Clearing The Xbox 360 Cache

[Antimind]

Screw holding A down while rebooting, this way works and without reboot.

Go to the system blade and then select memory.

Highlight HD (don't select, just highlight), press Y, and then press X,X,Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X,X.

Once you do this a messsage will appear saying: Do you want to perform
maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices?

This will clear your cache but it will also clear game updates (not downloads, just update patches).

Dunno how he found it, but thank my brother (en sabah nor) for that one  

[Tynstar]

Huh?

[phoenix1967]

I saw this article for how to do this on teamxbox.com and have no idea what this is about.

@Anti, what's the benefit of doing this? It sounds like a good thing, but I don't know why. So, before I do it I guess I'd like more info. Can you advise?

[Antimind]

For Oblivion players it'll make more sense than anyone else. After hours of playing a game like Oblivion or even Halo 2, you'll notice a slowdown with load times and even freezing (in Oblivion) and blocky stuff and parts of map graphics getting "stuck" on your screen (Halo 2). This will clear all the old temp shit out of your 360 and make things run smoother.

Basically you do this for the same reason you clear out cookies and temp internet files from your pc. To get rid of all the unused bullshit and pick up some speed in your current activities. It even helps in a situation like applying a patch that has an undesidered effect. The new Oblivion patch (don't know if it out yet) will for the most part, get rid of the free gold glitches and dupe glitches. If you used those things and the few, very minor fixes aren't really applying to you, you can remove the patch by doing this and simply choose not to reapply it when you reboot the game.

If you still don't get it just consider it spring cleaning for your 360. It just removes stuff that stays on the thing, in the background, where you never see it and wouldn't know it was there otherwise (like an attic you never bother with).

[phoenix1967]

Makes sense. Thanks.

One more question: does it increase the amount of memory available on the hard drive? 

[Tan]

the cache is located on a separate partitioned space set aside for the os and updates not the partition you put your music or demos on so no it wouldn't clear any usable space.

having to update the games all over again is a pain in the ass, pressing "A" while powering up the system or after changing the disc is still alot easier than re-patching the games all the time IMO.

[Antimind]

Holding A doesn't work as well. I've found that when experiencing massive slow down, holding A only half-asses the job. Completely clearing the cache and taking the few seconds for updates is totally worth it if you have the hardcore slowdown I've experienced.