this issue on my own, but I am at a loss. Is there any way to salvage my hard drive to use on the Xbox? Or would this be considered a hard drive failure where I would have to buy another expensive
hard drive?

:)

 

HDD Question

A 360 HDD plugged into an HDD port contains custom formatting and security data from the factory. You cannot plug just any HDD into a 360's HDD port. Formatting a 360 HDD using a PC destroys/erases all of the factory partitioning and formatting - the stuff
that makes it a 360 HDD.

She's dead, Jim.

 

Hddhackr question.

Hey guys new here. I have used hddhackr many times before in the traditional manor, but I was wondering if one could break a 750gb hdd down into 2 partitions of 320gb each, run hddhackr on each partition, and if so, is the xbox capable of recognizing both partitions? Just trying to find a way to utilize large amounts of hdd space without rgh/jtagging.

 

"Imitation" hard drives aren't exactly supported by Microsoft. Those drives typically have their firmwares flashed to work with a certain HDD-firmware whitelist the console keeps for Microsoft-certified hard drives. Things may not always work out so perfectly
(I know for sure original Xbox emulation will definitely not work).

From what it looks like, the hard drive must've died or there's corruption happening in the drive's firmware if you can't even get it detected on the PC properly. Not really much you can do for either case.

Consider this alternative: as far as I know, this HDD firmware-specific limitation only exists on the Xbox 360 when connected to the console's SATA port (through the slot where you fit in the proprietary enclosure). There was a software update last
year that allowed Xbox 360s to use USB external hard drives as game storage (much like what the Xbox One can do), so you can use an external hard drive (or basically any bare drive in a USB enclosure), up to 2TB in size, and connect it to
your Xbox 360 for storing/loading games.

 

I can still detect the hard drive on the PC, but it is not detected by the Xbox. I will try the SATA port route and see if that works.

 

Would you explain this process to me (sorry in advance if it's a silly question)? How would I connect the 320GB hard drive using the console's SATA port? I don't have the slim 360.

Do I connect the hard drive to the Xbox's USB port using USB to SATA? Would I have to disassemble the HDD casing to get to the actual hard drive?