How To Convert A 360 Fat Hard Drive Into A 360 S Hard Drive Repair Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

                          30 minutes - 1 hour

Sections

Hard Drive (Internal)
4 steps
How to Convert a 360 (Fat) Hard Drive into a 360 S Hard Drive
1 step

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Introduction

If you have an Xbox 360 4GB console, this guide will show you convert a fat 360 hard drive to work in a E/S console. This can be used as a low cost solution to add more storage to a 4GB console and enable OG Xbox emulation. If you are coming from a dead Fat 360, this will allow you to keep using the old drive and treat the failure as business as usual. NOTE: Most fat 360 drives are 20GB or 60GB and are therefore smaller than the OEM drive (120/250GB). Keep this in mind when using one of these drives.

For this guide, I picked up a used 20GB drive (originally from a Fat 360). These are cheap and abundant and can be used as a meaningful bump for a 4GB system, but cannot be used for much more then game saves and 1-2 games stored on the drive since they are significantly smaller. For mass storage, use a 120GB drive if at all possible.

Guide notes

DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE EXTERNALLY!!! This will erase the security sector.Depending on where you purchased your drive, THIS MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. Keep this in mind if you go this route.There are no fat drives With a Microsoft warranty left. If the drive is sold as-is, there is nothing to worry about.Since most Fat 360 consoles are dead (and all surviving ones will fail), it may be better to purchase a tested drive.Most Fat 360 drives are 20GB or 60GB. Fat 120GB drives are uncommon.Consider your storage needs before buying one of these early drives.You must use an aftermarket enclosure. OEM drives are glued shut and will not re-seal.3rd party enclosures are not hard to find but are typically only sold online.
Consider your storage needs before buying one of these early drives.

What you need

Step 1

              Remove the bottom screws

Buy the drive at a cost you can afford to eat. This will void any warranties offered.
Remove the 3 screws from the bottom of the drive. Use a T6 Torx driver.
Remove the warranty seal and final screw. Use a T6 Torx driver.

Buy the drive at a cost you can afford to eat. This will void any warranties offered.

Remove the 3 screws from the bottom of the drive. Use a T6 Torx driver.

Remove the warranty seal and final screw. Use a T6 Torx driver.

1024

Step 2

              Disassembly tip

If the drive is difficult to open, a screwdriver or pry tool can help.

If the drive is difficult to open, a screwdriver or pry tool can help.

Step 3

              Open the drive

If you are taking the enclosure apart for the bare drive, less caution is needed.
After removing the 4 bottom screws, remove the top cover. Remove the spring and locking tab before removing the drive cage.
Remove the drive cage from the drive enclosure. If the drive has never been opened, additonal force may be required.

If you are taking the enclosure apart for the bare drive, less caution is needed.

After removing the 4 bottom screws, remove the top cover. Remove the spring and locking tab before removing the drive cage.

Remove the drive cage from the drive enclosure. If the drive has never been opened, additonal force may be required.

Step 4

              Disconnect and remove the hard drive

Remove the four T10 Torx screws securing the hard drive.
After removing the screws, slide the top cover off and disconnect the drive.
Disconnect the hard drive and remove it from the enclosure.

Remove the four T10 Torx screws securing the hard drive.

After removing the screws, slide the top cover off and disconnect the drive.

Disconnect the hard drive and remove it from the enclosure.

Step 5

              Install the hard drive into the new enclosure

If you do not use an official hard drive, you will need a WD hard drive, the Xbox hard drive sector security file and HDDhackr to partition the drive. Partition 2 must be restored manually.
After removing the drive from the old enclosure, open the new enclosure.
Put the drive in the enclosure label side up. Space may need to be added for 7mm drives.
Close the enclosure and install it in your console.

If you do not use an official hard drive, you will need a WD hard drive, the Xbox hard drive sector security file and HDDhackr to partition the drive. Partition 2 must be restored manually.

After removing the drive from the old enclosure, open the new enclosure.

Put the drive in the enclosure label side up. Space may need to be added for 7mm drives.

Close the enclosure and install it in your console.

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