Xbox 360 Storage Upgrade Program I'm surprised no one has posted this yet. As you may know the upcoming big dashboard update ("New Xbox Experience") will require 128MB of free space on either a harddisk drive or a memory card. People who bought a Core or an Arcade unit can now register at the website below and receive either a free 512MB memory card (if your unit came with no HDD or only a 64MB memory card) or a refurbished 20GB harddisk for a small fee. I registered today and was eligible to order a HDD + 3 months Xbox Live Gold membership for 3399 Yen (about 25 Euro). The only drawback is that you can only pay by credit card but that's still a great deal if you plan to buy an Arcade unit and also want a harddisk. http://www.xboxstorageupgrade.com
It's a good deal, and it's a pretty cheap way of getting the caddy for a "home upgrade" to a 120GB drive. I did it, took about 15 minutes and it worked a treat. Microsoft can fuck right off with their £115 for 120GB bullshit.
whoah there alchy, come again? I m in desperate need of a 120GB but can't afford it currently as the price is ridiculous!
I think he is applying the home upgrade to this. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=660096
I "upgraded" to a 60GB drive when my last Xbox exploded and I got it replaced for a new one. I like the 40GB boost, and don't think I'll need the 120GB anytime soon. I did need the boost though since I want to store games on my HD when the update comes.
Western Digital SATA BEVS is the drive needed. The HDDHackr tool is pretty easy to find, but if anyone needs the official 360 firmware to reflash the drive, give me a PM, it's a bit harder to track down. When I bought my 360 the guy threw in a broken HDD for free, which couldn't have been more perfect. ~£35 later and I had a 120GB 360.
I'm sure I read somewhere that these HDDs M$ are offering are refurbished ones. Is it so good of a deal if the drive's essentially second hand? I'm quite impressed with the 'home upgrade', didn't know you could do that. Thanks for linking to the instructions.
I would expect the odd one or two to be refurbished however i wouldnt think they would have enough drives to only use refurbs. I mean once a hard drive is gone is it really worth trying to fix it in any way?
All the 20GB HDDs are definitely refurbs. This article as well as several others confirm it. It would appear that the Memory Cards are new though.
Why is it so hard to believe that the HDDs are refurbs? My guess would be that they have a last batch of 20GB drives and a bunch of spare caddies from broken HDD repairs and decided to make use of them for this. With the right tools and setup it'd be a couple of minutes per unit max.
Well caddys being returns i can see possible, caddys that dint make the cut to be used in retail systems for one reason or another (bad colour, scratch, or some other small blemish). However the actuall HDD i dont see being refurbished.
For privacy/security reasons I'd be surprised if they did, as well. They'd need to be zero'd seven times or something like that to prevent any data being retrieved, and I can't see that happening. Second-hand caddies though, I don't see why not.
Same. I just mean that the actuall hdd isnt a refurb and if thats ok then who cares about a caddy that might have a scratch or two.
What private data goes onto the drive? 7 zero writes is crazy! One low level format would be sufficient to resell the drive. A lot of the really cheap external "non name" brands of HDD are refurbed units. That is why they only have a 1 year warranty.
