How To Install a Notebook HDD To Your 360

A link to a video on YouTube that shows the procedures on how to upgrade your Xbox 360's external hard disk.

Warning!!!

You will void your warranty by doing this, so be 100 percent sure.

[pwnsause]

wow, just wow... i knew that there was a laptop HDD in that enclosure, but M$ just wants you to pay for Proprietary Sh*t.

[PirateThom]

Yeah, it's basically paying for that enclosure.. plus, no matter what size HDD you by, the 360 will only detect it as 20, 60 or 120. If you've an 80GB drive, it's only going to use 60.

[DevastationEve]

Use Apricorn utility to increase all partitions by %. That way, you can size up everything you need. Any partition utility should be able to do the job.

I did that to keep my recovery partition in tact (on my notebook) when I upgraded from a 120 to a 200. Put old 360 drive in second sata bay (if your notebook has one) and use a caddy/enclosure for the new one, or use enclosure for both (one for each).

Word of advice: if you have anything you REALLY want to be safe during the process, get a memory unit and copy it all over. Or, just create a new folder on your desktop and copy all the data directly to your pc.

[Bloodwar]

Whether we should get a 7200 RPM or 5400 RPM with a 1.5 or a 3.0/s search speed and whether the 360 limits us in any way with regard to that. I like the idea of upgrading my Pro 360 to an Elite for 70 dollars.

[Bloodwar]

to get around the 20, 60, or 120 Gig limitations... regardless, I don't own an Elite yet, so I would be happy if I couldn't get past the 120 gig limit anyways.

[marinelife9]

Why would anyone do this when they would automatically lose their 3 year RROD warranty. The 360 is too unstable to be messing around with having to actually pay for a new unit.

[nirwanda]

why would it void your warranty when you never send away your HDD with your 360 if it red rings anyway it's just the same thing as buying a 120gig off ms but your doing it yourself, your not tampering with the 360 itself.

[xhairs9]

or does that seem way too difficult? Losing springs and other things ruining your console? Man, what an effort, I applaud him but do fear that loss of warranty :/

[gaffyh]

@nirwanda - yeah that's exactly what I was thinking, why would it void your warranty if you never send your HDD with your 360 to MS?

I don't see it voiding your warranty at all (maybe for the HDD), anyway this hack seems worth doing imo. I may try this out when they release the new Xbox update (so I can install games).

[Time_Is_On_My_Side]

When Microsoft can't fix your console you have to send everything to them to make sure you didn't tamper with anything. Once Microsoft receives your console to give the go ahead than you can exchange it for a new one in the store. I know this because I asked, "why do I have to send everything if Future Shop was going to exchange it anyways."

If you don't believe me ask the stores; I went to Future Shop for mine.

[Sony Rep]

Who would do this?

If it was a PS3, I wouldn't mind voiding my warranty.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

i am doing it right now....i have a spare, fvck, i got nothing to lose.

[UNCyrus]

I mean this in all seriousness.... IF i owned a 360, I would never do anything to void the warranty for fear that right after I did that Karma would smile down upon me and send me a nice little present giftwrapped as an RROD.

For all the strides that MS has made to be prompt with their customer service, it would seem like you're asking for a defect by voiding the warranty which they've been nice enough to extend to the owners.

[DevastationEve]

Why abuse the system that they are working hard to keep satisfactory. But this is like everything else, why OC you're Pentium 4 and memory when doing so will shorten its life?

You could alternatively buy an Arcade unit and find a used 20GB then use its enclosure to pop in your upgrade. That way, your warranty won't be tampered with. Your system was sold without an HDD, so the documents packaged with it would reflect that.

[Fox01]

I have to agree. I will never do anything, I mean anything to void the warranty on my 360, although I have the new 60go 360.
I know who the hardware sucks.

[EaziG]

If you had a PS3 you wouldn't even need to risk voiding the warranty just to have a bigger HDD.

[somethingSQUISHY]

Working hard to keep their system satisfactory? Okay, I'm an Xbox360 fan. I own one, and I love it, but extending warrantees and decreasing repair time is not keeping the system satisfactory.

Basically what MS is saying is, "Look, you bought a rushed system where 65% of the launch hardware didn't work off the assembly line, and 33% of the ones that did work happened to fail later. We've released smaller chipsets and quieter disc drives yadda yadda yadda, but that still hasn't really fixed the problem. What we're doing here is trying to make the many failures most of you will experience as tolerable as possible."

They need to address the faulty hardware, not their customer service.

[FantasyStar]

If I ever have to time to care documenting, I'll let you know how it goes. $40 sounds alot better than $130.

[Sony Rep]

The toaster oven can be upgraded.

[Dyingduck]

Xbot: WOHOOOO! I just finally upgrade my 0GB HDD to 20GB HDD

5 days later

Xbot: F*CKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKk! RRODED - F*CKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK - no more warranty@!#!@#!@

The end.

Happy ending or sad ending? You decide.

[gano]

Damn.

[Pain]

and Not void warranty...

[GUNS N SWORDS]

you void only your HDD warranty.

something to take note on.

if you buy an HDD and swap your 360's HDD you WILL lose customer support from MS BUT you WILL gain customer support of the makers of the HDD.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

the 360 was designed to run with out a HDD so it shouldn't get a RROD at all, if anything was to happen only the HDD would be affected.

i don't really encourage gamers to break their warranties, so get a 20 gig HDD off of EBAY or any used store, it doesn't even have to be a working HDD since your swapping the internal part.

[GameOn]

It wont void your warranty if you get RROD. From my experience, you dont send your HDD in for repairs with the console. Microsoft will never know.

[paracardium]

I would seriously be enbrassed to own and support a system that this flawed. Only weak minded xbots would think this is a awsome feature.

[BLuKhaos]

bu bu but teh GAMZERSZS!!11!!!!11!!11!!!!!!! !!111111111

[White-Sharingan]

voiding warranty? not good

[DJ]

Godspeed, and I hope you're all successful. I would do the same if I were in your shoes.

[gano]

If its' that easy, what is it that make their hdd
so expensive? Their program is a copy and paste away?!

[DJ]

Microsoft buys a hard drive for $60. Places it in a plastic case that has a cheap, but proprietary connection to the console. Installs software on it.

BAM!

They sell it for $180. But here's the 120GB hard drive for a much lower price, as you can see. Talk about mean profit margins.

http://www.newegg.com/Produ...

[jtucker78]

Nintendo modifies the old Gamecube motherboard, slightly faster processor, a fraction more memory for aprox $150

BAM!

They sell it for $250. But here's the Gamecube for a much lower price, as you can see. Talk about mean profit margins.

http://www.amazon.com/Gamec...

Nintendo are just as bad as MS.
Sony haven't done it for a while, but I think that is just because they are trying to get market share by making themselves look the most fair and providing the most free stuff (See Home and PSN)
But make no mistake - if Sony were winning this generation then they'd be trying to screw us like both the others.

[SmokingMonkey]

to limited choices, and inflated prices

20gb or 160gb = $59.99-$149.99

no thanks

[jack who]

that was easyer than i tho...and by the way i dont see how it can void your warranty since if you 360 dies you dont send it back with the HDD so how they gona know wyou did this?

[karlostomy]

That's a terrific observation.

Looks like I can change my 360HDD after all.

That takes away about the only reason, apart from BR, that I had for considering getting a ps3.

[silverchode]

go for it, but remember the 360 doesnt have the most reliable hardware.

[SmokingMonkey]

you know, where heat goes? putting a foreign HD atop the HOT HOT HOT 360
sounds like fun, this should be a regular add on choice, but M$ and choices don't go together.

[morganfell]

Dumb Karl, just dumb. The fact that you stand a good chance of having to send it back should be a huge red flag. But then again, plenty of people go through life with little to no common sense or use of brain power. By all means, get that 360 and void your warranty.

[juuken]

Karl...you are a dumbass.
Nuff' said. o_o;

Voiding your warranty on a 360 is a HUGE risk. Anything can happen within the space of changing that harddrive.

[karlostomy]

look at the SDF damage controlling this 360 story again!

This is great news for 360 modders!

[AuToFiRE]

and this is what you can do to a PS3 to void the warranty
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

what does a 360 user do? add any peripheral that has been modified from its original design and/or function that have not been approved by Microsoft Co.

[Elimin8]

gotta love that ps3.... too simple.. that 360 hard drive swap is a waste of time really.... if it works it works, but to go through all that....

[cmrbe]

seriously. Don't buy a PS3. If you hate the PS3 that much then just say so. Don't make some BS excuse.

[juuken]

Amen.

[karlostomy]

I can tell by your replies that you are seriously affected by my comments!

Just try to get over it guys.
There is more to life than your 360 hate.

[Droid]

stupid n00bs. tinkering with your HDD doesn't void a damn thing. only morons accidentally send their HDD to M$ during a repair (and don't get it back).

p.s. is youtube STILL down for the rest of you dumbasses, too?

[Allowen]

Wow, I did not know that the xbox360 as well as the PS3 uses a laptop size HDD. I thought it was a normal huge HDD.
Nice.

[Wii60Fan]

Do you really think its wise to void your 360 warranty?

[va_bank]

You probably won't need it - 360s never break. Except mine, but I'm sure it was just a rare occurence.

<END OF SARCASM FOR THE THICK>

[megaq692]

Who in the right mind, would do ANYTHING to void the warranty on their 360? you go right ahead and do this, but you're gonna be felling real stupid if your 360 happens to RROD. wouldn't that suck something fierce.

[TheMART]

You don't void the warranty of your console, thus RROD is no problem, you only void the warranty of the seperate HDD IF there is still warranty after 2 or 3 years.

[BLuKhaos]

you're feeling really stupid now that Mart Pwned you

[PS3PWNSALL]

If you open your hard drive and get RROD, you send your system in without the drive. How would they know you voided your 360 warranty?

It pays to think.

[tudors]

the only way this would affect the warranty would be if the firmware detected the change in hardware.

[Boldy]

Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking.

[slave2Dcontroller]

A keen observation on your behalf. Bubble^ because I dont think you have to send the HDD if a 360 needs to be repaired.

[flyingbanana]

First thing: Like it is mentioned above, this doesn't void console warranty, but HDD warranty.

Second thing: I have actually done this, and it wasn't quite that easy, because you have to flash HDD firmware(he uses WD drive on that video, but there is Fujitsu drive in retail 120GB drives....) so that console thinks it is MS certified HDD and has correct security sector...

Last thing: How this popped up now when there has been tutorials for this over a year?!?

[ONYX737]

I heard of this before and I was about to try it. But it seemed kind of complicated. I even bought this hdd info transfer thing but I only used it to transfer my old 360 20 gb info to my halo ed 360 which is also 20 gig. the only difference is I wanted to keep the halo3 themed hard drive

[Spinitus]

would this get ur console banned from xbl???

[flyingbanana]

I haven't been banned from live. At least not yet...

If all is done properly it SHOULDN'T get your console banned.

[jlemdon]

I don't think so dude, all it is getting a bigger HDD.

but I'm getting an old pro then getting an 160GB for 110.00 on newegg.

[somethingSQUISHY]

$110 for a 160 GB HDD? Uh, I just bought a WD 320 GB HDD for that much on newegg. I would hope you could find a 160 for cheaper. These are the 2.5" SATA laptop drives, right?

[squall2099]

playstation pot head

[BLuKhaos]

And there goes a bubble.

[SL1M DADDY]

I remember people doing this about a year ago. Sure beats paying over 150 bucks for their 120 gig HDD.

[MADTHEO 1994]

you void only the hdd warranty not the console warranty.so.......

[PatMuweenie]

This method is incorrect. This guy does not mention that you have to mess with the .bins file found on the HDD. If you just copy everything over to a 120gb then the 360 will only see 20gb (or whatever it was before). Also microsoft can see that more than one console is using a .bins file and can give out bans based on that. Yes the M$ hdd price is rape, but there is no good way around it.

[bomboclaat_gamer]

this is old news. i known about this about a year and a half ago. i heard it gets u banned

[Andronicus]

its funny seeing people saying OMG or even the people suggesting to buy another 360 hdd and a 2.5 inch hd then do this, or go buy an extra arcade so if something happens send it in as an arcade so i wont have to send in the hdd....

seriosly WTF, you would really go buy another 360 hdd, 2.5 inch hd and or entire system just to do something that can potentially get you banned so that you have to waste more momeny to buy another system or HDD after?

your logic does not compute

[jerethdagryphon]

working in a pc shop ive done that before

still a pain cause of ms wanting prop parts

[NanoGeekTech]

stupidest thing you can do to your 360.....Why open the chance of killing your system when the 360 is already pretty fragile...machine..

And why would you want to void your warranty....it would be easier to get a PS3....you can upgrade and you would not oid your warranty...

[Crazyglues]

if you change the hard-drive isn't there a big chance that you will be banned from XboxLive because all the hard-drives have special firmware and once it's detected that you don't have an original hard-drive.

***hence the whole hacking problem*** and then force Microsoft to ban your account... and not to mention this void's your warranty...

This just makes no sense if you ask me, not worth the risk...

[TheMART]

Depends, this hack has been out since about 1.5 years when the Elites arrived. This is pretty old.

No one has been banned. Plus if your 360 HDD original 20GB is a few years old already warranty is already gone.

I own an original 120GB 360 HDD and I've modded my old 20GB with this hack for just 49 Euro's for the 120GB WD BEVS 2.5 inch SATA drive.

[Crazyglues]

well that's good to know then..

[mirroredderorrim]

Voiding a Warranty that is pivotal to your Xbox 360 experience as well as my own. Microsoft engineered a brilliant plan. "Buy our hard drive and your RROD will be fixed for free. Don't buy our hard drive and you get a nice brick"

Still, you could send it, maybe risk money and white box to repair it from one of those rogue 360 repairmen. I hear they are good, actually.

Someone jump in here, if they feel the need to.

[TheMART]

You can only do this with Western Digital BEVS drives 2.5 inch SATA

It isn't hard. Get HDD hacker a Dutch guy made that program. Only thing is you'll need a file from an original 120GB 360 HDD, if downloaded its illegal...

@ stupid sony trolls above

with the ugliest of them: Juuken

You don't void the warranty on your 360.

You just open the HDD, so you void the warranty on that. BUT if you already own your 360 HDD for years, no warranty anymore on it. Plus, it isn't hard to do, very very easy. Nothing really can't go wrong with it.

[silverchode]

i think you have a crush on juuken since you always talk about her.

[DevastationEve]

she seems to be a nice person!

[jerethdagryphon]

done right a 360 preemptive repair can save your console from ever going rrod but its expensive risky in its own right and if you have a flawed 360 (one with bad parts) it will do nothing

but it can ocasioanlly save money long term

after the fix though its not really a 360 its a small pc but it works

[ScottEFresh]

This is an old hack and it's harder then you think. But still should be able to be done by the average person with some time.

PS - the fact you have to do this PLUS use a WD HD (120GB Western Digital Scorpio, model number WDGWD1200BEVS) makes it just that much harder. This is a good hack if your an xbox lover but if your a regular dude this is just too much work for a little bit more space.

PSS - IS this enough evidence for the idiots that are still paying for that PoS proprietary drive?

[wray77]

I've only got a twenty gig hard drive and still got room to install a game or two when the new xbox experience launches.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

it was successful, it's pretty easy if you know what your doing, it took me 1 hr to do the whole procedure, i had to back up my data so it took me a while.

BTW i forgot to mention, you don't send your HDD in for repairs with the console, so that means your 360 is STILL under warranty, but your HDD wont be, and messing with the HDD does not give your 360 an RROD, cause your messing with JUST the HDD and NOT the whole console, and the 360 was made to run without the HDD anyway (since it's an external device)

with that being said, i noticed a couple of things in my little experiment, the 120 gig HDD that i put inside of the 360 was borrowed from my notebook and it's a lot faster then the 360's HDD, i was a little sceptical about the HDD not being speed compatible, but it looks like it doesn't matter 360 reads it.

the demos i'm running are loading quicker.

as for the warranty on your HDD you can still keep it if you have a spare or buy a used 20 gig, it doesn't have to be a working drive cause your swapping it anyway.

[KBDuB]

Lol. The Ps3 fanboys..

[vhero]

Warning people are reporting if you use differnt sizes then the hard drives MS officially use say 320gb they will ban you if you go on live not straight away theres a lot of talk about it on various sites. People dunno if its the sizes yet or your hard drives signiture. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Unlike Sony MS DOES NOT LIKE YOU GETTING NOT RIPPED OFF BY THEM!

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Having space for your XBL games and risk lose that much needed 3 years warranty for RROD? Tough choice.

[tethered]

I changed my PS3 60 HD for a 320 GB HD and I only had to unscrew 5 screws.

I took the 60 GB HD and put it in my 40 GB model PS3. 5 screws for that too.

I also didn't need to worry about any springs getting lost.

If any of you 360 fans would like to buy my 40 GB HD left over, I'll sell it to you cheaper than MS would.

PM me!

[Rourker]

dumbest thing ever, its a hard drive. Any static charge could fry it. I guess its a good tutorial other than that, but I would not recommend doing that, probably get your system banned by the big M.

[jlemdon]

the other vid I saw the kid was smarter he used a tworx screw driver.