Upgrading Hard Drive on a 4gb Xbox 360??

Diablo2K

Diablo2K

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 10, 2000
Messages
6,794
Was thinking about adding a hard drive to my 4gb 360 and have a couple quistions.

1. I seen some people using a aftermarket Hard Drive. I know there not having problems now but do you think I should avaoid this for risk of a future ban? Will MS give warning before banning people using Non MS Drives. I have a 500gb Drive I am not using that I would love to be able to pop into my 360 as I really need more space.

2. If I add a HD to my 360 what happens to the 4gb of onboard memory, will it not use it anymore and I will lose whats on it or will I still be able to access that memory?

P.S. What was the limits on using thumb drives to expand the memory? I was thinking you could add 2 8gb drives but I am insure if I am remembering this or not?
 
I don't think MS will ever do anything about "aftermarket harddrives", unless a company starts selling them. Thats when they'll jump in. If they were going to do something about it, they would have when the did the last ban on "black market memory devices".
 
Demon10000 said:
I don't think MS will ever do anything about "aftermarket harddrives", unless a company starts selling them. Thats when they'll jump in. If they were going to do something about it, they would have when the did the last ban on "black market memory devices".
Click to expand...

There is a comany selling them now, there available on Amazon for about 1/2 the price of "factory" Hard Drives.
http://www.amazon.com/250G-Hard-Dis...4864/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1299746469&sr=8-4

Anyone know where to get just the cartridge w/o the HD, I know there avaiable but I can't find one?
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
To answer your second question, about being able to see/use the internal memory after adding a hard drive, you should be able to. I have an Arcade model with a small amount of internal storage, and a 120GB hard drive. When I fire-up a game it asks me to select which source to use, and I can pick the internal storage or the hard drive.
 
I just picked up a 4g slim and I'm going thru the process of picking up the WD 250gb and a case. I'll let you know how it works out :)
 
'Aftermarket' hard drives that you buy online are simply WD Scorpio drives that are flashed with the 360 HDD Firmware. You can only use the Scorpio's for this and you can do it yourself.

Buy a supported Scorpio, flash it on a PC, put it in a HDD caddy you buy online, done. You have access to both the HDD and the 4GB of flash storage.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/HDDHackr.php
 
Thinking about getting a real MS branded version. Amazon has "Used" one w/o retail packaging for $71 from Amazon. Are these real MS branded drives? http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002I0JDC6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used I am thinking they would have to be used versions of the listed item and not some off brand drive in order to be listed under the real thing.???
Just to much conflicting info on the non-MS HDs. Some say there 100% compatible, others say you cant play old Xbox games with hem, others say you will eventually get banned for using them. I decided to spend a few more and be 100% safe. One thing for sure, I know that buying the 4gb Xbox was a mistake. Even w/ 2 flash drives I am still running out of room
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Diablo2K said:
Thinking about getting a real MS branded version. Amazon has "Used" one w/o retail packaging for $71 from Amazon. Are these real MS branded drives? http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B002I0JDC6/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used I am thinking they would have to be used versions of the listed item and not some off brand drive in order to be listed under the real thing.???
Just to much conflicting info on the non-MS HDs. Some say there 100% compatible, others say you cant play old Xbox games with hem, others say you will eventually get banned for using them. I decided to spend a few more and be 100% safe. One thing for sure, I know that buying the 4gb Xbox was a mistake. Even w/ 2 flash drives I am still running out of room
Click to expand...

I highly doubt those 'used' drives are official. I'd suspect they are modified WD drives in the caddy you can get on ebay. Still. Wouldnt stop me buying one.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Skirrow said:
I highly doubt those 'used' drives are official. I'd suspect they are modified WD drives in the caddy you can get on ebay. Still. Wouldnt stop me buying one.
Click to expand...

Any way to tell if its the real deal or of its just a Modded WD in a MS caddy? Is there any Holograms or tamper stickers on them?
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I bought one of the Amazon drives about 2 weeks ago. It works great. Put it in the slot, and the Xbox fired right up. Much better than paying full price for one. There is a couple of videos of people just plugging in the hd straight up with no caddy, and just putting some shims under it. Its just a sata connection in a big hole. They cracked a case from the old 360 drive, and just dropped it in the hole.
 
I modded my own WD250GB laptop drive, It is an easy process if you can flash motherboards or video cards and read the directions fully. You can only make a 20, 60, 120 or 250 drive, since those are the drives that have the security sectors on them. If you use a 160 it will be limited to 120, if you use a 320 it will be limited to a 250.

I kept getting an 8MB unused space and had to find a disk partition utility that I don't recall the name of at the moment to remove it. The flash made partitions 0 1 and 3. Then I used Xplorer360 to insert an imaged partition 2 for the backward compatibility. Some people skip this step. I tried to make one as close to the original as possible other than having the same serial numbers from a downloaded hddss.bin at this point the drive looked like a fresh retail unit.

If you are upgrading from a smaller drive you can use Xplorer360 to copy info between drives game saves etc... it takes a long time to copy full game installs you should uninstall the games before coping, then reinstall the games after you swap.

Been using it for a year now with no problems, even on live. eBay has both style empty cases if you want to make your own for the older systems or the new S search for xbox hdd shell, the shell I bought came with a tamper sticker and had a barcode serial number. It looks just like a friend's retail unit. I look through a vent and can see BEVS (BEVT is newer) in one hole and WD in another hole on the drive itself.

As for the P.S. question: You are allowed to use two 16GB USB drives for 32GB of storage
 
Last edited:
m_isom said:
I modded my own WD250GB laptop drive, It is an easy process if you can flash motherboards or video cards and read the directions fully. You can only make a 20, 60, 120 or 250 drive, since those are the drives that have the security sectors on them. If you use a 160 it will be limited to 120, if you use a 320 it will be limited to a 250.

I kept getting an 8MB unused space and had to find a disk partition utility that I don't recall the name of at the moment to remove it. The flash made partitions 0 1 and 3. Then I used Xplorer360 to insert an imaged partition 2 for the backward compatibility. Some people skip this step. I tried to make one as close to the original as possible other than having the same serial numbers from a downloaded hddss.bin at this point the drive looked like a fresh retail unit.

If you are upgrading from a smaller drive you can use Xplorer360 to copy info between drives game saves etc... it takes a long time to copy full game installs you should uninstall the games before coping, then reinstall the games after you swap.

Been using it for a year now with no problems, even on live. eBay has both style empty cases if you want to make your own for the older systems or the new S search for xbox hdd shell, the shell I bought came with a tamper sticker and had a barcode serial number. It looks just like a friend's retail unit. I look through a vent and can see BEVS (BEVT is newer) in one hole and WD in another hole on the drive itself.

As for the P.S. question: You are allowed to use two 16GB USB drives for 32GB of storage
Click to expand...

Thanks for info. I went ahead and got the drive from Amazon. I am sure I could have done it myself but I Wanted the real deal. Backwards compatibility is what I want most. I really love Burnout 3 and its an older game.

One thing I learned so far is not to use a cheap flash drive. I am used a 2x MicroSD in an adapter and its slow as hell. My Sandisk Crizer Micro won't fit in the rear USB ports, its to wide for thr recessed ports but its faster however its sticking out the front now.
 
Necro!

Anyone tried to stick an SSD into the 4GB X360? I am about to sell my PS3 and grab an X360 instead and have a spare Intel X25-M 160GB that I wouldn't mind sticking in there even if I can only format it to 120GB. I obviously don't want to screw up the XBOX or the drive though.
 
Thuleman said:
Necro!

Anyone tried to stick an SSD into the 4GB X360? I am about to sell my PS3 and grab an X360 instead and have a spare Intel X25-M 160GB that I wouldn't mind sticking in there even if I can only format it to 120GB. I obviously don't want to screw up the XBOX or the drive though.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure you can only hack a WD blue type drive for the 360.

I'll ask too, I have a compatible WD blue but it is 500gb, can I still flash that? I am assuming I can but only get 250gb of space out of it?
 
Demon10000 said:
I don't think MS will ever do anything about "aftermarket harddrives", unless a company starts selling them. Thats when they'll jump in. If they were going to do something about it, they would have when the did the last ban on "black market memory devices".
Click to expand...

up until the hard drive shortage, there was a guy whom i have personally spoken to, who was operating a business doing around $250,000 in sales annually with around a 20% margin, buying drives in bulk and knock off china black cases that look identical to the MS one and flashing them....pretty lucrative considering the low amount of work involved

i have one of his 7200rpm drives in my slim, the MS ones are 5400rpm drives, not that it makes a big difference
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top