Game consoles are often not so dissimilar to normal computers that people like you and I use for work as well as play. Below all the layers of console security—the hypervisors, encryption keys and layers of obfuscation—lies a computer, with a CPU, GPU, storage, and motherboard. Once you're able to work around all those layers of security, the hardware can be used for anything. So with the spirit of that in mind, like any sane person would, I've decided to turn my Xbox 360 into a NAS, and it went surprisingly well.

Why even try to use a console as a NAS?

Because it's cool, that's why

I really despise when old hardware (especially game consoles) go to waste, but besides that, using game consoles for applications that stretch far beyond their original purpose always fascinated me. The Xbox 360 was a particularly tough nut to crack in terms of its console security, and it wasn't until the last few years that modders found a way to exploit it without the need for soldering and other physical modifications.

The Xbox 360's hardware itself is quite old, but it's not useless by any means. Its two USB ports, SATA HDD compatibility and network connectivity make it quite versatile beyond just games and homebrew. When the proper exploits are executed, it can be used for pretty much anything, so why not try and turn it into a NAS?

The process is pretty simple

All you need is a USB stick and a little time

If you want to try this for yourself, you'll need an Xbox 360 that's capable of performing RGH (Reset Glitch Hack) or one that has had a JTAG mod applied to it. If you haven't heard of either of these things, chances are you probably don't have one. Thankfully, there's a pretty easy software workaround that's been developed by some very talented modders in the last few years, namely "grimdoomer" and "shutterbug2000", as well as others. I won't be covering exactly how to perform this "softmod" here in this article, but if you have a USB stick and an Xbox 360, you'll be able to replicate this fairly easily.

Like you should with any other NAS-type device, I've got my Xbox 360 connected to my network via Ethernet for bandwidth reasons, but I've blocked it off from the wider Internet for security purposes. Microsoft also doesn't take too kindly to modded consoles connected to Live, so I'm keeping this console totally offline.

How I actually turned it into a NAS

It works...mostly

Beyond applying the ABadAvatar exploit, all that was needed to use the Xbox 360 as a NAS was to load up an FTP server, and most custom dashboards actually have this capability out of the box. XeXMenu is what I've been using, and it starts the FTP service upon boot as long as the exploit has been applied.

Connecting to it is fairly simple: from my PC, I can use any old FTP client to connect to it using the IP. The catch is, this FTP server that's included with XeXMenu is extremely barebones, and doesn't actually support most of the features that come with modern FTP. I actually had to switch my FTP client to Active mode from Passive to get anything to connect.

Once connected, I'm able to browse the entire file system, including the HDD, external USB drives, and even the on-board flash. I can transfer files to and from any of these with relative ease, and tested this with some random files from my workstation. I was also able to connect from my phone, which I found pretty amusing. Practically speaking, I could either expand the internal HDD by replacing the one in the enclosure, or just plug in a large USB stick and treat it like mass storage.

What didn't work

It's still super practical for homebrew reasons

First and foremost, the Xbox 360 is limited to a 100Mbps connection, which means transferring files to and from the system is pretty slow. It maxes out at around 7 MB/s, which isn't bad, but it's also not practical for anything large. The reliability is also dubious, as the FTP server requires the Xbox to always be on with the exploit running, which in my case means having to apply it every time the console starts. If I launch a game or another application, I can no longer connect via FTP.

Xbox 360s are also limited to 2 TB in storage capacity both internally and externally, and even that requires some tweaks to work, so any kind of actual mass storage use will be extremely limited with the console. Chances are, though, that you probably won't need even that much if all you're doing is homebrew. As a method for transferring files for homebrew like emulators and backups, FTP is actually preferred to me, as it's completely hands-off. Would it be faster to just use a USB stick? Sure, but that's not much fun, is it?

It's great for Xbox-related stuff, not much else

An Xbox 360 is not so dissimilar to a normal computer, and once you get beneath all the layers of security, you can use it for pretty much anything. Using it as a NAS isn't super practical for anything beyond storing actual Xbox-related content, but it has a certain charm about it that's so fascinating to me.