READ THISIf you EVER plan on playing on xbox live again after modding your xbox, listen to me VERY VERY carefully.
MS has been banning people extremely quickly from XBOX-Live.
The following two situations seem to be causing it, besides logging on with a chip enabled:
A) User logged onto XBOX Live with original HD, changed HD, then logged on to xbox live again -- Banned
B) User puts alternative dashboard on origina xbox hard drive or has unsigned apps on xbox hard drive and logs on to xbox live -- Banned.
(Before I get flames like "j00 1z 14m3. 1 10g on 3v3ry d4y. j00 r n07 l33t", go to
www.xbox-scene.com to read more).
There is something called the Xtender mod:
www.teamxtender.com that allows you to install up to 3 hard drives in your xbox (it extends the case upward by a few inches).
If you ever plan on playing on live again, you have 2 choices:
A) every time you log onto live, remove your new larger hard drive, install older hard drive, turn off chip, log on.
B) Turn off chip, turn off xbox, click "1" button on xtender mod, play halo2 on live.
Your best bet to be safe w/ your xbox and live is to do the following:
1: NEVER use your original hard drive for anything other than original XBOX games and authorized xbox software.
2: NEVER even boot to your original HD with modchip on.
The best thing about the xteneder mod too, is that you can put 2 120gig hd's in there, use one for roms/games, and use one for media/videos/whatever you want.
Note: if you leave your original HD in there, and want to play on live, you can't have larger than a 120 gig HD on each channel. The original MS Bios doesn't like drives on the IDE chain that large, and will fail to boot, period, if you have a drive larger than 250gig on it. I have tried this with a 250gb drive that numerous people were able to lock after replacing their originals, it didn't work with that drive either.
This should help you avoid headaches.
If you've already put crap on your original drive, then hopefully, when installing your alternative dash, you made a backup of your original hard drive like you were told to in the docs for whatever dash you installed. If so, just revert it back to its original state. If you didn't, there are tools like Slayers EvoX Autoinstaller and others that will allow you to revert your HD back to an original state.
--NipsMG