Microsoft Hard Drive (120 GB) (9Z600001) for Xbox 360

The 120 gb hd for the X360 is certainly for the ones who really have a lot of games and want to save them on a larger hd. It's definitely for ones who love to get games through XBox Live Arcade.

I personally got it for the certain games I carry. I usually have a play time of 2 - 3 hours and I went through one console already. I didn't want to use the disc drive any further just to play a lengthy or even a short game. I was afraid that I'd end up shortening the life of my second console the way I did the first. I also had a 20 gb hd from the first console but new stuff comes out almost every week and I already didn't have enough space to even download one game.

I took a chance and got the 120 gb hd. It came from elite version so it wasn't actually a seperate entity. What I didn't know at the time before I purchased it was that it needed the Data Migration Transfer kit to take my data from the old hd and send it to the new one. It was absoulutely necessary to have it. Unfortunately, I was impatient and bought it here for over $50. Here's a warning and helpful tip: DO NOT BUY THE KIT OFF OF EBAY. You can go to the XBox home page and print out a request form. When it asks you to give info about your "new console", you can put "On order" and wait a 7 - 10 days tops.

Well, once I got everything "migrated" into the new hd, I checked to see how much space was used. To my disbelief (and unfortunate knowledge of hard drives), it wasn't a full 120 gb. The console took up 10 gb of memory and then whatever I had from the old console. Mind you it was a lot of Arcade titles, game saves, and other misc. stuff but I was left with only close to 90 gb of space left. It was disappointing but I knew something like that would occur. I did manage to save about 4 X360 games on the HD. At an average it takes about 5 - 6 gb of space per game.

Overall, it took a lot off my mind since I'm saving the disc drive and now play the games I like off of the hd. I know it was a bit costly, but in the end there is no other solution. Besides, I have a lot of games I can store in there and also have the option to hold more if I want to. That's the biggest advantage of having a large capacity hd. There is no real disadvantage except that some games may take a lot of space and especially other things like rented videos. If you're into that part of the XBox Live experience, then this is a must buy. There is the 60 gb that's out there but that's for more of a gamer that has a few collection of store bought titles or a large XBox Live collection. If you're serious about saving your console the RROD or at least want to make a concerted effor to extend the life of your console and have a lot to store, the 120 gb hd is a must buy. Be aware that you do need the migration kit in order to transfer you old data to the new hd.