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Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive 20 GB
by illusiveman -When I bought this Product- I first received an Xbox 360 for Christmas 2007 (I think it was 2007, I'm not a 100% sure), and almost immediately realized that I would need a hard drive as a 256mb memory card would nowhere near enough storage for my save games (I believe this was before they introduced being able to install ... games to the hard drive). I started looking around at Hard Drives and found that I wouldn't be able to just buy a standard hard drive and fit it to the console, I knew straight away I would have to shell out for Microsoft's expensive option (although not as expensive as the bigger hard drives). I paid roughly £70 from GAME for it at the time (I don't know the exact price as I bought something else at the same time so I only see the total amount I spent that day) -Features- At the time I bought this hard drive it was before they introduced being able to install games to the hard drive (this feature came about a year later according information I found online) so there were fairly limited options on what you could do with it. This hard drive can be used to download game demos from Xbox Live, you can also download games that you may have paid for as long as you have the room on your hard drive. You can also store your saves on the hard drive to save room on the memory card you may have had when you first received your console, you can also store your own music on it to play as part of a custom soundtrack during game play. As of November 2008 this hard drive can also be used to install games to your hard drive which helps save wear and tear on the components inside the 360, it also helps the Xbox run quieter as the console doesn't have to read from the DVD all the time. -Disadvantages/Limitations- This hard drive is basically just a laptop hard drive installed in a plastic shell which makes it harder for upgrading later on as you would have to buy a very specific hard drive model and size, it would then have to be flashed using software on a pc which could be very difficult to do. As mentioned above upgrading to a bigger hard drive through the official means would be expensive, although this was when the hard drives were new, nowadays you could easily buy a second hand hard drive from a store such as CEX for as little as £10 depending on the size of the hard drive. -Overall Rating- If you own an original style Xbox 360 console this hard drive (not necessarily this size though) would be a very useful investment. If you own the newer slim style Xbox this hard drive isn't suitable straight out of the box but can be inserted into the slot on the side of the Xbox (I would highly recommend buying a plastic case to make it a lot easier as they cost less than £5 from sites such as Ebay). Due to the disadvantages mentioned above I will be giving this a 3/5 rating, if it was easier to replace the hard drive (without having to use a specific type of drive or annoying installation methods), overall this is a worthy investment if you have an original style Xbox (they are available dirt cheap from various second hand stores nowadays). Read the complete review |
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Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive 20 GB
by zombieflesh I've been a big fan of video games since childhood and when the big three released their new wave of next-gen consoles I hopped straight on the bandwagon and settled in camp Microsoft, purchasing an Xbox 360 shortly after release. This poor old console has suffered from many issues including the notorious Red Ring Of Death, and the ... helpful people at Microsoft kindly replaced my hardware after my original console suffered its untimely fate. Since then there have been several modifications released, including the 360 Arcade console and the 360 Elite console, but I stuck with my original and have not been tempted to upgrade. It was only after gaming on my friends newer consoles that I realised my version is clearly outdated and the main cause of this problem lies within the hard drive. The hard drive itself was a bit of a revolution in gaming terms, as previously you only had two options: to play on cartridge games which would store the saved game within its own memory chip, or to play on disc games which required a separate memory card which plugged in to the console and allowed small segments of storage space for saved games. The original Microsoft Xbox 360 console was released with a 20GB hard drive fitted as standard and at the time this seemed pretty generous, but since then there have been vast leaps in storage solutions and it's not unusual to find external hard drive storage weighing in at a whopping 1TB these days. I have recently chosen to upgrade my Xbox 360 hard drive rather than purchasing a whole new console, and thought I should give a fair review of my previous hard drive which has served me well over the years. Because this came as standard within my original console package I did not have to purchase it as an individual component. The RRP for an official Microsoft Xbox 360 20GB Hard Drive is £39.99, which I feel is overpriced, particularly when considering that an official Microsoft Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive is around £79.99 so you get 6 times the storage space for just double the price. You can pick up a preowned 20GB hard drive unit for less than £10.00, and I was offered a trade in value of £4.00 for my old one, which I declined as I preferred to keep my old unit as a backup / spare. Product description: "Expand your Xbox 360 experience with downloaded content. Save your games, Xbox Live gamer profile, game demos, and custom soundtracks from your own music collection. The Xbox 360 Hard Drive also lets you play an array of original Xbox games and even comes preloaded with an Xbox Live Arcade game, music, and videos." The hard drive unit is a small little block that neatly slots in and out of the front side of the console. Mine is a light shade of grey in keeping with the white and grey accents from the original colour scheme. It came fitted into the console when I first bought it so I did not need to do anything to set it up, and I was simply ready to start playing games! The 20GB hard drive is actually a little misleading, as a full 7GB is already spoken for in terms of formatting, drivers and system files etc. This gives you a total of 13GB leftover to work with, and as soon as I hooked my Xbox 360 up to the internet I found that the amount of space I had on my hard drive rapidly dwindled, until my most recent Arcade game download where I was left with a few measly MBs remaining and then I panicked and realised that this hard drive was no longer sufficient for my needs. As a handy hint, every time you create a new save game file it will display all of the available storage devices and show a little meter with the remaining available space and how much in MB/GB this amounts to, so it was no surprise that my hard drive was getting full as I was able to see this amount frequently and know exactly how much space was left over. Everything that you can access via the Xbox Home pages will use up some of that space and even though I like to keep my hard drive clean and up to date, the amount of games and applications I was running became too much. I store my gamer profile on the main hard drive, along with my best friend's profile and my boyfriend's profile for when we're playing 2-player games. There's also a big backlog of save game data from all of the games that I am currently playing and have previously played through. I have some music saved onto the Xbox for when I want to use my own soundtrack playing over a game but this is a minimal use and I think it's best to avoid putting too much music on here as it's quite a laborious process and not really necessary unless you're going to listen to the music and game at the same time, otherwise I prefer to keep the bulk of my music files stored on my computer and transfer to my MP3 player or phone as needed. I like to use my Xbox for viewing content through Lovefilm, Netflix, youtube, iPlayer and 4oD, each of which needs to have an application installed to allow direct access to the video content. I have also found a few great games through the Xbox Marketplace, and downloading these has taken around 2GB of space each time, so in order to continue getting new game downloads through the Marketplace it was obvious that I would need more storage space. Considering that I have had the console for about 7 years, and only started using it with my wireless internet connection about 18 months ago, I would have to say it has performed perfectly so far. If you are just going to use your Xbox to play games and only need the storage space for save game records then this 20GB hard drive will probably be enough to see you through. It's only since I got more into using my Xbox Live Account and discovered some great download-only games and add-on content that I've really started eating away at the memory space. You can directly access your storage devices through the main Xbox system menu, and this is a great way to keep a check on what you currently have saved. Everything is laid out clearly and you can find exactly what you're looking for through the menu sections. Next to each piece of data is a column that shows how much hard drive storage space is allocated to that individual item, which is really helpful for finding out what items are crowding the hard drive. Here, you can delete any outdated information that is no longer required. By viewing the information and file sizes, I decided to delete some of my old avatar items which were not really ever going to be used, and this freed up some extra space which was essentially just being wasted on pointless items. I also noticed that there were some applications I had downloaded but never used, so once again these were deleted straight away. You are also given the option to copy and move data, which I have done before to transfer save games onto a portable memory unit so I can continue with previous game progress through a friend's console. The hard drive has always performed reliably for me and I have not once had any issues with accessing any of the saved data. It is essential to have the data stored securely and Microsoft's expertise ensures that this hard drive is a safe option. Overall I am really happy with the performance of this hard drive as it has allowed me to safely save and retrieve information for years without any problems or errors. The menus are incredibly user friendly and it's simple to use this hard drive to maximum effect as you can clearly see each thing that it stored on it and access/move/delete this as necessary. The only problem which I am now experiencing is that it has become outdated in terms of size, and I require a larger storage space to allow for the way in which I use my Xbox features. I can definitely recommend this hard drive unit in terms of performance, ease of use and reliability. However, based on price and value for money I think it makes more sense to purchase the larger 120GB hard drive if you need a replacement. Read the complete review |
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Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive 120 GB
by carl_lazarevic As the current generation of console games enters its twilight years it has become apparent that downloadable content has become a major player in the gaming scene. Whether you are downloading a complete game like Limbo, or an expansion to the latest Call Of Duty, the amount of storage space required has escalated. It is for this reason ... that; ever since the original Xbox, Microsoft have pioneered the use of hard drives over memory cards. Of course, with the level of downloads required even for games that don't use expansion packs, the xbox360s original 20 gig hard drive now feels a little miniscule. If you are one of the early adopters of the Xbox360 you will likely have discovered the need to upgrade your storage device. To my knowledge the Xbox360 can still only run an official Microsoft Xbox360 hard drive, so popping down to the local PC World wont help. Coming in with a whopping £70 RRP this 120gig hard drive is an expensive proposition that sadly is kind of essential if you want to upgrade your machine. The only other drawback to this device is that it is only compatible with the original 'Phat Xbox360' and so if you were foolish enough to purchase a 4 Gig slimline machine then you'll need to purchase the slightly more expensive internal hard drive for that particular unit. Thankfully in every other area this device bares good news. It is very easy to install. The Xbox360 will have a little silver button on the old hard drive; or a removable plastic case if you have survived this long without a hard drive, and then the new hard drive clicks into place. An easy to use data transfer cable can be purchased if you'd like to transfer your data rather than have to keep switching out your hard drives. As a storage device I have found these to be quite stable. Only once in the last 8 years have I experienced corrupted data, and the Xbox itself lays the data out in an easy to read way. Once installed the xbox360 displays all of your data in a user friendly way, and so you'll never need to worry about being particularly computer literate when using it. I have also seen this particular hard drive available in white or black so it will compliment whichever Xbox360 you have; excluding slimline of course, and fits in well enough that it looks like a permanent addition to the console. The plastic is durable enough to protect it if dropped, but then this is unlikely to need testing once clipped onto the Xbox anyway. Personally I would recommend grabbing one of these if you need to upgrade your storage space on your old 'Phat' xbox360. I wouldn't recommend grabbing one brand new however, as the price is just too steep for what is a normal external hard drive with Microsoft packaging. You can currently pick one up preowned for closer to £20 and that's not half bad. The 120 gigs is enough space to satisfy a fairly heavy user without driving the price even higher. Read the complete review |
Microsoft Hard Disk Drive |
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16 reviews Hard Disk Drive / Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive - Hard drive - 120 GB - removable - Expand your Xbox 360 experience with downloadable content. Save your games, Xbox Live gamer profile, game demos, and custom soundtracks from your own music collection. The Xbox 360 Hard Drive also lets you play an array of o... |
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24 reviews Hard Disk Drive / Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive - Hard drive - 20 GB - removable - Save games and music, plus download new Xbox Live content. |
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