Hard Drive Storage
See also: Xbox 360 accessories → Detachable hard drivesThe Xbox 360 uses standard 2.5" SATA hard disk drives (HDDs) held within custom enclosures. These units have a custom connector to facilitate connection to the Xbox 360 and the drives themselves feature custom firmware (making stand-alone drives incompatible). The drives are detachable, making it possible to move data from one console to another, and to upgrade the size of drive on a console. The hard drives themselves are manufactured by various companies, including Fujitsu, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi and Western Digital. Certain Western Digital hard disk drives can be modified with a program called HDDHackr to be used with the Xbox 360.
The original Pro configuration of the system came with a 20 GB hard drive, which was also available to purchase separately (for the Core model, and later the Arcade model, which did not include an HDD). This was upgraded to 60 GB in September 2008, and the 60 GB HDD was also made available at retail. In April 2007, Microsoft released the Elite console, which included a black 120 GB HDD; a grey 120 GB drive was also later made available at retail. In November 2009, Microsoft released the "Super Elite" console, as a bundle with the highly anticipated game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This console was like the typical black Elite, but with Call of Duty graphics added and for the first time included a 250 GB hard drive (which holds up to 228 GB of data after system information is stored). This was followed by various other 250 GB special/limited edition bundles. No standard (non-special edition) configuration of the original console ever included a 250 GB drive, but they were later made available at retail.
In June 2010, Microsoft announced a new version of the console, the Xbox 360 S, which used a new form factor for its 250 GB hard drives. As such, original style hard drives cannot be used in Xbox 360 S consoles, and vice versa, without modification. In June 2011, Microsoft announced a specially branded "Gears of War 3 Limited Collector's Edition" Xbox 360 S console to coincide with the launch of Gears of War 3. At 320 GB, the included hard drive is the largest available for/with any Xbox 360 model.
Approximately 7 GB of a 60 GB drive is reserved for system use (4 GB of that portion is reserved for game title caching and other hard drive specific elements in games that support the hard drive, and an additional 2 GB is reserved for use by the Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility software). This leaves just under 54 GB of free space, rounded down to 53 GB in the dashboard, for saving game files, Xbox Live Arcade downloadable content, and media files (such as music and video). Similar figures apply to other hard disk drive sizes.
Other independent companies have manufactured 250 GB hard drives using hacked firmware since 2008. Many of these allegedly infringe trademarks of Microsoft, including the Microsoft logo, Xbox 360 logo, and the likeness of the removable hard disk drive design.
Read more about this topic: Xbox 360 Hardware
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