This guide will show to backup Xbox 360 games with Xbox Backup Creator and ImgBurn.

What's Required:

1. Original Xbox 360 Game

2. DVD-ROM drive capable of reading Xbox 360 games: There are a couple drives that are capable of this. By far the most common way is to purchase a Samsung SH-D162C and flash it with Kreon's firmware. In America these drives are no longer in production, the best place to find one is on eBay. Expect to pay about $60 for one, well worth it for backing up your original Xbox 360 games. Most times the drives will come preflashed with Kreon's firmware, if not, download Kreon's firmware off Xbins and flash it with an app called sfdnwin. All the necessary tools for flashing the SH-D162C come with the Kreon firmware download on Xbins. The other methods involve dissembling the Xbox 360 console, hooking the 360 DVD-ROM drive up to your PC via a SATA cable/connectivity kit, and using it to read the 360 games. Using the Samsung SH-D162C is much easier. The SH-D162C is for reading Xbox 360 games only, a Dual Layer burner is required to burn 360 games.

3. Dual Layer DVD Burner: Any Dual Layer burner will work, one capable of booktyping is recommended. Most all newer DVD burners are capable of booktying/bitsetting DVD+RL to DVD-ROM.

4. Modified Xbox 360 Console: Your Xbox 360 must be flashed with the hacked Xtreme or iXtreme firmware in order to boot backups. Flashing the 360 involves dissembling it, hooking the DVD-ROM up to your PC via SATA cable/Connectivity kit, and flashing it through dos. The flash method is different depending on whether you have a Samsung, Hitachi, or BenQ DVD-ROM drive. There is currently Xtreme firmware available for all 360 DVD-ROM drives in circulation. For more info on flashing the Xbox 360, check here: Firmware Hack Tutorials

5. Xbox Backup Creator: Download Here

6. ImgBurn: The Official ImgBurn Website [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

7. Blank DVD+R DL: Verbatim's are highly recommended, their quality is unmatched by other Dual Layer media. DVD-R DL discs will not work, a blank DVD+R DL is required.

Before Starting

Open Xbox Backup Creator. Click the options tab. Set your options as follows:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Tweak as necessary according to your setup/preferences. It's not necessary to tweak any settings to get a working Xbox 360 backup. Mainly I recommend setting the block retry and sector retries to 20, in the event the disc is scratched or dirty, Xbox Backup Creator will attempt to reread the corrupted block/sector a maximum of 20 tries before giving the user the option to fill it with zeros or attempt a manual retry. I suggest selecting the manual retry option, filling with zeros is never a good idea. If after several manual retries XBC is stuck at the same point, it's probably best to cut your losses and abort the rip process.

Splitvid

Splitvid is a new option used for ripping isos found in Xbox Backup Creator 2.6 and later. Basically, the way that XBC rips backups currently, it only rips about half of the actual video partition of the disc, resulting in the standard iso size of 7.05GB's. The splitvid option rips the entire video partition, resulting in an iso size of 7.29GB's. Splitvid isos cause numerous compatibility issues on Xtreme firmwares, and backups created with splitvid enabled may not boot at all on any 360 flashed with Xtreme firmware. So if you are using any of the Xtreme firmware, make sure splitvid is turned off in Xbox Backup Creator before ripping. With iXtreme firmware it doesn't matter if splitvid is enabled. With Xtreme firmware, be sure to disable it! You can disable splitvid in the options in Xbox Backup Creator 2.6 and later, here is a picture showing how to disable the splitvid option.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

GUIDE

1. Insert your original Xbox 360 game into the Samsung SH-D162C.

2. Open Xbox Backup Creator.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

3. Click the drive tools tab. Click Unlock drive.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

4. Click the read tab.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

5. Make sure complete backup is checked, and click start.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

6. This menu will appear. Select a name and destination for your iso. I recommend saving the iso image to the desktop for easy access. Click save when you are done.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

7. The game will begin to rip. A normal rip will take 10-12 minutes.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

9. Close Xbox Backup Creator.

10. Insert a blank DVD+R DL disc into your Dual Layer DVD Burner.

11. Open ImgBurn.

12. Select Mode-->Write. Select your Dual Layer Burner in the Destination box, I select the Liteon 16W1P here.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

13. Click the browse for file button at the top left of ImgBurn, highlighted with a square in the following picture. As an alternative to clicking the browse button, you can drag and drop the dvd file into ImgBurn, which is why I suggested saving the iso and dvd file to the desktop earlier during the rip process.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

14. The following menu will appear. Browse to your dvd file and doubleclick it or single click it and click open.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

15. The dvd file will now be loaded into ImgBurn. The LB next to the sectors portion of ImgBurn stands for Layer Break. Basically this is where the end of the first layer stops and the beginning of the second layer begins on a Dual Layer disc. The LB should always read 1913760 for Xbox 360 games. Set the write speed to 2x or 4x. Click write at the bottom of the program.


16. The game will then be burned to disc. The burn process will take about 45 minutes at 2x, 25 minutes at 4x.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

17. It's done! Click okay.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Booktying with ImgBurn

Bootyping means to change the way a DVD-ROM drive reads a DVD+R or DVD+R DL disc. When you booktype a disc from DVD+R or DVD+R DL to DVD-ROM, it will read the burned disc as a DVD-ROM, the same booktype as a pressed or store-bought DVD. DVD-ROM is the most universally compatible format for burned DVD's. In terms of burning Xbox 360 games, older versions of the Xtreme firmware required that DVD+R DL discs be booktyped to DVD-ROM to boot. This is not the case for Xtreme firmware 4x and later or any of the iXtreme firmware. Most all newer DVD burners support booktying.

1. Open ImgBurn.

2. Click the book icon in the lower right portion of the program, highlighted by a square in the following picture:

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

3. Select your model burner from the menu. In this case I will select Liteon, since I have a Liteon 16W1P.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

4. In the change for box, select DVD+R DL.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

5. In the new setting box, select DVD-ROM.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

6. Click change.

7. Success! Click ok, and burn as normal.

Final Notes

1. Always make sure your firmware is up to date. You can check for firmware updates by going to tools-->drive-->check for firmware updates in ImgBurn, or typing your make and model drive into the search box her at The Firmware Page

2. Make sure your burner is in DMA mode. This only applies to IDE drives, not SATA.

3. Use quality media! Verbatim Dual Layer media is excellent quality, using any other type of Dual Layer media is a gamble.

4. Always close all programs before burning, including Internet, Instant Messenger, Anti-Virus, etc.

5. Any game ripped with newer versions of Xbox Backup Creator should pass all Xtreme/iXtreme stealth checks. To check the stealth status of your iso, use DVD XDVDMulleter.