Xbox One has standard 2.5" hard drive, can be replaced (by voiding warranty)

Although Sony encourages hard drive upgrades, Microsoft does not. However, if you're willing to void your Xbox One warranty, you'll be able to rather easily replace your Xbox One drive.

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One of the more convenient aspects about PS4 is that you can very easily replace its hard drive. With 40GB+ installations becoming the norm this generation, it's clear that 500GB won't last long. Although Sony encourages hard drive upgrades, Microsoft does not. However, if you're willing to void your Xbox One warranty, you'll be able to rather easily replace your Xbox One drive.

A teardown by iFixit (via Engadget) reveals that Xbox One uses a standard 2.5" SATA II drive. Specifically, a Samsung Spinpoint M8 ST500LM012 500 GB 5400 RPM with 8MB Cache, which goes for $55 on Newegg.

Of course, the real question now is: what happens after you replace the drive? Will Xbox be able to boot without a properly formatted drive? While Sony lets users download the console's firmware update onto a USB stick, Microsoft does not for Xbox One--at least not yet.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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  • reply
    November 21, 2013 9:15 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Xbox One has standard 2.5" hard drive, can be replaced (by voiding warranty).

    Although Sony encourages hard drive upgrades, Microsoft does not. However, if you're willing to void your Xbox One warranty, you'll be able to rather easily replace your Xbox One drive.

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 9:26 AM

      Last generation, it wasn't as much of a problem. I have the ps3 160gb and maybe use 10% of space. However, I can see how this can be a concern when game installations become mandatory.

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        November 21, 2013 9:33 AM

        With the system managing your games, and the data they have on how typical people play games I really don't think it's going to be an issue for anyone except those edge cases like Giant Bomb or Shacknews offices face.

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      November 21, 2013 9:28 AM

      [deleted]

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        November 21, 2013 9:29 AM

        how many xbox ones have failed so far?

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          November 21, 2013 9:35 AM

          I, for one, am not looking forward to the first console failure. I know there will be some that fail, just because that's expected with electronics. However, I fully expect the Internet to fucking go full-retard with the first report of Xbox One failures.

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            November 21, 2013 9:36 AM

            oh yeah. some ps4s have failed, which is normal. if an equivalent or smaller amount of xboxes fail, there will be GIFs and jokes across the internet. so they need to be certain the shit is stable. the failure rate probably drove some of their hardware decisions.

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            November 21, 2013 10:04 AM

            [deleted]

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              November 21, 2013 10:13 AM

              I don't think I agree with your logic here. Yes, if they have another RRoD fiasco with high failure rates, they would deserve heat.

              But that's not what will happen. Instead, we'll probably get reports of dead units that fall within the expected numbers and the Internet will go stupid-mode.

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          November 21, 2013 10:06 AM

          I think he's anticipating the rrod equivalent for Xbox one. Best not void that warranty.

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      November 21, 2013 9:35 AM

      Microsoft encourages you to upgrade using USB 3.0 external Hard drives. Have you tried that?

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 9:38 AM

      I just don't understand Microsofts logic by not allowing people to change out the harddrives

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        November 21, 2013 9:51 AM

        It makes buying the Xbox One Slim more appealing in a few years time. They teach people early on that they should be paying for a new console to upgrade their memory.

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        November 21, 2013 9:56 AM

        You don't understand how a company doesn't want console buyers to take tools to the machine when you could just attach a USB 3.0 drive and it would be almost just as fast?

        I'm actually pretty shocked that Sony left the upgradeable hard drive option with the existence of USB 3.0 and eSATA.

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          November 21, 2013 9:59 AM

          What I'm getting at is that the majority of console buyers are not people who know how to change the system drive in anything. Adding additional, fast storage is pretty fucking easy these days.

          So if you're the type of person that wants to get in there and tweak everything, you still can, you're just voiding the warranty. If you're not, there are still tons of very fast options for you.

          This is such a non-issue.

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            November 21, 2013 10:01 AM

            Yeah I can see this falling under a case of protecting people from themselves.

            We already have people who bought the wrong 2.5" HDD for the PS4 because it is too thick. Imagine if they tried forcing it in thinking maybe just a bit of effort was needed?

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              November 21, 2013 10:08 AM

              I was avoiding coming straight out and saying that most console buyers are hardware idiots (that's why they're buying a console) because I'm sure that'll piss some people off, but. Yup. That.

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            November 21, 2013 10:09 AM

            If you void the warranty and then the console has a problem a few months down the line, it won't be a non-issue. It'll happen to someone.

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              November 21, 2013 10:11 AM

              Yes it will. Because you made the decision to void the warranty. What the hell?

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                November 21, 2013 10:47 AM

                What?

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                  November 21, 2013 10:55 AM

                  If you willingly void the warranty you're on your own. There are plenty of options for expanding storage without voiding your warranty. So it is a non-issue. If you choose to void it, you live with the consequences. How is this difficult to understand?

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                    November 21, 2013 3:13 PM

                    Many people who want more space might not wanna go the external storage route. It's more junk next to the tv. And Another thing to plug in. More wires. Etc. Sony did it right. Microsoft didn't.

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                      November 21, 2013 4:23 PM

                      if you think more people will really prefer cracking open their console to replace a HDD rather than plug in a small USB device I think you are really misjudging what 99% of people feel about technology

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                        November 21, 2013 4:55 PM

                        Pretty much this.

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                        November 21, 2013 6:53 PM

                        but you present an unfair scenario to prove your point. microsoft doesnt give them much choice by making you dismantle the damn console to do it. its far less intimidating to do it on ps4 and just takes minutes. I can even see places like bestbuy offering to install them quickly for a small fee. i would much rather have everything packed into a neat box than have wires and other shit sitting hanging off the unit. and im not alone.

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                          November 21, 2013 9:30 PM

                          You may not be alone, but you ARE in the minority of people who know any better or gives a shit.

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                          November 21, 2013 10:13 PM

                          I'm not presenting an unfair scenario, I'm telling you what the state of consumers and technology is. The PS3 had a replaceable HDD too, did you see Best Buy offering that service there? A 20-60gb PS3 got filled equally quickly from mandatory ~5gb installs as a PS4 will with 500gb and 50gb installs. Or did you instead see Sony making sure to offer progressively higher storage bundles where the highest profit margins exist? Nowhere did I say literally no one will do this. I'm saying the number who do is so insignificantly small it is no surprise it isn't supported. And if you think there are a non trivial number of people who will do this then you're misjudging the market here.

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              November 21, 2013 11:32 AM

              Yeah, this is why I don't void the warranty of my products.

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              November 21, 2013 12:19 PM

              How would that be their fault?

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                November 21, 2013 3:10 PM

                It's not about blaming someone. It's about being stuck with a $500 doorstop if your console breaks for any reason even if it's unrelated to swapping the hdd.

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                  November 21, 2013 3:13 PM

                  this is standard procedure for tons of electronics, they don't want you messing with the internals if you want to keep your warranty

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                    November 21, 2013 3:46 PM

                    I get that. If Microsoft doesn't wanna make it easy to upgrade the storage then that's their call. But it's just another example of how sony made a better decision on their console.

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                      November 21, 2013 10:28 PM

                      You don't have to unscrew things and expose innards when you plug in USB storage. Also what are you going to do with the old drive you took out? Throw it away? That's bad for the environment.

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          November 21, 2013 10:17 AM

          I imagine Sony decided it wasnt worth coding support for multiple storage devices since most people will be fine with 500gb. It's a hard engineering problem! Microsoft has a lot of history with operating systems and they haven't even put support in at launch. WP7 also had support for expanding storage via microSD and it was broken so bad I believe they suggested to not use it at all.

          So I can see how Sony was like, screw it, let the nerds change hard drives if they really want to but let's not support external storage cause its not a high priority.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 11:56 AM

        [deleted]

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        November 21, 2013 12:16 PM

        [deleted]

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      November 21, 2013 9:39 AM

      ...that's a gigantic plain axial fan in that case. Does Microsoft not trust heatpipes or squirrel-cage blowers?

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 9:46 AM

        The reasons I heard for the massive fan where it could run at a lower RPM and push as much air, thus be quieter.

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          November 21, 2013 9:56 AM

          That's true of PCs and works very well. My case has 140mm fans and larger and I have them set using a panel at 20-30% speed which keeps it in the low 30 Celsius.

          However I also use water cooling on my CPU and that eliminates even more noise. Sadly my 7970 is my loudest component and it kicks on and off. Perhaps I should opt for an after market cooler to completely silence my PC.

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 9:45 AM

      [deleted]

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 21, 2013 9:48 AM

      I got by with my 20gb first gen Xbox 360, guess I'll be able to get by with 500gb.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 10:55 AM

        same, i dont really play more than one or two games at a time so i am nonplussed by this

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 9:52 AM

      [deleted]

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        November 21, 2013 10:09 AM

        That is a sick interesting question, however I do not doubt that there will be a new SKU in the future that has a 1 TB HDD or larger. So software wise it should be flexible enough to manage that in the future.

        However finding out about the capability to use USB 3.0 external storage, almost like the 360, makes it easier and also being able to take that to other consoles and not have to re-download games.

        I used to want the biggest HDD for the 360 because I was buying and downloading HD episodes of BSG and Lost. Those were about 2 GB an episode then. Plenty of DLC was huge too.

        I am now curious if it's possible to split a 2 TB partition of an external HDD so you can switch them between a XB1 and a Wii-U since they both share that capability. Would make it simple to swap one instead of having two separate drives in my entertainment center.

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        November 21, 2013 10:11 AM

        they'd previously mentioned additional external storage will be supported (post launch) so it would presumably need to be reasonably flexible. I don't know why it would just assume you have some particular sized drive.

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      November 21, 2013 10:06 AM

      Just use an external USB 3.0 drive.

      They did have the firmware out last night but the page got pulled.

      http://www.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/How_to_Update_Your_Xbox_One

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 10:35 AM

      So upgrading the hard drive voids your warranty... does Microsoft own a lot of stock in Sony or something?

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        November 21, 2013 10:39 AM

        They want users to have faith in The Cloud. And that faith will evaporate away the first few times XBox One users can't play games because of some problem with XBox Live cloud storage.

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 10:59 AM

          except people have been happily using cloud saves on Xbox Live, PS+ and Steam for quite awhile now and there's no reason a local copy can't be cached for offline scenarios

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            November 21, 2013 12:15 PM

            Resilience is key. Previously, GFWL had the excuse of DRMing saves so the online profile ones were only available on successful authentication; that's gone now that GFWL is end-of-lifed. Also, there's the issue where game content gets pulled from online services due to IP ownership legal ambiguity (specifically, when publishers like Midway and THQ went out of business). If you can't redownload that content due to legal reasons, does it get automatically deleted from your XBox One drive?

            I think back to the mystery developer who contacted Brad Shoemaker during the SimCity outage, and said that always-on services were being given a bad reputation by horrible incidents like the SimCity outage. I also think of the 2011 PSN outage, and the mid-2000's Steam outage when Seattle lost power, but those last two have most likely been remediated to not happen at that scale and duration.

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              November 21, 2013 12:20 PM

              You can re-download stuff that is no longer for sale on the xbox marketplace. It's all listed in your download history. For example, the character packs for Marvel ultimate alliance are no longer for sale but I can still download them. The same for TMNT: Turtles in Time and a few other XBLA games that I bought but are no longer for sale.

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                November 21, 2013 4:04 PM

                Okay, I think I got that mixed up with iTunes, which pulls everything down for albums that don't have a publisher able to receive royalties. You can't buy it, you can't see the catalog page for it, and you can't download it (except maybe now you can if it's in your iCloud set).

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                  November 21, 2013 4:25 PM

                  you can absolutely re-download apps and music from iTunes that are no longer for sale

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              November 21, 2013 12:28 PM

              Don't know what GFWL has to do with this. Don't know what IP ownership has to do with this, we already know how downloads work on the 360 for content you own that is no longer on the marketplace, isn't related to saves.

              Cloud saves, they work, been working on many platforms for years now, people like them.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 11:21 AM

        I bet about 1% of people want to upgrade their hard drive.

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          November 21, 2013 11:24 AM

          yeah I was going to ask if he honestly thinks it's a higher percentage than that because I'd be shocked. Even as a technically inclined person I can't imagine I would ever bother.

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            November 21, 2013 11:40 AM

            I know for a fact I wouldnt.

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            November 21, 2013 11:49 AM

            I don't care. I would like to upgrade the hard drive, and that's all that matters to me.

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              November 21, 2013 11:51 AM

              you're welcome to want whatever features you happen to want, your original comment was suggesting that this is a feature that many people want

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 12:33 PM

          [deleted]

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            November 21, 2013 12:36 PM

            Yup. In the total number of consoles that will sell of this generation, the number of people that will ever even know their console has a "hard drive" in it are a tiny drop in the bucket. Let alone wanting to replace that with something else.

            Most people will ask "how much memory does it have?" and the answer is "Enough for 10 or more games very large to be installed at any time. In practice probably more like 20+" at which point their eyes will glaze over and they'll just get out their credit card anyway.

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            November 21, 2013 12:51 PM

            I they said no support for external hard drives? Or at least not at launch.

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              November 21, 2013 1:04 PM

              just not for launch, but 99% of people shouldn't really be anywhere near filling a 500gb drive for awhile

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 2:26 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 2:29 PM

            wanting more storage space and wanting to upgrade the internal hard drive are separate things

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            November 21, 2013 2:35 PM

            I think you overestimate the number of people that

            A. Would know that you CAN upgrade the size of the hard drive.

            and

            B. Would want to upgrade the hard drive.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 11:38 AM

        Why even bother offering that? "Okay, you can upgrade to any hard drive, but you're not actually allowed to do it."

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          November 21, 2013 11:41 AM

          Does it not void the warrenty on a store bought computer if you open the case and install something yourself?

          I dont know because I have never bought a store bought computer.

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 11:51 AM

            Irrelevant comparison. The competition is the PS4, which does NOT void your warranty for swapping out the hard drive.

            • reply
              November 21, 2013 12:59 PM

              It is relevant because a computer offers the same thing. You ask "why even offer that" I give you an example of this very thing being very common place.

            • reply
              November 21, 2013 1:05 PM

              The PS4 is the exception to most modern electronics. Typically any kind of modification of internals voids the warranty.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 11:52 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 11:56 AM

          that's not really fair - while probably 95% of xbox one owners won't upgrade, it's a legitimate complaint for those who want to. and voiding the warranty is somehow more insulting than just blocking it entirely. it's like they're saying, "sure, you can upgrade the hard drive, if you're a GODDAMN ASSHOLE. say goodbye to your warranty, ASS-HOLE."

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          November 21, 2013 12:23 PM

          Well, I can say after 1 week of the PS4 I've already used nearly half of my 500GB. If games are going to require installs on the One, the ability to upgrade the hard drive is an important feature.

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            November 21, 2013 12:25 PM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              November 21, 2013 1:29 PM

              I'm an idiot.. I didn't realize that external drives were an option. Somehow I missed that up in the thread. That's pretty cool!

              • reply
                November 21, 2013 2:13 PM

                The article doesn't even mention that being a possibility down the line and how the Wii-U also having this option. Just that you're stuck with voiding a warranty or sticking to the default.

                The 360 added support for flash memory storage too later in its life and they recommended for GTA V to be installed that way.

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 12:26 PM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              November 21, 2013 4:30 PM

              This? 3 years down the road you're still gonna have launch titles installed? Hell for me, it would be 3 months down the road, maybe even 3 weeks, that shits outta there.

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 12:29 PM

            external storage is the answer for 99% of customers who need more storage space

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 12:30 PM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 5:56 PM

          Either this is a troll or you just commented on a topic you literally know nothing about.

    • reply
      November 21, 2013 10:41 AM

      Interesting, but I am going USB 3 external, I would think it be way faster and a 2TB = like $99

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      November 21, 2013 11:34 AM

      Anecdotal story, but friends of mine who use their 360 for FIFA (they buy every game in the series on day one) didn't even know if their console had a hard drive or not.

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        November 21, 2013 11:40 AM

        yep, most people here don't realize things like how foreign, confusing, and undesirable navigating a file system is to the vast majority of people. Doesn't mean the option to do that needs to be gone but it also shouldn't be the front and center method of interaction. There's a reason phones and tablets have become so popular, they remove the 'computery' parts of computers and make them understandable, which means getting rid of stuff like file management. I think we all know what most people do with their computer when handled the task of file management (10,000 random files on their desktop or downloads folder and no idea where they saved their documents to once it's not in the 'most recently used' list).

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          November 21, 2013 12:13 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 2:28 PM

            Ive seen this happen on a few nerds in my comp sci classes though, I dont think its just noobs. It's just hard to organize when you have exams every week

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            November 21, 2013 5:22 PM

            I used to care about file management, but I've become lazy with it and tend to save to desktop, then once every... quarter I'll make a folder and toss it all in there. Plus, most things download to the general downloads folder for Chrome, which I tend to have little interaction with these days. I used to set all downloads to manual so I could place them, but that was back in the day when bandwidth and file size was an issue and I didn't want to re-download anything.

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              November 21, 2013 9:57 PM

              That's pretty much how I roll these days. I've got tons of disk space and my monitor size is large enough to accommodate a whole bunch of icons without feeling too cluttered.

              Now that I think about it. It's kinda like how I manage my inbox.

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            November 21, 2013 6:55 PM

            [deleted]

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      November 21, 2013 12:20 PM

      Oh that would be nice, I just hope that MS releases the firmware.

      • reply
        November 22, 2013 7:30 PM

        There's no way they'd do that. "We don't want you messing with the installed drive, but if you do, here's something to help you with that"

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      November 21, 2013 5:24 PM

      This kind of distiction between the consoles validates my feelings for why i'd rather have a ps4 over an xbox1...

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      November 21, 2013 5:55 PM

      I bet it is 100% firmware key locked like every other xbox ever.

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      November 21, 2013 6:03 PM

      [deleted]

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      November 22, 2013 12:59 PM

      Ok. That's a non-issue at this point.

      Given MS's blatantly opportunistic practices with HDDs last gen, I certainly understand all the kneejerking.

      But you can expand storage via eternal HDDs. As long as they're not restricting you to "Xbox brand", or idiotic memory allocation, it's (finally) a step in the right direction.

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