Sordid: Our Affair with the Xbox 360 (Part II)
Previously… on Sordid. For nearly two years we’ve struggled like so many others with problematic Xbox 360 hardware. Red Rings, E74 errors, faulty disc drives, problematic hard drives. And those are all defects, the growing problems with Microsoft’s “vision” and how they’re handling the Xbox Live Marketplace is another multi-part series in itself.
When last we left off we had just set up our sleek new Xbox 360 Elite. I was excited about the 120 gb hard drive as our original 20 gb brick has been filled up and reorganized dozens of times over the years. Like an old 386 PC, there just comes a time to leave it all behind… the hard drive that is, not our precious data!
For those who haven’t had to deal with data migration on the Xbox 360, let me explain your legal options. There’s a 64mb and a 512mb Memory Unit which generally cost $30 and $50 respectively. That’s it. Datel once produced several peripherals that allow you to backup a memory unit or Xbox hard drive to your PC but they’re hard to find in stores and getting more expensive every day online. Shadier options include finding an SATA adapter to plug your Xbox hard drive into or doing some fancy hacking to create your own memory unit. So the plan became:
- Buy a memory unit
- Copy a card’s worth
- Swap hard drives
- Copy the card over
- Swap hard drives back
- Repeat steps 2-5 ad infinitum
I’m not too excited about flipping the hard drives over and over but unless I can find one of Datel’s devices for cheap it looks like it’s our only option. With a 15% Off coupon in hand, we set out on Sunday for Meijer. A quick trip to the electronics department revealed that they rarely stock the memory units. After waiting all week for that coupon to be valid and hoping that the Sunday ads would yield a spontaneous sale, I was a bit pissed by the whole situation.
Our next stop was Wal-Mart where I planned on breaking down and just buying the $50 card for one day’s worth of use. Peg hooks barren I asked an employee who said they should have more in about a week. Quickly getting agitated and with thawing cream cheese in the car I gave up and drove back home. It ended up being for the best as I chose a used memory unit on Amazon.com and realized I still had $6 in credit to cover expedited shipping. Twenty-nine dollars later, it was ordered.
That’s where we’re at right now. A week later and we still have the clunky old 20 gb hard drive plugged in and I’m sure there’s more tribulation to come. Look for [the final?] installment of Sordid soon!
