250GB Xbox 360 hard drive now available for $129.99
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 23rd 2010 2:04PM
posted March 23rd 2010 2:04PM
It's been available in Japan for a little while now, and it looks folks over here will finally be able get a standalone 250GB hard drive to breath some new life into their Xbox 360 as well. First revealed on the Xbox 360 Dashboard, Microsoft has now come out and confirmed that the drive will cost $129.99, and says that it should be available at retailers starting today (although Amazon is only listing an in-stock date of March 28th). And, yes, it does come with a transfer cable -- that's it next to the drive in the image above.
I still haven't filled up the 60GB one I bought off eBay for like 30 dollars.
@Prevacator
You must be quite the gambler
@Prevacator
You can just buy a 250gb HDD off newegg for 50 bucks and just dedicate some time out your day for neat D-I-Y project...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgpeIOmWICk
@Prevacator
Absolute highway robbery.... for 250GB :ugh:
@Prevacator I use the 1 TB hard drive in my ps3 that i bought for the same price. I'm sorry Microsoft? You don't support normal hard drives? Great consumer attention there.
@captnlove
can you tell me where you bought this 1tb 2.5 inch hdd that doesn't exist?
@munchies
Where's all the indignant rage about how MS locks you into their proprietary ecosystem?
@munchies Yes, it is overpriced. At least it's a slight improvement. We're now in the neighborhood of $.50/GB where before it was over $1.00/GB. I'd still go the DIY route if I was looking to upgrade at the moment. If this was $99, then I might make the jump and buy it instead of DIY.
@mastercheif well if you have heard of the Internet you can do a search for one an find about a million. Bought one off eBay a few weeks ago for my ps3.
@captnlove
Its crap like this that makes me want a PS3 more everyday.
First me and my bro spend buy a 120 GB hard drive for the UNGODLY price of like $140. Which pissed me off already because I could have put a 500GB drive in for the same price, but I couldn't just swap them out because M$ likes to block "hack consoles" from online play, which is bullshit because since when was swapping out a SATA hard drive a hack?
Well then I wanted to put all my rockband DLC songs onto the new drive, and for the record, re downloading DLC onto a new xbox or hard drive is the most unintuitive process in the history of man, seriously I have used CAD software made by some idiot in the 90's that is more intuitive than this stupid process.
Then my xbox broke (E74 error), I got a new one but had to wait two weeks, and now my rock band DLC songs have spotty playback at best.
I mean I doubt Sony's DLC content redelivery system is any better, but at least I won't have to deal with this console failure and overpriced hard drive BS.
Screw you M$, I'm going to save my pennies and either go back to PC gaming (Valve on linux yet?) or buy just a PS3.
For $129, I expect at least 1.5Tb. 250GB at that price is laughable.
@PlatinumSkeet I would absolutely not trust dealextreme to sell me a harddrive, I bought some flash memory off of there for my PSP once which wasn't recognized by anything I put it in.
They're fine for 2$ iPod wires and auxiliary cables, but for things that require even a little bit of quality they're terrible.
@mastercheif
wtf, don't know where you've been but 1tb 2.5" HDD have been around for a while now: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=1053792&source=froogle
@Broderbund
O.k well Best Buy then or Wal Mart... The point is still the same buy a 250 gb HDD for around $50 and do it yourself...
250GB bin file inbound. Buy the same drive for $60 on NewEgg, flash the drive and voila, same frigging thing...just 60 clams cheaper.
@mrteeth where did you get it? the last time i swapped out a hard drive it was in my PowerBook and i got it at macsales.com which has some good prices but they don't carry 1TB 2.5" drives.
Thanks!! (p.s. i've found 500GB hard drives for $98... twice the capacity for less $$!!)
@captnlove they don't make 2.5 inch drives with that much space
@joebob Its actually really easy to recover DLC on the PSN. You go into account management, then download list, select previous downloads (including any DLC) and voila, you have your songs back.
PSN does have some restrictions but Live is WAY more restrictive.
@mastercheif
They do Exist
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/27/wd-ships-industrys-first-2-5-inch-1tb-hard-drive/
I paid LESS than that for 1.3 terabytes! In a USB enclosure!
so 120s now 60? lol
That's it? /sarcasm
@XxTheRemedyXx
Price is still high, I got a PC 1.5TB Hard Drive for the same price, and a PC 500GB For nearly half the price
Just waiting for the day microsoft lets you use your own external hard drives for storage that are not made by microsoft
@OCEAN CLAK
Not to be a fanboy or anything, but that's one of the reasons I love my PS3. Just bought a 500GB 5400RPM drive for less than half of $129.99.
@OCEAN CLAK
well you can do the HFS+ trick for some stuff
that tricked me! I thought I'd get an XBOX for $129.99!
@mikmik111 You can buy one for 130 here in Canada at walmart
We just got them in store today but the street date is March 28th. Looks like they are taking the 120GB away though and this is replace it completely
I want it!
Lol I bought a 1.5 tb hard drive for 40$ less then this tipoff
@Anatomyofme
Yes a 3.5" drive. Try fitting that into a 2.5" case. A 1TB 2.5" HDD is about $190.
Still way too expensive for storage.
@Adenosine2010 While it is expensive, keep in mind these are 5,4000rpm 2.5 in drives with (proprietary) housings. Seagate still sells 160 gig (7,200rpm) drives for $130 on newegg.
@Adenosine2010 While it is expensive, keep in mind these are 5,400rpm 2.5 in drives with (proprietary) housings. Seagate still sells 160 gig (7,200rpm) drives for $130 on newegg.
@GeekPI
54,000 rpm drives? WHERE DO I GET THESE?
@GeekPI
Your a Gemini aren't you?
@GeekPI Way to pick out the extreme. These prices are nuts. I got a hitachi 500GB 7200 rpm drive for $100, at Frys. MS needs to quit ripping off it's userbase.
I'm probably going to get this (my 360 is harddrive-less right now) but I cant help but feel burned, PC hard drives are like 12-16 cents per gigabyte now, much much cheaper than this.
@Nitesh
i know the xbox ones are still a rip off but you need to compare them to a 2.5" HDD, not a 3.5" one.
@nabberuk
Okay then, about 20¢ per GB. (For a $50 250 GB 2.5" 5400 RPM HDD.
@nabberuk
Dont forget its $89.98 a GB for 360 Memory Units,
NOW THATS OVER PRICED
This would make a great deal for those who managed to snag an XBox 360 Arcade here in Canada for $129 last week yet wanted a hard drive.
What could you possibly fill 250 gigs with?
@yulebellow
Game installs are getting bigger, especially with more multi-disc games as DVD's limitations become more apparent. Then there are Microsoft's greatly overpriced Games on Demand, those kill space too.
@yulebellow Mostly Rock Band DLC, Game DLC that are in the gigs (Assassin's Creed and Borderlands for example) XBLA games, then the Demos, Betas, Movies. That's about the order if importance for me. I have a little less then 1 gig left currently. I'll pick up a 250 gig Xbox though because it's a better value for me.
Only $1.92 a GB? Holy cow what a joke...I mean steal!! :S
@InnocentEd
learn to do math it is $0.52 a gig
@andrewpc1 lol....whoops :) but you got the point, haha
LOL @ price.
That is all.
@ChazClout Says the guy with an Apple logo for avatar. Sweet, sweet irony.