Is my HDD going bad?

Need some help - I think I broke hubby's Xbox while he's deployed... eek!

We have a 360 Slim with a memory stick. It's been totally fine up until last night. Had Fallout New Vegas in the drive, but was actually connected to the wifi watching Netflix, signed into Live with my account/avatar. Netflix was running too slow, so
I signed out, went back to the homescreen to play Fallout, and it froze (never had that happen before). I turned off the console and turned it back on, but when I did, it didn't log into a Live account, didn't recognize there was anything in the tray, and
all of our avatar/Live accounts were gone. I tried to download my account, and it told me that I needed an Xbox memory unit to do that. I tried to connect to wifi, and it told me I needed a wifi adapter to do that, which is odd since we've never had an issue
connecting it to the wifi in the 5+ years we've owned it.

So after a slight pit in my stomach, I turned it off and on again. Same thing. It's like it factory reset itself (or wiped itself clean) but then forgot that it's even got a storage unit or wifi adapter inside! Did this twice more, and the last time I
did it, it went back to normal - signed me into Live right away, all our accounts were there, wifi was connected, showed Fallout in the tray. No issues. I went to try and get to the social screen, just to have a look around, and it froze again. When I turned
off and on, it was back to the "wiped clean" setup. That's how it's stayed.

I did download an update on Sunday night, and this was the second time I've used it since then. There is no red ring of death, but at times the controllers seem to just keep searching and searching to connect to the console and they aren't really communicating
well. Also, when I try to play any game in the tray on the "wiped clean" setup, it either freezes or tells me there's nothing there.

Is it dead? Please don't give my husband more ammunition to buy a One, and tell me this is fixable! I have no idea how to open the console, or even what I would do once it's open, but someone suggested maybe the HDD is either loose or bad. Is there anything
I can do to fix this? Thanks for ANY help you can give me!!

:)

 

Issue trying to upgrade my Hard Drive from 60 gb to 250 gb

Hello there I have a 60GB HDD system I bought a 250 GB HDD to upgrade too. When I put the 250 GB HDD on my system its saying there is only 14 GB is there an issue with my system ? I bought another 250 GB HDD and the same issue is going on any help is greatly
appreciated thank you.

 

Error "game couldnt start, try downloading again"

this is where i got my HDD
www.amazon.com/.../ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

nothing in my memory is corrupted. i think it is going to be the HDD but its got the Microsoft logo on it i dont understand.

 

Hello Littleissa,

At this link here you can read about different troubleshooting steps pertaining to various hard drive-related issues:
support.xbox.com/.../hard-drive

To take the hard drive out and put it back in you do not need to open up the console per sé, it's more opening a cover. There's a guide here, covering all the Xbox 360 models:

support.xbox.com/.../add-remove-hard-drive

You may also want to run through the steps for troubleshooting a bad update, which you can find here:

support.xbox.com/.../system-update-help

Let us know how you get on and if you have any questions.

 

I don't think the OP's console actually has a 'hard drive'. As the fast sentence states
"We have a 360 Slim with a memory stick."

I'm pretty certain this this is an Xbox 360 4GB Slim, in which case it won't have 'hard drive' to remove. The 'Memory unit' is non user replaceable. Basically, looking at all the evidence, the console has some kind of of general hardware failure. The
4GB Memory Unit in the 4GB slim can fail just like any Flash storage and it can not be removed because it's attached to the console motherboard.

If it was just the on-board storage that had failed, you could still use the console if you attached a hard drive. However, with the WiFi failing, the DVD drive not recognising discs and the inability to connect controllers properly suggests it has indeed
failed.

Other than set up a repair, no there is nothing else you can do. Sorry.

 

Maybe I stated it wrong. It's got a flashdrive that my husband has some movies and a couple game saves on, but we only just got that last year. Before that, we weren't using any external memory for it. I don't know if that affects what can be done, but
I thought I'd clarify just in case.

 

It depends on the model. Some consoles are sold as a 4GB model, which is basically only some internal flash memory and does not count as a hard drive, whereas if the model you have is a 250GB (or anything other than 4GB; 120GB, 320GB or 500GB could also
be the case) then it's one with an additional, removable hard drive. If you're not sure, by following the steps I linked above you'll find out (there either is or won't be a hard drive where the guide says there is one).

 

OP --I'll save you some time. USB Thumb drives, use something known as flash memory. To save you time, they basically have a finite amount of read/writes before they stop working. For this reason, it's very, very cheap. For something like storing documents
on, it's not a problem. However, since the Xbox reads and writes to the thumb drive a heck of a lot more than a document would, these drives fail quickly. I wouldn't recommend using a thumb drive on an Xbox for any amount of time. The performance on them is
terrible, and they fail fairly quickly. For these reasons I suggest buying an external Hard Drive. You can buy 500 GB drives for fairly cheap, and they're going to last you a lot longer than a USB stick (provided you don't knock them around, mechanical drives
are fragile creatures). As for brands, I would stay away from Seagate and PNY under all costs. You get what you pay for, and these drives are borderline trash. That, and they have compatibility issues with Xbox 360s. Western Digital drives are very resilient
and are available for decent prices. I recommend buying a Western Digital Passport drive. They're small, portable, and are pretty darn great!

If your USB stick is working half the time, or at all, I would recommend that you stop use immediately to save your data from any potential loss that could happen if you continue using the drive.

If that's too long and you don't feel like reading that fat blob of text, don't use USB sticks. Buy yourself a Western Digital External. If you're tight on space you can buy a Western Digital Passport drive. Also, Seagate and PNY suck so avoid those.

Good luck!