Hard Drives
Optional detachable SATA hard drives can be used for the storage of games, music, downloaded trailers, levels, demos, player preferences, and community-created content from Xbox Live Marketplace.
Of the total storage capacity, approximately 6 GB is reserved for system use; around 4 GB of that portion is reserved for game title caching and other hard drive-specific elements in games that support the hard drive and an additional 2 GB is reserved for use by the Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility software.
On August 20, 2010, Microsoft announced a 250 GB stand-alone hard drive for use with Xbox 360 S models. Hard drives designed for the original models of Xbox 360 are not directly compatible with Xbox 360 S models and vice versa.
Memory Cards
Small, portable, flash-based memory devices allow the transfer of saved games, unique gamer profiles, and content downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace to other Xbox 360 consoles. Sizes available are:
- 64 MB memory card (Discontinued)
- 256 MB memory card (Supplied only with the Xbox 360 Arcade package and now discontinued)
- 512 MB memory card (Was pre-loaded with the Xbox Live Arcade game Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved for a limited time. Semi-newer units were pre-loaded with the Xbox Live Arcade game Worms. Newer units now come with a keychain carry case.)
