Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive (2005 - 2010) | Museum of Obsolete Media (original) (raw)
The Microsoft Xbox 360 was a seventh-generation video game console introduced by Microsoft in 2005 to replace the original Xbox. During its lifetime it had a couple of redesigns, with the Xbox 360 S (Slim) in 2010, and the Xbox 360 E in 2013, and in 2010 the Kinect motion sensor accessory was launched.
At launch, the Core model of the Xbox 360 came without a hard disk drive, as did the Arcade model that replaced it in 2007. Other models came with an SATA 2.5-inch hard disk drive in a special clip-on enclosure that used custom firmware to prevent standard 2.5-inch hard disk drives from being used. An Xbox 360 hard drive could be attached to another Xbox 360 to allow the sharing of data such as games, music, demos and player preferences. Many (but not all) of the games for the original Xbox can run on the Xbox 360 provided it had a hard disk drive, and some Xbox 360 games required the use of the hard disk drive unit. Capacities for the hard disk drive ranged from 20 GB to 250 GB, and models with no hard disk drive, or a smaller drive, could be upgraded by clipping on a new drive.
The later Xbox 360 S and E versions used a different design of hard disk drive enclosure and the hard disk drive enclosure from the original Xbox 360 could not be used. A special Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Cable could be used to migrate the contents from an old drive.
A separate Xbox 360 Memory Unit was also available and two could be used on the original version, but with the launch of the revised Xbox 360 S version in 2010 the proprietary Memory Units were no longer compatible and USB flash drives could be used for storage instead.
Games could be downloaded from the Xbox Live online service, or purchased on DVD-ROM. Games weren’t distributed on HD DVD, but an optional external HD DVD drive could be purchased to play movies.
The Xbox 360 competed against the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, and sold well with over 84 million consoles sold.
It was superseded by the Xbox One in 2013 and discontinued in 2016.