How to Burn an XDG3 Formatted Xbox 360 Game ISO with Windows

This is the Windows OS counterpart to my tutorial on how to burn the new XDG3 formatted games on Xbox 360. Microsoft invented a new disc format system to trump piracy, it's called XDG3. XDG3's standard is to burn a whole extra gigabyte of data to the disc, to allow more content, but more importantly for stopping piracy. This extra gigabyte of data makes it impossible to burn or rip a game the traditional way. So how on earth can we burn our fully-legal back-ups that we should rightfully be able to have?

Not many people are educated when it comes to the new XDG3 format, or what it does, so that is why we are going to hack it in this Null Byte! This guide will be going over how to properly burn back-ups on Windows OS.

Note: As of yet, there is no way to verify if XDG3 games were burned properly.

Warnings

• Don't burn a game that you downloaded that you do not own.
• You may become banned from Xbox Live if you do this. Follow my tips at the end of this guide to slim this risk down next-to-nothing.

Requirements

• Windows OS
• Admin privelages
• A dual-layer DVD burner
• A dual-layer DVD
• Installed copy of ImgBurn

Install ImgBurn

First, we have to install the ImgBurn software. This is a very advanced disc burning program that allows you to customize all aspects of a burned image. This is perfect for the specific layer-break that we need to burn for Xbox 360 games.

1. Download Imgburn.
2. Click Next > Next > Install.

Burn the Media

1. Throw the disc in your DVD drive.
2. Create a text file matching the name of the ISO with a .dvd extension. In my case, I'll use Skyrim. Paste this as its contents:
   
       LayerBreak=2133520
   
       Skyrim.iso
3. Follow along with me in this video for the configuration of ImgBurn.

How to Stay Safe on Xbox Live

• When a system update is available (not a game update), reflash your drive back to stock firmware. Connect to Xbox Live, do the update, then reflash it to LT+.
• Microsoft monitors peoples accounts when they are suspected of modding and will ban accordingly. So do not tell people about your playing back-ups.
• Make sure the games are burned properly and aren't corrupt in any way, it will flag your console.

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Photo by szb78