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.
@MrGreen
ZING! :D
I don't have an Xbox, so perhaps somebody can explain to me how this works. This is an external drive you hookup to a port, or it's internal and Xbox has some sort of modular bay you can load this into?
MS must be making a tidy profit selling people 250g HDs for $130.
@v0rt
It loads onto the side of the xbox with its own proprietary casing. It's basically a notebook hard drive encased in special xbox hardware. You just have to press a button and the case pops off the side of the xbox.
What RPM?
@techlord
5400, what else?
How does it feel 2 have 2 pay $130 for 250 gb HD I just bought a 500gb HD for $100 for my ps3 it must suck o well good luck with that
@ihve2cuties wow are you really going to compare prices? sure you have the option to purchase a cheaper hard drive but did you know you paid twice what I payed for my xbox360?
@IceTheGreat
But he got: Blu-ray playback, free online multiplayer & free Wifi with his PS3.
Lets compare like for like in that case. :)
@ChazClout
Don't forget the built in rechargeable batteries and support for non-proprietary accessories!
@IceTheGreat No I did not it cost me $300 and u paid $300 except u also have 2 pay $50 dollars for online play and $100 dollars if u want wifi not to mention the money spent buying rechargable batteries I mean the list goes on
@IceTheGreat yeah man. you can say you have more exclusives games but you can't argue with the PS3's value and build quality. Sony knows how to build hardware, not Microsoft.
It's about f*cking time!
Now I can install all my games to the hard drive without worrying about low storage phobia.
But I'm thinking on not buying it no more, specially with the new 360 slim rumors.
Hmmm?
Nah, I'm good.
Let me know when you launch that slim Xbox with wifi built in.
Thanks.
Who cares? Get a playstation and save money
HAHA, this is sad.
God, finally. I thought MS wouldn't release this at all (in order to force users to buy the next 360 iteration). Yeah, $129 might sound expensive, but it's still cheaper than having to buy a new 360 (which was the only official alternative).
wow!!! this will hold as much data as 5 Blurays!!
Fix the red ring of death first and I may invest in something more with my xbox.... http://smi.sh/805e1
@jasonkburden Um, they did that. Like 2 hardware revisions ago......
@jasonkburden
Tool, it has been fixed.
@lamerz They fixed the red ring, but replaced it with the e74. My 6 month old xbox has the E74 error and is now in service :(
@djt
Would you mind giving me the contact information for Microsoft? They haven't replaced my older model 360 with a fixed version.
Now reduced the price by $50.
What a rip off. I never thought about looking on Ebay like a poster above mentioned. Here I come Ebay!
@Scape3d Watch out you don't buy one that had it's smaller drive replaced with a bigger drive through modifying it. I'd suggest new on ebay or a very trusted seller.
My brother owns an Xbox 360 (from 2006), but both he and I believe that nowadays the PS3 appears to be the superior choice. Being able to use your own hard drive, a blu-ray player, a browser and Folding@Home are just a few reasons.
Or you could buy the same Xbox 360 hard drive from any number of Chinese dealers for around $70 (and few of the them charge shipping).
Anyway, for me, 250GB isn't enough. I want to store my movies on the Xbox 360 itself (not in an external device) and that requires 1TB of space, at least.
Microsoft needs to stop dicking around with this proprietary bullsh*t and offer Xbox owners the same open expandability that Sony entrusts to its PS3 customers.
@ZeroCorpse
I use an external Seagate. It shuts off after the 360 does so It's painless. The downside is one less USB.
wait, this isn't a SSD?
I can understand the complications with network hacks and system modifications. But, I just installed a 320GB HD-D in my PS3, a 10 min. job, for $55. All without breaching an agreement or voiding a warranty.
Nickels and dimes.
@Vandro Yeah but what do you do if you want to bring all of your content from one PS3 to another? On a weekly/daily bases? PS3 HD upgrade system is much cheaper but I love being able to pop out he drive. I hope the next version of Xbox consoles HD are much bigger and reasonably priced.
@MarkHawk
It's called a flash drive. If the rumors are true Microsoft should be letting us know how convenient they are in the coming months.
WOOHOO.. a $40 hard drive for $129 !!!! CANT FREAKIN WAIT
i love the xbox but considering my ps3 came with 160GB stock (not to mention i can change the HDD if i want) i think its fucking ridiculous that they charge so much for their peripherals.
@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...
whoa! thats bullshit!! I JUST PAID $170 for the 120 GB HDD!! WTF MICROSOFT!! I want a free upgrade!!!! WTF WTF WTF!!!
what a rip off, I'll just keep deleting stuff every time I want to download a new demo on my "20GB"