Xbox 360 hard drive reads 'unformatted'

I turned on my Xbox this morning to find that my 320gb hard drive was unformatted. Last night it was working correctly. I have seen multiple other users saying the same thing happened to them immediately after downloading a required update. My console
is not connected to the internet by default, I only occasionally sign into Xbox Live. My console has not been connected for nearly a week, and still it suddenly says it is unformatted. It's this a virus of some kind, or built in obsolescence? Given that I
fix electronics for a living, I know the data can't be recovered. I have attempted unplugging everything then plugging it back in, I have tried clearing the cache, even signing in with my recovered gamertag and nothing works.My question is, is this going to
be a one time thing or should I expect this to continue happening?

:)

 

Unformatted hdd

Once a hard drive is coming up as "unformatted" that means that the Xbox 360 can no longer read the data that's on that hard drive.

You can try to remove the hard drive and place it back in the console and see if it makes any sort of difference. If it doesn't then that means that the data is already gone as there's no way to read data that's coming up are "unformatted" on a hard drive.

You'd need to format that hard drive in order for it to be readable again. If this happens again, it's likely an issue with the hard drive and it would need to be replaced.

 

brak połonczenia z xbox live [Translation: No xbox live połonczenia]

Hey there Fir! Are you saying that your hard drive is unformatted? When you go to System, then Storage does your Hard Drive read as unformatted? I'm trying to make sure I understand the situation.

 

Hey there

Welcome to the forums

.

This issue has happened with allot of people throughout Xbox Live. However there is some things you can try and do. If you can take your Xbox 360, unplug everything from it. Including your power and network cables. After you have done this, remove the storage
device from the 360, for help with this, please follow the link bellow for more information on how to remove the 360 Hard Drive

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

Once you have done that, could you then add your Hard Drive back to your Xbox. Plug all of your wires and cables into your Xbox. Then turn it on and see if your Hard Drive is formatted again to the Xbox 360.

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If that does not work, then you can try the link bellow to go through some more troubleshooting steps with the Hard Drive.

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

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If that does not work, then try re formatting your Xbox 360 Hard Drive three times in a row. This has worked with other Xbox Live users, so I am hoping it will work with you

.

If that does not work, then please try and clear your system cache and then try again with the re formatting option. For more information with the Clearing your system Cache, please look at the article bellow

support.xbox.com/.../clear-system-cache

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I hope this helps you with your issue, This is all the information I have posted on the other threads regarding this issue. Please post back any results you have with these steps

Regards,

 

This is Microsoft--not Apple--so built in obsolescence isn't really a thought to them honestly.

It cannot be a virus from LIVE since it is highly regulated and user uploads aren't permitted to the actual LIVE servers.

If you broke the Terms of Usage agreement and accessed your HDD it's possible--though highly unlikely--that you put a virus on the drive.

Most likely scenario--and since you fix electronics for a living I'm sure you can understand this one--is simple hardware failure. Technology fails often, especially if it's over-heated due to poor ventilation. Platter based storage can be quite fickle
and the FATX format is unique to the 360 so it's virtually undocumented for people outside the industry. If one of the header sectors got corrupted the entire drive would go blank.

 

I refuse to believe the data is unrecoverable that is complete nonsense. What you MEAN to say is that its not accessible for a consumer to fix. Microsoft obviously has a way to recover thier own data, but they dont share this knowledge or give consumers
a chance to recover data as a service. I know programmers, and i know its also the year 2014, its possible to recover my data. Unfortunately, any act taken upon MYSELF to fix this breaks my Terms Of Service. Why wont microsoft fix this properly?!

 

Sigh... it's not possible to recover your data on the Xbox 360.

The 360 uses it's own type of file structuring called FATX where a PC would use FAT, FAT8, FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS and a Mac would use HFS or HFS+.

• HFS/HFS+ allows for some great flexibility on how software can access the HDD but is poor for data recovery.
  
• FAT/FAT8/FAT16/FAT32/NTFS is more structured and limits how software can run but allows for great data recovery because the marker in the FAT is removed saying what sectors belong to what files but the file is still there until over-written. That is why
  some data recovery is possible.
• FATX is almost a hybrid of the two prior systems and is inclusive to the Xbox 360. It's proprietary technology owned and patented by Microsoft and has no tools designed to recover data because like HFS/HFS+ when data is deleted it is quite literally deleted.
  

Hopefully that explains things to you in the most lay way I know possible.

I don't care whom you allege to know but the facts are quite simple.

Your data is lost.

Period.

 

Unfortunately this has happened to a number of people, including myself and seems to be cause by the update. I even too my drive into a MS store just to see if they could get my saved games off that couldn't connect to the cloud. Sorry, lost it all had
to reformat the drive.

I wish I had a happier ending for you.

 

ZappyKins, if you read the initial post you'd know this user had no update and was not connected to the LIVE servers for at least a week. Please stop blaming a software update for hardware failure.

 

This from the guy that attacks everyone claiming they have 'cheap 3rd party hardware?'

You have to admit the timing is quit suspicions. And seeing how the update HAS caused THESE EXACT problems I think you sir are out of line.

 

I never claimed anyone had "cheap 3rd party hardware." I said counterfeit HDDs are generally the main reason for them to re-format after a system update. Hardware failure is another reason. Software updates do not break hardware in the manner that you
people want to believe that they do and quite frankly you--as an Ambassador--should not be purporting the concept that Microsoft is deliberately damaging hardware and intentionally covering up facts. Leave paranoia to conspiracy theorists.