Mon, Aug 03, 2009 | 18:05 BST
New Xbox update shrinks hard drive installs big-time
According to a post on Digital Foundry, testers of the upcoming Xbox 360 update are finding that their installed games have lost a few MBs.
“The new King of Fighters XII game from SNK drops from 3.4GB to a sub-demo sized 703MB (!), while Raiden Fighters Aces drops from 3.4GB to 484MB (!!). Left 4 Dead is another example of a solid saving, with the original NXE install occupying 5GB while the new install drops 1.3GB to a mere 3.7GB,” the site explained.
Our 20GB hard drives just got a new lease on life.
More through there.
15 
Posted in: Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live
Tags: hard drive, installs, Microsoft, xbox live update
15 comments
#1
M337ING
03/08/09, 6:09 pm
I’m very intrigued as to how this was done, did they introduce a new form of compression or something?
#2
Hunam
03/08/09, 6:09 pm
With them adding massive compression to them, wont it slow down the loading from HDD?
#3
M337ING
03/08/09, 6:14 pm
I just read over the article, and there isn’t any extra compression.
It seems that the original installation method was simply inefficient and ended up bringing out mirrored copies of some files, artificially boosting the space. MS figured out how to strip that extra data without harming anything useful
#4
Suikoden Fan
03/08/09, 6:20 pm
i’d like to know how rpg’s install time have been effected.
#5
Hunam
03/08/09, 6:26 pm
I’d like to know if they finally have multi-disk installs merged as one now.
#6
G1GAHURTZ
03/08/09, 6:28 pm
Phat!
#7
natesaninja
03/08/09, 6:29 pm
I’ve got the beta update and installing to the hard drive is still the same unless they haven’t released that yet
#8
Roybott
03/08/09, 6:33 pm
Hmmm, will have to try installing a game later. I’ve only got a 20GB HDD so haven’t really bothered installing any games since trying it initially back at the NXE launch… Maybe I’ll now be able to use this feature
#9
Robo_1
03/08/09, 6:43 pm
Great news. If I can squeeze Crackdown and Fable 2 on a 20gb, I’ll be pleased.
#10
Retroid
03/08/09, 6:59 pm
I’ve gained a few gb just by reinstalling Far Cry 2 (loses over a gb) and Midnight Club LA (around 700mb).
#11
LewieP
03/08/09, 7:47 pm
@Robo_1
Crackdown is one of the (few) games which can’t be installed onto the hard drive.
#12
Komond_Deckard
03/08/09, 7:57 pm
Wow, it’s the most useful update I’ve seen in a console. Hope Sony would do something similar with PS3, but well… I guess it’s only a dream. The only good thing is I can buy a 500GB hd, but this cost less money of course lol.
#13
scuz
03/08/09, 9:03 pm
i want to know more about this..
tell me more.
#14
fearmonkey
03/08/09, 10:07 pm
The only game I installed to the Hard drive was Fable 2 as its constantly accessing the drive and can be a bit noisy. This will be cool if true, as I might install more games now.
#15
Hunam
04/08/09, 12:02 am
Fable 2 runs a hell of a lot better from the HDD anyway, you don’t get UI lag for one.