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Microsoft Announces USB Storage for Xbox 360

In the near future players will no longer be forced to purchase expensive Xbox 360 exclusive hard drives.

Major Nelson has announced that starting on April 6, Xbox 360 owners will be able to use USB storage devices on their Xbox 360. In order to enable this feature, owners will have to perform a system update.

When USB storage is plugged in, players will be able to configure their devices in the memory section of the system settings. There, players will be able to select how much they want to partition for the Xbox 360. Microsoft has confirmed that the partition can be a minimum of 1GB and a maximum of 16GB, the rest of the space on the device can be used for your computer.

Microsoft has confirmed that up to two flash drives can be connected at a time which will give you up to 32GB. Microsoft also recommends users to use flash memory rather than an external hard drive for the optimal experience.


 

Comments

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/27/2010 at 08:49 PM

This is odd news, to me. It's absolutely wonderful that Microsoft decided to open up their hardware to using more widely available media, but why limit things to 16 GB partitions? It just seems like an awkward road bump that forces those savvy enough to take advantage of the extra storage to have to inconveniently swap flash drives. Yet, Microsoft's proprietary drives are so expensive, I really don't see how anyone able to format a drive partition would choose a MS HDD over a 16 GB flash drive.

Lukasz Balicki Staff Alumnus

03/28/2010 at 07:21 PM

@Jason

Because Microsoft doesn't want to cannibalize Xbox 360 Hard Drive sales.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/29/2010 at 07:16 PM

Right, I understand that, and I think the price barrier for their HDD is so steep that people will happily work around Microsoft's annoying procedures they've created for flash memory, making them nothing more than a tedious hassle.

Our Take

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/30/2010 at 12:30 AM

GameStop now has Microsoft-licensed USB flash drives available to preorder. The good news? This update doesn't require their expensive drives, unlike the 360 HDDs.

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