Accessing an xbox formatted HDD

[Edame]

I had a modded xbox die on me, and have decided to use the 120gb HDD I put in there as an extra storage device by using an external caddy (connected by USB2 or Firewire).

It's all plugged in and running but windows XP won't allocate it a drive letter unless I format it first, but I would like to try and get some of the old files off it if I can. Is there any kind of application I can download that will allow me to access the drive and move the contents?

I've tried FAT-X-Plorer but I just get a message saying 'xbox harddrive found at \\physicaldrive3' and then it closes (I suspect because it's not connected directly by IDE).

I've also tried accessing it under Linux but no joy there either.

[fahrenheit]

Is the hard drive locked? If you don't know the answer, could you still access the original Xbox dashboard when it was operational?

If it is locked, you are going to have to unlock it prior to using it.
The only method I am aware of is hotswapping. For this you will need access to a working modded Xbox. Basically you boot the xbox up and quickly swap the hard drives over while the console is booting. You can then ftp into the drive, then use a suitable program to unlock the drive, prior to formating.