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XISO Studio — Documentation

Getting Started Using the App Technical Reference Project
Home Usage Guide Architecture Repository
Installation Conversion Methods XDVDFS Technical Docs Building from Source
XISO Explorer Troubleshooting & FAQ Release Notes

Welcome to the official documentation for XISO Studio — a high-performance, cross-platform (Avalonia) utility built for the Xbox preservation and emulation community. Convert, verify, and explore Xbox and Xbox 360 images (ISO, CSO, CCI, ZAR, CHD and GOD/SVOD), powered by the XISOSharp, CCISharp, StfsSharp and CHDSharp libraries.


What This Tool Does

XISO Studio streamlines the process of converting standard Xbox and Xbox 360 disc images (Redump ISOs) into the optimized, trimmed XISO format used by original Xbox consoles, emulators, and FTP transfer tools.

The application combines:

  1. The XISOSharp conversion engine, which repacks the XDVDFS game partition into an optimized, tightly packed XISO (and its ZAR, CSO and CCI containers), and CHDSharp, which compresses that partition into a CHD image.
  2. A Decompress view that turns any of those containers — plus GOD/SVOD — back into a plain ISO.
  3. An integrity tester that deeply validates the XDVDFS filesystem structure (ISO/CSO/CCI, and the Xbox filesystem inside CHD images), the ZAR archive tree or an XBLA/XBLIG STFS package's SHA-1 hash tree, with an optional deep scan for physical media or block errors, and in-place repair or salvage of failed images.
  4. A built-in Image Explorer that browses the contents of an Xbox ISO, XISO, IMG, CSO, CCI, ZAR, CHD or GOD/SVOD container, or an XBLA/XBLIG STFS package, without extracting it, with title metadata, container details, checksums, XBE/XDBF artwork, whole-image extraction and split/join tools.

Whether you are managing a large collection of game backups, preparing files for an Xbox hard drive, or verifying the integrity of your dumps, the application provides a user-friendly interface with powerful batch processing capabilities.


Feature Highlights

Area Capabilities
Batch Conversion XISOSharp and CHDSharp conversion engines, XISO/ZAR/CSO/CCI/CHD output formats, ISO/XISO/IMG input (Redump full-disc images or optimized XISO files), archive input (.zip, .7z, .rar), optional $SystemUpdate removal, replace-originals mode, source-vs-output validation with per-file SHA-256
Decompression CSO, CCI, ZAR, Xbox DVD CHD and GOD/SVOD back to plain ISO, with optional output audit and safe removal of the source (split sets deleted as a whole)
Integrity Testing Structural XDVDFS validation for ISO/XISO/IMG/CSO/CCI and the Xbox filesystem inside CHD images, ZAR archive validation, STFS/XBLA package SHA-1 hash-tree validation, optional deep scan, in-place repair (with .old backup) and salvage to a fresh ISO, automatic move of passed/failed files into organized subfolders
Image Explorer Native browsing inside ISO/XISO/IMG/CSO/CCI/ZAR/CHD/GOD-SVOD images and XBLA/XBLIG STFS packages, title metadata and container details, image/XDBF artwork, CRC-32/MD5/SHA-1/SHA-256/SHA3-256 and xdvdfs tree hashes, whole-image extraction with resume, FATX split/join, file metadata, double-click to open, drag-and-drop extraction
Monitoring Real-time success/fail/skip counters, per-drive read/write speed indicators (Windows), elapsed-time tracking, memory usage
Reliability Atomic replace-originals workflow (archives are deleted only when every entry was converted), per-file error isolation, age-checked temp-folder cleanup, fallback temp drives, network path (UNC) support with retry logic, cloud-aware (OneDrive) retries, encrypted-archive detection, lease-guarded explorer and close handling
Support In-app bug reporting and automatic update checks

Screenshots

Convert Tab Test Tab
Batch conversion with real-time monitoring Integrity testing with batch organization
Explorer Tab
XISO file browser

Documentation Map

Page Contents
Installation System requirements, download, first run, upgrading
Usage Guide Complete walkthrough of every tab (Convert, Test Integrity, Decompress, Explorer), option and indicator
Conversion Methods How the XISOSharp conversion engine works, the output formats, and decompression
XISO Explorer Browsing, opening, extracting, hashing, splitting and joining inside an ISO, XISO, IMG, CSO, CCI, ZAR, CHD or GOD/SVOD container, plus title metadata and artwork
Troubleshooting & FAQ Common errors, known issues, frequently asked questions
Architecture Codebase design, services, dependency injection, data flow
XDVDFS Technical Docs Binary format internals and the XISO conversion algorithm
Building from Source Prerequisites, build, and test instructions
Repository Repository layout, releases, contributing, and license
CI & Releases Build pipeline, bundle contents, wiki/Pages deployment
Release Notes Version history and detailed release notes
What's New Highlights of the latest release

Quick Start

  1. Download the release archive for your platform from the Releases page and extract it — the application is fully portable, no installer required.
  2. Launch XISOStudio.exe on Windows or ./XISOStudio on Linux/macOS (requires the .NET 10.0 Runtime).
  3. On the Convert tab, select an input folder containing your ISO files and an output folder for the converted XISOs.
  4. Optionally enable Skip $SystemUpdate and Check output integrity, then click Start Conversion and monitor progress in real time.

Acknowledgements

  • Avalonia — cross-platform .NET UI framework the application is built on
  • XISOSharp — XISO/XDVDFS reading, writing, and conversion library that powers XISO/ZAR/CSO/CCI conversion, decompression, recovery, validation, hashing, integrity testing, and exploration
  • CCISharp — CCI/CCIM container reader used for CCI validation and integrity testing
  • ZArchiveSharp — ZArchive/zstd compression library used for ZAR output and reading
  • StfsSharp — Xbox 360 STFS/GOD reader used for SVOD fragment mapping, XContent title metadata, STFS package exploration/extraction and SHA-1 hash-tree validation
  • CHDSharp — CHD (Compressed Hunks of Data) reading, verification, and creation for CHD output and Xbox CHD testing/exploration
  • SharpCompress — high-performance archive extraction

If you find this tool useful, please give the repository a star on GitHub!


This documentation is published automatically to the GitHub wiki and GitHub Pages on every change. Both destinations show the same side menu: the wiki renders _Sidebar.md, and the Pages site renders _layouts/default.html.

Clone this wiki locally