Console Hard Drive Questions

[Mikepsyche]

I don't own any consoles, never have, but my friend recently got an Xbox 360. He doesn't have a hard drive for it though, so of course he can't ever save his game.

I think getting anything bigger than a 512mb or 1gb hard drive for consoles is ridiculous, let alone these 80 and 120gb ones or whatever that they sell nowadays. I thought you had to install games with an Xbox, but a friend told me they operate like any other console, you only need a place for save game files. You can install the games on a hd or just keep having to pop game discs in and out. Save game files tend not to take up that much space, so I guess they hope you use the rest for movies or music or installed games?

Anyway, I was wondering if you could use any old hard drive to store save game files on, not just the ones you can buy specially for Xbox. And for that matter, can you use flash drives to store them? Do Xboxes have USB ports on them?

 

[NightSurge]

You cannot use any old hard drive. There is a method you can use to flash a very specific 120GB hard drive with the 360 hard drive firmware, but you still have to buy that specific (I think western digital) notebook hard drive.

Also I moved this to the Xbox section for you.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

That is correct, there is only one or two western digital drives that can be flashed with the same 120gb firmware used on the 360.

But these drives are becoming so large because people want to install there game so they dont risk destroying the CD by accident, games load faster, and some other people also download HD movies to there console... They aren't just a normal console anymore, they are complete entertainment systems now in days.

 

[Mikepsyche]

Yeah, I'd be ok with him having to switch cds all the time; he's careful enough not to break them. But, it makes sense, load times would be a lot shorter loading from a hard drive rather than a cd/dvd drive.

But, I think he'll be fine with the load times, and any movies he'll just have to put in the dvd. Which he'll be fine with I think.

Maybe some time in the future I'll get a bigger drive for him, but for now I think the 512 will be fine.

But there's a 20gb drive for only $14 more. That's 40 times more storage for way less than 40 times the price. I feel like it would be kind of stupid not to get that, but I hope he'll be ok with $14 more.

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot there was an Xbox section now. Will remember in the future.

 

[stb1swat]

I just bought an Arcade a day or so ago, and just now I bought a new 20GB for $25 on ebay.

Apparently LIVE will not accept a memory stick, but needs an actual hard drive. Stupid, but this way I'll be able to use netflix and try demos. Its totally worth it imo.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Yea, the drive, if you have the connection is worth it, that is if you use Netflix, and so on, that way you can rent or buy and download the movies rather quickly.

 

[Tech Kid Tom]

Personally, i have a 120 GB and i dont need it but when i had a 20 GB i struggled, with all my live marketplace downloads and all of my expansions and map packs and other stuff I ended up using it all after 1 year. for Halo 3 alone i was using 200 MB of space so i would say if your going for the non - live expansionless experience you'll be good with a 20 GB but for vice-versa you will need something bigger to suit your experience.

also when i bought one on EBay it was 120GB for £50 but it was rammed with all the previous owners junk i didn't even want and most of it was one of those marketplace "unremovable" expansions. so i wouldn't reccomend that unless it says it is completely blank.

also to answer the question im afraid you cannot use any old hard drive but i would recommend buying one brand new from microsoft for reasons above