I'd like to state up front that I don't think there's anything wrong with the console itself, but it was my reaction when it happened.

Some backstory is in order: I was a clueless Playstation fanboy, praising the earth sony walked on. I owned both a PS1 and PS2, though my friend had bought an Xbox 360. At any opportunity he'd try get me to buy one, but I was holding out for a PS3. 1 year after it's release, I cracked. The PS3 had nothing interesting going for it. MGS4 was still far off and I found none of the current games appealing, while I had played a fair amount of good 360 games at that point and I think Mass Effect was the thing that really sold me on it. I save up some money and buy a 360 bundle with Forza 2 and Viva Pinata. My new 360 arrived broken. It had a weird graphical issue, and I got it replaced through the internet store where I bought it. My second 360 lasted 2 years. Annoyingly, I had just bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Darksiders. It was the infamous red ring. I bought 250 gb 360S almost a year after.

I've done a fair bit of catching up this year, while trying to keep up. I've bought Red Dead, Hot Pursuit and Fallout: New Vegas. I adore Bethesda. While I liked Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 are among my favorite games of this generation. But New Vegas is a mess. Even now, a year after it's release and a hefty patch. I still played it though, and a lot. The game would freeze with regularity. More than once I've lost an hour or more, and more than once my autosave was also corrupted by such an incident.

The only reason why I'm talking specifically about Fallout is that, like when I'm playing Fallout, my 360 itself is now freezing up. I've had this problem for weeks now. When I turn it on, I can play and get a meaningful experience, but eventually it'll freeze. If I immediately turn it back on, it freezes after a short time. My xbox is less than a year old. How can this be happening, I thought. Unlike most people though, I consulted Microsof's customer support site, specifically on screen freezes.

I followed a step-by-step guide on the site. After completing a few steps, the conclusion was a hard drive issue. The last time my 360 broke, my harddrive was fine and I could import all my save games back into the new one. However, sending my hard drive away to get a replacement scares me. I tried using my MP3 player as temporary storage, but it was rejected, my old memory unit isn't compatible with my new 360, and the only other storage unit I can think of is hooked up to the TV. I suppose I could wait for cloud storage. Also, Skyrim is released in less than 2 weeks and I can't be in a situation where a physical copy of that game exists in my house and I cannot play it.

Edit: After removing the HDD and putting it back in two times I haven't had any troubles and hope this issue is resolved.

@alexl86: Interesting about the freezing. My console sometimes does that. Here's the thing about freeze ups:

Sometimes it's because of the disc (for whatever reason), you know this when the game continues playing music or when you press the centre button on your controller a sound will be made. In this case, just eject the disc and you will be returned to the dashboard, unfrozen.

Sometimes it's because of the console, you know this when no sounds at all are made (even when you press the centre button on your controller) and when you remove the controller's battery pack and the green led light on the console (around the power button) stays on. Doing the ol' on and off will sort it out.

This is the case for the old console (still clinging onto mine), not sure about the slim, but there shouldn't be too much difference.

And to be precise, Skyrim is out in 12 days, 1 hour and 29 minutes (as of 22:31).

@TEHMAXXORZ: Actually, I've removed the hard drive an it hasn't frozen up since, so it's probably the hard drive(it froze up 3 times in what couldn't be more than an hour). It's definitely not the disc, because it's happened with five different games, one downloadable. I've had it running for a few hours without the hard drive now with no hiccups. I should put it back in and see if I can get through a few more Batman challenge maps.

That kind of sucks but I suppose it's good that it's only the hard-drive that is busted. I've had quite a few of them red ring.

That sucks. Sometimes my 360 freezes totally too for no reason. I hope my hard drive isn't dying as well D:

Mine froze after I got a rare loot drop in War in the North. Oh man, I'll tell you I was not happy! NOT HAPPY!

@BlinkyTM: That sucks. I remember my old 360 freezing after I had pretty much run through all the overworld of Oblivion to mark locations on my map(from Skingrad, up to Bruma, to Cheydinhal and south, to Leyawiin and up to Bravil), and just as I nearly reached my intended resting place, the game froze and annulled what must've been 50 locations I had found.

After inserting my hard drive for the second time, doing the old NES blow as if it was a cartridge, I've had exactly zero freezes. Maybe the problem was related to the connection between the 360 and the Harddrive, and I won't have any further problems.

@alexl86 said:

@BlinkyTM: That sucks. I remember my old 360 freezing after I had pretty much run through all the overworld of Oblivion to mark locations on my map(from Skingrad, up to Bruma, to Cheydinhal and south, to Leyawiin and up to Bravil), and just as I nearly reached my intended resting place, the game froze and annulled what must've been 50 locations I had found.

After inserting my hard drive for the second time, doing the old NES blow as if it was a cartridge, I've had exactly zero freezes. Maybe the problem was related to the connection between the 360 and the Harddrive, and I won't have any further problems.

Maybe, it is kind of dusty where I have it. What happened to you is definitely worse, I would have raged lol.

I assume you've already tried this, but I thought I'd say it just to be sure: Have you cleared the hard drive cache?

Without NXE

1. System Settings
2. Storage Devices
3. Highlight hard drive
4. Press Y for "Drive Options"
5. Press X, X, LB, RB, X, X
6. Choose "Yes" at the prompt

With NXE

1. System Settings
2. Memory
3. Highlight hard drive
4. Press Y for "Drive Options"
5. Choose "Clear System Cache"

@mlarrabee: I've cleared the cashe multiple times, but as I said, after the second time I removed the HDD and put it back in, I haven't had any troubles.

oh shit mine froze on goldeneye twice should i be worried