How To: Backup All of Your Xbox 360 Data to Your Computer

Flash memory can be a tad unpredictable at times. I have had 4 flash drives die out on me over the last few years, and they usually die without warning. When a flash memory based device dies, the data is likely impossible to recover. Adversely on an HDD, or Hard Drive Disk, even if the disk dies out, someone will probably be able to fix it and get it back to working order—at least long enough for you to back up your data. Hard drives are a bit more forgiving. As you can guess, due to the unpredictable nature of a flash devices standing, it is a great idea to frequently backup your flash memory based devices so you don't lose important data forever.

Examples of flash Devices

• iTouch and iPhone
• Memory cards
• RAM
• USB thumb drives

A good Rule of Thumb

If you know that there are moving parts in a storage device, it's not flash-based.

Losing game saves can be the worst feeling in the world. Literally thousands of hours of my life have gone down the tubes with nothing to show for it, due to a lost thumb drive that I kept my game saves on. So, what if you want to backup your data from an Xbox 360? This is a common question I have heard, mostly from the older crowd who aren't as computer savvy as the next generation tends to be. Luckily enough, there is a very simple solution. So, in this Null Byte we are going to get our 360 saves and data backed up to our computer to prevent data loss. Game saves and online stats are the main priority here.

Make sure all of your data that you want to backup is saved to your thumb drive.

Requirements

• Data to backup
• Windows OS or a Virtual Machine running Windows

Step 1 Download USBXtafGUI

USBEXtafGUI is a tool that allows you to read the Xbox 360 file system that is saved to a USB device. It also has the built-in utilities that we need to back up our precious data.

1. Download USBXTAFGUI from here.
2. If you are running Windows Vista or later, right-click the program executable and click Properties.
3. Click the compatability tab and run in compatibility mode for Windows XP service pack 2.
4. Tick the box that asks you to run it as administrator.
5. Click Apply.

Step 2 Backup Your Drive Contents

We actually have two ways of backing up our drive. We can back it up as a raw image, which means it is one file with all of our data that can be restored to the drive. Alternatively, we can do a raw dump of our drive, and simply copy the entire directory structure to be copied back in case of disaster.

Backup Your Drive

1. Open USBXtafGUI.
2. Click File > Open first USB device.
3. Click Backup > Backup Raw Drive for a raw image and Dump Drive Contents to copy files and directories recursively.
4. Save it as any name you choose.
5. To restore, simply click Backup > Restore Disk Image, or just copy and paste the directory and contents recursively into the thumb drive for raw images and dumps respectively.

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