120Gb HDD's on Ebay

[Marvin]

Hi guys,

I got an Xbox 360 Arcade pack free with a LCD TV from Dick Smiths and was looking at a HDD for it.

60Gb drives seem to be about $150, but Microsoft lists the 120Gb drive for that price on there site.

I noticed that on ebay you can get 'Buy it now' 120gb drives for about $80, with no packaging.

Now to my question, I noticed a thread here that said Microsoft are updating the firmware to include a feature to not allow non-Microsoft storage devices.

Would the drives on ebay be genuine?, (they look the part, but coming from Hong Kong, who knows?), and would they be likely to work with any future updates?

 

[BonezOz]

First off I'll be honest, I have no idea about the XBox, except that it uses standard PC components. Now I would assume that as long as you purchased a 120+GB SATAII drive, no matter what brand, and ensured that it's formatted as FAT32, you'll be fine.

 

[Marvin]

Thanks Mate, but I wanted it for all the reasons that thread said you cant use it for.

I wanted to save 'Games Saves', demos and the like.

 

[Titcher]

The xbox ones you'll find on ebay, aren't originally xbox drives, they're hard drives have that have been modified to look like 360 drives, and CAN be used as regular hard drives. However, microsoft's blocking unofficial storage devices, so it might be worth waiting until that to see if they block the modded 360 hard drives too.

 

[Marvin]

Thanks, that what I thought.

With the XBox Dashboard I have, you can copy the discs to the HDD, do you still need the original disc to start the game?
I have nothing Modded, and dont really want to get it modded, but m to lazy to get up and change the discs.

Also the demos on this site would load alot faster from HDD aswell I am guessing.
The Arcade console has 256mb of memory, which is OK at the moment, but is there any great advantage beside storage space to gettting a HDD?, would it make the system faster, ie: caching?

So far my free xbox is costing quite a bit.

 

[Marvin]

**Double Post**

 

[Titcher]

Yes you still need the disc in the drive.

 

[InsaneNutter]

For some games you do need the hard drive to use certain features, for example in Halo 3: ODST you have to have a hard drive in to play system link / xbox live with 2 people on the console.

Most games will use the hard drive to cache data to speed up loading times, as you say you can install games too.. that’s not really a must it just speeds up loading times and keep the 360’s dvd drive from spinning up and making a load of noise.

If you’re planning to play on Xbox Live a hard drive is a must, for example older games like Gears of War have downloadable map packs which are now free, if you just have the memory card you won’t have room to download the maps there for you will get disconnected from the server if it switches to that particular map.

Of course you can download demos and trailers, arcade games and so on from Xbox Live with a drive too.

 

[Marvin]

Guess I'll be looking for a HDD then.

Thanks Guys.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Hacked drives appear not to have been blocked by this update, just memory cards by Datel.

It’s up to you if you want to risk getting one, if all is well when the official fall update is released to everyone I shall most likely do my own 250gb hacked drive.

£30 for 250gb hacked VS £90+ for a 120gig one…