um, no. I can remove my xbox 360 hard drive and connect it to a pc and enable cheats.

The hard drive is literally nothing different than a normal hard drive. Microsoft simply checks. Is it a Microsoft official model? Yes/No? if No, do not work.

There is one reason and one reason only, Microsoft 120gb hard drives are the 30$ more expensive than 500gb hard drives.

Read what I posted again. I said that what Sony did to a small subset of ps2 owners, Microsoft is doing to a much, much larger group and even acting to ensure third party drives are incompatible.

I doubt the average user is on this site.  I have no problem with it cause I have a normal HD but it still sucks though.  If I see 500 GB for 100 Euro in the stores and then see MS 120 GB for 120 Euro and knowing I need to buy that if I want to upgrade makes me feel very dissapointing in MS.

I dont think this is a valid point because no one produced a hard drive that would be compatibile with the ps2 besides Sony, it wasn't needed for thousands of games, and the only way to technologically make an MMO feasible on a console at that time was a hard drive.

Resident Evil outbreak used it too, but it was primarily designed for final fantasy XI.

Ok whatever i wont get into the specifics of cheating with hard drives lets just say that between xbox live and system updates its getting increasingly difficult to use modded files.

As for M$ trying to make a buck i agree with you but to call them a horrible and evil greedy company is not justified. And my other arrgument still stands. 360 Owners dont need to buy the 120 GB drive and most dont because a 20 GB or 60 GB drive is more than enough. Hell i know lots of people that are fine with the 256 MB memory cards that came with the arcade console. As long as you dont use Xbox live very much or want to download alot of map packs its plenty of memory. Game saves take like 2 MB max so you could easily  have 150 Different game saves on a memory unit.

Er, okay, I don't think you get it.
But that's really fine.

I got a an elite and I've already used 80gb of my space, but whatever. to each his own.

PS2s could use standard drives, but sony chose to lock them out for FFXI -- Infact FFXI was only sold bundled with that HD. Third party HDLoader software could utilize most standard IDE drives for backing up ps2 games. I have a 60gb seagate in my fat ps2 containing a bunch of backed up games.

The point is that Sony had a proprietrary hard drive implementation, but it effected few users while Microsoft's decision to use and enforce use of their proprietary drives effects many users and is a textbook example of nickel and diming. What Microsoft is doing is far worse than what Sony did. How else can I spell it out so you understand?

exactly your not a casual gamer. you like me bought an elite because its a far better value. its $100 more than an arcade and not only comes with a 120 GB hdd but also HD output and a bunch of other little extras. And that doesnt seem nearly as big of a rip off. My point still stands most Casual gamers dont have to buy an HDD and most probably wont because it really isnt necessary like it is with the PS3. so the HDD issue isnt that big of a deal. Sure ill agree with you its a bit overpriced but its not totally necessary.

you could argue that SONY made the PS3 overpriced for the sake of blu ray. Is it completly necessary the answer is no. As weve seen with the 360 most games are fine one a regular DVD just like most games are fine with just a memory unit for the 360. Like i said we could argue this to no end but id rather not as we both have better things to do. But dont go spouting off that M$ is an evil Greedy Horrible company because lets face it all the big three (sony, M$ and Nintendo) are in this business to do one thing and one thing only: TO MAKE MONEY!

I'm just pissed that the 500gb hdd i bought for my 360 so that I could download a bunch of xbox classics since i never had an xbox makes me upset. I Cant even find a copy of mass effect where I'm from I need to use my HDD!

ARGH

^ wait till the update comes out. Perhaps it wont even brick your hard drive?