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Xbox 360 to get (gimped) USB storage support

deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
edited April 2010 in Games and Technology
Because this doesn't deserve to be only in the lets-talk-about-what-GAF-is-talking-about megathread,

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/18/xbox-360-gaining-usb-storage-support-in-2010-update/
According to the document, the USB mass storage device must be at least 1GB and the system will do a compatibility check. "The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller."

So, up to 16 gigs on a USB storage device. This is great news for us Arcade owners who want to play some XBLA games or maybe a demo. We no longer have to spend over $100 for a hard drive. On the downside the 16 gig limit blows and effectively limits your ability to install games. Still, overall a net positive.

deadonthestreet on
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Posts

  • Recoil42Recoil42 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I wonder if this means games with screenshot and movie functionality will finally be able to move past that stupid "upload to a server, then download from our site" hack.

    Recoil42 on
  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Microsoft should get rid of that 16 gig limit.

    Delta Assault on
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    urahonky on
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Because this doesn't deserve to be only in the lets-talk-about-what-GAF-is-talking-about megathread,

    I take offense to this. We also talk about pie.

    cloudeagle on
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  • fragglefartfragglefart Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Microsoft should get rid of that 16 gig limit.

    Why?

    How are they going to sell their own drives then?

    This provides quite a tidy solution for both them (MS) and consumers.

    fragglefart on
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  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Microsoft should get rid of that 16 gig limit.

    Why?

    How are they going to sell their own drives then?

    This provides quite a tidy solution for both them (MS) and consumers.

    I guess they could lower the prices on their own drives?

    Delta Assault on
  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Microsoft should get rid of that 16 gig limit.

    Why?

    How are they going to sell their own drives then?

    This provides quite a tidy solution for both them (MS) and consumers.

    Sometimes it benefits a company to take a short term financial loss to improve customer relations and do something nice for people.

    deadonthestreet on
  • DirtyDirty Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Dirty on
  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Cybertronian Paranormal Eliminator Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Yes, for only $80 you can nearly triple your hard drive space. (Cost of two 16gig memory sticks, or the cheapest HDs I could find, which you can only use 16gigs of per drive)

    Or for $120 you can pentuple it with an overpriced MS HD.

    Undead Scottsman on
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited March 2010
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Yes, for only $80 you can nearly triple your hard drive space. (Cost of two 16gig memory sticks, or the cheapest HDs I could find, which you can only use 16gigs of per drive)

    Or for $120 you can pentuple it with an overpriced MS HD.

    Yeah, but the difference is a year from now, those 16 GB sticks will cost half what they do now, while the MS hard drives will still be the same price.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • amnesiasoftamnesiasoft Thick Creamy Furry Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Sometimes it benefits a company to take a short term financial loss to improve customer relations and do something nice for people.
    They already did that, it was called the Red Ring of Death/E74 warranty extension.

    amnesiasoft on
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  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Sometimes it benefits a company to take a short term financial loss to improve customer relations and do something nice for people.
    They already did that, it was called the Red Ring of Death/E74 warranty extension.

    That wasn't being nice, that was not wanting to face a class action lawsuit that they were guaranteed to lose.

    deadonthestreet on
  • ManetherenWolfManetherenWolf Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Sometimes it benefits a company to take a short term financial loss to improve customer relations and do something nice for people.
    They already did that, it was called the Red Ring of Death/E74 warranty extension.

    Extending the warranty for something that was creating a 30%+ failure rate of your system isn't exactly what I'd call doing something nice for people.

    Its called covering your ass before a class action lawsuit occurs.

    edit: wow, beaten barely. wierd.

    ManetherenWolf on
  • Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Well, shit. Between this and the hotly rumoured innards overhaul, I'm almost glad my 360 died. Almost.

    Big Classy on
  • mantis23mantis23 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    So this means it is going to be stupidly easy to download game saves now?

    mantis23 on
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  • Delta AssaultDelta Assault Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Big Isy wrote: »
    Well, shit. Between this and the hotly rumoured innards overhaul, I'm almost glad my 360 died. Almost.

    It's almost like being a drug addict. To begin recovery, you've gotta hit rock bottom first.

    Delta Assault on
  • ArrathArrath Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    mantis23 wrote: »
    So this means it is going to be stupidly easy to download game saves now?

    My first thought was "Well now it'll be even easier to do things like mod guns in Borderlands."

    Arrath on
  • SzechuanosaurusSzechuanosaurus Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited March 2010
    Arrath wrote: »
    mantis23 wrote: »
    So this means it is going to be stupidly easy to download game saves now?

    My first thought was "Well now it'll be even easier to do things like mod guns in Borderlands."

    I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it will in some way prevent the ability to transfer files from PC to xbox via the memory stick. Isn't a 512Mb partition complete overkill for a removable storage device? I've never really looked closely at what OSX or Windows take off a memory dongle but I can't imagine it's anywhere near that much considering some memory sticks aren't even that big.

    Still, it is nice to know that I'll be able to use one of the dozens of free USB memory sticks I have lying around as removable storage for my xbox should I need it rather than those ridiculously overpriced proprietary memory cards.

    Szechuanosaurus on
  • GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    This is also great as a means to backup save games. When I bought my new elite, my very old (release day) 20GB started to go on the fritz...and I honestly thought I was going to lose however many years of saved games. Luckily I got the HDD transfer cable and got everything off to the 120GB HDD, but being able to back up to a USB source will be very, very handy. I will put all my important saves on a USB stick.

    GnomeTank on
    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
  • Kris_xKKris_xK Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Kris_xK on
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  • Raiden333Raiden333 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.

    For fuck's sake, would it kill them to let you throw your profile on there too? My friend and I both bought 360s with a hard drive and no memory card, and we're sick of not being able to both be logged into our accounts when we hang out and play Rock Band and whatnot.

    Raiden333 on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator, Administrator admin
    edited March 2010
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Exactly the situation I'm in.

    I could buy half a new 360 for what a 120 gig drive costs.

    edit: and god damn, they need to make profiles easier to make portable.

    Echo on
  • urahonkyurahonky Cynical Old Man Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.

    For fuck's sake, would it kill them to let you throw your profile on there too? My friend and I both bought 360s with a hard drive and no memory card, and we're sick of not being able to both be logged into our accounts when we hang out and play Rock Band and whatnot.

    I assume it probably has something to do with people pulling their accounts apart and reverse engineering it to add stuff to their account.

    urahonky on
  • SlicerSlicer Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    This is nice to hear, finally I can have more than two games installed at once on my 20 GB harddrive!

    Slicer on
  • mantis23mantis23 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.

    For fuck's sake, would it kill them to let you throw your profile on there too? My friend and I both bought 360s with a hard drive and no memory card, and we're sick of not being able to both be logged into our accounts when we hang out and play Rock Band and whatnot.


    Even though it's not stated I think they will allow profile storage. If the reason this is happening is truly because of a new slim 360 with no memory card slots they almost have to include that option.

    mantis23 on
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  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited March 2010
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.

    For fuck's sake, would it kill them to let you throw your profile on there too? My friend and I both bought 360s with a hard drive and no memory card, and we're sick of not being able to both be logged into our accounts when we hang out and play Rock Band and whatnot.

    So do what I did, and grab a 64MB memory unit from ebay. I think I paid about $7 for a used one.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Cool. I wonder if this will work with small SSD's/SD card adaptors too?

    25736283.jpg
    mantis23 wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.

    For fuck's sake, would it kill them to let you throw your profile on there too? My friend and I both bought 360s with a hard drive and no memory card, and we're sick of not being able to both be logged into our accounts when we hang out and play Rock Band and whatnot.


    Even though it's not stated I think they will allow profile storage. If the reason this is happening is truly because of a new slim 360 with no memory card slots they almost have to include that option.

    And yes, I would think profile storage would be allowed this way; since they're signed/hashed etc?

    Zilla360 on
  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Also drives are seriously cheap these days:
    http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/6059462/SanDisk-Cruzer-16GB-USB-Flash-Drive/Product.html

    Not to mention not having to worry about moving parts if you use them to install games/Games on Demand. :)

    Zilla360 on
  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    As an owner of a 20GB hard drive, this pleases me greatly. As an XBLIG developer, I'm a little worried - I hope this doesn't make coding save/load systems any harder than it already was.

    RainbowDespair on
  • amnesiasoftamnesiasoft Thick Creamy Furry Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    On portable profiles. I've never used a different Xbox, only between my PC and 360, but I've never seen anything like people describe with that. Is there something different I'm not aware of?

    amnesiasoft on
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  • mntorankusumntorankusu I'm not sure how to use this thing.... Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    As an owner of a 20GB hard drive, this pleases me greatly. As an XBLIG developer, I'm a little worried - I hope this doesn't make coding save/load systems any harder than it already was.

    It should make it easier. Given that it has to work with existing software and everything, a USB drive should be functionally the same as a memory unit, so hopefully we won't need to buy memory units just to test every case anymore.

    mntorankusu on
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  • SandersSanders Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    mcdermott wrote: »
    Kris_xK wrote: »
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Yeah, it's a pretty huge win for people with 20GB/60GB hard drives. Especially since the USB drive prices will continue to come down.

    If you are looking for a cheap replacement for the memory cards, maybe. For large storage, this is 'meh' news. USB flash drives would have to drop in price by half just to break even with the 120gig xbox 360 HDD and even then you would have your stuff stored on four memory sticks while you can only have two in at a time.

    Goods news for XBLA titles and game saves, don't care news for game and movie downloads.

    I'll give a damn when somebody comes out with a hack that allows you to plug in a real HDD that is separated into 16gig partitions and tricks the xbox into thinking they are each a single flash drive.

    Sanders on
  • Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Sanders wrote: »
    mcdermott wrote: »
    Kris_xK wrote: »
    Dirty wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    This is great news for Arcade owners!

    This is good news for Pro owners who never felt like paying crazy prices to upgrade from their "20GB" HDDs.

    Yeah, it's a pretty huge win for people with 20GB/60GB hard drives. Especially since the USB drive prices will continue to come down.

    If you are looking for a cheap replacement for the memory cards, maybe. For large storage, this is 'meh' news. USB flash drives would have to drop in price by half just to break even with the 120gig xbox 360 HDD and even then you would have your stuff stored on four memory sticks while you can only have two in at a time.

    Goods news for XBLA titles and game saves, don't care news for game and movie downloads.

    I'll give a damn when somebody comes out with a hack that allows you to plug in a real HDD that is separated into 16gig partitions and tricks the xbox into thinking they are each a single flash drive.

    The article did say that full games could be saved onto the stick. You'd need the actual disc for verification purposes, much like it is done now. I don't see why DLC couldn't be saved onto the stick?

    Big Classy on
  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Cybertronian Paranormal Eliminator Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    What I'm planning on doing

    -Get a 16 gig stick or use one of my spare drives in a external enclosue
    -Copy EVERYTHING on my HD to the stick
    -Wipe the HD
    -Copy back my profile, saved games, any XBLA games I still play regularly, and any DLC for games I play regularly.
    -Keep everything else on the thumb drive as backup, and so I have enough room on the main drive to install at least 1 game.

    Undead Scottsman on
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  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Cybertronian Paranormal Eliminator Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    mcdermott wrote: »
    What I'm planning on doing

    -Get a 16 gig stick or use one of my spare drives in a external enclosue
    -Copy EVERYTHING on my HD to the stick
    -Wipe the HD
    -Copy back my profile, saved games, any XBLA games I still play regularly, and any DLC for games I play regularly.
    -Keep everything else on the thumb drive as backup, and so I have enough room on the main drive to install at least 1 game.

    Not to rain on your parade, but you can pick up a used 60GB hard drive for about the same as a single 16GB stick (I paid $45 including shipping, on eBay). Probably a better option. Then you can just pick up a 1GB or 2GB stick (much cheaper) to back up saves and what not, if you like.

    120GB hard drives are a bitch to find cheap, though, because of all the knockoffs from Hong Kong. 20GBs and 60GBs, however, don't have the knockoff problem and are cheap.
    True, but as I said, I'd probably use one of my spare drives (I have a 40gig drive floating around that was primarily an OS drive that I quit using because I moved to SATA) inside an external enclosure I already have.

    Undead Scottsman on
  • maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I will gladly take an extra 32GB for about $50. I've got almost half-a-dozen Xbox Originals & Games on Demand I can't fit on my measly 20GB (Read: Actually 13GB) HDD.

    Thanks Microsoft!

    maximumzero on
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  • Dodge AspenDodge Aspen Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    What I'm planning on doing

    -Get a 16 gig stick or use one of my spare drives in a external enclosue
    -Copy EVERYTHING on my HD to the stick
    -Wipe the HD
    -Copy back my profile, saved games, any XBLA games I still play regularly, and any DLC for games I play regularly.
    -Keep everything else on the thumb drive as backup, and so I have enough room on the main drive to install at least 1 game.

    This is my exact plan, too. In my experience, most AAA high hype games these days punch in at 5-6 gigs.

    So, can we plug in two 16 gig sticks for an extra 32 gigs of storage?

    EDIT: Never mind. Answered.

    Dodge Aspen on
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