Standalone Xbox 250GB HDD confirmed by Dashboard [update]

While Microsoft may have stated up, down and sidesaddle that the 250GB version of its Xbox 360 HDD would remain exclusive to special console bundles (e.g., Modern Warfare 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction), it would appear that the particular drive will arrive as a standalone accessory sometime soon. As spotted by eagle-eyed Joystiq reader Rodney in the Spotlight section of the Xbox 360 Dashboard (pictured above), the accessory should be available at "participating retailers" rather soon -- the ad's wording indicates that the HDD might already be on store shelves (as of this writing, Amazon has the product listed without a price).

Though it's odd to see an official reveal through the Xbox Dashboard, we have been hearing rumblings about a standalone version of the 250GB HDD for quite some time -- listings even popped up on retail sites earlier this month bearing ... today's date! We've contacted Microsoft for pricing and release info, but until the West Coast wakes up, we've got this thrilling hi-res gallery of the Dashboard advertisement for you below.

[Update: We've just gotten official word from Microsoft that the 250 GB HDD retails for $129.99 and should be available today.]

Xbox 360 Dashboard with 250GB HDD ad

[Thanks Rodney!]

Reader Comments (67)

It will be compatible with the xbox 360 SLIM?

Wow, still expensive for people to upgrade from their mealy 20 GB HDD MS. When are you going to learn that you can't charge out the ass for both storage and digital content? Make the storage dirt cheap and you will get it back in software sales, aren't those supposed to be your specialty?

Also I hope this means homemade drives can now be 250 GB if people can find the right model number.

$130, that's about twice as much my pc terabyte hardrive cost, I got that on newegg's Black Friday sale though.

299-129=170
Thats 170 Dollars away from a PS3 hmmmm

i bought one off of a guy on ebay who was selling his off the FF13 bundle for $100 and the only problem is when i got it and tried to transfer my data from my 120 to the 250 the transfer kit i had from a while back that i had used before wouldnt work. so i found out i needed a newer updated kit to transfer my files over and microsoft is the only place to get it, other than ebay which people were selling them for about $50. so i ended up having to pay another $15 for the kit and then $15 more for overnight shipping. so itll cost about $130 total. so when my kit gets here and i sell my 120 gb hdd for about 60 or 70 then all in all i would have really paid about 60 or 70 for a 250 gb hdd. thats not too bad considering its microsoft.

I'm actually kinda glad they keep coming out with larger hard drives and discontinuing old ones, because even though they're still super expensive, it drives down the eBay prices on the old ones. Seriously, a 60GB drive is dirt cheap right now. I'm seriously about to go replace my old 20GB drive now.

Any News on if I can pick one of these up in Canada?, or do I have to cross the border into to Detroit to get one?

I'm not trolling, but I'm honestly asking--what are people putting on their hard drives? I have a 120, and I've copied 1 game (Borderlands) to it and downloaded the original Fable, and even then I have almost 90gb free.

Do most people just buy more games on demand than I do? Or copy more to the HD? Music? Movies?

I'm not trolling--I'm trying to find out if I'm missing out on something really cool.

Lets see, I have the 120 GB model, which means it is really 107 GB when I got it without putting a thing on. So far I have downloaded a ton of trial games, averaging 1 GB each, I arcade game, Ikaruga, and downloaded all the free videos I could find. When the install game feature came out I installed all the games I owned, minus Halo 3, so 11 games and I still have 12 GB free, but I could get more by getting rid of the demos and videos. I can't imagine what I would need to do if I actually bought a lot of DLC, gotten 2 things, that will eat into your space almost as bad as game installs

$129 for a 250 GIG Hard drive??? I just got a 1 Tera bit for $109....Oh yea this IS Microsoft...what a joke...Don't buy it for 6 months kiddies and you will be able to get it for $69

Any word if this is compatible with the transfer cable? So I can transfer my 120gig contents onto this 250 HDD.

I'd also like to know this.

Just like "rod" above, I'm curious to know if these current drives will be compatible with the much-rumored "360 Slim" that we've heard about (and maybe even seen the innards of) these past few weeks. It would be a MAJOR screw you to the consumer on MS' part if thousands went out and bought these fat new drives, and then a new 360 in a different case shape was announced that rendered them all obsolete. Since MS hardly needs more bad 360 press (the pricing of the drives alone stirs up enough anger), my guess and/or hope is that the current drives will snap on to any new form of 360.

But I'm not touching one until either I'm certain, or my ever-expanding Rock Band library forces the issue.

itis going to be a nice addition to an already abundant accessories market of the Xbox 360. It would mean more storage space for movies, music, game demos, and other Xbox Live downloadable content.

i picked one up, now installing it, however it takes up to 7 hours to do the tranfer

the hard drive comes with a cable

Standalone Xbox 250GB HDD confirmed by Dashboard [update]

Xbox 360 Dashboard with 250GB HDD ad

Reader Comments (67)

Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 12:32PM roromx said

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Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 2:00PM tonyf36 said

Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 2:37PM kenny goo said

Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 3:01PM killer rin said

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Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 4:54PM Killer Orca said

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Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 6:47PM QuePasa87 said

Posted: Mar 23rd 2010 10:06PM Mr Bungo said

Posted: Mar 24th 2010 11:08AM snack said

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Posted: Mar 26th 2010 2:36PM Teus said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 2:37PM Teus said

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