School me on XBox Slim Hard Drives...

Dwight Strawberry · Post by **Dwight Strawberry** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:12 pm

Do I have to use an official Microsoft one? Those things are expensive as hell.

Can I just use any external HD or thumb drive?

Thanks

Sigma · Post by **Sigma** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:21 pm

There's 4 ways you can go: -

1. Get a new, official drive. Expensive, as you said.

2. Get a second hand one. Even if you get one designed to fit the old-style 360s, you can take it out of the plastic case and just pop it into the 360 S. It won't be in a caddy, but as long as you're not moving your 360 around it'll still work fine. You can buy the caddies off eBay for a few bucks.

3. Make your own. You can buy an off the shelf drive and make your own 360 drive using HDDHackr. Google for guides.

4. Use a USB stick or a USB hard drive. The 360 allows you to use up to 2 devices and allot up to 16GB of space on each for 32GB of storage in total. That 32GB limit is only when you're using the drives as 360 storage, not general storage. USB hard drives can be any brand. If you use a USB stick, it can be any brand, but the 360 performs a speed test on it to make sure it's fast enough, so avoid cheap, unbranded sticks. USB storage works just like a hard drive, so you can still install disc-based games to it, download XBLA games and demos and what have you.

Dwight Strawberry · Post by **Dwight Strawberry** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:19 pm

Sigma wrote:
2. Get a second hand one. Even if you get one designed to fit the old-style 360s, you can take it out of the plastic case and just pop it into the 360 S. It won't be in a caddy, but as long as you're not moving your 360 around it'll still work fine. You can buy the caddies off eBay for a few bucks.

Think I'm going to go this route. Will I need a special screwdriver to get the HD out? Once I install into the 360, does it void any possible warranty?

Thanks!

Sigma · Post by **Sigma** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 2:41 pm

You need a Torx 6 and a Torx 10 screwdriver. Here's how to take it apart: -

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials-xbo ... -drive.php

It voids the warranty of the hard drive as you're breaking the seal on the case and it voids the warranty of the 360 itself because you're using modified hardware, but the latter wouldn't matter. The hard drive just slots in, so if the 360 was to develop a fault and it was still covered by the warranty, you could just pull the hard drive out and they would never know it was there.

If you want to pop the hard drive in a caddy so it fits in just like an official drive, this is the sort of thing you want: -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RED-Xbox-360-Sl ... 3a76209c0d

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hard-Disk-Drive ... 2317976d3e

You don't have to use one of these, but for the sake of 4 or 5 bucks it's probably worth getting one just so it fits in exactly like an original drive.

Dwight Strawberry · Post by **Dwight Strawberry** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:37 pm

Thanks Sigma

hustler · Post by **hustler** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:50 am

I had the old white Xbox with the 20 gig hd, it red ringed on me, I upgraded to the 4gb black slim, busted the 20 gig hd out of that giant ugly shiny metal compartment and slotted it nicely into the back of my slim. I didnt even bother getting the proper case for it. It's been almost two years now and I've had no problems, and I even tend to move my Box around a fair bit since my wifi is a bit shoddy and sometimes it put a dead space/goes slower right where my Xbox is so I shift it around couple times a month.

Galvatron78 · Post by **Galvatron78** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:29 am

i just went to Ebay spent 20$ waited 3 days and got a new one.