Just last week I was talking about how I was frustrated that Microsoft doesn’t let you use your own hard drive in the Xbox 360. They still don’t officially let you do that, but it turns out that the connector for the new hard drive on the Xbox 360 slim model is a standard SATA data and power port. I feel like this has to be at least somewhat intentional, although maybe Microsoft was just that desperate to save space in the new model.
What this means is that if you get a hold of an old Xbox 360 hard drive, you can actually take the hard drive out of its enclosure and connect it to the new Xbox 360 slim. The fact that you can do this and it works is shown in this YouTube video. The take away from this unfortunately way too long video is that the old hardrive both fits in and works with the Xbox 360 slim without any modifications. Assuming, of course, that this isn’t a hoax, and I don’t believe it is.
The disadvantage of this solution is that the slot for the hard drive on the slim is designed for the hard drive to be in the proprietary Microsoft enclosure, so the drive isn’t properly secured physically. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if some Chinese company started manufacturing $10 plastic enclosures that you can put your old drive into.
The reason that I think this may have been intentional on Microsoft’s part is that it is a perfect solution for someone who’s Xbox 360 “red-rings” out of warranty. The Red Ring of Death error is normally an overheating issue with the console and does not impact the hard drive. In this situation, someone could purchase an Xbox 360 Arcade for $200 and put their old hard drive in there. Maybe I’m giving Microsoft too much credit. I will say that I wish they officially supported this and that they sold their own piece of plastic for us to put the old hard drive in. Ideally, they would just include the enclosure with the Xbox 360 Arcade.
Whatever Microsoft’s intent was, this hack appears to work. I can say that if my Xbox 360 red-rings on me and Microsoft won’t fix it for free, I will be seriously contemplating purchasing the new Xbox 360 Arcade and putting my old hard drive in the new console. I even have a Torx screwdriver set, so that step is already taken care of.
17 Comments on Hack your old Xbox 360 hard drive into an Xbox 360 slim
The S model comes with 250GB hard drive.
There is a Arcade replacement with 4GB of flash memory, and a matte finish to it (what many are wanting).
The 4GB model will also be the only one for the time being being bundled with kinnect so many will be getting this model.
I would say just use a 2.5" western digital 250GB hard drive and make it into a Xbox360 drive (apologise if that cannot be suggested).
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Originally Posted by Anthony1uk
The slim does not come with a 120GB hard drive.
The S model comes with 250GB hard drive. |
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There is a Arcade replacement with 4GB of flash memory, and a matte finish to it (what many are wanting). The 4GB model will also be the only one for the time being being bundled with kinnect so many will be getting this model. |
| I would say just use a 2.5" western digital 250GB hard drive and make it into a Xbox360 drive (apologise if that cannot be suggested). |
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Originally Posted by Mr. Belvedere
But can it be done legally?
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http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox360-tools/HDDHackr.php
I believe this would be a 10 dollar cheap case he was talking about to hold your hard drive in place.
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Originally Posted by Transmatrix
@lsf_21 Awesome, thanks for sharing the link. Contemplating buying one just in case, it's not too expensive with airmail shipping.
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From what I've read, the drive signature is just a size format, you wont get banned for using the format approach. But the extra effort to get it right might not be worth it when you can buy a 250 gig slim drive for $60 on ebay
This is just for those who already have an old 360 drive thats not too small. Getting a transfer cable is about $5 on ebay. And using xbox live to transfer between hard drives is easy & needs no cable, so a zero-hours drive is smarter
I did buy a few 360 Slim Hard Drive Case Enclosures just to sell here for people who want a Microsoft Xbox Case & use their own drive &/or I'll pick up a couple of Western Digital Scorpio 250GB Drives so they have an option of getting the Drive ready to put in.
I was under the impression that it is formatted with a FAT32. If someone knows about that please reply to my post. I can't see Microsoft doing anything other than installing Hard Drives into the Case & shipping them. So I guess I just need to know if it works with a Western Digital Drive out of the box & you just follow the on screen directions when you fire up the 360S for the first time. Thanks, Dan
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Originally Posted by ThaB
so no $10 piece of plastic was required. Yay.
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Originally Posted by Mr. Belvedere
$7.80 with worldwide free shipping.
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If you get a case, I was adding some glue to the case just to keep Microsoft out of it. The 3rd party cases only have the Microsoft logo on the outside.
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Originally Posted by Grace1234567
Does this allow you to play old original Xbox games? Thanks
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