How not to spend $179 on a 120GB hard drive
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Mar 29th 2007 at 6:00PM }
An X3F regular, AoE, has reminded us about a nifty little trick that lets you use SATA hard drives with the Xbox 360. We reported the story back in January. Just as a refresher, here's how it works: using a bit of software from Xbox-Scene, you essentially trick your Xbox 360 into thinking any Western Digital BEVS drive is actually an official 360 drive. Of course, you'll have to possess some hardware and software savvy to get everything humming along.Before now, the software would work only allow for 20GB of space, because the ID located on each official HDD says as much. Now that official 120GB hard drives will be hitting the market, it should be possible to grab the ID file from a 120GB drive. Of course, we don't condone such things, nor would we have any idea where to find such a file, but there it is. So, if you've got the technical knowhow, you may want to wait a while before laying down 179 smackers for 120GB of space. We'll let you know as soon as this comes to pass (or not).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Darko @ Mar 29th 2007 6:10PM
This is exactly what I was planning on doing... I absolutely refuse to pay anything more than 50 cents a GB. Ill either do this or wait 6 months and buy an Elite if I want the IPTV service.
Hexx @ Mar 29th 2007 6:36PM
That makes no sense that you're paying $0.50 per GB for a 360 hard drive. That's how it works in the desktop world, but not in the laptop world. I recently purchased a new HD for my laptop and it wound up costing me about $1/gb. I didn't expect it to be $179 (I was thinking more like $149.99 with a price drop to the 20GB), but how can you expect to purchase this thing for $60?
FYI... if you haven't thought about it I bet MS is going to patch this HD thing eventually. Something tells me someone will eventually find a way to use this to do hacks possibly.
Truegod @ Mar 29th 2007 6:50PM
@Hexx
Check newegg, all but two of the WD 2.5" drives 100 - 200 GB are between $50-$70.
Darko @ Mar 29th 2007 6:51PM
That may be true but honestly its what im used to.. and considering the elite is only 80 bucks more than pro and it has 100 more gigs and an HDMI port... I would say that yea 170 is far too much and something along the lines of 70 to 100 bucks would be reasonable. Hard drives are cheap... I can get a 500 GB external for 160 bucks...I can get a 120 GB Notbook HDD for 92... So yea notebook drives are more expensive but come one 170 bucks... no way Id pay that much.
AoE @ Mar 29th 2007 6:52PM
@Hexx,
Check pricewatch.com, 120GB Western-Digital notebook drives can be had for as little as $77 :)
And the way this HDD thing works (at least as I understand it) it doesn't make the 360 any more crackable than it was previously; it just makes new drives a less expensive propistion. :) This isn't really cracked; if it was, we'd be able to put whatever size drive we wanted in.
SuicideNinja @ Mar 29th 2007 7:14PM
Beat me to it; I just remembered this today when someone was whining about 360 HDD costs.
It shouldn't be difficult to do, but you can't be a total computer "noob". I bet it's a million times easier than getting a PS2 hard drive to do anything useful.
Anyway, I'm actually fine with Microsoft staying proprietary on the HDD. That is until in-game modding shows up. Once they're broken, they might as well give up on the proprietary thing, because they have failed at that point.
Guaranteed that some manufacturer will come out with a 360 EZ-SWAP HDD enclosure once the process of using any HDD is locked down.
Kylearan @ Mar 29th 2007 8:57PM
Keep your eye on Fry's, too. They often have SATA drives at around a quarter per gig -- their online store is at http://www.outpost.com
razer @ Mar 29th 2007 8:19PM
What gives! I mentioned this method about 10 posts ago and your giving this AoE guy credit?
http://xbox.joystiq.com/2007/03/29/preloaded-content-revealed-for-120gb-hdd/#comments
Granted my explaination was a bit less detailed but still..
No respect I tell's you!! (in his best Rodney Dangerfield voice)
(kidding of course)
Ed @ Mar 29th 2007 10:46PM
While $179.99 does "seem" a little steep...I'd argue that it's not that outrageous, considering MS doesn't make its own drives...putting a man in the middle that usually isn't there in the HD sales industry. If you compare this drive, with something comparable, like an external, self powered, USB 120 GB hard drive, the desparity of the price becomes less. Am I going to run out of the house and buy one...probably not. I don't need it. I delete stuff after I watch it. Simple. Perhaps when I see a fiber internet connection anywhere close to my house, I'd consider the 120 Gigger for IPTV...but at this point, I see no reason at all to one of these. My 2 coppers.
Spartan @ Mar 30th 2007 12:33AM
Ridiculous. As Penny Arcade pointed out, Microsoft shouldn't be gouging for this, they should be subsidizing it as they're trying to get us to buy content over Xbox Live. Why do both?
They should have edged this drive into the $99.99 price point and drop the 20 giger down into the range of $50-$60. $170 for 120 gigs is outlandish.
soccerdude21490 @ Mar 29th 2007 10:53PM
I would do this, but I'm afraid of them somehow patching it, or doing something and I couldn't get on XBL.. that'd suck :-P
non ms gamer @ Mar 30th 2007 8:48AM
Or instead of voiding your warranty you could by a PS3 and legally mod it to any 2.5 drive by only removing a faceplate and 4 screws. No BS, the PS3 is future proof.
s2h @ Mar 30th 2007 9:58AM
go back to ps3 fanboy you homo
Dac @ Mar 30th 2007 10:00AM
Its only voiding the warranty of the HD.. BIg deal
Richard Mitchell @ Mar 30th 2007 10:05AM
razer,
AoE actually sent in a tip :)
I would have given you mad props had I seen your comment though.
James @ Mar 30th 2007 2:01PM
To those who say the HD should be "really" cheap:
SATA: not so cheap
2.5": not so cheap
SATA 2.5": especially not cheap
Like people said, check out Pricewatch. Note that ONE drive is 76 bucks, while the rest start at over 100. I'm not saying that excuses marking it up to 180, but...
I'm just hoping that some clever hacker can compare the 20GB ID file with the 120GB one and figure out how to mod it to report an arbitrary size... 'Course, I have no idea what I would *do* with a 200 or whatever gig 360, but it would be pretty cool nonetheless.