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Xbox 360 USB Memory Support coming April 6th

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DVDBack23 @ Mar 28, 2010 19:41 | 15 comments

As rumored, Microsoft will be adding USB memory support to the Xbox 360, starting April 6th with a system update.

Reads the post from Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb:

"On April 6th, we will be releasing a system update over Xbox LIVE for your Xbox 360 that will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more. I’ve been testing this feature out for a few weeks, and I have to say it’s really great. Once you take the system update on April 6th, you’ll be able to connect your USB flash drives to your console and head over to the memory section to configure your new storage device. Once you do that, the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm the drive is working properly. You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you’ll only be able to use up to 16GB of space. Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive…it’s just going to give you a MUCH better experience.

We’ve also enhanced the memory management functions, so you’ll be able to have better control on what you want to copy or move between storage devices.

A couple of points:

* You can have 2 devices connected to the console at a time, enabling up to 32GB of simultaneous storage.

* The system won’t just configure the device once it is connected to the console. You’ll need to head to the memory area in system settings, select your USB Device, and choose from Configure Now (Format and Configure the Full Device), or Customize (you can choose how much memory you want configured for Xbox360 from the free space on the device.)

While any flash drive can be used, we are partnering with SanDisk to release an Xbox 360 branded USB flash drive in May that comes pre-configured out of the box and ready to go. I’ll provide links to those drives once they’re available. Until then, starting April 6th (when we release the system update) you can pop any flash drive over 1GB into your Xbox 360 and configure it as storage."

Picture Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/majornelson/sets/72157623576662307/

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Comments

Comment by: DarkJello (Mar 28, 2010 21:53)

I thought you would only be able to use microsoft branded memory, big step in the right direction. Anyone know the what the restrictions are for what you can put on the removable media? I'm assuming you can't run a game from it?

Comment by: beanos66 (Mar 28, 2010 22:14)

Wasn't there a story a couple of months back about a firmware update that stopped thumb drives working ?

Comment by: DarkJello (Mar 28, 2010 22:20)

Originally posted by beanos66:
Wasn't there a story a couple of months back about a firmware update that stopped thumb drives working ?

That was third party memory cards. There are specific memory card ports on the 360 (they aren't USB). Pretty dumb.

Comment by: elfman12 (Mar 29, 2010 05:05)

No, I believe that this means any USB drive, flash or HD based. They problem before was people hacking into their profiles and altering gamer score, download authorizations, etc. Now they built something into the system that will prepare a secured sector of the drive (looks like up to 16GB) that should stop most modding and still work on any 3rd party device. That's my understanding, anyway.
And you CAN copy a game disc to it for faster booting, but you still need the disc in the drive for verification. Just like you can now to the HDD, but with much faster flash memory.

Comment by: Interestx (Mar 29, 2010 16:14)

32gbs?

Nice. Surely a means to even less noise?

It's already 'normal' (noise-wise) when I save my games to the hard drive, now I should be able to save my games to the flash memory & even rid the unit of the hard drive noise.

Comment by: xyqo (Mar 29, 2010 16:44)

WOW umm i never usually say this but GO MS. I'll be updating since I have a box i use for live that's unhacked ;)

XXYYQQOO!!! Yeah WELCOME TO JAMROCK

Comment by: bobiroc (Mar 29, 2010 23:25)

16GB Limitation?? Really? Damn you Microsoft. Buying a hard drive and hacking it is looking more promising every day. I just wish there was a guarantee that if I did go out and get a 250GB HDD that I wouldn't be banned from XBL.

AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.6Ghz, 8GB DDR3, ATI Radeon 5770HD, 300GB 10,000RPM Raptor, 2TB Additional HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate.

Comment by: KillerBug (Mar 30, 2010 14:11)

I wonder how many months they will wait before they remove support for all drives other than their $100 16GB flash drive.

Comment by: Interestx (Mar 30, 2010 18:30)

Come on guys, keep it accurate.

1) It's limited to 32gb
(if what I've heard about GoW3 that's enough to cope with the biggest PS3 game, coincidentally), not 16gb.

2) From what I've seen you can use any USB stick, although Microsoft is teaming up with Sandisk to produce a branded product.

Comment by: bobiroc (Mar 30, 2010 18:55)

Originally posted by Interestx:
Come on guys, keep it accurate.

1) It's limited to 32gb
(if what I've heard about GoW3 that's enough to cope with the biggest PS3 game, coincidentally), not 16gb.

2) From what I've seen you can use any USB stick, although Microsoft is teaming up with Sandisk to produce a branded product.

It is 16GB per device so you would need two 16GB Flash Drives and then eat up both USB Ports. I guess the only problem with that is that you would have to swap flash drives if you have a lot of downloaded content.

AMD Phenom II 965 @ 3.6Ghz, 8GB DDR3, ATI Radeon 5770HD, 300GB 10,000RPM Raptor, 2TB Additional HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate.

Comment by: DarkJello (Mar 30, 2010 20:45)

Think the USB on the back works?

Comment by: KillerBug (Mar 31, 2010 04:05)

"You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you’ll only be able to use up to 16GB of space"

That's it...a max of 16GB per device...so your nice new 6TB redundant drive will only be a 16GB as far as the 360 is concerned. I do wonder about port multipliers; you could get a pair of 8-way multipliers and 16 flash drives...that would give you more flash storage than the largest hard drive that microsoft sells for this thing...but something tells me that microsoft won't let you do that.

"we are partnering with SanDisk to release an Xbox 360 branded USB flash drive in May that comes pre-configured out of the box and ready to go. I’ll provide links to those drives once they’re available. Until then, starting April 6th (when we release the system update) you can pop any flash drive over 1GB into your Xbox 360 and configure it as storage."

I'm a little iffy about how they said this...it almost sounds like they are saying that you can use your own flash until they release theirs, and make your flash useless through a system update.

Comment by: Interestx (Mar 31, 2010 13:07)

Killerbug, you're just speculating but the answers are in the text.
Everything else is your own invention and prejudice.
Microsoft banned memory cards recently, they have never banned the DIY hard drive (where you source the same Western Digital hard drive they use at a fraction of the price) so why would they bother changing the rules on a flash drive?

"You can have 2 devices connected to the console at a time, enabling up to 32GB of simultaneous storage".

It's 32gb of storage.

"While any flash drive can be used...."

It's any flash drive

All of which is a nice deal for Xbox 360 Arcade users and may well be of benefit to the rest of us with hard drives.

Comment by: Interestx (Mar 31, 2010 13:10)

BTW USB hard drives already work, for music, movies and pics.

Besides sometimes streaming from PC I use an external 500gb drive with mine (formatted to hfs+ so the FAT32 4gb file limitation is no longer an issue - nice for HD files).

That leaves the internal hard drive free for the game stuff.
Works for me.

Comment by: Jemborg (Apr 02, 2010 15:06)

Originally posted by bobiroc:
16GB Limitation?? Really? Damn you Microsoft. Buying a hard drive and hacking it is looking more promising every day. I just wish there was a guarantee that if I did go out and get a 250GB HDD that I wouldn't be banned from XBL.

I hacked a 120GB WD drive for a mate who is regularly on Live with an otherwise unmodded X360... in principal it should be fine for 250GB drive.

My belief is that they are not that upset about it. You are not playing copied games games on Live after all... if you do I am pretty certain you will get banned in some upcoming wave and lose your HDD game storage privileges too for that machine.

What makes Major Toady say that USB flash drives are faster than USB HDDs? Utter contemptuous con, relying on people's ignorance.

Anyway, it's one step further in the direction of a Steam sales/distribution model that M$ hope to rip-off (as that's what M$ are notorious at). As I predicted.

Its a lot easier being righteous than right.