Xbox 360 Arcade - memory saving options?

Hello my Xbox 360 loving fans. I just need some help buying a new card or whatever you need to save game data to.

My sister's boyfriend has nicked her memory card unit thing and as I don't live in the same city as her and she only has an Xbox 360 Arcade edition and doesn't know a thing about tech and can't currently save her game (Skyrim!), I was hoping somebody would advise on her best course of action.

Can you use SD cards? What about USB memory sticks? I don't know about hard drives as that's probably too technical for her and I'm not around to help. Plus cheap is best. What size memory is best and does the Xbox 360 allow for caching game texture data (like with BF3?) to memory cards?

My sister does not have broadband internet so no ability to download demos etc.

Cheers.

play.com link

A USB stick that is pre configured for the 360 and game saves. 16GB will be plenty for game saves, the HDD is really only needed if connected to internet.

The external XBox HDD can be bought for around £59.99 if they are going to do things like stick music/video onto the xbox. On the textures, not sure if these work with the USB, the 4GB Xbox is not enough storage on its own. But 16GB would be enough I presume.

You can use USB memory sticks which are far cheaper than the offical XBox memory cards

I use 16GB Play.com branded ones
http://support.xbox.com/en-gb/xbox-360/how-to/usb-fl...

It does not have to be SanDisk

You cannot use SD cards

Thank you both of you.

Sorry to ask, but in order to use USB memory sticks of any description (even the official ones), is it absolutely necessary to have the latest firmware update? I know updating the firmware would be hard for my sister as she has techy able friends around I don't think.

Cheers once again.

AFAIK the USB sticks have always being supported

Personally i just don't see the point in buying these cheap versions of consoles with no hard drive capabilities,mate bought a 360 with a 4 Gig Flash drive and can not install the texture pack required for Battlefield 3 .

Now he has gone out and bought a hard drive for it and he could have got a 250 gig xbox slim cheaper than what it has now cost him.

I know your sister is not a online gamer Spook but you do need storage and its far wiser to have a fully equipped 360.

Arcades can be had for £85, so for those who game rarely not a bad price, and then people can add the HDD as they get the money.

People gaming on pocket money, who buy the second hand games and don't chase the latest releases it is a good entry point price.

£85? Wow, that's cheap. Guess you're right there.

My sister's Xbox 360 was originally purchased by her b/f. His intention was to have an Xbox in her flat for when he was staying over with her and she's had it a couple of years now.

Thanks again MrSaffron. I was just concerned if I got any USB memory stick and it would not format correctly owing to firmware as I'd read a mention or two about that in Amazon reviews.

Hopefully standard USB memstick will be okay! If not, no worries. I'll get a Sandisk. Cheers.

Yes, you need to have the firmware updated to support non XBox memory sticks, although it can be installed from a USB stick
http://majornelson.com/2010/03/26/usb-memory-support...

Hey thanks for that. Very helpful!