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Xbox 360 gaining USB storage support in 2010 update
- Thread starter Alucardx23
- Start date
upnorthsox
Veteran
I wonder if the official USB drives will be competitively priced, or if it'll be an HDMI cable thing.
I would expect it to be in the $45-50 range.
Seems a little shortsighted to me. What's the difference between transferring my installed game and re-installing to the USB drive. You still need the disc to be able to play the game anyway.
Probably has a lot to do with how the container file that's created when you install the disc to the hard drive. People who've hacked this probably know the exact technical reasons.
Also, would this apply to XBLA games that you already purchased. I'd imagine that you'd have to delete it from the HDD, then re-download it the USB drive if you wanted to have it saved there.
Not sure, but I think you wouldn't need to. The storage area of the dashboard does allow you to move XBLA and XBLIG to memory units.
Also, one last annoyance - have they explained why the 16GB limit (32GB with 2 devices)? It's better than nothing and it essentially doubles my current capacity (I have the 20GB HDD), but it would have been awesome to have much more space.
Less likely a technical issue & more of a retail sales reason. Why would people buy the bigger hard drives if you could just buy a cheap USB hard drive?
Tommy McClain
Probably has a lot to do with how the container file that's created when you install the disc to the hard drive. People who've hacked this probably know the exact technical reasons.
Not sure, but I think you wouldn't need to. The storage area of the dashboard does allow you to move XBLA and XBLIG to memory units.
Less likely a technical issue & more of a retail sales reason. Why would people buy the bigger hard drives if you could just buy a cheap USB hard drive?
Tommy McClain
The first 2 are more of an inconvenience issue to me.
As for the last issue, yeah I figured as much. I'm interested on why 16GB? It's still much better than what we have now. I wonder if someone will be able to take an external HDD and multi-partition it to have multi-16GBs that the X360 will recognize.
I have a 500GB external USB-powered drive that would be perfect to pair with my X360.
I would expect it to be in the $45-50 range.
Agreed. Would be very surprised to see it for more than that. But they will have some leeway since it'll be pre-configured & have Xbox branding. They might even put a free game or other content on it too. BTW, I missed the part that said it was shipping in May. Not too much longer then.
Tommy McClain
Probably has a lot to do with how the container file that's created when you install the disc to the hard drive. People who've hacked this probably know the exact technical reasons.
I know that when I take the 120gb hdd from my downstairs 360 with all its installed games, pop it off and put it on the 360 arcade in another room, the game installs will not be recognized. It will say they only work with the machine that the game was installed from. So the container is tweaked both to the storage device and the unit somehow, although i don't know the details of how.
I know that when I take the 120gb hdd from my downstairs 360 with all its installed games, pop it off and put it on the 360 arcade in another room, the game installs will not be recognized. It will say they only work with the machine that the game was installed from. So the container is tweaked both to the storage device and the unit somehow, although i don't know the details of how.
Hmm. Thanks for the info. Hadn't realized that, but does make total sense. Microsoft's way of keeping pirating to a minimum.
Tommy McClain
upnorthsox
Veteran
I know that when I take the 120gb hdd from my downstairs 360 with all its installed games, pop it off and put it on the 360 arcade in another room, the game installs will not be recognized. It will say they only work with the machine that the game was installed from. So the container is tweaked both to the storage device and the unit somehow, although i don't know the details of how.
An encrypted header file or maybe a wrapper even?
Hmm. Thanks for the info. Hadn't realized that, but does make total sense. Microsoft's way of keeping pirating to a minimum.
Tommy McClain
I don't have any disc-based games installed, but my understanding was that you still needed the disc in the drive to be able to play the installed game. Doesn't that effectively eliminate or reduce piracy and/or borrowing/renting games to install on the HDD.
joker454, thanks for that info. I didn't know that either. I was thinking about picking up a slim360 (hopefully with Natal included) in the fall to replace my launch 360.
I don't have any disc-based games installed, but my understanding was that you still needed the disc in the drive to be able to play the installed game. Doesn't that effectively eliminate or reduce piracy and/or borrowing/renting games to install on the HDD.
True, but just didn't know that they added an extra layer of protection.
Tommy McClain
The first 2 are more of an inconvenience issue to me.
As for the last issue, yeah I figured as much. I'm interested on why 16GB? It's still much better than what we have now. I wonder if someone will be able to take an external HDD and multi-partition it to have multi-16GBs that the X360 will recognize.
I have a 500GB external USB-powered drive that would be perfect to pair with my X360.
Why 16GB? Thats likely because it represents the maximum storage space of the 20GB Xbox 360 on launch. They probably have data showing X% of people use less and X% use more and they obviously feel that the HDD isn't added value for the former but it is for the latter and so they can charge their accessory price if they want. In addition to this I think they might be getting rid of the memory card reader so they have to support this anyway.
corduroygt
Banned
the hard drive is encrypted with the console's key when formatted. Same thing with the PS3 as one harddrive from a ps3 wont work in a different one until formatted.I know that when I take the 120gb hdd from my downstairs 360 with all its installed games, pop it off and put it on the 360 arcade in another room, the game installs will not be recognized. It will say they only work with the machine that the game was installed from. So the container is tweaked both to the storage device and the unit somehow, although i don't know the details of how.
the hard drive is encrypted with the console's key when formatted. Same thing with the PS3 as one harddrive from a ps3 wont work in a different one until formatted.
Game installs purposely won't be recognized, but XBLive games work fine on other 360's, no need to reformat the hdd. The 360 is designed that way, hence why I bring my 360 hdd anywhere there is a 360 (friends house, family, etc) so I can keep playing my games just fine. With usb memory stick support it will make traveling even easier. I'm thinking of putting only games installs on the hdd, and everything else on usb memory sticks (XBLive games, saves, etc). That way when I'm going somewhere else that has a 360 I just bring my usb memory stick with me. It's brilliantly convenient for me, I can have my Live account and all it's games/saves anywhere with ease.
corduroygt
Banned
Game installs purposely won't be recognized, but XBLive games work fine on other 360's, no need to reformat the hdd. The 360 is designed that way, hence why I bring my 360 hdd anywhere there is a 360 (friends house, family, etc) so I can keep playing my games just fine. With usb memory stick support it will make traveling even easier. I'm thinking of putting only games installs on the hdd, and everything else on usb memory sticks (XBLive games, saves, etc). That way when I'm going somewhere else that has a 360 I just bring my usb memory stick with me. It's brilliantly convenient for me, I can have my Live account and all it's games/saves anywhere with ease.
I didn't know that, don't you have to be signed in to live for the arcade games to work on a different box?
I didn't know that, don't you have to be signed in to live for the arcade games to work on a different box?
Yes.
Tommy McClain
I didn't know that, don't you have to be signed in to live for the arcade games to work on a different box?
Your Live account can be stored on an memory card or hard drive (and obviously a USB storage device in the future) so you can bring it along.
My guess would be a technological limit. It may be that they're using a variant of Fat32 with 8KB clusters (8KB is incidentally the block size of a flash part I'm working on at the moment).Why 16GB? Thats likely because it represents the maximum storage space of the 20GB Xbox 360 on launch. They probably have data showing X% of people use less and X% use more and they obviously feel that the HDD isn't added value for the former but it is for the latter and so they can charge their accessory price if they want. In addition to this I think they might be getting rid of the memory card reader so they have to support this anyway.
My guess would be a technological limit. It may be that they're using a variant of Fat32 with 8KB clusters (8KB is incidentally the block size of a flash part I'm working on at the moment).
Surely they could update the Xbox 360 to support larger sized formatted drives?
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