Xbox 360 and Storage

[TrophyNostalgia]

Hey guys so I have a second generation Xbox 360 that is getting pretty dated right now and am sitting on a 60GB HDD. My harddrive is pretty much full and I've already added a 32 GB flashddrive to the Xbox 360, and that also is now mostly full. Any recommendations on how to handle my storage situation? Is it possible to switch flashddrives only when I want a particular game on that flashddrive or how does that work. For example games I've downloaded through On Demand, if I move them to be stored on a flashddrive, will they simply not show up in "My Games" if that particular flashddrive is not connected? I don't want to screw anything up with my save files or somehow damage my downloads.

Thoughts?

(All in all before long I'm hoping to buy a new Xbox 360, but then comes the joy of porting my HDD to the new Xbox and I have no idea how to do that either.)

Any tips are welcome, thanks guys!

 

[Mystictrust]

You can switch flashddrives when you want to access a particular set of games on each - no need to transfer or move around games if you don't want to.

You should be able to move around your games and saves without issue though. Since the saves themselves don't take up as much space as the games, I would recommend you put as many of them as possible in cloud storage (it'll free up a little space, I suppose), but you're safe storing your saves all in the hard drive as well if that's your preference or your cloud storage runs out of space. You're free to move the games around without the saves being attached - you'll get a prompt in-game to choose the source of your save anyway. As long as that flashddrive doesn't move while the games are being copied, you shouldn't have issues. Still, to be safe if you're swapping around games often, do a COPY instead of MOVE if you can, and then delete it off the source if the copy is successful. If you can't copy a game, then just do a move and don't touch the flashddrive.

If you don't have bandwidth caps on your home internet, or you can afford a few downloads, I highly recommend that you check out your download history at xbox.com (Go to My Account and look for Download History). It's really nice, separating all your downloads into distinct categories for types of games, and also has nice search functionality. You can delete games safely and then re-download them to your xbox simply by selecting to download from your history.

 

[trivor]

Buy a third party hard drive and migration kit (about $20 for the migration kit and $80 for a 320 GB HD) - plenty of choices at NewEgg. Takes about a half hour to migrate all the material from your current HD to the new one and you're ready to go.

 

[TeknoBlast]

I wish they would release a 500GB drive. I have a 320 and I have about 70GB left. Been buying tons of On Demand games and still want some more.

 

[TrophyNostalgia]

Buy a third party hard drive and migration kit (about $20 for the migration kit and $80 for a 320 GB HD) - plenty of choices at NewEgg. Takes about a half hour to migrate all the material from your current HD to the new one and you're ready to go.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas guys.

@Trivor
Would this migration kit work in the instance of copying a second generation (white 60 GB, not slim) to the latest generation if I were to buy a new Xbox 360? I have so many games to complete for the 360 generation that I honestly don't think I'm going to bother with the Xbox One for a couple of years. And just transfer my stuff over and keep on gaming with this generation.

 

[peachy001]

You can transfer from any of the original hard drives to any of the new sizes. Just get the wire and a new hard drive.

 

[ncxcstud]

you could always delete stuff and then redownload it if you want to play it again... You can just delete the main game files and never mess with your save games... That's what I do. And I've been using a launch 20GB hard drive since 2005... I do have a 16GB flash drive connected though...

 

[Pete]

Yeah, I tend to uninstall games that I feel I've played through enough, but leave behind the saved game data part.

If they're on demand, it's just a lunchtime's worth of download time. If I have games on DVD, I'll just pop the disk in for the odd play sessions.

 

[TrophyNostalgia]

Hey guys so thanks for all your help, I know it's been a while since I've written but I have one last question. With Black Friday coming up I'm strongly considering purchasing a new Xbox 360 unit for a good price at $189.99 (250 GB Holiday edition). I'm then going to sell my old Xbox 360 to a good friend of mine who is willing to buy it off of me for cheap. Do I really need to use a migration kit? Or can I not simply copy all my game saves to the new Xbox 360 via a USB drive. My DLC and Downloadable games I can get through online (I have unlimited bandwith) Is there anything else on the HDD that I would need to copy over besides Game Saves? If I just pop in the game disc or download the respective downloadable game file, should not the game recognize my settings and game saves from the "Game Save file" that I'll copy to the new unit? I just don't want to risk losing any save information or etc. In addition what the best way to wipe my old unit, so that my friend can get set up with a 360 for the first time?

Thanks guys!

 

[Keith Wallace]

You can use USB (I did), but it can be slow. You're limited to 16 GB per device, meaning if you have a lot of stuff to move, it could take a few transfers. When I got my console, I did it all with a 4-GB flash drive and it wasn't TOO bad, though having to reinstall several arcade games and such was a bit annoying, as it means going through your purchase history (which gets long after 7 years).

 

[TrophyNostalgia]

Ok because personally I'll take the time to use a Flashdrive (and mine is 32 GB, limited to 16GB) instead of spending more money.
Otherwise does this Harddrive transfer cable work with every generation of the Xbox 360s? Like for example going from a second generation Xbox 360 60GB to a new Xbox 360 E 250 GB?

Amazon.com: Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Cable: Video Games

 

[Keith Wallace]

It says "Moves content from any Xbox 360 or hard drive to your new Xbox 360 S or Xbox 360 hard drive," so I imagine it does. however, if you have a flash drive, I'd use that. It would be free (always a plus), and you shouldn't have an issue moving stuff over. Depending on how much content you have, it shouldn't take more than 3 transfers to and from the flash drive, 4 at the absolute most (because 4 16-GB transfers is 64 GB, more than the size of the HDD).

 

[Pete]

If you're moving content from one Xbox storage device to another, it's pretty important to use the "Move" command, especially when they're save game files.

If you use the "copy" command, there's a chance that the game will detect that you may have more than one copy and flag it as cheating/modified save game. More than a few Forza players have had their games invalidated due to incorrect media transfers

 

[TrueGamer]

PLEASE HELP ME!!!
I have a 4GB Xbox 360 slim and recieved a 20GB original Xbox 360 External Drive from one of my friends when I put it into the 360 it said I had only 13GB of free space so I formatted it and it jumped to 13.7GB.

Since it is 20Gb i figured there was some hidden files on it so i connected it to my PC and set it up to be a slave HDD and wiped all files off so it says 18.2 GB free, but know my 360 won't recognize theres a HDD inside it.

Did I perhaps delete the firmware on it, there were 2 partitions or is it a problem with the connectors on the 360 itself

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

Sounds like you didn't format it to fat32 after you wiped it. Did you format it to fat32?


http://www.ehow.com/how_6313992_use-hard-drives-xbox-360.html

 

[TrueGamer]

No, but it should have stayed with the same format since it was not flashed if I am not mistaken

Just checked your link, and that is for formatting an external HDD.
I have an xbox 360 HDD that is 20GB and i opened it and am using it as an internal HDD for the 360 slim
When it first was connected it said only 13GB. After connecting it to the PC i went to disc manager and deleted both partitions and then tried to put it back into the 360 and it won't recognize it at all.

Since the limit on formattable USB is 32 GB if i did by chance wipe the firmware shouldn't I be able to format it for xbox 360 storage on the 360

 

[Keith Wallace]

Yeah, you just did exactly as you think. The 20-GB drive has 13 GB because of the OS and the formatting. I have an old 360 here, as well and my new one, and I think it CAME with 11.8 GB free on it because of videos and such that they included back in 2006. When you deleted all of that stuff, 13 GB is about what you had left. For the sake of comparison, look at your PC's HDD.

 

[TrueGamer]

So since i deleted the partition then the xbox can recognize it right?
hmmmm. is there any way to flash it back to a recognizable HDD

 

[TrueGamer]

sorry had account trouble

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

Well, what I posted earlier should have solved your problem. I took a PC HD and formatted it for my 360S. Did exactly what that link said to do and it worked. btw it was a 320GB HD.