How to Convert a 360 (Fat) Hard Drive into a 360 S Hard Drive

ATTENTION: Technically the Xbox Live ToS prohibit this, but the Xbox Live enforcement team (generally) doesn't care about the hard drive modification, unless you are using mods and cheats. IN THE EVENT OF A BAN, YOU WERE WARNED!!!

If you have an Xbox 360 4GB console, this guide will show you convert a fat 360 hard drive to work in a E/S console. This can be used as a low cost solution to add more storage to a 4GB console and enable OG Xbox emulation. If you are coming from a dead Fat 360, this will allow you to keep using the old drive and treat the failure as business as usual. NOTE: Most fat 360 drives are 20GB or 60GB and are therefore smaller than the OEM drive (120/250GB). Keep this in mind when using one of these drives.

For this guide, I picked up a used 20GB drive (originally from a Fat 360). These are cheap and abundant and can be used as a meaningful bump for a 4GB system, but cannot be used for much more then game saves and 1-2 games stored on the drive since they are significantly smaller. For mass storage, use a 120GB drive if at all possible.

Guide notes

• DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE EXTERNALLY!!! This will erase the security sector.
• Depending on where you purchased your drive, THIS MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. Keep this in mind if you go this route.
  • There are no fat drives With a Microsoft warranty left. If the drive is sold as-is, there is nothing to worry about.
  • Since most Fat 360 consoles are dead (and all surviving ones will fail), it may be better to purchase a tested drive.
• Most Fat 360 drives are 20GB or 60GB. Fat 120GB drives are uncommon.
  • Consider your storage needs before buying one of these early drives.
• You must use an aftermarket enclosure. OEM drives are glued shut and will not re-seal.
  • 3rd party enclosures are not hard to find but are typically only sold online.