Jan 17
So you’ve bought youself and shiny new Xbox 360, the envy of every sweaty nerd in your apartment complex. The back of the box even says it can play your old Xbox games! This truly is the next generation of gaming.
But not so fast, son; I know what you’re saying. “But if I play my Xbox games on the 360, I’ll have to start all over! I’ll lose my 60 hours of progress in Bad Boys 2!”
Fear not fellow Will Smith and Martin Lawrence fans! Because today I’ll be giving you the complete how-to on transferring Xbox gamesaves to Xbox 360. This method is 100% legit, and dose NOT involve any hardware modification, voiding of warranties, or even any technical skills. But be warned…
Transferring Xbox gamesaves to Xbox 360 is a lot of hassle, costs around $75 dollars, and will NOT WORK WITH A LARGE PORTION OF GAMES. First, let’s talk about compatibility.
Part One: Compatibility
The Xbox game you wish to transfer must meet ALL of the following criteria to be trasnferred to the 360:
1. You have the hard drive for your Xbox 360 and a connection to Xbox Live.
2. The Xbox 1 game must be backwards compatible on the Xbox 360. A current list of compatible games can be found here.
3. Xbox 1 game save must be able to fit on an Xbox 1 Memory Card (8 Megs – 502 Blocks).
4. Xbox 1 game save must be “unlocked”, that is, transferrable to an Xbox 1 Memory Card (some game saves do NOT allow you to trasnfer even if you have enough room).* To find out if your Xbox 1 saves meets the last two requirements, boot up your 360 with a memory card in and test it out.
These four requirements eliminates a large portion (if not the majority) of games. I found that the games I wanted to transfer most failed at least one of these steps. Mercenaries – fails on step 2. Black – fails on step 4. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory – fails on step 3. Mechassault 2 – fails on step 2. Burnout 3 – fails on step 4.
That’s not to say it won’t work with any games however. Of the games I wanted to transfer, Halo 1, Halo 2, Crimson Skies, and Sid Meier’s Pirates worked fine. So if you’ve got a game that will transfer, it’s time for the next step.
Part Two: Xbox 1 to PC
For this you’ll need one of two parts: An Xbox Action Replay or an Xbox Transfer Kit. Both are made by Datel and do exactly the same thing, but the Action Replay costs $25 and comes with a memory card transfer cable (MCTC) and a memory card, while the Transfer Kit costs $15 and comes with an Xbox 1 MCTC and a 360 MCTC (but because Xbox 1 saves are locked to the hard drive, you won’t be able to transfer via this cable). I could only find the Transfer Kit at my local Gamestop, so I picked up the memory card seperate for $10.
Once you have the required hardware and have installed the Action Replay software (included with either kit), complete the follwing steps:
1. Copy Xbox 1 save to Memory Card
2. Transfer Saves to PC Via Cable and Included Software
3. Locate the .zip file containing the save you want to transfer and extract them to a temporary directory for use later.(The location of the .zip file depends on where you installed the Action Replay software)
4. Delete the file datelinfo.xbx from any .zip files you extract.
If you’ve gotten this far without falling asleep, you’re doing better than most.
Part Three: PC to Xbox 360
For this you’ll need yet another, even more pricey ($50) part: the XSATA. This device goes between your 360 and the 360 hard drive, and allows you to mount the hard drive to a PC (perhaps even a Mac, though I never tested this), and the included software allows you to access the data on the 360 hard drive via your PC. Once everything’s hooked up and installed, follow these steps:
1. Turn on your 360 and pop in the game you want to transfer. The required updated will download to your hard drive and you should now be able to play the game (without your saves that is).
2. Turn off the 360 and mount the drive to your PC using the instructions provided with the XSATA unit.
3. Navigate to the “Compatibility” folder on Partition 3 of your 360′s hard drive.
4. Right click in the right hand window and choose ‘Insert folder’.
5. When prompted, browse to the location where you extracted the Xbox 1 gamesave to (in Part 2 Step 3). Click ONCE on the game folder (don’t double click or you’ll open it). The save is inside the UDATA folder and called something like ’4b4e0002′.
6. Click ‘OK’ to ‘inject’ the gamesave into your Xbox1 gamesaves folder on your Xbox 360.
You should now be able to unmount the 360 hard drive from your PC, boot up the 360, and play your old Xbox 1 saves on your 360. Now to just return all this crap Gamestop.
Gamestop Manager: “You know Blake, this merchandise is open. I don’t have to accept this”
BLAKE BUCK: “Oh I know. But you’re going to”
