Ready to 
Microsoft bans unauthorized Xbox 360 storage units in next update
Chris White
October 24, 2009 6:00 PM ET in Gaming
Argh, shoulda' paid those licensing fees
The next dashboard update for the Xbox 360 has a couple of fun new features in store with Twitter, Facebook and Zune support–but not every feature is going to be good for all users. Major Nelson, the Microsoft Director of Programming for Xbox Live warned users that the update would also be blocking all unauthorized Xbox storage devices.
When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360. If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to “back it up,” you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update. If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games.
If you need help identifying officially licensed Xbox 360 storage devices or accessories you can read more about the licensed accessories program on Xbox.com
Having an authorization program is a reasonable way to help minimize cheating and security issues on Xbox Live and protects users from devices that could potentially damage their systems. It’s not as if the hard-core modders are going to be very hampered by this–those users typically know the risk they’re taking; authorized hardware protects the general user.
The downside, however, is the fact that they’re making this change mid-console life and will effectively brick consumer’s investments in external memory devices and could make hundreds of hours of saved games unrecoverable if one happens not to see the warning ahead of time. Now hopefully this is going to be clearly stated before the update is released to everyone, so no one is taken by surprise (and no, a blog post on an Xbox community leader’s blog does not constitute a clear warning.)
The update is currently only available to people accepted into the preview program but we expect that it will be reaching everyone pretty soon so if you are one of the users that will be effected by this issue you should probably move your data back onto your 360 and pick up an authorized device before clicking that shiny update button.
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