Buying a 120 GB hard drive off of eBay: Good or BAD idea?

S

SpacemanHardy

CAG Veteran
I see a lot of 120 GB hard drives for sale for $69.99 or less, with some offering free shipping.

The only thing is.... all the sellers are from Hong Kong.

They all seem to have great feedback, however, most of them in the mid-to-high nineties.

So my question is, can I trust buying a hard drive from them? If I do, will it work with my system?

I know it probably won't come with the transfer cable, but I can get one of those elsewhere.

I read a lot of comments from other customers who had bought one, and they all said that it worked fine.

There's also a seller from Brooklyn who's selling them for the same price, only he charges $5.99 extra in shipping.

Do you think it'd be a better idea to buy one from him instead, just for piece of mind?
 
Well I bought one about a year ago, and although it works great for saving games, play live arcade games, and demos, it won't play backwards compatible games or xbox original downloads. After doing some research I found that a lot of the cheap 120gb hard drives on ebay are hacked. meaning they are taking 20gb drives and putting a 120 gb 2.5 drive in it then flashing it with the 360 files. The thing is there are two partitions. One for saving games, demos, profiles, etc. The other for backwards compatibility. It seems that most of the sellers doing this are not adding the BC partition.

So honestly if you don't care about playing original X-box disc or downloads, then I say go for it, but if you do play BC games on your 360 you will need to have another hard drive to play them with.

Personally I just went out and bought an original X-box for $40.00 and called it a day. I haven't had any other problems with my drive so I'd call it a good purchase.


On Edit: Also I would buy from the US seller just so you don't have to wait 2 weeks or more.
 
Well I say bad idea, it may be from a forgein country. I recently purchased one and immediately returned it back to Walmart. The reasons why are because the new Xbox Live Update to the Dashboard will make games that required a 6GB install only require like 1GB or less, and still give you the full speed loading benefit of not more.

Also 120GB is way too much for the price. Max I would go is 60GB.

Mainly because the 120GB and 60GB HDD have 8MB of Cache buffer vs the 20GB only has 2MB of cache buffer so loading times are improved slightly with a 60GB or even a 120GB more than a 20GB.

Honestly I returned it back to Walmart said I was not happy and got my $150 back, sold my Wii for $250

now I have $400 to buy a PS3 next week when it drops to $299.

If you definitely want one go for the 0GB and buy from Craigslist locally cash and probably for half the price of the 120GB HDD

Alot of those 120GB units are hacked 20GB units that they remove the stock 20 and put in a 120GB then install the software its alittle risky but anyone can do it there are even detailed YouTube Videos on how to do it yourself.
 
[quote name='cyborg2040']Well I bought one about a year ago, and although it works great for saving games, play live arcade games, and demos, it won't play backwards compatible games or xbox original downloads. After doing some research I found that a lot of the cheap 120gb hard drives on ebay are hacked. meaning they are taking 20gb drives and putting a 120 gb 2.5 drive in it then flashing it with the 360 files. The thing is there are two partitions. One for saving games, demos, profiles, etc. The other for backwards compatibility. It seems that most of the sellers doing this are not adding the BC partition.

So honestly if you don't care about playing original X-box disc or downloads, then I say go for it, but if you do play BC games on your 360 you will need to have another hard drive to play them with.

Personally I just went out and bought an original X-box for $40.00 and called it a day. I haven't had any other problems with my drive so I'd call it a good purchase.


On Edit: Also I would buy from the US seller just so you don't have to wait 2 weeks or more.[/QUOTE]

To be perfectly honest, I don't even own a single original XBOX game. In fact, I never owned an original XBOX to begin with (I was very anti-Microsoft at the time ;)).

So yeah, that sounds great to me. If I ever feel the need to play an old XBOX game again, I'll still have my old 20 gig to pop in.

And yeah, I think I will get it from the guy in Brooklyn, just so I won't have to wait so long.

Thanks so much for your help!! Let's just hope the new update doesn't fry it. ;)

Oh, by the way, does it also work for installing games?
 
360 HD's from Hong Kong are generally stripped out hard drives crammed into a case that'll fit your 360 - they're usually in no way official Microsoft HD, and are far from being reliable. Buyer beware - if your data disappears, don't come crying here. Wait for a 20% off accessories coupon at GS and pick up a used one there.
 
I found this one guy in St. Paul who switches the hard drives out himself. Even had a video posted on YouTube. I checked out his eBay account, and all his feedback is absolutely flawless. He says not a single person has been banned or had any corrupted data since he's been doing them.

I'm going to wait until after tomorrow to see if the new update doesn't screw up their hard drives, then I'll probably pick one up from him.
 
Just a word of warning. "That guy in Brooklyn" probably uses the same exact method to flash a 120GB hard drive as the guys in Hong Kong.

Never buy used memory unless you actually trust the guy you're buying it from. It's too easy to lose all your saves.
 
Personally, I would just pay the ridiculous rip off of a price for a definitely official Microsoft HD from a store. But thats just me.
 
I bought a 120GB WD BEVS drive and spent the 4 hours modding it...it took a while but at the time it saved me ~$60 (cost of drive). If you follow the guides posted it isn't that hard and you will retain all the partitions/features, etc.
 
I got an official one on ebay from a US seller for $72.99.

It's not much more for an official one if you do some good searching on ebay.
 
Probably a bad idea now that the rumor of a $299 elite at the end of the month seems likely. MSRP of the 120gb by itself should drop by then as well.
 
I bought an official 120GB HD pulled from an Elite unit on Ebay. I just made sure to narrow my search to US Only and made sure the description said it was not a refurb. Also check the comments on the seller. It cost me $55 and I have had no trouble with it over the past 5 months.
 
[quote name='Bezerker']Sears sells the 120gb's for $49.97.[/QUOTE]

I heard they might be $35 at Kmart too. Sears would probably be easier to find though.

edit: And I'd only buy one on eBay if it was new in package.
 
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I thought this would be a good place to ask... Anyone have a transfer disc I can borrow or buy? I have the cable, but no disc sadly.
 
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