Pretty much as the title says....

A friends xbox 360 disk drive has failed. Been looking on youtube and they show splitting the drive apart and taking a part out to place inside the new drive. Is this necessary? Also what is/where is the best place to get a drive?

Pretty much as the title says....

A friends xbox 360 disk drive has failed. Been looking on youtube and they show splitting the drive apart and taking a part out to place inside the new drive. Is this necessary? Also what is/where is the best place to get a drive?

Yes it is necessary.

Anywhere is good - Depends what make you want/ Money you want to spend.

http://www.acceport.com/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=503

You have to take the drive apart because each drive is tied to the xbox it came from via security certificates embedded in the firmware.

You must also be careful, since it is possible for the wrong type of drive to be detected by MS and you could find the console banned from Live at a future date.

I fixed my xbox not long ago - had the disc read error.

I ended up opening it up, changing the laser unit in the drive, put it back together and 8 months later all is still fine.

The laser unit cost £7ish (http://www.amazon.co...35542668&sr=8-2), and no risk of drive not being recognised

plus i am not great at diy/electronics, and yet I didn't f*** it up! Gotta love instructional videos on Youtube

ETA there may be slight differences in the laser unit, depending on manufacturer. Amazon have this one too which thinking about it, is the one I bought! Just open up the xbox and check which brand before buying

Or if your friend is lazy, send it off to these guys: http://www.xbox-reviver.co.uk/cart/