Hi there, first of all i'd like to say sorry if this has already been answered. I have already searched these forums fairly extensively but i am unsure as to what information would apply to my situation, and i think that you guys are the people to ask.

Now i currently have a laptop (SONY PCG-FR415S) and a Fully working XBOX 360 which is un-modified and i intend to keep it that way.

I intend to buy an "external DVD burner", "appropriate discs which i can burn onto and will play without any issues" and a "modified XBOX 360".

Now i would like to know:

1) what external dvd burner and discs i would need to use?

2) Whether the type of drive and firmware within the modified XBOX 360 would make any difference to what dvd burner and discs i would need?

3) I am aware that the modified XBOX 360 consoles have problems going online and can even be banned. So if i was to put my hard drive into the modified XBOX 360, got all the possible offline achievement points and then put my hard drive back into my original and un-modified XBOX 360 which is connected to XBOX LIVE, would there be any issues?

If there is anything else which you think i should know then please feel free to add any comments.

Thank you for taking your time to read this thread any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks...

basically as of now iXtreme fw for the 360 consoles you currently wont get banned on xbox live using this... but theres no guarantee's in the future that you wont get banned... my guess is if ms does ban, it's going to be around the halo3 release time frame.

as for burning 360 games... in general people recommend pioneer 111D or a drive similar to this... me personally i use a lite-on 1673s drive and it burns 360 games fine they all read 100percent and i burned em @ 4x on Verbatim dvd+r dl media. (verbatim is pretty much the best dl media you can get)

as for your hard drive swaping question... as far as i know you can use a banned consoles hard drive in a non banned console and it should be fine... as of now, when your console gets banned only THAT console is banned for life, you can still use your xbox live account on another xbox360 console that aint banned and your account will work 100percent just like before.

right now i currently am running Xtreme 5.2A fw on my 360 console with a Samsung MS28 drive and i am not banned. BUT i dont have ANY backup game discs in the console when i get on xbox live... supposedly from what i read ms cant directly detect the fw on the drive itself... so they basically have to detect the fw when you use a backup discs... the recent bans (may 2007 ish) where all related to miliseconds delays when reading certain areas of the disc when reading a backup vs a original game disc... thats how ms could tell you where using a backup game discs vs the original game disc since when using a backup the fw on the drive would respond to quickly vs a original but thats all corrected in iXtreme fw.... i dont know the details but thats the basic idea ... since iXtreme came out it's pickier on what games it will play since you have to make em properly now with the PFI-DMI-SS etc stuff where as before all you had to have was the SS section and the game would load on older fw like Xtreme 5.3 or older (this Xtreme 5.3 is for samsung drives, but the hitach is basically the same)

also depending on what drive is in your console u might need this card here... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815124022 (with this card it works on ALL 360 drives that can currently be flashed pretty much... it's basically required if you got a Samsung MS28 drive like i do) ... basically odds are if your console is made before 2007 (check mfg date on back of console) then it can almost for sure be flashed with that card i linked to) ... basically the hitachi 79's and benq's (benq's dont have fw for the drive now anyways) pretty much cant be flashed... atleast not easy anyways as they require hardware mods (soldering etc) which is a pain in the butt to mess around with.

p.s. also the general recommended burning speed on xbox360 games is 2.4x (which takes about 45min to burn a game backup)

but the bottom line is if you cant afford to be banned on xbox live then dont mod the console.