2010-07-13

Xbox 1 savegames on XBOX 360

Since discovered that Burnout 3 and other Xbox 1 titles are now available through XBOX Live! games on demand, I decided to do away with disc swapping and focus my attention on purchasing games for XBOX360 and Xbox Originals online through Live!

Then it dawned on me... What about all the long and painful hours I dedicated to all those Xbox 1 Originals? Do I have to play them all over again including unlocking everything and developing perfect saves etc?

The short answer (more or less from Microsoft) is: No

The Long(er) answer is: Yes, but only with specific hardware, software and some patience (as well as unsigned savegames).


Quite a bit of research later, I discovered that it is theoretically possible as the XBOX 360 has a directory on it's HDD (Partition 3/Compatibility/Xbox1/UDATA to be precise). Besides, how else would it save normally backwards compatible game data?

So after I borrowing a Datel XPort 360 HDD adapter from an awesome friend, I was able to connect the XBOX 360 HDD onto my PC, and read (and also write to) the HDD contents within minutes, all I needed was Xport 360 Software

Next up I deleted my Halo save that I created on the XBOX360 HDD and dragged the Xbox Original savegame folder (ID: 4d530004) onto the XBOX 360 HDD disconnected it and it worked!

I then repeated this with Burnout 3 and tested it, but it failed to load save and shows Unusable in the in-game load menu for the savegam(e). Apparently this is because the savegame(s) are signed with HDD key so it will probably never work for this game *sob*

I decided to proceed with copying all my Xbox Original save games (or at least he ones I care about anyway) onto the XBOX 360 HDD, so I will update this post if and when I have the Games available to test.

 
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