XBOX Hard Drive, lol
 

I've come into possession of a Hard Drive ripped out of an (original) XBOX.

Are they usable at all in windows? I've done a little research so far but not come across any help. It's a western digital drive, I see there's a different drive used in other generations of the XBOX.

The Original mothereboard of the XBOX it came from is, uh, kind of destroyed/ I heard something about needing it perhaps, but that it kind of impossible.

Is there any way I can use this drive then? If the person had told me he was destroying his XBOX I would have told him to be a little less ruthless with it, but oh well. It'd be pretty neat as a way to swap data with friends.

Or is it just essentially a paperweight? =p

You need the EEPROM key from the XBOX that it was installed in. The XBOX hard drive is locked so that it will only work with that motherboard. It's possible to unlock them, or to lock a different drive to work with XBOX, but you need the key.

As it stands, I'd say you're SOL. It's only 8/10GB anyway, depending on the model. A DVD-R would hold half that amount, with much less fuss.