calling all xbox 360 owners! (+hard drive question)

[invictius]

I'm just wondering, what's the largest drive a 360 can handle via USB? I mean, does it recognise over 127gb (since win 9x can't)?

I've detached my xbox hard drive, replaced it with a 512 memory card, as (tell me if you disagree) - hard drive=mechanical=more prone to failure. I don't have the faceplate to cover the sata port, is this a Bad Thing to have running?

One last thing, judging by the pics below, is my xbox ventilated enough?

wood is there so the unit is stable during disc reading:

one side is a bit jammed next to the pc case:

the unit is pushed 8 inches forward so I can reach the thing - the left (non-pc) side of the unit is 10 inches away from the tv stand (which isn't in the pic) and that pipe thing is blowing hot air out of my psu, so it doesn't get sucked in by the case fan at the rear:

Thanks in advance for your tips. Now I'm temporarily (crossed fingers) without cable, I can put the thing in a well-ventilated space, but the "ring" is a bit annoying (e.g it catches your eye) when playing it on the projector in that position, so I'd really rather only move it if someone says "OMG it's a wonder that xbox isn't dead yet!!!11". Thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[rainless]

Ummmmmm... You're wrong?

About... everything?

First of all... What does Windows 9x have to do with anything?

Second: Hard drive "more prone to failure..." What the hell does that mean? You replaced a 20GB hard drive with a 512MB memeory card?!?! That makes no sense at all. A single piece of downloadable content will run you 1GB. There goes your memory card.

Third: You can't play XBLA games, demos, or downloadable content from a USB drive. I don't even think you can copy save games to and fro. The ONLY thing you can do is save movies and music to the USB drive (and not even the encrypted stuff.

Lastly... you can use any size USB drive on the 360. I have no idea what you meant about "Windows 9x"... that just doesn't make any sense.

Late night?

 

[invictius]

Ummmmmm... You're wrong?

About... everything?

First of all... What does Windows 9x have to do with anything?

Second: Hard drive "more prone to failure..." What the hell does that mean? You replaced a 20GB hard drive with a 512MB memeory card?!?! That makes no sense at all. A single piece of downloadable content will run you 1GB. There goes your memory card.

Third: You can't play XBLA games, demos, or downloadable content from a USB drive. I don't even think you can copy save games to and fro. The ONLY thing you can do is save movies and music to the USB drive (and not even the encrypted stuff.

Lastly... you can use any size USB drive on the 360. I have no idea what you meant about "Windows 9x"... that just doesn't make any sense.

Late night?

Ok, I mentioned 9x because those operating systems only supported FAT32 up to a size of about 127gb. Since microsoft was hopeless enough to not include NTFS support for the xbox, I thought that it might not even support 48-bit LBA (e.g hard drive sizes we're used to these days). I just wondered if anyone had an external drive above that size successfuly being detected by the xbox.

Second - my line of thinking was that hard drives, well, the platters move to access the data. Doesn't happen with memory cards. That's why I thought using flash would be more reliable.

Third: I don't want DLC at all, only want to put divx movies and mp3s on the xbox.

Lastly... well I guess I explained that one first up - since the xbox doesn't support NTFS, I thought maybe it might be hopeless enough not to support >120gb drives, which are supported as of win2k sp4 and xp sp1. I know it sounds weird comparing it to an OS, but heck, even NT, which is almost 15 years old, supports NTFS, and it seems everyone these days uses it by default!

Now how about some opinions on that cramped xbox?

 

[rainless]

Ok, I mentioned 9x because those operating systems only supported FAT32 up to a size of about 127gb. Since microsoft was hopeless enough to not include NTFS support for the xbox, I thought that it might not even support 48-bit LBA (e.g hard drive sizes we're used to these days). I just wondered if anyone had an external drive above that size successfuly being detected by the xbox.

Second - my line of thinking was that hard drives, well, the platters move to access the data. Doesn't happen with memory cards. That's why I thought using flash would be more reliable.

Third: I don't want DLC at all, only want to put divx movies and mp3s on the xbox.

Lastly... well I guess I explained that one first up - since the xbox doesn't support NTFS, I thought maybe it might be hopeless enough not to support >120gb drives, which are supported as of win2k sp4 and xp sp1. I know it sounds weird comparing it to an OS, but heck, even NT, which is almost 15 years old, supports NTFS, and it seems everyone these days uses it by default!

Now how about some opinions on that cramped xbox?

Oh. Well I think your system will be dead in a week.

But your theory about the 360 hard drive is completely wrong. It's not going to DIE on you just because it is... a hard drive. So the whole "more reliable" thing is kind of irrelevent. You can use the 512mb card for backup... but just tossing the 20GB in the hard drive is a foolish waste.

Now getting back to your "cramped box"... The Xbox 360 puts out a LOT of heat. And really... really... honest and for true... needs to be well-ventilated. It is NOT well-ventilated the way that you have it. It's also a bad idea to have the power brick on carpet. All the problems I've ever had with the 360's power (and there were a handful) were related in some way from static electricity from the carpet.

I think you can do better.

 

[JamesXP]

Flash memory wears out much faster than hardrives (well atleast the SD cards, usb sticks etc, but the expensive SSDs are alot better)

 

[TheGreySpectre]

That looks like a horrible spot for your xbox, you will kill it out of overheating due to mechanical failure.

As to the xbox 360 hard drive, it is no more likely to fail that any other hard drive in your house. An SD card is more likely to get corrupted than your hard drive is to die. Think about it, most hard drives are warrenteed for 3 to 5 years of continuous operation.

You might be able to hold a couple save games on your SD card but thats about it.


The Xbox supports whatever size Harddrive you want to attach to it, if you really want you can attach 1Tb to it if you want, however USB harddrives are strictly for media, they cannot hold any savegames, downloadable content or Xbox live arcade games on them.

I have never heard of a Xbox death due to the harddrive failing. I have heard about a number of deaths due to overheating.

 

[rainless]

And stop opening fifty tabs in firefox!

 

[TheGreySpectre]

wait, what rainless?

 

[rainless]

wait, what rainless?

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=567076

I have 30 TABS OPEN, but hear me out...

That... just about says it all.

 

[deathman20]

My Xbox location is between 2 surfaces but its spaced nicely. Don't have a tape measure right next to me but got about 2" under it 3-4" above it, 6" on 1 side with the HDD and another 6 on the other side with the power supply for the unit. Mine bearly gets warm at all.

As for the USB drive, well I got a 250Gigs thats formated in Fat32, works flawless on it, even with its 1amp USB requirement to power the drive.

 

[tenchi86]

Wait, so are we discussing if somehow a disk spinning with a needle over it can magically destroy hardware that is not even in the same housing as it? Or are we talking about the HDDs themselves crapping out?

A bit risky, but probably fine. The top of the unit is mostly covered by the HDD anyway so more airflow is forced out the rear vent.

People claim 500GB drives work Via USB, though never tried it myself and would not vouch for that.

 

[suineg]

You can have 1TB if you want as long as it is formatted FAT32.

You cannot format it to FAT32 natively through Windows. You will need to utilize a third party app like Partition Magic.

You cannot run any MS content from the hard drive, you can't copy anything over to it from the 360.

Put your hard drive back on and use your external for divx or music is the only reason to have one.