What's taking up 8gb?

G

Gatticus

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 5, 2006
Messages
1,487
I just got the Xbox360 with the HDD today and I'm just curious as to why I only have 12gb out of a 20gb HDD available. Surely the videos, songs and that little arcade game don't use up that much space. Or is it because there is a hidden partition reserved for system use (updates etc.)? I know after formatting there is not really 20gb there but it is still using up a lot of space.

Only game I have is FN3 and it seems decent enough. I'm not happy about the fan noise of the 360 though. I went out of my way to make my computer very quiet and it's all being destroyed by this noisy 360. Not a good design choice to make a console that is noisy, IMO. It's enough of an issue to make me think about returning it.
 
I show only 11 GB on my HD. I posed this same question to Microsoft support and never got a reply.

I think youre correct in assuming there's a partition in there that is used for updates and other double top secret Microsoft stuff. :eek:

I agree that it is a bit noisy and hot! make sure you have it well vented.
Games you might like to buy/rent.......
Ghost Recon
Condemned
Project Gotham Racing
Kameo
 
There is space reserved on the hard drive for "system use"-be it updates, cache for game use, etc.
 
Actually the hard drive comes pre-loaded with a bunch of stuff. At the very least you can delete all that music that comes pre-loaded. I don't remember what else there is... But if you go into the dashboard and into your system options or wherever it is to go into your hard drive you can delete all that stuff. There may have been trailers and stuff loaded too... Like I said I don't remember I just deleted everything. It will save you a little space.
 
For starters an advertised 20GB HDD is really about 18.5GB, and then the 360 needs space for the OS, about 1GB for the included content, and then it also reserves space for patches and for the games to use as a cache. When all is said and done you have 12GB left to use, and can free it up to about 13GB. That means that the OS is only taking up/reserving about 5-6GB for its own, and games usage.
 
I think there's also space taken up with the emulator for the old X-Box games.
 
Gatticus said:
I just got the Xbox360 with the HDD today and I'm just curious as to why I only have 12gb out of a 20gb HDD available. Surely the videos, songs and that little arcade game don't use up that much space. Or is it because there is a hidden partition reserved for system use (updates etc.)? I know after formatting there is not really 20gb there but it is still using up a lot of space.

Only game I have is FN3 and it seems decent enough. I'm not happy about the fan noise of the 360 though. I went out of my way to make my computer very quiet and it's all being destroyed by this noisy 360. Not a good design choice to make a console that is noisy, IMO. It's enough of an issue to make me think about returning it.
Click to expand...


I understanding is that the 8gb is used for updates and hard drive caching for games. As far as fan noise goes, are you sitting inches away from your unit? My computer is much louder, so I guess i've really never been bothered by the noise. To fix that, hook it up to a killer surround sound system and crank it up. These things run hot, but it's not any hotter or louder than a Dell laptop with a 3.6 ghz pentium 4. A lot of the noise you are hearing is the DVD drive spinning and reading stuff. The fan isn't actually that noisy. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about the DVD drive since it's a fast drive that i'm pretty sure spins at a good speed.
 
dunno, but i have about 10 demos and about another 10HD trailers on there and i havent had any space problems yet
 
I'm not saying 12gb is not enough space, I was just wondering why only 12gb was showing when it's advertised as a 20gb drive. The OS takes up no space as I have read that it is an embedded OS on flash memory and not the HDD. I don't know how big the pageing file is but it must be pretty big. As for the noise, mine is much noisier than my computer. My PC has a total of five fans and it puts the 360 to shame on the noise front. But I designed the PC to be that way using things like a well ventilated case, Zalman VGA cooler, Seasonic PSU, and volt mods on case and cpu fan. Unfortunately, I probably can't do the same with the 360. Yes, sometimes I am sitting quite close to the 360 as it is on my computer desk next to my HDTV which is also my computer monitor. Even sitting in an armchair across the room I can still hear it quite clearly.

Thanks for the tips on the games and I am thinking about getting PGR3 but I noticed none of the screen shots or trailers ever show the cockpit view. Why is that? Is there no cockpit in PGR3 and it is just road in front of you? I'll have to see if I can rent it at Blockbuster before buying it.
 
Gatticus said:
I'm not saying 12gb is not enough space, I was just wondering why only 12gb was showing when it's advertised as a 20gb drive. The OS takes up no space as I have read that it is an embedded OS on flash memory and not the HDD. I don't know how big the pageing file is but it must be pretty big. As for the noise, mine is much noisier than my computer. My PC has a total of five fans and it puts the 360 to shame on the noise front. But I designed the PC to be that way using things like a well ventilated case, Zalman VGA cooler, Seasonic PSU, and volt mods on case and cpu fan. Unfortunately, I probably can't do the same with the 360. Yes, sometimes I am sitting quite close to the 360 as it is on my computer desk next to my HDTV which is also my computer monitor. Even sitting in an armchair across the room I can still hear it quite clearly.

Thanks for the tips on the games and I am thinking about getting PGR3 but I noticed none of the screen shots or trailers ever show the cockpit view. Why is that? Is there no cockpit in PGR3 and it is just road in front of you? I'll have to see if I can rent it at Blockbuster before buying it.
Click to expand...
PGR3 has fully detailed cockpits for every car that is completely accurate to real life.
 
Good, and thanks. Just not sure if I would like playing a racing game using a gamepad when I'm used to a FFB wheel on the PC so I better still rent it first.
 
The issue with space doesn't come into play unless you're big on copying music to your Xbox...OR they keep making demos that are a gig. In that case, you could fill that HD up pretty quickly.
Luckily they're planning on releasing a 100GB hard drive this winter. In that case, entire (modern era) games could be used for download a la Steam.
 
I'm not concerned about the space. I don't plan on downloading anything to the 360, I use the PC for music etc. 360 is just for premium 360 games. I was just curious to know why so much space was already taken.

I went and rented PGR3 to see if I would like it and while it may be a good arcade racer it's not my bag. Using the gamepad instead of a wheel w/pedals just didn't do it for me. I'll just buy games for the 360 that are meant for a gamepad, anything else I'll buy for the PC.
 
Gatticus said:
I'm not concerned about the space. I don't plan on downloading anything to the 360, I use the PC for music etc. 360 is just for premium 360 games. I was just curious to know why so much space was already taken.

I went and rented PGR3 to see if I would like it and while it may be a good arcade racer it's not my bag. Using the gamepad instead of a wheel w/pedals just didn't do it for me. I'll just buy games for the 360 that are meant for a gamepad, anything else I'll buy for the PC.
Click to expand...

I would do anything for a nice force feedback steering wheel for our X360's. I wish I knew why noone is making one right now. It has to have force feedback since I have trouble steering otherwise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top