Installing Xbox 360 Games

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fiddlefaddle

CAG Veteran
Got a few games that have some scratches on them. Figured that installing them would be a good way to test the discs but I've got the basic Xbox 360 with only enough hard drive space for game saves.
Is it possible to install the games on to a PC hard drive using a data transfer cable?
 
My copy of Guitar Hero 2 has the nasty ring scratch around it, and it does play, but usually boots me out to dash after a couple songs with an unreadable disc message. I tried installing it, but it won't make it all the way thru the process without the same thing happening. If you can't get your scratched game to play, chances are it won't install either, based on my experience. As far as installing onto a PC hard drive, I'm not sure what good that would really do to begin with unless you rigged your XBox to read that hard drive in some way.
 
Installing the game to the hard drive then transferring it to the PC will do you no good. The transfer cable won't work on the PC without some third party software and the time it'll take to transfer from PC to Xbox 360 HDD could be equal to simply doing disc installation. Not really worth the hassle going that route IMHO.
 
Ok, let me clarify.
I'm installing the game simply to see if the disc will play all the way through since I bought a few discs with scratches.
I have only 256 mb or maybe 512 mb of total space. Would it be possible to do disc installation to my PC hard drive which has plenty of space with a data transfer cable?
 
Hmm, whether it installs or not probably wouldn't be a fair indication of whether it plays all the way or not. You might be able to load all the data onto your storage device in installation, but if you go to play the game with your system w/o HDD, in the actual gameplay, it could lock up at any time if the scratch is in a bad spot. I'd suggest just playing the game thru and saving often. If you get to a point in the game where it won't read the disc anymore, then maybe by that point you could replace your disc for a cheap price. Or investing in an Xbox HDD could be a good idea. Even the small 20GB one would be good enough to install 1-2 games at a time, and run for pretty cheap now.
 
[quote name='alongx']A simple google search would have answered this question for you quicker...NO, you can't install a game to anything other than a 360 hard drive accessory, to the best of my knowledge.

See the below link:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/103018-13-install-play-xbox-games-external-hard-drive[/QUOTE]
Incorrect. A USB drive of sufficient speed and capacity will work as well. In fact, if you're just testing them to make sure the discs are good, you don't even need to worry about one with adequate speed. 8GB should handle most games.
 
[quote name='mrosnwo']Hmm, whether it installs or not probably wouldn't be a fair indication of whether it plays all the way or not.[/QUOTE]

I have to agree here. A friend of mine had his copy of Call of Duty 4 get scratched up and it wouldn't play right. I actually advised him to see if installing it would let him play it, and that worked.

Lots of times, the system will be able to read scratched games well enough to install them, but will screw up during actual gameplay. So, even if the game installs, there's no telling if the game will play fine when read from the disc.
 
Thanks for the information.

I thought if you did an install, it would read the information from the hard drive instead of disc. I read that you still need the disc for 'verification' purposes, I suppose there's more to that and not all files are copied?

One more question.
I've got a two disc game, looked up the install space, it's 6GB per disc.
Is it going to need 12GB or will the disc install do each disc separately?
Debating whether to get 8GB or 16GB memory stick.
Going to use the stick to see if the installs go properly and possibly invest in a hard drive later on. I could use an extra thumb drive anyway.
 
[quote name='fiddlefaddle']Thanks for the information.

I thought if you did an install, it would read the information from the hard drive instead of disc. I read that you still need the disc for 'verification' purposes, I suppose there's more to that and not all files are copied?[/QUOTE]

No. It verifies the disc is legit and that's it. If you could just install it and not need the disc any more, that would effectively make every Xbox game free because we'd all just pass around the same copy.
 
Something I've wondered: What if I install a mint condition disc and then scratch the hell out of it, would having the disc installed from previously allow for a better game experience or does it still need to be able to read every bit of data off the disc?
 
[quote name='Moltres423']Something I've wondered: What if I install a mint condition disc and then scratch the hell out of it, would having the disc installed from previously allow for a better game experience or does it still need to be able to read every bit of data off the disc?[/QUOTE]
Why would you do something like that? Beyond that, I'm not sure I understand your question.
 
[quote name='Moltres423']Something I've wondered: What if I install a mint condition disc and then scratch the hell out of it, would having the disc installed from previously allow for a better game experience or does it still need to be able to read every bit of data off the disc?[/QUOTE]

As long as it can recognize the disc, it'll play flawlessly if it is installed. All the Xbox will do is read the security sector.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Why would you do something like that? Beyond that, I'm not sure I understand your question.[/QUOTE]

Why would you ask such a silly question? Obviously it wouldn't be on purpose.

My question was:

If I buy a game today and install it, and a year's worth of playing make the disc unreadable, would installing it allow me to play the game anyway?

Either way I got my answer, thanks mkelehan.
 
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