Xbox 360 S hard drive mod: Anyone tried this?

[cheesystick]

Hello,

First off, let me say that I am not talking about modding it to play pirated games or anything of that sort.

I purchased a Xbox 360 Slim 4 GB model the other day at Fred Myers for $160.00 during a special sale. I was under the impression that one could pop their preexisting hard drive from their old, red-ringed Xbox onto the new one. Turns out I was wrong. Now, this infuriated me as I was already feeling 'buyers guilt' for re-purchasing a product just because the first one was poorly made, like I am some kind of consumer sucker so willing to forgive, (if not pay), a company for making a clearly faulty product. But for me to come to find out that they not only want me to re-buy the console, they want me to choose between a paltry 4 GB model and an over-the-top 250 GB mode, just really pissed me off.

Also, I am an avid gamer and journalist, so if anyone should have known about the incompatibility of the hard drives, it would have been me. I can't help but feel like Microsoft kept this fact under wraps if for no other reason to make even more money off the people they already screwed over for hundred of dollars. Bleh!!! Anyways, not only do I loose all of my older save information with the old hard drive, I basically have to choose the 250 GB model because everyone knows that 4 GB is a joke.

Now, I haven't opened the new Xbox 360 Slim just yet, so I could feasibly return the system. However, I am faced with this dilemma. I could try either of the following:

1. Return the 360, get my $160 back and go buy the 250 GB model at Walmart for $300 to get the $75 dollar gift card. This would make me angry because I hate Walmart and don't want to shop there, and I also don't want to give Microsoft even MORE money for reasons stated above. Unfortunately, Walmart does have the best deal right now. Erg.

2. I could try to preform this mod to make my old hard drive work. You can see a video of such below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKnaixPCsns

Now this scares me a little, but I'd be willing to try this to get out of my situation. I have 50 hours of Fallout New Vegas data that I don't want to loose, (before all the save files corrupted, still waiting for a patch; that is a different rant), and other unlockables.

Anyways, should I try this? Has anyone done this? Any advice or recommendations leading me one way or the other? I would appreciate any advice.



Also, I do realize that another option would be to just abandon the 360 all together, but i just got the new Castlevania and a copy of Raiden IV that I am really excited about. I'm not really ready to just give up all my games for the system, so in that sense, I am a sucker.

Thanks for the advice,
Chris

[klausien]

Based upon that youtube, the hack looks like the way to go if you don't want to man up and get the 250 gig.

[Darkman2K5]

I'm not able to see the video right now because I'm at work, but I'm assuming the mod involves opening the hard drive casing on the old drive, and putting it into a casing that fits inside the 360 S, if this is the case, it should be a relatively simple procedure. If you're concered about data preservation, try getting your hands on a hard drive transfer kit, this will allow you to access the data from your old drive on the 360 S, or if you have a friend with a working 360 original model, bring it to their place. Format a USB stick on the xbox, and copy the data from your old hard drive onto the usb stick, this will allow you to try the mod knowing that at least your data is safe. All arcade games and dlc that you have on the hard drive can easily be re-downloaded. This applys to your profile as well.

[Oldskool]

Actually, all that they are doing is taking the drive out of the original Microshaft HD enclosure, and plugging it straight into the connector inside the 360 Slim. It appears that it snaps right into place, but there is a bit of a wobble to it. I would assume that if you play your console vertically it should be ok, if you are not moving it around a lot. But if you play it on it's side, I'd wedge a piece of card board or something in there to keep it from flopping around.

Seems like the cheapest alternative to me.

I'm sure when Microshaft releases new HD's for the Slim, you'll probably be able to swap it into that HD's enclosure.

[Dobie]

Seems pretty straightforward. I don't see what you'd have to lose by taking out your old 20gb HDD. It may fit fairly snugly when you get it connected--I mounted a spare 2.5' SATA HDD in a NAS bay built for a 3.5' SATA drive just like that. If its not getting moved around too much you should be fine. A small piece of foam would provide a bit of stability too--provided it doesn't block too much heat.

Taking the old HDD out of the enclosure isn't complicated--a phillips screw driver (or torx driver, can't remember off the top of my head) should be all you need.

[saferkefka]

buy this and put your drive in it

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.48653

[rpepper9]

buy this and put your drive in it

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.48653

Good idea. Seems like whenever big corporations fail to make an adaptor or a "common sense" solution that the 3rd party people come up with a great solution. Good to see it is relatively in-expensive too!

[Kyle15]

This is the route to go. My 360 red-ringed recently and I'm getting a new one for Christmas. (Hopefully!) Go to Lowes and ask for the Kobalt brand 8-in-1 Torx screwdriver set. It cost around six dollars. I already prepped my old HDD and it was a piece of cake. All you do is open up the enclosure and unplug the drive.

Took me a little less than ten-minutes. Piece of cake.

[cheesystick]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'm going to try this, (can't wait for Raiden IV), and I'll need to pick up that screwdriver too.

So with this case, does it fit over the hard drive and then still fit inside the enclosure? Is it simply something that you slide over the hard drive so that you don't accidentally statically shock it?

Whether or not I spring for the case, I'll let anyone that is considering this know that you might want to touch a piece of metal before or while you open the hard drive so that you don't shock it, that is if you don't have a static slip (I don't). This will discharge most of any random static electricity that you might have so you don't accidentally zap and fry part of the hard drive.

I'm not technically skilled at all, but my uncle told me to do this after he gifted me with this external hard drive device for the PC. It was a simple device that let you use an internal hard drive as an external one. They made them back when external hard drives were still prohibitively expensive. It would be mostly silly to have one now, but I certainly didn't want to shock all these loose hard drives I was handling. I it always a good idea to make sure you are discharged.

Thanks for all the advice y'all.
-Chris

[Darko]

Just for the record, it works. I've done it successfully twice now.

I've done quite a bit of..um..enhancing to previous consoles through the years and this is by far the easiest to achieve. As long as you're pulling the guts out of an older 360 you have absolutely nothing to worry about. If you have any games installed on your HDD then you'll have to re-install them as the xbox can tell that you didn't use the S to install the disc. Other than that, it's super, super easy. My 4gb currently has 124gbs of storage. It's also nice because you don't have to use the stupid transfer cable.