X3 Western Digital HD Cloning

[TypeX3Mod]

X3 is protected by an ATA Password. Each X3 has a unique password tied directly to the BIOS of the motherboard. For X3s with Western Digital hard drives, you can read the ATA password, unlock the drive and relock the drive using the following tools.

• wdmarvel demo - https://wdmarvel.com/en/
• hdparm - Unlock drive with ATA password, Re-lock (Enable security) the drive with the same ATA Password

ATA Password Extraction
To obtain the ATA password on a Western Digital X3 drive, you will need to physically remove the drive and either attach it to a local SATA port on your computer (Press ESC when it boots since it will prompt for the BIOS password) or use a USB SATA caddy since WDMarvel supports USB based drive trays.

1. Install WDMarvel Demo (Turn test mode on to disable driver signing if using a 64 bit Windows)
2. Run WD Marvel
3. Select the WD Hard Drive, and use WinAPI USB if you using a dock or WinAPI SATA if connected directly
4. Click on RAM - Edit Config in RAM
5. You will see your ATA password in ASCII and also see your Master Password
6. Click Save to File to obtain a bin of the drive. You can use this this bin and a hex editor to pull the password in hex to be used later in hdparm.

Unlocking the drive

1. Now that you have the password in hex, you can use linux (Ubuntu Live USB works great)
2. In a linux terminal, type "sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda" assuming the WD drive is the only SATA drive in the system. It will tell you the details of the drive and current status. In the security section you should see it's enabled.
3. Enter the following hdparm command to unlock the drive with your OWN ATA hex password (Below is an example hex password).

sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-disable hex:58333A30303030303846433A57645566528C74648D89756A7912345B12345A12345 /dev/sda

Drive Cloning

1. With the drive unlocked, you can either use DD to clone to another drive or open the drive and view the files in Windows!
2. Use your favorite cloning software to clone the drive to another drive or SSD. To create an exact backup you will have to use a WD drive so you can change the serial number/model/firmware to boot an original game. More information on that later.

Re-lock the drive

1. With the drive successfully backed up, you will have to re-enable the security on the drive. It's as simple as running hdparm with the same ATA password on the drive.
2. Once back inside linux, you can run "sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda" to view the status. Under security it will show " not enabled" but it might also show up as "frozen". To get past the frozen state, simple unplug the SATA cable and re-plug it back in. Viewing the status again will show up as "not frozen"
3. Issue the following command below with your own ATA password in hex to enable security back on the drive.

sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-mode m --security-set-pass hex:58333A30303030303846433A57645566528C74648D89756A7912345B12345A12345 /dev/sda

[ArcadeHustle]

"This very thing was one of my first questions here and the post was deleted (by Mitsurugi-w) due to possible legal issues"
https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?thread/4494-interest-check-guide-on-cloning-x3-hard-drives/&postID=63083#post63083��

"This stuff is very new and could help people clone intellectual property of Taito or newer games that are still business for them. Don't post anything until @Mitsurugi-w and I come with a final position (on how to monetize this)."
https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?thread/4494-interest-check-guide-on-cloning-x3-hard-drives/&postID=63116#post63116��

"Like Darksoft said and we have said in other threads this method can be used in hacking newer games and systems so we want to keep it pretty quiet and not public. You can already find most info by searching Xbox HDD cloning online. If you want to help each other via PM, go ahead. Just not in the open forums. Sorry guys (but I'm not sorry!)."
https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?thread/4494-interest-check-guide-on-cloning-x3-hard-drives/&postID=63170#post63170

[ArcadeHustle]

Archived WDMarvel Demo installer: WDMarv_demo.zip

[volt72]

Does this method work on a ttx4? I figured it would be worth asking before trying anything.