[XBOX360] Can you use your own Hard Disk inside the caddy?


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So I'm considering the purchase of an XBOX360 and I'm considering either the Elite model or the 360 Premium model.

But I am curious about one aspect. The XBOX360 has this Hard Disk caddy that plugs on the side/top (depending how you have your console orientated) which contains a standard 2.5" Laptop Hard Disk. Now if I was to take that caddy apart and remove the 2.5" Hard Disk and replace it with one I already have for example if I bought a XBOX360 Elite it comes with a 120GB Hard Disk and I happen to have a 320GB 2.5" Hard Disk (A SATA one) can I swap it in there and use it with the console? And if I can, can I use its fully capacity?

I've Googled around but all I can find is guides to read the data on the hard disk already in the console or tutorials for getting the Hard Disk out of it, I'm unable to find any information on self upgrades.

Thanks!

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You need to mod the hard drive by injecting the firmware from an official MS drive.

To do this you need to buy a specific model off ebay as well, I think it's a Western Digital model?

I done it a while back and don't have access to the guides just now, someone else will be able to help you.

Short answer is no you can't use any hard drive, has to be a specific one and you have to modify it. Plus maximum size you can currently mod in is 120GB, it goes by what sizes MS have on the market as you need the official firmware from one of them.

With game installs, Xbox 360 games coming as downloads, movies, tv shows and everything else they're really going to need to release a bigger drive than 120GB soon, but I dred to think of the price of it :p

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You need to mod the hard drive by injecting the firmware from an official MS drive.

To do this you need to buy a specific model off ebay as well, I think it's a Western Digital model?

I done it a while back and don't have access to the guides just now, someone else will be able to help you.

Short answer is no you can't use any hard drive, has to be a specific one and you have to modify it. Plus maximum size you can currently mod in is 120GB, it goes by what sizes MS have on the market as you need the official firmware from one of them.

With game installs, Xbox 360 games coming as downloads, movies, tv shows and everything else they're really going to need to release a bigger drive than 120GB soon, but I dred to think of the price of it :p

I have to say that is really poor. On my PS3 I can just stick in any HD I want and have it work. Guess I'll go for the XBOX 360 Elite since it comes with 120GB off the bat. Thanks Audioboxer.

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I have to say that is really poor. On my PS3 I can just stick in any HD I want and have it work. Guess I'll go for the XBOX 360 Elite since it comes with 120GB off the bat. Thanks Audioboxer.

It's not that difficult to mod it if you're a seasoned PC user, but it does require some messing around in DOS to flash the hard drive firmware.

If you don't own a 360, just get an elite, much less hassle and you don't need to jump on ebay and buy the specific model of drive you need.

Black 360 > White 360 anyway :p

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Well I was hoping to use a 320GB drive in it. But as you say it will only work with a maximum size of 120GB so it's pointless for me not to get the elite as I do want the maximum amount of storage I can get.

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one more reason why i wish i had the money for a PS3....

Yep, that is one of the many advantages the PS3 has over the Xbox360. I plan on getting a 500GB drive for mine at some point.

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Yep, that is one of the many advantages the PS3 has over the Xbox360. I plan on getting a 500GB drive for mine at some point.

just wondering

on the ps3 could use a hard drive that isnt 2.5 if you used a sata cables to plug it in and had it just resting some where?

I supposed it would be hard to plug the cable into the ps3

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You need to mod the hard drive by injecting the firmware from an official MS drive.

To do this you need to buy a specific model off ebay as well, I think it's a Western Digital model?

I done it a while back and don't have access to the guides just now, someone else will be able to help you.

Short answer is no you can't use any hard drive, has to be a specific one and you have to modify it. Plus maximum size you can currently mod in is 120GB, it goes by what sizes MS have on the market as you need the official firmware from one of them.

With game installs, Xbox 360 games coming as downloads, movies, tv shows and everything else they're really going to need to release a bigger drive than 120GB soon, but I dred to think of the price of it :p

I've been wanting to do this for a long time but couldn't find a decent tutorial. so anybody that still has a link to a good one, please post it :)

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To be honest, the 120GB HDD on the 360 is more than enough for 99.99% of people's needs. Unless you want to put a LOT of audio/video on the drive, you'll not use it (particularly as you can stream that content from your PC anyway). I made a 120Gb drive in September of last year and I've still got something like 50Gb of free space and I tend to install the games I'm playing at the time.

The PS3 is a little different since so many games REQUIRE an installation but even then 120Gb is probably more than enough for most people.

Still, it would be nice to have the option, but the space isn't as critical as you might think. I suspect that will change once Microsoft starts selling full games online, though.

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I've been wanting to do this for a long time but couldn't find a decent tutorial. so anybody that still has a link to a good one, please post it :)

Haven't done this yet myself, but this one seems pretty simple.

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I've heard they ban consoles from XBL for using custom modded HDs. I can't confirm it myself but it's been floating around for a while. Wish I knew if it was completely true.

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I've heard they ban consoles from XBL for using custom modded HDs. I can't confirm it myself but it's been floating around for a while. Wish I knew if it was completely true.

funny how you can get banned for something so trivial yet there's tons of kids swearing and doing stupid stuff on live. They really should clean them up

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I've heard they ban consoles from XBL for using custom modded HDs. I can't confirm it myself but it's been floating around for a while. Wish I knew if it was completely true.
funny how you can get banned for something so trivial yet there's tons of kids swearing and doing stupid stuff on live. They really should clean them up

funny how this rumour has no truth to it what so ever. People get their consoles banned from live for modifying the DVD drive, but as of yet nobody has got banned for having a modded Hard drive. Modifying the hard drive has no useful gain other than more space, which is only really useful for buying more stuff off of the Marketplace.

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I did this and now have a 120gb running. But if your thinking of doing this, remember you need a specific drive. This one

You then have to remove all other HD's, boot from a floppy and then flash? the firmware onto the drive. But this is all from memory. If your also wondering, yes you can copy info from your old 20gb drive onto your new one, save games etc. But its not 100%. When I did it, everything worked except my Fable 2 save. But some games can be funny.

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just wondering

on the ps3 could use a hard drive that isnt 2.5 if you used a sata cables to plug it in and had it just resting some where?

I supposed it would be hard to plug the cable into the ps3

yes, you can do this

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I'm going to hold off till MS puts it's full 360 games online for d/l. In doing so, they should drop the hdd prices and even offer a bigger model. I'm thinking 300GB for the price of the 120GB of $150. It's really the price that is the problem here. If the 120GB was at a better price the hdd on the 360 wouldn't be a issue for the majority out there.

Anyways, seeing how they're going to do games now and so on, prices should fall imo, and a bigger version should see the light of day. This, imo, just makes sense, so I don't see why they don't do it.

If the 120GB goes down to $70-$80 I'll be getting one right away.

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Yep, that is one of the many advantages the PS3 has over the Xbox360. I plan on getting a 500GB drive for mine at some point.

Yeah but unfortunately you can't play 360 games on a PS3 atm...

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i hoping they come out with a bigger one soon, im down to 7GB on a 120GB drive

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Nor would I, in fact I reckon the 60Gbs will get bumped to 120Gb and the 120Gb will become at least 250.

Going 2x the size makes sense, so 250GB fits. I think they can go with a bigger one for the price of $150 though. And if it's big enough, more people wouldn't have a problem paying for it.

We'll have to wait and see what they do, but I'd like to see a 300-400GB drive for $150 personally.

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Maybe an idea is to buy the biggest WDBEVS drive you can find (maybe 500gb?) and just flash it with a MS 120GB firmware.

Sure, you not using all the space BUTT if Microsoft ever release a bigger HDD (250GB, 320GB?) you can just flash your 500GB HDD with whatever firmware is from Microsoft's newest and biggest drive. That will work. ;)

P.S NO HAS BEEN BANNED FOR DOING THIS HDD MOD.

worst part is some game saves become corrupt upgrading HDDs (Rock band 1 and 2, fable 2), but you just use a Memory card to transfer them.

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