How to install Xbox 360 games to the hard drive

November 19, 12:13 PMGames ExaminerDaniel Nations

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One of the cooler Xbox Live New Experience features is the ability to install an entire game to the hard drive. This can be great for games that do a lot of disc loading as it can really cut down on those load times and improve performance.

I've already tested this feature out with EA's NFL Head Coach 09 -- a game that was riddle with performance issues -- and it really worked wonders on the game. The frequent pauses as the game loaded the depth chart, injury status or emotional systems went away, and the game plays a lot smoother.

So, if you have a game that you like to play, but it's frequently slowed down because of disc loading, it might be worth installing the game onto the Xbox 360's hard drive. You will still need to have the game disc in the Xbox 360 to play the game (they don't want to make it too easy to pirate games!), but you will see improved performance in some games.

Find the best games to install to your Xbox 360 hard drive.

How to install Xbox 360 games to the hard drive while in the dashboard:

It's very simple to load the game onto the hard drive when you are in the new dashboard. Just follow these quick steps:

1. Load the disk into your Xbox 360 console and go to your Xbox 360 console
2. Scroll down to My Xbox
3. Scroll across to Game Library and hit the A button
4. This should put you on the Recent Games window and your game should be highlighted, so you should just need to hit the A button. Otherwise, scroll to the Recent Games window and choose the game.
5. On the game screen, choose Install to Hard Drive. This process should take a few minutes, but once it is complete, you'll be able to enjoy improved performance.

You'll also note that the game screen contains all kinds of great information about the game such as the achievements unlocked and featured downloads available for the game.

How to install Xbox 360 games to the hard drive while in the game:

1. While in the game, hit the Xbox button to bring up the mini-dashboard
2. Scroll across to the Games tab
3. Choose Game Library and hit the A button
4. Confirm that you want to bring up the Xbox 360 Dashboard
5. This should put you on the Recent Games window and your game should be highlighted, so you should just need to hit the A button.
6. On the game screen, choose Install to Hard Drive. This process should take a few minutes.

Checking hard drive space and clearing up room

Installing games onto your Xbox 360's hard drive will take up a lot of space. For example, it took 6 GB to install EA Head Coach 09 onto the hard drive -- that's quite a bite out of the available space.

So, you might want to make sure you have enough available space and clear up a little room if you are running low. Doing this is pretty simple:

1. In the dashboard, scroll over to My Xbox
2. Scroll across to System Settings (it should be the last choice)
3. Choose Memory
4. This will show your hard drive and your free space. Choose the hard drive to get more information.

The hard drive is broken down by categories to show where you are using the most space.

Choose a category to see the individual items. You can delete items by clicking on their name and choosing delete from the menu. Deleting demos is a good way to free up some available space.

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