Xbox 360 Storing games on an external hard drive

Hi everyone. I'd first like to say that I'm sorry if this goes against forum rules; I have read them and I don't think it does, but if it is please let me know.

I am aware that you can store games on to your Xbox 360's hard drive. What I would like to know is can you store them on an external hard drive? And not one of the overpriced Xbox ones, something more like a Western Digital My Passport (or any good external HDD you can recommend, not too fussed about portability to be honest).

Thanks for all your help in advance.

Ben

 

No, as far as I'm aware. You can only play the backups you make through the Xbox, on the Xbox hard drive. Media etc is fine on an external hard drive, but it's got to be official for games.

Of course, I could be wrong...

 

Right, cheers. I didn't think there would be an official way, but was hoping people had found ways of doing it.

 

Nah no way can you do that dude.. there might be a mod or something but it would probably get your xbox banned anyway lol

 

In this guide they show you how to format a hard drive for use with the 360 - maybe that would work?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/150970/upgrade_your_xbox_360s_hard_drive_on_the_cheap.html

PS: This guide was released before NXE.

 

Check section 16 of this.

 

Cheers for the info.

I guess I'll just get an Xbox with a 250gb HDD then. Any idea how big the average 360 game is? Could I make do with a 120gb?

Thanks alot

 

I have seen somewhere on the internet, that it is possible to upgrade the HDD in the xbox, but you need to have one of the xbox ones already so that you've got the enclosure.
But if you could find a dud one on ebay, then you could get a normal HDD and do it.

What I don't know is if its counted as modding your console, I'm sure the article I read didn't mention anywhere that it would get you banned, don't know, you'll need to do some research.

With regards to HDD size, I got a Elite 120GB for Christmas. So far I've got Forza 3, PURE and PGR4 on it and I've got something like 85GB free. Of course you never see 120GB on the HDD free, I didn't and I'd presume its the same thing as Hard Drives in PCs, and that theres stuff already on the HDD in the xbox, maybe you can remove it to make some more space.

 

These guys seemed to of answered your question PortalBen, but I just wanted to add something regarding Microsoft's current policy.

They are currently going after any type of third party/homemade storage solutions. This includes memory cards and hard disks (not external drives for media, they're fine).

This means that even if a guide for replacing your Xbox hard disk works, at any time it could stop working.

Microsoft wants its customers to only buy the official drives.

Datel are trying to fight this policy, but until anything comes of it imo it's not worth risking it.

 

You could quite happily manage with a 120GB drive. Have a few games installed at a time, and if you ever need the space, just delete some old game you don't play. You can always reinstall it later if need be.

 

Thanks for all your help guys

 

From my experience installing a 360 game takes up 5-7 gigs.

 

Maximum is near 9GBs (dual-layed DVDs), but not many games go that far.

 

Easily, I have at least 10 games installed and still have nearly half the disk free. It's well worth it for the noise reduction!

 

for poece of mind cant you just plug the hard drive in your computer the traditional way to check everything is working?

 

Thanks for the reply mate.

Bit confused by what you mean though ... I wasn't asking about hard drives working properly. Explain?

Cheers.

 

See, the gaming console might be the only instance in which Microsoft, rather than Sony, is trying to push their proprietary crap on users.

Even if you manage to flash your own HDD and get it inside their enclosure, they'll check to see if the capacity and metadeta matches up with their standards. Don't know how exactly that works, but I know it happens.

Good luck, though I doubt it'd work.