Xbox 360 USB Data Storage Support releasing April 6

It has already been confirmed that USB Mass Storage Device Support on Xbox 360 will soon be a reality! A document has been authorized by a senior software development engineer of Microsoft & it states that a 2010 Xbox 360 system update will allow USB flash drives to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more. The update is set to release on April 6th. Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device.You can also store disc-based games to the USB device.

 

 

The USB mass storage device must be of 1GB at least and the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm whether the drive is working properly or not. The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller. Upon inserting a blank USB storage device, consumers are offered two choices: 'Configure now' & 'Customize'. The 'Configure now' option will use the entire device capacity up to a maximum of 16 GB regardless of the overall size of the device you're using i.e. the Xbox will only enable 16 GB of usable non-system storage. The 'Customize' option will allow you to preserve some pre-existing, non-console data on the device.

So even if you can't afford Microsoft's cutthroat hard drive pricing for the Xbox 360, you can simply use two USB storage devices for a maximum of 32 GB of usable storage at a time. The console has a fixed limit of two external USB mass storage devices regardless of whether they're formatted for the Xbox 360 or not. If you fill all three USB ports, only the first two to be connected will be recognized by the console.

Flash Drive of any brand is okay but they are partnering with SanDisk to release an Xbox 360 branded USB flash drive in May that comes pre-configured out of the box and ready to go.

Source : www.joystiq.com and www.majornelson.com