What size hard drive do you have?

Install the game you want to play and when you're done, delete it. No matter where you select to play it, it plays from the hard drive by default but yes you still need the disc in the drive. When you boot up the game the drive spins up to verify it's in the drive, after that it spins down and shuts off while you play the game negating half the noise the 360 makes.

Do not install Halo 3


http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/932/932273p1.html

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.a...news&cid=16252

The USB drive thing is kind of good news. I've already got a 120 GB hard drive, but I never bothered to pick up a memory card because they were so overpriced. I've got a few 8 GB flash drives laying around, so maybe I'll use those for installing games I don't plan on replaying.

I wonder if accessing flash memory will be any faster than the hard drive.

If anything, the USB support will be a better way to backup/use for game saves.

Oh yeah. Good point given he is starting that game. Everything else should be good though. Last thing, you can only install 360 games, not original xbox titles.

The rumored new XBox360 motherboard was analyzed by Ben Heck and seemed to lack ports for memory units, so this might be a move to eliminate those and just use USB drives.

Don't forget about the huge reduction in heat. The consoles run much cooler when games are played from the HD.

what do these articles say? i cannot access from work.

i installed it last night and it was a lot quieter. i have 120Gb.

Basically Bungie designed the game to run optimally by accessing information on the hard drive (scratch memory) and the optical drive at once. When the game is installed on the hard drive, the system cannot as effectively access the same information.

^ ok. thanks. has anyone played Halo 3 off the hard drive only and had trouble?

you have longer load times. Same goes for playing online, if someone in the party has it installed it will take longer to get matches going.

I wonder if the USB drive is the first step towards a "slim" 360 and possibly cloud storage?

I'm definitely looking forward to someone figuring this out so I can keep my Bejeweled 2 save safe.

Got a new unit from Microsoft via UPS yesterday. Manufactured 3-1-10. Came with a month of Xbox Live for my "troubles".

Well it is definitely the first step towards the slim 360 that is coming this year. Those memory card slots are gone.

According to an e-mail from MS my 360 is on its way back from repair.

Wait,how did you get a new one?

When MS sent me a *new* one it was about 2 weeks old, like Chuck's. I sold that bad boy on Craigslist and bought a new Arcade so I could have a fresh 3 year warranty.

so has anyone experienced difficulties playing Halo 3 straight from the hard drive?

also, if i just try it out from hard drive, what should i look for or see if there were a problem? i just don't quite understand all the lingo.

Scott, on the previous page of this thread, you commented a reply to someone's post telling you NOT to install Halo 3 onto the hard drive. Why exactly are you now surprised that it doesn't work?

no, no, sorry to be misleading MC.

i haven't even tried playing it yet from hard drive. i read the article and it mentioned "some" have had difficulties and that Bungie doesn't recommend installing it. i didn't understand all the lingo and what the problems exactly were.

but, i was wondering if anyone did go through with the install and did not experience any difficulties while playing.

and if i was going to try it, what exactly to look for as a "problem". the noise was just overpowering and just wanted to see if it is all installs of game or perhaps just select few.

I've played plenty of games off the hard drive (not Halo 3). Levels load faster and the box is a lot quieter. Only "negative" is that you don't always have time to read tips that are displayed on the loading screen.

i think if i read the Bungie site correctly, i should be ok if i plan on just playing single player campaign, which i intend to do. from what i was able to gleen, the problems occur with loading maps in online/multi-player games.

hey- if it does take longer and i do see problems i will just delete from HD and play disc from DVD drive and live with the noise. no biggie.

Yeah, what does Bungie know about how the games THEY developed are gonna work on MY system, anyway? Fuck it, I'm installing my copy now, too.

Just don't install it on your HD, sheesh.

Halo 3 works fine from the HD. The only issue is that it is a little slower. Halo 3 caches a lot of stuff to the HD. Thus there is a lot of reading/writing from/to one part of the HD (where the cache is) and a lot of reading from where the game is installed. This causes lots of head movement between the two areas, and thus slower speeds. It will still work fine though.

I installed in to the HD to lessen the wear on the DVD drive. In the future, when my 360 is no longer under warranty, the HD would be far easier for me to replace than the DVD drive.

thanks Jeremy.

so you are saying when you play the single player campaign, the load times (between chapters or first boot up) are slower and that is it? i won't see slow down or framerate issues during gameplay?