How to: Transfer Content to a New Xbox 360

By: Alexander Kent|July 29, 20105 Comments

As an owner of the original Xbox 360 you may have ran into the most obvious and alarming question; how will I get to keep my downloaded content? Or more importantly, how do I keep my game saves? Fear not, there is a simple way of transferring your game saves, Xbox Live account and downloaded content.

In short, all you will really need is Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Data Transfer Cable

Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Cable

Using the Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Cable, you can transfer content from one Xbox 360 to another Xbox 360 hard drive. In our case we will be moving content from the old 60GB Xbox 360 Premium to the new 250GB Xbox 360 S console. The Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit (also known as the Data Migration Kit) basically consists out of a data transfer cable and the product manual.

Important

• You can transfer all content from one Xbox 360 hard drive (this is referred to as the “source”) to another Xbox 360 hard drive (this is referred to as the “destination”). The content from the source hard drive overwrites the content on the destination hard drive.
• Content can be moved to another hard drive as long as the destination hard drive is the same size or larger than the source hard drive.
• The Hard Drive Transfer Kit can be used multiple times with multiple hard drives.
• The Xbox 360 Hard Drive (120GB and 250GB) retail package includes a transfer kit. These hard drives are for the original Xbox 360 console and are not intended for use with the Xbox 360 S console.
• Movies you have rented on the source hard drive will not be available after the transfer. Make sure that you watch all Xbox LIVE Marketplace movie rentals before you use the Hard Drive Transfer Kit.

To transfer all content from one hard drive to another

1. When you first power on your brand new Xbox you will be prompted to create a new Xbox Live Account, or to recover an existing Gamertag.  Select Recover Gamertag on your new Xbox 360 S at which point you’ll have to enter the Windows Live email address and password you used to set up the account. This will download your Xbox Live profile to the new console.

2. Turn off your old Xbox 360 console with your existing hard drive. To remove the Xbox 360 hard drive, press the little inset button to detach the drive.

3. Connect the transfer cable to the hard drive that you are moving content to (the “destination” hard drive).

4. Plug the other end of the transfer cable into an available USB port on your Xbox 360 console.

Make sure you place the hard drive on a secure, flat surface to minimize transfer interruptions due to accidental unplugging of the data connection. Keep in mind that the transfer process may take several hours to complete.

5. The Xbox 360 will automatically detect the transfer cable. You will be given two choices on the screen: transfer content from the console to the hard drive or transfer content to the hard drive to the console. Naturally, make sure to select that you want to transfer to console, and you’re almost there!

6. Select the type of content you wish to transfer. A summary will be shown on the right hand side with the space required and available space on the destination drive. All content is broken into 8 different groups, one can select all or selectively copy individual items,for example specific game saves.

If the items to be transferred already exist in some form on the destination drive you will receive the opportunity to replace it.

Depending on the amount of content, the process of moving may take a little while.

Once the transfer is complete, the content on the destination hard drive will be replaced with the content from the source hard drive. This content includes your saved games and Xbox LIVE downloads. After the transfer is complete, the content on the source hard disk is erased.

Now you can enjoy you New Xbox 360 along with your accumulated content.

More: Xbox 360 Data Transfer Cable