According to About.com, they know more about the Xbox 360 data transfer situation than Microsoft does, but don’t go kidding yourself right? Well, it seems that they have a recipe for moving your data that comes in two flavors.

• Flavor #1:

Do it the way Microsoft proscribes by using the transfer kit and software provided with it. Sadly though, this method cause’s you to have to be logged into Xbox Live to have full access to certain content like Xbox Live Arcade games. This is a bummer at the very least, we all know.

• Flavor #2:

This is how it was done by Jason Rybka.

Transferring Data Using Memory Card

This is the option I used, and honestly, I haven’t had any problems. The one drawback is depending on the capacity of your memory card (I used a 64 Megabit Card) you will not be able to move large save files, Arcade games, and other large items. This isn’t really that big of a deal since the Xbox Live servers store what you have previously downloaded, and anything you have paid and downloaded in the past can be re-downloaded free of charge, The best for this option is that after you have transferred the material you can play it while either on-line or off-line.

How to Transfer Files Using a Memory Card

First off, plug your Xbox 20 gig hard drive into the Elite console, and the go into Memory and select the 20 gig hard drive. Move the content you would like to move, including your gamer profile to the Memory Unit. Once the memory unit is filled, put the 120 gig hard drive in the console and begin moving everything to the 120 gig hard drive, with the exception of your gamer profile (if you have more content to move just repeat the above steps.

Once all of the content you would like to move has been moved, you can then transfer the gamer profile to the 120 gig hard drive. I recommend doing a format on the 20gig hard drive just in case there are files on it that contain confidential information.

There you have it, all of your content on the new Xbox 360 Elite, without the use of the transfer kit and without the need to be signed into Xbox Live to play. Keep a mental note, if you need to save your larger game saves, such as Oblivion, the top option is for you, since the save file is too large to fit on a memory card.

If you try this, let us know if it worked for you. Just know that this isn’t sanctioned by the official procedure set by Microsoft.

[via About.com]

-William “thewilleffect” Bell-