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Xbox RROD-Can I Do These Things?

ronbo613

ronbo613

Golden Member
My XBox just started kicking out the three red rings of death, I wonder if it's time for another console. It's about four years old, so it's not under warranty.
My main questions are; if I get another console with a 4G hard drive, can I take the 250G drive out of my current console and use it in a new console and keep all my games and stuff? I assume I will be able to transfer my account to a new console without too much difficulty?
This is the first Xbox I've ever owned so I've never been through this before. I am an electronics technician and I could probably fool around with it and try to patch it up, but I think I would rather bite the bullet and get a new rig.

Thanks
 
I'm pretty sure you can. Just gotta take the 2.5" hdd out of the old xbox hdd caddy, and you can slip right into the hdd slot in the slim. You may want to get the hdd covers for the slim that they sell at amazon as well though.
 
Get another at your own risk. I was on my 3rd one, a $400 Halo 3 limited edition that burned out within a year, when I finally realized I will never buy another Xbox. Ever.
 
I posted these questions over at xbox.com; while it seems you can put an old hard drive in a new console, it is a violation of Xbox policy and you could receive a console ban. According to one of the posts, there is data on the hard drive that links it to a particular console and if discovered by an Xbox moderator, the console will be banned.
I didn't know this would be so controversial, I just want to figure out how to transfer my stuff over to a new console if necessary. That thread at Xbox.com got locked in a day or two; I feel like such an outlaw....

Anyway, I haven't had an RROD for a couple days, I'm hoping it was caused by a power surge or brownout, which would not be unusual around here since the town I live in is all on one extension cord.
 
Use a USB stick and sneaker net it. Or you can get the HDD transfer kit which gives you a cable that you can use to transfer from one drive to another.
 
Use a USB stick and sneaker net it. Or you can get the HDD transfer kit which gives you a cable that you can use to transfer from one drive to another.
Click to expand...
Ha ha; sneakernet, there's a term I haven't heard for a long time, but that's one way to do it for sure.
I do have the "old" HD transfer cable, Microsoft has told me that one won't work, you need the "new" HD cable. I have a hard drive kit that supplies power and data transfer via USB, I wonder if that will work. If it isn't against Microsoft policy, that is.
 
ronbo613 said:
I posted these questions over at xbox.com; while it seems you can put an old hard drive in a new console, it is a violation of Xbox policy and you could receive a console ban. According to one of the posts, there is data on the hard drive that links it to a particular console and if discovered by an Xbox moderator, the console will be banned.
Click to expand...
Thanks for passing on the information. That seems pretty draconian to me.

I haven't done it myself, but it is possible to buy an appropriate model Western Digital and clone the Xbox-specific firmware. According to posts here, MS can detect this (especially if the firmware was downloaded), but they don't actually ban for it.
 
I bought a black 4gb slim model, bought a WD caviar blue drive, put the xbox hard drive firmware on it, plugged it in, and it works great.
 
I haven't done it myself, but it is possible to buy an appropriate model Western Digital and clone the Xbox-specific firmware. According to posts here, MS can detect this (especially if the firmware was downloaded), but they don't actually ban for it.
Click to expand...
All I want to do is take a hard drive(that I bought from Microsoft) from one Xbox(that I bought from Microsoft) that may be failing and put it in another Xbox(that I will buy from Microsoft); that's against the rules, so I imagine just about everything else is as well.
I wonder how they can identify one hard drive from another anyway. I mean, what's the difference between the drive I have in my old console and a drive that goes in the new console? The firmware? Can they read the drive serial numbers or something? If you do swap drives or put a non-MS drive in an Xbox, is it OK until they run some kind of check, like when you are on Xbox Live? Are there random scans or checks of your hardware?
 
About a year ago I did exactly what you want to do, and it was fine.

I had a 250 GB HDD on an older xbox 360. That original cosole died after 4 hears or so. I got a new 4GB slim Xbox 360, got one of those hard drive caddies previously mentioned, and put the 250GB into the new Xbox. For what it's worth, I have never had a problem.
 
I've had 3 XBoxes over my time:
One autographed 360, from 2006. Stopped using it, shelved it for display.
One Jasper unit. optical drive died, was fixed.
One slim, working fine.

No RRODs....

But yes, you should be able to move HDDs.
 
I had a 250 GB HDD on an older xbox 360. That original cosole died after 4 hears or so. I got a new 4GB slim Xbox 360, got one of those hard drive caddies previously mentioned, and put the 250GB into the new Xbox. For what it's worth, I have never had a problem.
Click to expand...
Do you play games on Xbox Live? If there is a chance I would be banned, I would just pay the extra money. Kind of like blackmail, though.
 
ronbo613 said:
Do you play games on Xbox Live? If there is a chance I would be banned, I would just pay the extra money. Kind of like blackmail, though.
Click to expand...

Thus I quit playing on that platform. For $30-40 a year you can play online with your Xbox, for $40-50 a year Sony will give you great free games and discounts on many of the games you want to play. Of course if you play online shooters the PSN is almost unbearable with lag & cheaters.
 
ronbo613 said:
I posted these questions over at xbox.com; while it seems you can put an old hard drive in a new console, it is a violation of Xbox policy and you could receive a console ban. According to one of the posts, there is data on the hard drive that links it to a particular console and if discovered by an Xbox moderator, the console will be banned.
I didn't know this would be so controversial, I just want to figure out how to transfer my stuff over to a new console if necessary. That thread at Xbox.com got locked in a day or two; I feel like such an outlaw....

Anyway, I haven't had an RROD for a couple days, I'm hoping it was caused by a power surge or brownout, which would not be unusual around here since the town I live in is all on one extension cord.
Click to expand...

That is some BS, this is what leads to users hacking their xbox and just start pirating. If I'm going to do the research to use equipment that I already purchased from MS on another console, and it will require some hacking, I'm going full out.
 
ronbo613 said:
here is data on the hard drive that links it to a particular console and if discovered by an Xbox moderator, the console will be banned.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I'd like their source for that bit of info. If there was equipment/model validation, why wouldn't MS just make it not work on the SATA port at all? I'm pretty sure that whatever unique ID/validation codes embedded in the drive's firmware are more for DRM purposes.

While it may be technically against ToS, I haven't heard or read any stories about someone actually being banned for it.
 
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I know on eblay they make a transfer cable that supports both hard drives. I know this because I own one
Click to expand...
That would be the "new" one. If you purchased a transfer cable for the older Xbox Pros, you would be using the "old" transfer cable that does not work with the Slim hard drives. The "new" cable, like you have, is backwards compatible.
 
ronbo613 said:
I wonder how they can identify one hard drive from another anyway. I mean, what's the difference between the drive I have in my old console and a drive that goes in the new console? The firmware? Can they read the drive serial numbers or something? If you do swap drives or put a non-MS drive in an Xbox, is it OK until they run some kind of check, like when you are on Xbox Live?
Click to expand...
Some old threads:
[thread=2130036]Xbox 360 hdd swap[/thread]
[thread=2132460]Are the 360 hard drives on ebay from Chinese sellers legit?[/thread]

ronbo613 said:
If there is a chance I would be banned, I would just pay the extra money. Kind of like blackmail, though.
Click to expand...
I agree, it's not worth the risk (however small) of getting a $200 console and the hard drive banned. If/when I upgrade to a Slim, I'll want a larger drive anyway.
 
I checked out those Xbox threads, there still does not seem to be any concrete evidence that MS either can or cannot tell if a hard drive is taken from an older unit and put into a Slim. It appears nobody has been banned for doing it, how to do it is all over YouTube, maybe MS can't tell or they don't check, but there is a lot at stake if you should be banned.
 
ronbo613 said:
Do you play games on Xbox Live? If there is a chance I would be banned, I would just pay the extra money. Kind of like blackmail, though.
Click to expand...

That's the one thing Sony got right. User upgradable, non-proprietary HDD. That is until they completely f---d it up with the Vita. 🙄

Might as well just spend the $300 on the 250gb Slim.
 
ronbo613 said:
I checked out those Xbox threads, there still does not seem to be any concrete evidence that MS either can or cannot tell if a hard drive is taken from an older unit and put into a Slim. It appears nobody has been banned for doing it, how to do it is all over YouTube, maybe MS can't tell or they don't check, but there is a lot at stake if you should be banned.
Click to expand...

As long as it is the correct size, it should be fine, afaik.
 
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