Hi all this might seem like a weird question but my sister and her boyfriend are currently living out of home and feel they have no need for internet (this makes me sad but I digress). They'd like to play some media they have through their 360 via an external hard drive. I've been able to format an external to fat32 and the console recognizes the drive but can't play any of the files without an update (this thing is like 4 years old and hasn't been updated). The problem is the cables that run from the 360 to the TV also go through a false wall to keep all the cabling neat and it is apparently too much of a pain for them to pull it all out so I can take the 360 to my place and update it for them.

Is there any way that I can update the 360 via external storage like you can with the 360, my googling so far hasn't been very lucky at all. Failing that any other suggestions?

Don't new releases carry the latest update?

You can download it from here and install using a USB drive or CD/DVD. Also, as Dany said, new releases should have it.

why not just take the hard drive out and plug it into your xbox to update it

All new releases contain an update partition that has the most current dashboard that was available at time of release it's an anti piracy measure to force people to keep up to date with dashboard releases and there security measures. If you cant use louiedog's link to update for some reason you could redbox a newer game and use that to update.

Thankyou no idea why I couldn't find that link this morning! I'll try downloading and updating from a USB tonight if no luck I'll go and hire a new release.

Thanks heaps!

EDIT: I'm also surprised that his console hasn't received the update from some of the games he is playing, although I know all he plays is Fifa and not sure what version of the game he has.

Yeah there is an optional media update that you need to download through the 360 to play certain videos. Some are suggesting the dash update, but I don't think that it actually comes on there. Of course you should try it just in case. And I don't think you can actually bring just the hard drive for the optional media update as it is tied to the console (I think). If the dash update doesn't work then is it really that hard to just unplug all the cables from their 360 and bring it to your place? If it is then I guess they won't be able to watch anything on it as the only way to get those files is through downloading them from the 360.
EDIT: Also the 360 only supports certain video files, even with the media update. It will play .mp4 files (among others) fine, but if they are looking to watch any of those hot .mkv files then they are out of luck.

@bozosc said:

why not just take the hard drive out and plug it into your xbox to update it

Why am I laughing so hard at this?

Hrmm OK might see if I can hunt around for the optional media update as well. As far as unplugging the 360 I don't actually own one myself (ironically I have everything but a 360) so I'd have to get them to rip the cabling out of the false wall which they won't do. All I can suggest them doing if this doesn't work is to get them to take it to someone elses house who has internet and a 360 and do it there. Also does anyone know roughly how big the media update is? If worse comes to worse they both had 4GB of internet with their phone contract I can set up a wifi hotspot with the iphone and connect to it via the 360 and download it that way but it would take forever and I don't want to chew through all that data.

Ah I was under the assumption that you had your own 360. I just did a little googling and it definitely looks like the optional media update doesn't come with the dash update. The optional media update is here and is less than a MB. It can also only be downloaded through a 360 (can't put it on a USB stick like the dash update). Also, do you remember any of the file extensions for the videos? Like I said before the 360 can only play certain files and this will all be in vain if what they want to watch is an unsupported video file. So to wrap it up I would update the dash through a USB stick anyway just so you can have the latest dash version, but for the optional media update you will most likely have to set up that wifi hotspot or find a friend with a 360 and internet.

Most of them are avi, some mp4 I told them the 360 would likely not play mkv files of which there are very few. So in summary the best thing to do would be:

1) Download dash update unpack onto a USB (fat32 formatted judging by the fact that I needed to do this to the 1TB external) and plug into 360

2) Turn 360 on and have it update automatically from USB.

3) Set up wifi hotspot over iPhone log into marketplace and get the optional media update

4) Test media files.

5) ....

6) Profit?

EDIT: Also I noticed this only mentions that i can play mp4 files, was there an earlier update to allow avi files to work as those apparently also need a system update so I assume there might be two I need to get? Will be nice to get this working I forgot how easy things are for me because it's all up to date the day the patches come out >_>

Now that you mention it you might be right. I suggest when you are connected to live try to play an .avi or .mp4 file. It shouldn't work, and since you are connected to live it should ask you if you want to download the update. Say yes and then test your files. If they both work then you are good to go. I did it this way years ago and had no problem playing .avi or .mp4 files. Of course I haven't tested this in forever. Not sure of the file size, but it will be small.

if you do not have internet , access you can not download the update , -to download you need internet access , microsoft may have a disc they can send to you so you can update im not sure , you either can take the console to house w internet or get a thumb drive big enough --and download it from microsoft if its there ,, and put it into your 360

Just thought I would update this and let you know how I went. I downloaded the dash update onto a thumbdrive and had this update just fine, the latest dash update does include support for AVI files. The optional download for mp4 files ended up being a much bigger pain, through some out of the box thinking and a bit of trial and error I eventually set my iPhone up as a WiFi hotspot, connected a laptop, bridged the WiFi and LAN settings, set the 360 to obtain all information (finally got it to connect to the net). Then spent a few minutes setting him up an xbox live account as he didn't have one and from there downloaded the 400kb update.....took about 1 hr of stuffing around for a 30 second patch. But it all works and they are ecstatic. Man I'm a good big brother!

Thanks all for the help.