clash1

Well, I'm going to have to trade in my xbox for a new one. My current one is locking up a lot on every game I own. (Halo, DOa3, Madden, shrek). It happens most on Halo, I'd say about 20% of the time. It doesn't lock up while loading. It does it right in the middle of game play. I was talking with the manager at my EB and he said there have been a few HDD probelms. This makes sense because in Halo when I am on a level and you get to a certain point and the screen shows "Loading . . . Done" I get a funny screen jitter where it acts like it's going to lock up but doesn't. My Tivo does this sometimes too.

Anyway, I'm gettting an exchange. Now, the problem is, All of my saved game data is on my HDD and I don't want to waste $30 on a stupid memory card just to transfer my data. Does anyone know if I could link my current xbox to the new one while at the store and transfer data that way?

Thanks

Shuki

I really have no idea about transferring the saved games but I have a question of my own. How long have you had the xbox and how long after getting it did it start freezing up?

shilly

buy the memory cartridges and back your games up on those. The Microsoft ones are $34.99 to $39.99 but there are some other brands for $24.99. This would be the only way I would think that you could back them up.

Hope it helps,
Steve "shilly" Schilffarth
The WOodlands, TX

clash1

The first week it only happened one or two times. Now (about 3 weeks into xbox ownership) it's happening about 20% of the time. It's completely unpredictable and very very annoying.

I guess I'll have to look into mem cards. I was hoping to never have to buy another one of those again.

Centurion

Your only option is the memory card. But since you don't want it, that means that you have already determined the game-saves in your harddrive are not worth it.

Personally, I would save the 30 or so dollars it would take to purchase a memory card and play all those great games you have again. Afterall, that's the reason why I purchase (instead of renting) a game.

Naan

Memory card also might not help. Some games don't support it so moving from one hard drive to another via the memory card won't work.

-Naan

clash1

I didn't realize this. Is this stated on the back of the game packaging?

Someone over at IGN said I could use a crosstalk cable to connect the 2 xbox's and transfer that way. I'm not sure how that works.

I have put a lot of time into Halo (on the Keyes level now) and my Madden franchise, but I guess it wouldn't be so bad to replay from the start. I could just see my wife saying you're not spending $30 to transfer your game - you're gonna have to just replay it. I respond: Replay Halo? Ok, you twisted my arm enough. I'll play it but I won't like it. As if that could happen.

Naan

The games that support the memory card have a little icon on the back of the case. It's required by Xbox certification if you're going to use it.

I know Munch and Project Gotham use it. I don't remember for others off the top of my head.

Madden probably does I would think, they have a large interest in people being able to take their rosters and things with them to play with their buddies.

I don't think Halo supports it, but I could be wrong.

-Naan

darkside

As good of an idea as a Hard Drive is, it does give the console one more thing to go bad.

However, the only thing I am upset to hear is you have to use the HD. What if you wanted to save all your games on a memory card? It sucks if not every game supports it or they won't let you transfer your saves. Bad planning by Microsoft on that one.

Naan

It's not really the best choice to force every game to use the memory card, so it's up to the developer as to whether they use it or not. Some games it just doesn't make sense for.

-Naan

darkside

I would love to know one game it doesn't make sense for. The great thing about memory cards is taking your save to play on someone elses console. The HD is great, but you should be able to put your saves on both.

clash1

Well, I did the exchange over the weekend. I didn't bother with the memory card. I decided to just replay Halo.

The good news is that I played through the first two levels on Halo, played 5 or 6 games of Madden, beat story mode with every character on Doa3 and I did not have any lock ups with the new xbox. There was definately some kind of problems with the HDD or something on my old one.

On a side note, I never got to see what my old xbox's original name was. I had put my name in on a doa3 high score list and that somehow became my xbox's name. With the new one I just got, the first thing I did was check its name in the Halo multiplayer screen. This one is named SAUCY.

Michael T Hudson

Mine's name is Pirate. So far so good.

Aghama

So the Xbox doesn't allow you to just copy from the harddrive to the memory card?

Centurion

My XBOX is called 'SNAKE'.
I hope (in the long run) it never turns around and bites me in the @ss!

So far, so good.

Giantrobo

I agree

Geez....I hope they're not using WESTERN DIGITAL hard drives.....they suck big time.

Giantrobo

Then why do other systems use the Mem Card media alone for saving?

Centurion

I believe the XBOX harddrive is built by Seagate.

Centurion

Maybe because they don't have a harddrive?!

Giantrobo

not that simple....

Centurion

Not that simple?
Well, which "other systems" did you have in mind when you mentioned using memory cards as the only storage medium?

Giantrobo

No one in particular.

It just seemed strange to say:

"It's not really the best choice to force every game to use the memory card..."

Naan

I don't have specific games in mind, but why would a team limit themselves to 8MB saves if they don't have to?

I can easily see and RPG going over the 8MB save limit in a memory card. How about an FPS that wants to save the exact gamestate at save time? All the bullet holes, all the damage textures, everything.

It seems goofy to me to say that every game should limit themselves to an 8MB save. The whole point of putting the HD in the Xbox in the first place was to change the rules and give developers options for a more immersive game experience.

Now granted, there are options in the Xbox to allow developers to essentially do 2 saves. One less than 8MB for the memory card that is the essential data, and an additional save to the hard drive for nonessential data like that listed above.

But it's up to the developer to make that call. It would be foolish for MS to force everyone to limit themselves to 8MB, if the whole point is to give developers more options with what they can do with their title.

These are all still first-generation titles as well. as developers learn more about what they can do, we'll see more choices made in how they save games.

Like it or not, I think the HD in consoles is here to stay. Just the space dedicated to caching data alone would be worth it. The difference in load times on Madden alone should prove that.

-Naan

Giantrobo

Good point Naan.

I never disagreed, I just needed to know what you meant. I also think the HD systems have MUCH potential and will be worth it if they can get the HD to work right and last.

After having lost 2 out of 3 HD's(WESTERN DIGITAL ) on my computer and waiting fo rthe 3rd to go bad, I don't look forward to having my GAMING SYSTEMS going bad every year causing me to replace hard drives.


so....when do you think the the GAME SYSTEM VIRUSES will start hitting

Naan

I don't think that there is one specific vendor supplying hard drives for the Xbox. I could be wrong of course, but it would seem to me that they wouldn't lock themselves to one company on something like a hard drive.

I personally like the WD drives, but I still won't buy Maxtor after all the cache problems they had many many many moons ago, when I still worked retail.

As they say, mileage may vary.

EDIT:

To answer your earlier question, other companies force the user to the memory card, because thats all they have, but you're right it's not that simple. Maybe they don't believe in the uses of a HD in the system, maybe they tried and did have stability problems, maybe they thought it added too much cost per unit. There are lots of possible reasons why.

MS could just as easily say you can't save anything to the hard drive, it's cache space only, but like I said, I think that's a bad stance to take considering some of the things you could use it for.

Hopefully once Xbox online goes live we'll start seeing downloadable levels and rosters for games, and all kinds of cool things.

-Naan