Microsoft confirms 360 hard drive shortfall
What's in that inaccessible 7GB of space?
[06/12/2005 12:03]
Microsoft has responded with an explanation for the missing 7GB of Xbox 360 hard drive space, following our story yesterday; only 13GB of the 20GB drive is available to users.
"4GB is provided for game 'caching' or other hard drive-specific experiences developers want to build for their game," said a Microsoft spokesperson, referring to the need for games to copy certain files from the game disc - which can be read only slowly - to the hard drive, where they can be accessed quickly.
At times the very quick dedicated memory, the RAM, may be in full use, so the cache is a relatively speedy (for a hard drive) section of disk where such files are temporarily stored.
Furthermore, "2GB is reserved to increase overall system functionality, including things like the Xbox emulator - to enable backwards compatibility - and console and title updates, to allow for continued innovation and expansion."
This leaves 1GB for the machine's operating system itself.
The console needs these resources and the drive is indeed 20GB, yet it's still like buying a '5-seat' car, only to find that the fuel tank is so big that there's only one seat left in the back.
Whatever the reasons, you will never store more than 13GB of stuff on 360's 20GB hard drive.
What's in that inaccessible 7GB of space?
[06/12/2005 12:03]
Microsoft has responded with an explanation for the missing 7GB of Xbox 360 hard drive space, following our story yesterday; only 13GB of the 20GB drive is available to users.
"4GB is provided for game 'caching' or other hard drive-specific experiences developers want to build for their game," said a Microsoft spokesperson, referring to the need for games to copy certain files from the game disc - which can be read only slowly - to the hard drive, where they can be accessed quickly.
At times the very quick dedicated memory, the RAM, may be in full use, so the cache is a relatively speedy (for a hard drive) section of disk where such files are temporarily stored.
Furthermore, "2GB is reserved to increase overall system functionality, including things like the Xbox emulator - to enable backwards compatibility - and console and title updates, to allow for continued innovation and expansion."
This leaves 1GB for the machine's operating system itself.
The console needs these resources and the drive is indeed 20GB, yet it's still like buying a '5-seat' car, only to find that the fuel tank is so big that there's only one seat left in the back.
Whatever the reasons, you will never store more than 13GB of stuff on 360's 20GB hard drive.
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