v3.0.0.25946 (Beta 33)

Released on: November 13, 2024

• Xbox 360 HDD Maker: Fixed bug where the serial number was being flashed incorrectly in some cases (an unexpected character at the end).
• Improved messaging around invalid file names to clarify that it is not a bug and the only solution is to rename.
• Fixed rare issue where device detection would end prematurely on some systems.
• A new "Special Options" menu is available when loading devices:
  • Recovery Mode: This isn't actually a new feature; it has been a hidden part of the Xbox 360 HDD Recovery Service. That service has been discontinued due to decreasing demand and the feature is now available as a self-service option to all licensed users. What it does: When your disk is starting to fail and can no longer be loaded, recovery mode can attempt to work around the damage so you can recover your files.
  • F-takes-all Override: Developed in response to mounting support requests about FATXplorer not showing files in the F partition. Some Original Xbox BIOSes are set up to utilize the remaining extra disk space for an F partition. In some cases, a partition table is not written. FATXplorer cannot detect this condition, so enable this if your Xbox shows files in F, but FATXplorer does not.
  • Disable Disk Cache: Tell the disk to disable its read & write caching systems.
• The expiration date has changed to May 12, 2025.

v3.0.0.25923 (Beta 32 Hotfix 3)

Released on: September 15, 2024

• Xbox 360 HDD Maker: Fixed "Serial number safety check failed" error on model year 2019+ drives.
• The expiration date has changed to March 14, 2025.

v3.0.0.25903 (Beta 32 Hotfix 2)

Released on: August 27, 2024

• Added new warning message to the Set Password button in HDD Security Tools to provide information about USB unlocking.
• The disk reboot function in Xbox 360 HDD Maker was causing some problems. Sometimes it fails and when it does, the security sector would not be written to the disk. Now the security sector is written first, and if the disk reboot fails, you will be asked to manually power-cycle the device by reconnecting it so that the disk information can be reloaded.
• Addressed long-standing "Unable to read USB device ID" error caused by WMI timeouts.
• Added --no-vds command line option. This disables the Rescan Disks functionality introduced in the initial beta 32 release. In very rare cases, it was causing computers to freeze.
• The expiration date has changed to February 22, 2025.

v3.0.0.25877 (Beta 32 Hotfix)

Released on: August 14, 2024

• Fixed crash when opening settings.

v3.0.0.25873 (Beta 32)

Released on: August 13, 2024

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• Introducing Xbox 360 HDD Maker - a new FATXplorer tool designed to modify the firmware of Western Digital hard-drives to make them Xbox 360 retail-compatible. Xbox 360 HDD Maker is a full HDDHackr replacement that works on Windows desktop and even over USB!
• Added automatic WMI repository repair functionality to resolve rare issues where device detection would finish prematurely due to "Invalid class" or "Invalid namespace" errors.
• Improved device search/refreshing by implementing Windows Device Manager's Rescan Disks functionality. When working over SATA connections, this solves issues with disks disappearing after hotplugging, doing resets/firmware reboots, etc.
• Improved compatibility of HDD Security Tools' Recover WD password function. It now works more reliably on newer drives (mid-2010s onward).
• Cerbios Secondary HDD formatting support enabled.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8971. Some rare errors were addressed. Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to February 9, 2025.

v3.0.0.25592 (Beta 31)

Released on: May 31, 2024

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• Added new Recover WD password function to HDD Security Tools. FATXplorer can now recover the user password from Western Digital drives so you can unlock them without needing the HDD key. Check the announcement post for more information.
• The expiration date has changed to November 27, 2024.

v3.0.0.25569 (Beta 30)

Released on: May 6, 2024

• Added known issue to XL USB patches: Some international-spec Toshiba drives do not currently work (the Xbox 360 dashboard will not show them).
• Added known issue to XL USB patches: Some JTAG consoles may encounter game launch crashes (this is being investigated).
• Added warning message when formatting disks smaller than 2 TB in the XL format. While they will work just fine, the XL features should only be used when you want to use more than 2 TB of storage.
• If you have lost your license key, you can now have it resent to your email by using the new Recover License Key feature!
• Simplified the Help menu - Report Problem has been replaced with Create Support Package, and it will now ask that you have any problematic devices connected before continuing.
• Improved reliability of the trial/extension functions on systems with significantly inaccurate/out of sync clocks.
• The expiration date has changed to November 2, 2024. Based on user feedback, the beta expiration dates have been doubled. 180 days from release day is the new expiration date starting with this version.

v3.0.0.25415 (Beta 29 Hotfix 2)

Released on: February 23, 2024

• Fixed another disk mismatch error affecting formatting and preloading.
• The expiration date has changed to May 23, 2024.

v3.0.0.25410 (Beta 29 Hotfix)

Released on: February 19, 2024

• Fixed disk mismatch error affecting XL USB and memory units. There was a bug that displayed the error message when there was actually no mismatch. Sorry for the trouble!
• The expiration date has changed to May 19, 2024.

v3.0.0.25400 (Beta 29)

Released on: February 14, 2024

• FATXplorer has upgraded to .NET 8! .NET 8 brings numerous performance improvements. FATXplorer will automatically install this updated runtime for you.
• Fixed issue related to missing C++ DLLs for smartctl, which in turn resolves issues with device detection. These DLLs are now included in FATXplorer.
• Added a check to ensure the disk FATXplorer loads is the disk currently connected. In other words, if FATXplorer detects a disk and you then swap the disk without refreshing devices in FATXplorer, a message will be shown asking you to refresh devices. This will help prevent unexpected data loss/corruption.
• UI and messaging improvements to the licensing system.
• Fixed issue where the license key would get deleted when X-ing out the license info message.
• FATXplorer will now recover when the "Save/Restore Window State" setting is on and the saved coordinates are off-screen.
• Replaced the "Unlock selected device using password" feature in the HDD Security Tools with "Lock/Unlock selected device using password". Locking/setting a full user password is now supported.
• After unlocking a device using password, it is now possible to remove the password using HDD Security Tools (until you close it).
• Added XL Both patches. More information
• XL HDD patch v4 added. Fixed JTAG compatibility problem where the console may boot to a black screen (the v3 fix didn't fully resolve the problem). Also, removed FATXplorer formatting requirement. New HDDs can now be formatted on the Xbox 360 dashboard.
• XL HDD Fix removed. It is no longer needed when XL HDD patch v4 is used.
• Fixed an Xbox 360 XL USB preloading error that would occur when the preload zip or folder contained a name.txt file, and a name was specified in the formatting wizard. Priority is now given to the name specified in the formatting wizard, and the preload name.txt file is ignored.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8783. Various internal changes and improvements were made. Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to May 14, 2024.

v3.0.0.25260 (Beta 28)

Released on: December 4, 2023

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• A new licensing system has been implemented and you can now enter your serial number/license key if you have one. See the announcement post for more details.
• Added a check for Xbox 360 cache partitions to determine if they are FATX-formatted. If they are not, a message will be shown, and mounting will not proceed.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8707. Fixed issue that could prevent mounting on slow computers (1-2 CPU cores). Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to March 3, 2024.

v3.0.0.25018 (Beta 27)

Released on: September 7, 2023

• Updated the included SmartMonTools from v7.3 to v7.4.
• New HDD Security Tools features in the Options menu:
  • Unlock selected device using password: This new feature can unlock devices using the full 64-character user password if you know it. It will also offer to remove the user password once successfully unlocked. This feature is useful when recovering passwords from the disk firmware directly, and can also be used for non-Xbox purposes.
  • View selected device's HDD key: For devices FATXplorer has successfully unlocked, you can use this option to copy the HDD key that was used.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8623. There are 2 important fixes in this version. Driver updates may require a reboot.
  • Fixed issue where a BSOD would occur when installing or updating the driver on Windows 11 ARM systems (MacBook).
  • Finally fixed the random Windows 7 NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM BSOD issue.
• The expiration date has changed to December 6, 2023.

v3.0.0.24935 (Beta 26)

Released on: June 15, 2023

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• Fixed "SmartMonTools exited with code 1." error that could occur when executing HDD security operations on some systems.
• Added message to HDD Security Tools to explain currently mounted devices will not be shown until they are unmounted.
• Added Project Stellar support to Formatting Tools and device detection.
• XL HDD patch v3 released. Fixed JTAG compatibility problem where the console may boot to a black screen.
• Added new XL HDD Fix tool to repair XL HDDs that suddenly start causing E69. This repair tool can be used to restore the HDD's XL status without data loss. HDDs can lose their XL status when an accidental write occurs at sector 0.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8551. Fixed issue that could prevent mounting if FATXplorer crashed or exited improperly. Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to September 13, 2023.
• Attention Windows 7 Users: There are reports of random NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM BSODs occurring when interacting with mounted drives on Windows 7. Please report this if it happens to you, and make sure to provide steps on how to reproduce it.

v3.0.0.24858 (Beta 25 Hotfix)

Released on: March 23, 2023

• When formatting original Xbox HDDs in a format that uses partition tables, a failure to write the backup partition table will no longer cause the entire format to fail. This addresses the "sector not found" error.
• Fixed "The process cannot access the file" error that could occur when opening the settings.
• Fixed issue where the driver could interfere with Windows reboots.
• Fixed crash that could randomly occur when working with files on mounted partitions.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8480. The above 2 issues are fixed by this update. Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to June 21, 2023.

v3.0.0.24789 (Beta 25)

Released on: March 11, 2023

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• XL USB patch v3 released. All users are strongly encouraged to update their nands as there are many significant fixes in this version:
  • Fixed many game loading, saving, and freezing/crashing issues.
• XL HDD patch v2 released. All users are strongly encouraged to update their nands as there are many significant fixes in this version:
  • Fixed many game loading, saving, and freezing/crashing issues.
  • Temporarily disabled the HDD cache partitions to fix more game issues. Exceptions: Original Xbox games, Destiny, and Halo games.
  • Changed the UDMA transfer mode from 2 to 5, which seems to fix cases of getting E68 on boot with Samsung SSDs. Note that this change does not improve performance.
• Fixed access denied error with old format USB detection.
• Improved reliability of automatic HDD unlocking during device detection.
• To improve privacy, new error logs will now redact the Windows user profile name.
• FATXplorer will now attempt to enable SMART on drives it interacts with if it is disabled.
• Various improvements have been made to the HDD Security Tools error messages and UI labels.
• When formatting original Xbox HDDs in a format that uses partition tables, a backup copy of the partition table is now written to the end of the disk. FATXplorer nor the Xbox will use this backup, but it can be used to restore the partition table if it is ever lost or corrupted.
• The expiration date has changed to June 9, 2023.
• Driver updated to v22.0.8464. This is the most significant driver update in 3 years. The changes are mostly internal and limited to performance improvements, fixes, and code reorganization. This driver update will need to be manually installed after the update has completed.

v3.0.0.24644 (Beta 24)

Released on: January 10, 2023

• FATXplorer has upgraded to .NET 7! .NET 7 brings numerous performance improvements. FATXplorer will automatically install this updated runtime for you.
• Replaced the "SmartMonTools exited with code 2" error message with a message that is more informative.
• The drop-down device selector menu in the HDD Security Tools now resets when the chosen device fails the status check.
• Added the ability to create/format Cerbios and Titan files larger than 2 TB (now up to 16 TB).
• Added support for creating/formatting files on network attached storage drives.
• When creating/formatting a file, and an existing file is being overwritten, the space the existing file takes up is no longer factored into the free space check.
• Fixed issue where Cerbios formatting could fail due to an incorrect Extra Data Partition F size.
• The expiration date has changed to April 10, 2023.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8410. Various internal changes and improvements were made. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.24458 (Beta 23)

Released on: October 24, 2022

• The Settings window is now available! Note that the Mode and Skin Palette options have been moved from the title bar into the Settings window.
• The expiration date has changed to January 22, 2023.

v3.0.0.24272 (Beta 22)

Released on: August 9, 2022

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• XL (16 TB) HDD support for Xbox 360 has arrived. See the announcement post for details.
• XL USB patch v2 released. All users are encouraged to update their nands.
  • Added support for USBs larger than 16 TB. 16 TB is still the maximum space that can be used - space beyond 16 TB cannot be used.
  • Implemented new no-buffering/emulation layer to fix issues with certain games not loading. FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING is no longer applied system-wide.
• Messaging has been improved in the HDD Security Tools to suggest workarounds for specific errors.
• After unlocking a drive, FATXplorer will now verify that it is able to read data from it. If it cannot, it will suggest a workaround. This also stops device detection from taking an exceptionally long time when data cannot be read after an automatic unlock.
• The expiration date has changed to November 7, 2022.

v3.0.0.24103 (Beta 21 Hotfix)

Released on: July 4, 2022

• Fixed issue where FATXplorer could not unlock disks with null characters in their model number or serial number fields. This also fixes an issue where FATXplorer could set an incorrect password, resulting in the Xbox showing an error on boot. If FATXplorer could not unlock your HDD before, please try again after updating.
• Fixed error that would occur when preloading from drive roots.
• The expiration date has changed to October 2, 2022.

v3.0.0.24040 (Beta 21)

Released on: June 21, 2022

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• FATXplorer can finally lock and unlock OG Xbox HDDs! Use the new HDD Security Tools to manage the security status. Locked HDDs are now detected and you will be prompted to unlock before being able to load any partitions. See the announcement post for more details.
• Removed Microsoft.AppCenter dependency, thereby removing 9 DLLs from the installation/download.
• Increased visibility of selected text in text boxes.
• Added a new time remaining estimate to the formatting tools progress bar, primarily to help with bigger preloads and clean formats.
• Added new "Current Xbox Format" label to devices in the formatting tools. This will tell you if the device is already formatted for Xbox or Xbox 360.
• At the request of team Cerbios, the default partition configuration when formatting disks for Cerbios has been updated. Instead of configuring 927.78 GB of space for partitions F, G and 8-14, space will now be split evenly between F and G. It is still possible to configure all partitions manually.
• Fixed issue where the G partition on some Cerbios HDDs wasn't showing up as a mountable partition.
• Fixed issue where devices without an interface type value (SD cards/readers) would not be detected.
• Removed the "Unknown sector format" error. FATXplorer will now attempt to accommodate any sector size for its IO operations.
• When selecting a preload zip or folder, all files will now be checked at that point instead of during the format process. This way you will have the opportunity to remove any problematic files, instead of having to restart the entire formatting process.
• Added new note to the XL USB Apply Patches window regarding issue with select games.
• When a partition is mounted, the device tile tooltip now includes the drive letter.
• FATXplorer now reads the name.txt file on New Format Xbox 360 USBs and uses it as the device name (if it exists).
• Removed the "Use Extra Memory" toggle when loading devices. A better solution has been implemented with the same performance and basically no extra memory usage.
• The expiration date has changed to September 8, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8181. A potential BSOD issue has been addressed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.23248 (Beta 20 Refresh)

Released on: April 8, 2022

• Improved the XL USB compatibility check.
• Added a translate button to the XL USB Apply Patches window to increase accessibility for international users.
• Miscellaneous small improvements to the formatting tools.
• The expiration date has changed to July 7, 2022.

v3.0.0.23220 (Beta 20)

Released on: April 6, 2022

• This release requires .NET 6.0.2 or newer.* Make sure your .NET 6 version is up to date before you update FATXplorer. Windows Update can automatically keep your .NET 6 version up to date if you have "Receive updates for other Microsoft products" enabled in your Windows Update settings. Direct, updated .NET 6 installer download links are below for your convenience:
  • 64-bit
  • 32-bit
• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• XL (16 TB) USB support for Xbox 360 has arrived. See the announcement post for details.
• A variety of improvements were made to further reduce chances of running into "Access to the path is denied" errors in both formatting and mounting.
• Fixed issue where changing the Windows app color mode would cause the skin palette selection to show incorrect selections.
• Fixed issue where the Formatting Tools window would not correctly be on top.
• Fixed issue where partitions from other device types were not being deleted when formatting.
• Updated the SmartMonTools utility to the latest version (v7.3).
• Added 10 second timeout when loading disk advanced information so FATXplorer can recover if SmartMonTools fails to work correctly.
• Added support for formatting and mounting Titan partitions.**
• The sectors per cluster validation check has been relaxed. Now any sectors per cluster value greater than 0 and a power of 2 is considered valid. This change improves compatibility with Cerbios and Titan partitions, and allows for further experimentation.
• After mounting, clicking the device tile has a new option in addition to Unmount and Cancel: Open Drive Letter, which will open the root of the drive for you.
• Added support for devices that have an 8K physical sector size.
• Cluster size is now displayed in KB instead of bytes when customizing partitions in the Formatting Tools.
• When formatting Cerbios partitions, larger cluster sizes are now available.***
• When formatting Cerbios partitions, it is now possible to set partition sizes larger than 1 TB.
• Relaxed the cluster size check on Cerbios disks - it is now possible to choose smaller cluster sizes since Cerbios has fixed data corruption issues.
• It is no longer possible to customize the cluster size of Data Partition E on OG Xbox HDDs. 16 KB is the only supported cluster size (the Xbox requires this exact size).
• Added back the 524288 / 512 KB (128 sectors per cluster) cluster size to OG Xbox MU formatting. This size is not too big/incompatible after all. If you choose this cluster size, you can store up to 8192 items in a single folder.
• Fixed "Invalid sectors per cluster" error that occurred when formatting an Xbox 360 HDD without the Backwards Compatibility Partition.
• Added support for more than 4096 items in a single folder (when cluster size permits).
• Optimized memory usage in operations reading or writing large amounts of data, and in some cases increased performance (device loading, formatting, preloading, wiping).
• Removed the --no-directx command line option. It should no longer be necessary.
• OS disks are now skipped during device detection. In addition, the Formatting Tools will no longer list these disks. This will help reduce the chances of choosing the wrong disk when formatting.
• Fixed scaling that broke in a previous release.
• The expiration date has changed to July 5, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8125. This update adds larger cluster size support. Driver updates may require a reboot.

* This .NET 6 update is a one-time requirement due to a Microsoft bug in .NET 6.

** Only Titan v1.1.0 (or newer) is supported. FATXplorer is not able to correctly mount Extra Data Partition F on disks formatted for older versions of Titan, and an Extra Data Partition F formatted with FATXplorer will not work with older versions of Titan. See this GitHub issue for more details.

*** Partitions formatted with a cluster size larger than 64 KB will only work on a Cerbios release newer than v1.02.

v3.0.0.22744 (Beta 19)

Released on: February 10, 2022

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• FATXplorer can now format and load OG Xbox HDDs up to 16 TB in size for use with Cerbios.
• Changed the behavior of the Max button in the formatting tools - it will no longer set a size larger than 1 TB, which is currently the maximum size OG Xbox supports.
• The expiration date has changed to May 11, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8069. Various internal changes and improvements were made. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.22681 (Beta 18)

Released on: February 1, 2022

• When formatting OG Xbox HDDs, the X, Y, and Z cache partitions are now formatted. They were not being formatted before because it was deemed unnecessary since games would format them if they were needed. Some homebrew software was running into problems if these partitions were not formatted, so this new default behavior should improve compatibility.
• Fixed an Xbox 360 HDD and MU preloading error that would occur when the preload zip or folder contained a name.txt file, and a name was specified in the formatting wizard. Priority is now given to the name specified in the formatting wizard, and the preload name.txt file is ignored.
• Made improvements to the startup process. If essential files are missing, FATXplorer will now display a message instead of silently crashing/not starting.
• Fixed issue where the sizing cursor was appearing in unexpected places.
• Fixed error that could occur when closing FATXplorer at a precise time during device detection/searching.
• The expiration date has changed to May 2, 2022.

v3.0.0.22515 (Beta 17 Hotfix)

Released on: January 5, 2022

• The expiration date has changed to April 5, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8039. The BSOD problem with the previous version has been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.22504 (Beta 17)

Released on: January 2, 2022

• FATXplorer has upgraded to .NET 6! .NET 6 brings numerous performance improvements and file IO improvements. FATXplorer will automatically install this updated runtime for you.
• Added rounded corners support when running on Windows 11.
• When formatting a device or file and selecting a preload zip, a message is now shown if a zip was selected with an unsupported compression method (LZMA, BZip2). A note has also been added to the Limitations part of the information label.
• Driver logging to Windows Logs is now disabled by default to stop logged benign error spam.
• The expiration date has changed to April 2, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.8031. Various internal changes and improvements were made. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.22357 (Beta 16)

Released on: October 10, 2021

• Significantly improved the updater. It is faster, more secure, and will now only download changed files. It'll also now attempt to recover the installation to how it was before the update started (if an update fails).
• FATXplorer's install size has been cut in half. (Beta 15 size: 109 MB, Beta 16 size: 54.5 MB) This reduction in size was made possible by the removal of ReadyToRun Compilation. The performance benefits didn't make the x2 size increase worth it, and the removal of this optimization also makes it possible for the new updater to determine which files have changed.
• When formatting a file and specifying a size, the disk where it will be saved is now checked for adequate space before allowing the format to proceed (instead of throwing an error during the format).
• When specifying a preload zip file, a basic validation check is performed to ensure it is valid and not empty.
• When specifying a preload folder, a basic validation check is performed to ensure it is not empty.
• The expiration date has changed to January 8, 2022.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7921. Compatibility issues with Docker, and with CD-ROM devices, have been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.22184 (Beta 15)

Released on: August 18, 2021

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• Added the ability to create/format a file to the Formatting Tools. See the post above for more details.
• Various tweaks and improvements to the Formatting Tools, including the addition of a Restart button so the wizard can be restarted if a change needs to be made.
• Fixed incorrect loading and formatting of HDDs larger than 2 TB.
• Removed the 524288 (128 sectors per cluster) cluster size from OG Xbox MU formatting. This size is too big and is incompatible.
• Fixed DPI/scaling issue with the mounting error alert.
• Fixed emoji character rendering on Windows 7 and 8.1.
• Fixed timestamp error that could occur when preloading certain files using the Formatting Tools. Invalid/out of range timestamps will now be corrected to be the current date/time.
• Fixed crash that occurred at the end of a non-quick format in the Formatting Tools.
• Fixed issue where the Set Name page wasn't showing when formatting an OG Xbox MU.
• The expiration date has changed to November 16, 2021.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7880. There are no significant changes worth noting. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.21995 (Beta 14)

Released on: June 30, 2021

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• The new Formatting Tools have arrived! The Xbox 360 formatting process has been refined and improved, and support for Original Xbox has been added. See the post above for more details.
• Improved disk size calculation. Several users reported issues that stem from USB bridges reporting an incorrect disk size. This improvement should fix all disk size related issues. (Mainly happened with Seagate hardware)
• Improved device detection. The detection process will no longer end prematurely if a read error occurs at some point in the process.
• If a disk is set offline (for example, through Windows Disk Management), FATXplorer will now attempt to bring it online (when not in read-only mode) so write operations will work.
• Removed the Load Special button. After further consideration, no additional special loading options are needed.
• Fixed all outstanding DPI/scaling issues. Most notably, new device icons have been added that scale better.
• Fixed an "Access to the path is denied" error that would occur when loading a read-only backup image file or Xbox 360 USB data directory with 1 or more read-only files. When these files are loaded in non-read-only mode, the read-only attribute on the files will now be removed. (Some backup programs set this attribute after finishing)
• Added a warning message box when improperly formatted Original Xbox partitions are detected/loaded.
• Beta 14 has been tested on the Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.51 and no problems have been identified.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7836. File ID support has been improved. Driver updates may require a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to September 28, 2021.

v3.0.0.21303 (Beta 13 Refresh 2)

Released on: May 19, 2021

• Added/fixed handling of devices without names. On some occasions Windows would not assign a name to a disk, and FATXplorer would skip over them. They are no longer skipped over.
• The expiration date has changed to July 1, 2021.

v3.0.0.21302 (Beta 13 Refresh)

Released on: April 25, 2021

• By popular demand, there are no more mounting timestamp/date error alerts. They will still appear in the log, however. Other types of mounting error alerts are still shown. There will be a settings option to disable all mounting error alerts in a future update.
• FATXplorer is now code-signed again. This means you will receive a friendlier UAC popup when launching it.
• Implemented potential fix for Invalid location specified mounting errors that could occur when loading file information.
• The expiration date has changed to June 1, 2021.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7767. Various bugs have been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.21301 (Beta 13)

Released on: January 31, 2021

• Fixed infinite refresh problem introduced in Beta 12.
• Fixed crash on Windows 7 when viewing Advanced Information.
• The expiration date has changed to May 1, 2021.

v3.0.0.21283 (Beta 12)

Released on: January 22, 2021

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• New disk health checking feature added for Windows 10 1607 (Anniversary Update) and later. FATXplorer will now show an alert if it detects a disk may be failing. You can check health status in the log, or by hovering over device tiles.
• Fixed issue where the log wasn't scrolling to the end upon opening.
• Added probable fix for You'll need to provide administrator permission to delete this folder and You require permission from Everyone to make changes to this folder Windows messages that popped up when deleting folders. This issue was very common on Windows 7, but random on Windows 10. Please reach out if you still encounter these messages.
• Added a new option when loading devices: Use Extra Memory. By default this option is on, and has been on by default in previous betas. If you allow FATXplorer to use extra memory, certain write operations involving many small files will be faster. Memory usage may reach high levels if you interact with many folders on your partition (tens of thousands). It is recommended that you leave this option toggled on unless you notice FATXplorer using more memory than you are comfortable allowing. Extra memory is toggled off in Read-Only mode because it is not needed.
• Fixed an issue where memory wasn't being released after unmounting, and also reduced memory usage significantly in general, especially when working with devices containing hundreds of thousands of files. Special thanks to Reddit user neakmenter for reporting the issues and helping test fixes.
• Updated the SmartMonTools utility to the latest version (v7.2).
• The expiration date has changed to April 22, 2021.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7685. A mounting error on Windows 7 has been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.20906 (Beta 11)

Released on: December 25, 2020 🎅🎄

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• FATXplorer has been updated to take full advantage of the new .NET 5 runtime. To ensure a seamless update, you should click here to download and install the latest runtime if you haven't already.
• Message boxes have been refreshed with bigger buttons that are more customized.
• Applied the same improvements made to the log viewer in Beta 10 to the Advanced Information view.
• The expiration date has changed to March 25, 2021.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7662. Various bugs have been fixed and a translation for The media in the drive may have changed error has been added. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.20771 (Beta 10)

Released on: December 5, 2020

• If both old and new types of storage are found on an Xbox 360 USB, FATXplorer will no longer detect the USB until corrections have been made. If this situation is detected, a note will be in the log.
• Added --no-directx command line option. More information about this here.
• When creating a support package, you will now be asked to close/unmount all devices. This will ensure FATXplorer can collect important device information properly.
• The log viewer has been improved. The caret and text selection now have a subtle animation and the text selection will have a slight hint of your chosen skin/accent color. Performance should also be better if the log is large.
• The expiration date has changed to March 5, 2021.
• To prepare for Beta 11 (the next update), you should click here to install the latest runtime. Beta 11 will required the newly-released .NET 5 runtime.

v3.0.0.20688 (Beta 9)

Released on: September 7, 2020

• Added workaround for cases where FATXplorer couldn't open backup images, USB data files, or devices that are in use by other processes. This should solve most cases of the following errors:
  • The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (0x80070020)
  • Invalid handle. (Parameter 'handle')
• To avoid confusion with the Windows disk initialization feature, "Initialize Device" has been renamed to "Load Device". When FATXplorer initializes/loads a disk, that is not the same as initializing it in Windows. Never initialize Xbox disks in Windows - it can stop them from working in the Xbox and/or lead to data loss!
• The expiration date has changed to December 6, 2020.

v3.0.0.20677 (Beta 8)

Released on: August 31, 2020

• Replaced the Invalid handle. (Parameter 'handle') error message with a message that is more useful. Now it will be easier to differentiate disk access issues from disk disconnection issues. Please note that this is not a fix for the error - it usually means that the disk is being used by another process, or the disk has been disconnected.
• In the rare cases where driver installation fails, a restart tip has been added to the error message box. Restarting the computer will usually resolve driver installation issues.
• The expiration date has changed to November 29, 2020.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7547. Atypical allocation sizes are now reported correctly and the translation of the The semaphore timeout period has expired error has been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.20650 (Beta 7)

Released on: August 12, 2020

• Fixed an issue where OG Xbox F or G drives would fail to be recognized in cases where they are seemingly too large for the disk.
• The expiration date has changed to November 10, 2020.

v3.0.0.20630 (Beta 6)

Released on: August 6, 2020

• When loading an OG or 360 HDD, FATXplorer will now check if there are Windows partitions on it and offer you the choice of removing them. Windows partitions on Xbox HDDs serve no purpose and removing them will resolve "Access to the path is denied" errors.
• Added additional technical logging when initializing devices to better help diagnose reasons why partitions may appear "missing".
• .img and .dd are now supported default file extensions for Load Backup. Switching to "All Files" is no longer needed.
• Added back the Security Sector archiving feature present in v2.5. Restoring will come later.
• This update and all subsequent updates will now download significantly faster.
• The expiration date has changed to November 3, 2020.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7479. This update adds better error translation for various errors returned when interacting with devices. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.20538 (Beta 5)

Released on: June 19, 2020

• Fixed an internal error that would occur when copying or moving a read-only file to a mounted disk.
• Removed a timeout mechanism to help alleviate issues where Explorer may suddenly give up.
• Fixed a bug where, during file/folder creation or moving, an error would show indicating a random item at an index was not deleted.
• Name and timestamp errors are longer saved to the error log since they are not indicative of bugs. If you are running into a lot of timestamp errors, make sure the software you are using is configured to set correct timestamps.
• Applied potential fix for a "File already exists" error that could occur when updating FATXplorer. Unfortunately, this fix will only help with the next update.
• When unmounting a disk that is still in use, the list of programs with open files shown will no longer have duplicate items listed.
• The expiration date has changed to September 17, 2020.

v3.0.0.20513 (Beta 4)

Released on: June 17, 2020

• This release has an accompanying announcement post. Click here to view it.
• Write support has been enabled by default. It is significantly faster than v2.5. See the announcement post for performance comparisons.
• New icon and banner added.
• When unmounting a disk that is still in use, a list of programs with open files is now shown.
• Fixed issue where the Xbox 360 Security Sector was being read incorrectly, resulting in false log warnings about the disk size.
• When selecting a drive letter for mounting, drive letters already assigned to mapped network drives are now filtered out.
• A loading percentage is now shown while a device is being initialized.
• After initializing a device, you will now be prompted to enable the disk cache for increased performance (if it is disabled, which it sometimes can be). Enabling the disk cache may not work on all disks and USB adapters.
• Fixed/removed an "Alignment error" that could occur when initializing a device.
• The expiration date has changed to September 15, 2020.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7458. Various bugs have been fixed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.19643 (Beta 3)

Released on: April 14, 2020

• Fixed various errors affecting OG Xbox memory unit loading and detection.
• Xbox 360 memory units will now be detected if they are missing the System Cache Partition.
• Fixed issue that caused creation, last access, and last write timestamps to be skewed by a few hours.
• Added a friendlier error message that is displayed when a directory selected using Load USB Dir is obviously invalid.
• Load Backup now supports multiselect.
• When updating, a warning is now shown if there are devices currently mounted.
• Fixed an unhandled exception error that could occur when FATXplorer initiated a reboot.
• The expiration date has changed to July 13, 2020.
• Driver updated to v20.0.7397. There are no significant changes worth noting. You have the option to update it in the status bar. In the future, the driver will be updated automatically if it is installed. Driver updates may require a reboot.

v3.0.0.19459 (Beta 2)

Released on: March 30, 2020

• Fixed errors that would sometimes occur when creating a support package.
• Added workaround for error 0x80070032 that would prevent devices from being detected. (It seems like this mostly occurs on Windows 7)
• Changed the way partition names are handled for OG Xbox drives with a partition table. FATXplorer will now display the correct names without reading the names from the partition table. This solves 2 problems:
  1. Formatting tools may have mislabeled XBOX DATA and XBOX SHELL, which made deciding which partition to mount confusing.
  2. Names with special characters, such as a colon, could cause a crash when the partition was mounted.

v3.0.0.19411 (Beta 1)

Released on: March 28, 2020

• First beta release.