XBOX 360 USB add-on storage options arrive.

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vinaycm

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This week, space-hungry users of the Xbox 360 gaming console are finally getting a little relief: Once you download the latest update to the 360 software, you'll be able to plug a USB thumbdrive into your device to instantly expand its storage capability.

Users are already quietly rejoicing: Formerly, the only way to add storage capacity to the 360 was to update the hard drive with a Microsoft-approved upgrade — an extremely expensive proposition. (The official 250GB hard drive, the largest option currently available, costs $130; meanwhile, standard terabyte hard drives cost well under $100 now.)

It's not perfect. Be advised that the 360's USB storage-upgrade enhancement comes with a long list of quirky caveats. Microsoft's official Web page on the subject offers more details and some explanations for the new policies, and a few warnings about how the 360 gobbles up space on whatever drive you use for overhead.

USB flash drives can be used to store gamer profiles, saved games, and downloaded content, but the big sell is that you can now easily take your characters and saves with you when you play at a friend's house (thus earning Achievements when you're hanging on someone else's couch).

The console upgrade isn't perfect, but at least it's something. Any tech nerd has stacks and stacks of old USB drives lying around, and this is at least one way to put them to some use. But more compelling is how it frees us from the burden of having to remove the hard drive (much more susceptible to damage than a flash drive) or even dragging the whole console out of the house just to play the content on it. And, hey, at least the update is free.
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Source: Xbox 360 USB add-on storage options arrive - Yahoo! News , Xbox.com | Accessories - USB Storage Device Support for Xbox 360
 
Hmm nice, great for people with 20GB HDD's and those without one. I am myself nowhere near to filling the 120GB HDD in my 360 Elite. :P
 
I updated mine yesterday, working fine with my 2gb kingston pen drive. and it shows 1.4gb free space after configuring the pen drive.
 
^^ Its mentioned in the quote.

... USB flash drives can be used to store gamer profiles, saved games, and downloaded content, but the big sell is that you can now easily take your characters and saves with you when you play at a friend's house (thus earning Achievements when you're hanging on someone else's couch).
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So no games can be installed? Also is it only thumb drive support and not 2.5" laptop HDD's with larger capacity?
 
Well that sucks. I was hoping they would provide better expandability options, but then again, it's Microsoft. What was I thinking? They have to sell their HDD's first.

But atleast game save are allowed, so people getting the 360 Arcade without a HDD, would benefit with this update for saving games. Can existing saves be ported over to flash drives? I need to back up the saves from my memory unit.
 
and what about GAME data to be stored?? I heard few 360 games offer game data to be installed ???
 
xXx said:
and what about GAME data to be stored?? I heard few 360 games offer game data to be installed ???
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Game data as in? You can install all 360 games on your 360 hard drive, I doubt it will work on a thumb drive though.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
Hmm nice, great for people with 20GB HDD's and those without one. I am myself nowhere near to filling the 120GB HDD in my 360 Elite. :P
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For people already having a 20GB HDD, its better to upgrade to a 250GB HDD using the 20GB HDD's casing + WD 250GB Scorpio Blue HDD.. Far more cost effective than using a pen drive as far as the price/mb is concerned..
 
vinaycm said:
For people already having a 20GB HDD, its better to upgrade to a 250GB HDD using the 20GB HDD's casing + WD 250GB Scorpio Blue HDD.. Far more cost effective than using a pen drive as far as the price/mb is concerned..
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Yeah, but that needs a mod right?
 
vinaycm said:
For people already having a 20GB HDD, its better to upgrade to a 250GB HDD using the 20GB HDD's casing + WD 250GB Scorpio Blue HDD.. Far more cost effective than using a pen drive as far as the price/mb is concerned..
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Well not many would like to break open the 360 HDD enclosure to install a new HDD themselves. If you manage to damange something, you would have to pay a lot more to get new enclosure even if its a 20GB one. Moreover if external storage option works for USB flash storage, it would probably work for USB HDD's as well.
 
Switch said:
Yup... Looks like that only...
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dont update till you read up throughly on the same with respect to the firmware you have installed, and let me know of your findings as well so that i can decide if I should update or not :P
 
Ethan_Hunt said:
Yeah, but that needs a mod right?
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Yeah.. That requires flashing the firmware of the WD hdd.. But its plain simple..

Lord Nemesis said:
Well not many would like to break open the 360 HDD enclosure to install a new HDD themselves. If you manage to damange something, you would have to pay a lot more to get new enclosure even if its a 20GB one. Moreover if external storage option works for USB flash storage, it would probably work for USB HDD's as well.
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Openeing the HDD case is not a real pain.. Its very easy & a lot of tutorials are available on the internet on how to do it.. Damaging something is higly unprobable unless being too careless.. There is a size limitation to the capacity of USB flash storage of 16GB & a maximum of 2 registered devices per console.. So the HDD is more viable to those who intend to store a LOT of demos, media etc on their console..
 
Has anybody tried out this update??

One of my friend's want me to get this update done on his banned console.. Iam a bit afraid of bricking it if anything goes wrong.. Any suggestions of how to do the update safely??
 
vinaycm said:
One of my friend's want me to get this update done on his banned console.. Iam a bit afraid of bricking it if anything goes wrong.. Any suggestions of how to do the update safely??
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From what I have heard, it's doing more good than harm. Believe it or not, it's actually restoring the HDD game install option on banned consoles. It's easy to update too, just copy the $SystemUpdate folder in the root of your thumb drive or burn it on a DVD, plug/insert it into the 360 and it reboot the console, once it restarts, it would prompt for the update, click 'YES' and off you go. Verify the change in the system settings to check the dashboard version.
 
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