Xbox 360 System Update Brings Support for 2TB External Hard Drives

The Xbox One may be Microsoft’s premier gaming and media device, but the company still has plans for the aging Xbox 360. After announcing the feature earlier this month, Microsoft today is releasing a Xbox 360 system update that allows the console to see and access external hard drives up to 2TB in size.

This is a significant improvement over the previous limit of 32GB and allows gamers to store more of their media, saved games, and the increasing library of download-only free Games with Gold titles. However, some gamers are upset that Microsoft is removing this seemingly arbitrary external storage limit only after the console has been superseded by the Xbox One.

One caveat of the update is that gamers already using external hard drives larger than 32GB with their consoles will need to reformat the entire drive to gain access to the additional storage capacity.

In addition to larger external hard drive support, today’s Xbox 360 update also brings some additional minor features, including the ability to view your purchase history from the console (Settings > Account > Purchase History), the ability to reset a forgotten password directly from the console (a process that previously required logging on to Xbox.com), detailed network statistics (available at Settings > System > Network > Settings > Network Statistics), and the ability to pin your current Microsoft account balance to the Dashboard (although this feature can be disabled in Settings > Profile > Account Security).

Xbox 360 consoles connected to the Internet should start receiving an update notification today. If you have trouble updating, you can view instructions and troubleshooting steps on the Xbox Support site.

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