XBOX 360 hard drive upgrade - advice needed

[lanwarrior]

I have an old XBOX 360 (not a slim version) that I bought in 2005. It came with 20GB hard drive. It serves me well so far, but I am running out of the HDD space due to the size of the downloaded games (MS give free 2 games / month) and space requirements from disc-based games (Battlefield 4, do you hear me?!).

Unfortunately, MS never (or stopped) sell HDD upgrade for the original XBOX 360, all I see in Amazon and eBay are 3rd party HDD upgrade.

I am thinking of buying the upgraded HDD (250GB variant) but it seems there are plethora of version (all 3rd party) and not all of them works with all games. For example, the one sold in Amazon (320GB) version have reviewers saying that BF4 will not recognize the HDD...and worst, some caused Red-Ring-of-Death.

Thus, do you have any recommendation on the HDD upgrade? Where you bought it, the manufacturer, etc.

PS: No, I am not going to buy XBOX One - it's too expensive and the XBOX360 still serves me well for some games that I DO play, like COD and BF.

[slaphappy]

Sell it all and buy a PS4 while it still works, thats what im doing... Little cheaper than the Xbone. Ive been in the same boat for a long time and somehow I made that 20 gig hard drive work for years but now its time for a real upgrade.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[the86d]

Gamestop are kosher-legit versions that have been wiped AFAIK, and I have never had an issue buying a (device with a) drive from them that didn't work (4 devices with drives and 2 drives separate).

AFAIK any drive with the correct file (ROM-file/Firmware or something) can be used. A 20GB drive must have the 20GB ROM-file or something to that effect, and I have heard-tell of some drives that were not kosher becoming kosher after a ROM-File drop-off, but they may have some check in place.

I have heard that there was a few games that did in fact need to be copied to the drive and played from there, but if the drive is recognized then it should be kosher.

I would just buy a drive from GameStop or an authorized vendor of M$ drives that comes with a warranty of some type, at least. You shouldn't run into any issues this way, and I have upgraded one 360 Arcade to one with a HDD.

You might try your local pawn-shop, as I have seen the NEW Slim 360's for sell there for ~$80... I didn't check what they came with though... (Drive? Power supply? controller?) and I only play a handfull of games, when I have time.

I wait for everything to be under $200-$150 before I buy it, as the bugs of the 1st version should be worked out by then... like M$ OS's under SP1 revisions.

[hermosabeach]

I had my ps3 die and I found a repair shop in Los Angeles that is cheap and great

I would try the same and you can find little shops that repair, mod and other things to consoles.

As the price has dropped on the 360 you might consider buying a newer one for $200 with the larger drive and selling your old one for $125 or so.

[Gemini Effect]

Sell it all and buy a PS4 while it still works, thats what im doing... Little cheaper than the Xbone. Ive been in the same boat for a long time and somehow I made that 20 gig hard drive work for years but now its time for a real upgrade.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Sell a 360 and buy a PS4? Yeah right.

Maybe you mean a PS3?

Everyone I know who had an Xbox and went to a PS eventually went back to Xbox. PS suck in my opinion.

[pbsmind]

On Amazon - 320 GB Hard and Transfer Cable

Transfer cable is needed if you want to copy the stuff on the old one to the new one. Some of the stuff I'm sure you can redownload or move over with a USB Drive.

GameStop has refurbs too.

[the86d]

On Amazon - 320 GB Hard and Transfer Cable

Transfer cable is needed if you want to copy the stuff on the old one to the new one. Some of the stuff I'm sure you can re-download or move over with a USB Drive.

GameStop has refurbs too.

The cable is about useless these days. One of the last updates won't let you copy crap anymore (Game-updates, Add-ons, and games can no longer be copied AFAIK), except for profiles, and you can just sign-in to the profile on a new 360 to get that, right?

[Iknownot]

Personally, I'd wait to find a deal on amazon for a new in box old style MS X360 HDD. I've seen the 120 gigs go as low as $40. The $320 gigers are going for $70 right now. I've seen them go for less, around $60. It just depends on the timing.

Though, I'm not sure why you are bothering to get an HDD though. The X360 supports usb thumb drives, as long as they have a fast enough read/write speed. You may even have some lying around your house right now that you could use with out spending any money.

Just get a 16 or 32 gig USB thumb drive and use that. For $20 or $30, you can easily double the amount of space you currently have.

I'd only get a new HDD if you are planning on buying a lot of games digitally.

Just my 2 cents.

[the86d]

The USB on the OG 360 I think is USB 1.1, and it was a real treat using during a transfer of crap the USB 2.0 of the Slim model. (I don't know if the revisions are correct, but the speed seems close, comparatively.)

The SATA drive is WAY faster. Even on the OG 360 's USB vs their SATA drive is like a comparison dial-up and FiOS. Don't use USB on the OG 360 if you can avoid it, 'tis SLOOOOOW.

[lanwarrior]

Personally, I'd wait to find a deal on amazon for a new in box old style MS X360 HDD. I've seen the 120 gigs go as low as $40. The $320 gigers are going for $70 right now. I've seen them go for less, around $60. It just depends on the timing.

I've been searching for it and the ones that are for sale is for the "slim" version. My XBOX 360 is the 2st gen.

Though, I'm not sure why you are bothering to get an HDD though. The X360 supports usb thumb drives, as long as they have a fast enough read/write speed. You may even have some lying around your house right now that you could use with out spending any money.

Just get a 16 or 32 gig USB thumb drive and use that. For $20 or $30, you can easily double the amount of space you currently have.

I'd only get a new HDD if you are planning on buying a lot of games digitally.

I tried USB drive, but have issues. At least the one I tried (Sandisk, Kingston, PNY) all have issues, either the games cannot be copied or something else.

I want a new HDD because MS now give 2 free games every month and they take a lot of space. I.e. this month is Sleeping with Dogs (good game BTW) and it needs 6 Gb of free space. Disc-based game like BF4 needs 2GB. With all the other digital games, saves, etc, I ran out of space.

[lanwarrior]

The cable is about useless these days. One of the last updates won't let you copy crap anymore (Game-updates, Add-ons, and games can no longer be copied AFAIK), except for profiles, and you can just sign-in to the profile on a new 360 to get that, right?

Since MS provide free cloud service, I am planning to backup those stuff into the cloud service, change HDD, and then copy it back to the HDD.

[pbsmind]

The cable is about useless these days. One of the last updates won't let you copy crap anymore (Game-updates, Add-ons, and games can no longer be copied AFAIK), except for profiles, and you can just sign-in to the profile on a new 360 to get that, right?

The cable comes with software to copy everything over. It's not limited to the restrictions of a normal USB drive.

[Iknownot]

Just another idea (and I see 86d also suggested it above): The slim really is the best version of the x360. If you see yourself sticking with the x360 for awhile, you could find a good condition used slim with the bigger HDD and then trade in your current x360 to pay for the difference. I don't think you'd bee too far of on the cost considering buying a new HDD for your current x360.

The slim is much more quiet running and is completely worth trying to get one, especially if you use it to watch DVDs or you play games off discs a lot.

[CBruce]

I have an old XBOX 360 (not a slim version) that I bought in 2005. It came with 20GB hard drive. It serves me well so far, but I am running out of the HDD space due to the size of the downloaded games (MS give free 2 games / month) and space requirements from disc-based games (Battlefield 4, do you hear me?!).

Unfortunately, MS never (or stopped) sell HDD upgrade for the original XBOX 360, all I see in Amazon and eBay are 3rd party HDD upgrade.

I am thinking of buying the upgraded HDD (250GB variant) but it seems there are plethora of version (all 3rd party) and not all of them works with all games. For example, the one sold in Amazon (320GB) version have reviewers saying that BF4 will not recognize the HDD...and worst, some caused Red-Ring-of-Death.

Thus, do you have any recommendation on the HDD upgrade? Where you bought it, the manufacturer, etc.

PS: No, I am not going to buy XBOX One - it's too expensive and the XBOX360 still serves me well for some games that I DO play, like COD and BF.

I hacked my own. 1st gen XBox 360 with 20gb hard drive. Bought a specific brand/model of drive from Fry's, flashed it per some instructions I found online, and it's been working fine ever since.

Try this:

Looks like the WD Scorpio Blue 250gb drives are about $45-$50

Or shop around a bit. Prices on 360 hardware should be falling pretty rapidly now that the new consoles are out. Lots of people trading them in to upgrade to new consoles.

[lanwarrior]

Just another idea (and I see 86d also suggested it above): The slim really is the best version of the x360. If you see yourself sticking with the x360 for awhile, you could find a good condition used slim with the bigger HDD and then trade in your current x360 to pay for the difference. I don't think you'd bee too far of on the cost considering buying a new HDD for your current x360.

The slim is much more quiet running and is completely worth trying to get one, especially if you use it to watch DVDs or you play games off discs a lot.

I thought about that, but I haven't seen any deals where the XBOX 360 Slim with 250Gb HDD sells for less than $250. Even used ones are in the $200 range (Amazon). If the HDD will cost me only $80, I'll bite.

GEtting a new Slim version is tempting, though!