The hard drive didn't come with all 500GB only about 480GB, but for the price, it was a steal

There seems to be some confusion. There are 3 models of XBox 360 consoles. Original, Slim and E (elite). This drive is NOT "plug n play" as an internal HDD on the "Original" or "Slim" models. In the case of the "original', it can be used only as an "external USB drive." In the SLIM models one is required to "partition/format the drive using USB connection to a PC. The drive, as sold AND marketed here, can not simply "plug-in" to the internal HDD port of a SLIM console and perform as an internal HDD. It appears that the drive functions as an internal HDD ONLY in the case of the XBox 360 model "E" or elite consoles. Otherwise, it functions well as a USB external drive. Good price for the HDD, but bad rating for the misleading title and deceptive application info.

I was a little skeptical about buying this product for my xbox 360. Its been two years now and the Hard drive is working perfectly. I haven't had any real issues . Ive managed to download all my games and play them with no problem. Ive seen a lot of negative reviews about the product, and I think those buyers just got unlucky with the product. Its a 50/50 chance your product might be effective or deffective. I took my chances and bought it.

This is what it's supposed to be---a big hard drive for an Xbox 360. Unfortunately, because I have it installed in my console, none of my original Xbox game discs are backwards compatible---it seems you MUST have a genuine Microsoft hard drive for that little feature to function. Doesn't really matter---I still have my old Xbox, but I never use it because the controllers for it are dreadful.
This little quirk aside, this hard drive fits and fires right up. The price is right, too.

For the price, this is okay. Our console is the X-BOX 360 E. I read the reviews - both the good and the bad, and decided to take a chance. This isn't a genuine Microsoft product, but is also around half the cost of a comparable Microsoft product. There were several reviews about this causing problems with the console. Initially, there were no issues, but after two or three weeks, I happened to be in the room when moans and groans started coming from my boys. When I looked, I noticed a notification on the screen that the unit was shutting down and saw a red light in the center of the power button on the console. After the light turned off, the boys were able to restart the console and another notification appeared indicating the unit was designed to shut down to keep from overheating, and to place the unit in a location where it could have proper ventilation. The console has been in this exact location for nearly two years without any problem. Now, nearly every time my boys play, they don't do much of anything for a couple of minutes because this same overheating problem occurs and needs a reboot. Once the reboot happens, everything is fine and they can play for as long as I allow. I did try removing the hard drive to see if the problem would correct itself, but it still reboots without the drive. I can't definitively show that the hard drive caused the problem, but I know that the first time the problem occurred was after the hard drive was installed.