DO WANT. Now what?

June 17, 2010 11:01 AM

How can I back up my save files on my 360 so I can transfer them to a new console?

Okay, the 360 slim is winning me over with its big 250 gb HDD and shiny new built in wifi, however in order to afford one I'd have to trade in my Arcade + 20 gb Hard drive. I know I can redownload all my DLC so I'm not worried about transferring that over, but how can I get my profile et al over to the new system if I have to trade in HDD to get it?

Will the recently added jump drive support allow you to back everything up to a computer? Because if so I could then easily copy it off of there and onto the new system. I'd really prefer to not spend 30 dollars on a memory card because at that point I might as well just keep the HDD and use a data transfer cable.

Hope me?

posted by bookwo3107 to technology (6 answers total)

I believe transferring to a USB thumb drive would work, but I'm not sure if that data would be computer accessible. Microsoft's FAQ on USB support is here.

Buying an Xbox 360 memory card wouldn't help, anyway, since the new Xbox 360 Slim doesn't have a memory card slot.
posted by curse at 11:07 AM on June 17, 2010

You can't easily transfer everything to a computer, but why would you want to for this purpose? Copy everything to a USB thumb drive, trade in the system, copy everything from the thumb drive. Note that you want to use a fresh USB stick, or at least one with data you don't care about, because it will get formatted for use with the XBox.

And yeah, no go on the memory card.

Another option would be trading in the system without the hard drive, transferring everything with the data cable, and then selling the hard drive. It would cost a bit more but would be much less hassle compared to copying all the files one by one.
posted by kmz at 11:12 AM on June 17, 2010

curse has it, but note that this is really only needed for your saved games. Your profile is stored online and accessible from just about anywhere.
posted by valkyryn at 11:12 AM on June 17, 2010

I figured that this would work but couldn't find any information that was up-to-date (post-flash-drive-update). Thanks guys!

(I asked about the PC because... well, no real reason, actually, just curious if I could actually keep a back up off of the 360.)
posted by bookwo3107 at 11:16 AM on June 17, 2010

Use a transfer cable for the smoothest transfer. They'll be more readily available shortly.
posted by TimeDoctor at 11:46 AM on June 17, 2010

I've never tried this but it appears that if you use a USB drive as a backup, you need to use the same device when restoring the content to your 360 HDD:

The scope for backing Flash drive content is basically extremely limited. We moved across a folder of files from one drive to another, and the data was completely ignored: the 360 simply treated the device as though it was completely empty. However, the files can be backed up on your PC, and then copied back onto the same flash drive. A backup option limited to the exact same device from which the data came from is clearly limited, and the way that 360 files are embedded into the "Data" chunks means that you can't back-up individual items in the way you can on PS3.

posted by Bangaioh at 3:05 PM on June 17, 2010