XBox Hard Drive and CD Drive -- True or False?

[SoulBlazer]

A news article I was reading online the other night said something interesting about new XBox's.

First, it claimed that Thomson drives are NO LONGER being used for new XBox's (read: ones made this year), only Philips and Samsung, with Samsung becoming more common. And that if you ever have to send your XBox back to Microsoft for a drive problem, they will replace it with a Samsung.

Second, it also claimed that Microsoft had RUN OUT of the 8 Gig HD's they had been using in older models and was now using 20 Gig HD's for the new units (the ones with Samsung drives).

Can anyone confirm or deny this?

And is there anyway without opening the unit to see what size HD you have?

I'd be curious to check mine, becuase although it was originaly made last year it was refurbished by EB less then six months ago and has a Samsunng drive in it.

[AB Positive]

even if you end up with a 20 gig HDD, the xbox bios is set to only read up to 8, so either way you'll only have 8 gig of usable space unless you feel like modding the xbox.


-AG

[EnemyZero]

Yeah adamG is right, if it is a 20gig hd in there your gonna have to do some moddin to your xbox to get it to be able to read all that wonderfull space

[Querjek]

Remind me again, what's the difference between Samsung and Philips drives? I've got a Philips and it has never read something wrong, plus it lets me copy burned CDs onto the hard drive with no trouble.

[EnemyZero]

Philips is a cheaper drive, which is one reason why you can copy burned cds to your HD

[The_EniGma]

Samsung is the least picky of the drives but i think it wont read DVD+R/RW media. It reads cd-rs just fine

[GrayFox]

Owning a launch Xbox isn't too fun actually.

The Thompson drive just screws you in the end. I want to be able to rip CD-R's, or atleast listen to the damned things on it. Agh.

Question though, Microsoft is letting you send in your old Xbox, in order to get a newer drive? Cost?

[omnedon]

I have been seeing more Samsungs in newer boxes lately.

From worst to best(relaibility, media friendly):

Thomson
Philips
Samsung

[Cmosfm]

Ok, I've got a Launch Xbox and I've discovered something...odd

If you have a home CD burner that copies one CD to another (a home burner being one that's a stand alone unit, not used with a PC), take a burned CD, and copy that burned cd to ANOTHER burned CD....the Xbox will play it!

O_o

[payday_jones]

I also have a launch Xbox, and it will not read CD-R's it WILL however read CD-RW's perfectly everytime. So it's not that big of a deal. You can get 3 CD-RW's for about $5 and they are reusable. I use the Sony brand and haven't had a problme yet.

Much cheaper than replacing the drive!

[spoon]

AS stated above there are three drives that are used in the X-Box.

Thomson-Very crappy, Has a very hard time reading burned media, some cheaper dvds too.

Phillips-Will read most burned media, Does not seem to crap out as much as the Samsung.

Samsung-The best of the bunch. Reads all burned media (for the most part) and almost never gives DRE's. (Disc Reda Errors)

There is also a great after market modified PC Samsung SD-616T drive that can be had for around 100.00. It reads everything, and, it even reads the media/games faster to boot.

Hook that puppy up with a ATA133 cable and Enhanced cooling kit. Yummy! You'll have the baddest X-box in all the land.

[dj898]

Samsung is the least picky of the drives but i think it wont read DVD+R/RW media. It reads cd-rs just fine

you sure?
I pop in few DVD+R from my DVD recorder and it play just fine
I recorded Olympic opening to DVD+R for missus

cheers

[mosesshirai]

I am sure this has come up before and I can't remember where.

Refresh my memory. Doesn't the samsung have different slots in the disc tray or something?

I had a friend actually buy the samsung drive on ebay, then take his old drive and put it into a non-working xbox and sold it to a local shop. Cost of drive $20 buck or so. Not too bad.

[Richter]

[tholly]

i have 3 xboxes and each one has a different DVD drive and i can vouche for the fact that the Thompson drive is complete junk....my xbox was meticulously taken care of and the Thompson drive still gives me Disc Read Errors.

[Jasoco]

So what exactly is the point of wasting a perfectly good 20GB HD by only making 8GB readable? To me that's strangeness at its best... or worst... or neutral.

[fahrvergnugen]

There approaches a point at which the cost of manufacturing a small hard disk is no longer feasable. It doesn't cost any more to make a 20gig than it does to make an 8gig, so seagate stopped making 8g's, and just started supplying microsoft with 20gig drives instead.

If that 12gig gets wasted, well, so what. It was free anyway.

[Jasoco]

I don't like wasting technology. So to me it seems like a stupid idea to not make it accessible.

[SegaTecToy]

I don't like wasting technology. So to me it seems like a stupid idea to not make it accessible.

MS should change the BIOS and advertise: "now with 20GB". Are they dumb or what? Now people have to mod the system to access the extra size.
Oh well, the customers will do that anyway...