Xbox 360 HD DVD drive disassembly tutorial

The Llamma's have had the opportunity to open a couple 360 HD DVD drives so we thought we would share what we have learned about their disassembly.  We put together this little how-to tutorial for opening a 360 HD DVD drive for your reading pleasure. 

Tools:
Torx 10
 

	Starting out we have an unsuspecting HD DVD drive.  It sits calmly as we eye it up.
	We flip it around to the back and notice a nice lip on the faceplate we can sink our fingers into.  (right side in this photo)
	The best advice is to grip it and rip it.  Don't fool around here, you got to grab it and pull pretty hard.  We tried easing off the first one not knowing what would happen or if this was even the right place to start opening it, easing it resulted in a broken clip.  All the ones after the first came off much easier with a good firm pull.
	Now with the faceplate out of the way three screws are visible.  Remove these with a Torx 9 driver.
	With the screws removed the top will slide toward the spot where the faceplate was.  Once it is over a  half inch or so it lifts off.
	With the lid off the drive is revealed
	Next remove the eject switch that is behind the front eject button.  The circuit board has a hole in it that fits over a plastic peg.  Once lifted it comes out.
	At the other end of the eject PCB and wire we find a little white connector attached at the back of the drive.  You will need to squeeze in on the little clippie thing to release the cable and remove it.  If you don't release the cable just pulling on it will pull the wires right out of the connector so be careful.
	Now its time to open the drive tray.  We will be using the old paperclip emergency eject trick.  Straighten out a paperclip and find the hole circled in this photo.
	Stick the end of the paperclip in the hole a couple times and the tray will come out.
	Now flip the HD DVD over and look at the clips that hold the chrome bezel in place.  The bezel needs to be gently pushed forward and then down to be released.
	The bezel is now off.
	Remove the tin cover at the rear of the DVD.
	Three screws hold the dark gray plastic side in place
	Time to release the HD DVD drive itself, the four screws are circled in this photo.
	Notice the cables at the rear of the DVD.
	Disconnect the cables.
	The drive lifts right out.
	Now just the bottom lid, sides and rear circuit board remain.
	The side just lifts right out since we removed its screws 6 steps ago.
	To remove the circuit board at the rear of the chassis we need to take out three more screws circled in green.
	The bottom is now free!
	With everything disassembled only the two fan screws hold the circuit board and fan to the rear dark gray piece.  Remove those and your done!

 A couple of interesting notes.  As we disassembled the drive we note that it was designed to fit right into a 360 console.  It has the same dimensions other than missing the 4 little legs but otherwise the drive size and shape is identical. 

360 HD DVD Drive	Standard 360 DVD Drive

Another unusual piece to note is the board affixed to the rear of the drive.  This is an adapter to make the drive work with a USB connection.  It also supplies power to the drive and the eject button connects through this device.

With the board removed we note that there are no standard connections... Is it SATA or standard IDE or has the decision been outsourced to the little daughterboard pictured above?

As we remove the lid we see something interesting the laser is at an angle rather than parallel with the drive tray.  Is this an engineering solution to making a standard drives laser assembly fit within the tighter confines of a 360 drive footprint or will we see all HD DVD drives with this different arrangement of parts? 

-Llamma

- Rhino