Installing games to your Xbox 360 hard drive gives you many benefits, including faster load times, less wear and tear on the console itself, and a quieter running system. Also, although I do not know exact numbers, significant power savings are achieved by not requiring the disc to constantly spin while playing games. Although you must still have the disc in the drive to start the game I still prefer to install my games to the hard drive for all of these benefits.
There are some games that are designed to stream data from the disc and have been specifically engineered to be played off of the disc. RockStar first said this with Grand Theft Auto IV, and have continued that suggestion by explaining that GTA5 has an install disc, but you should NOT install the Play Disc. Still, overall, I find installing games pretty beneficial – large, open world games may be the one exception, but it certainly won’t do any real harm if you install the games!
Here is how you can install your games to the hard drive of your Xbox 360 console:
- Turn on your console and log in to your profile.
- With the game disc inserted, highlight the tile of the game disc.
- Press the “X” button on the controller.
- Move to the right and select the “Install” tile.
The game will now install. Once finished, start the game and enjoy the faster loads and more silent performance of your Xbox 360!