Through my time playing both on Live and browsing discussion boards, it seems that most casual Xbox 360 owners are not aware of the ability to install games onto their Xbox 360 hard drive. The benefits of installing a game onto the hard drive are immense. For those of you who have the room to spare, 60GB-250GB owners, installing games onto the hard drive is a must. 20GB owners may be able to allocate enough room to install one or two of the games they play the most.
Some games receive a significant performance boost, including smoother gameplay, faster loading, and less frame rate stuttering. The greater benefit though, applies to all games, as once a game has been installed onto the hard drive, the Xbox 360 will run at almost dashboard level quietness. The disc drive will no longer have to spin, which will save the system from generating extra heat from having to read the disc while playing, as well as save electricity and create a quieter gaming environment. Before you start hot swapping discs, remember that the actual game disc still needs to be inside of the Xbox 360 for the game to play.
To install a game onto the hard drive:
- Make sure the game disc you want to install is inside the Xbox 360 and has been recognized (readable).
- Go to the 'dashboard' on your Xbox 360.
- Make sure you are in the 'My Xbox' pane.
- Scroll to the right and press 'A' on the 'Game Library' menu.
- Highlight the game that is currently inside of your 360's disc drive and press 'A'.
- Choose the 'Install to hard drive' option and let the system do it's work. The installation should take about 5-10 minutes.
Once the installation has finished, you are good to go. Hope you enjoy the peace and quiet.