What exposure from "missing" 360 hard drive?

Came home today and my 360 hard drive is “missing.” I’ve got my thoughts, but for now it just isn’t there. I do have a credit card tied to my account, as well as a Creator’s Club membership. Of course there were videos, saves, and DL’d XBLA and XBLIG games on there, and luckily my account just has 360MS on it. What exposure do I have? Simply changing my account’s password enough?

Are you saying someone broke into your house and didn’t steal your actual Xbox, just your hard drive?

If so, yeah, that’s a very bad thing. You just need to plug it into a different console and your gamer profile will load along with any financial information you have associated with it. So cancel your credit card.

That said, if they only nabbed the hard drive, it’s most likely someone you know.

Have you open the machine to check is inside? maybe is broken and the console don’t detect it (Since is dead-dead)

Seems like a prank, but just in case cancel your credit card and change your Xbox Live account login.

Yeah, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense. There were people with access to the house today with our consent, so no breaking in necessary. I’ve called them to follow-up, maybe they bumped it loose (though that is quite a feat, those old 360 HDs sit in there pretty tight) and they set it aside somewhere – but I can’t find it.

Changing my game profile’s password now, that should stop auto-login. I was under the impression that only the last four digits are seen on the 360, so was hoping that was enough.

It is an old 360 so is the external type and is gone.

Yup, changed the password. Watching the CC closely and will cancel. As for a prank, maybe, but unless it is my kids or wife (and I highly doubt that) then it’ll be the people in the house today (as I played ITSP on Monday so it was definitely around until the wee hours of Tuesday and nobody was in the house yesterday) – and they are aware of the consequences.

Why did you write that it was “missing”? That makes this seem weird to me…

Because I hesitate to say it was stolen before I’ve proven, beyond a doubt, that it was. However, my wife, kids, and the two people in my house today have all disavowed knowledge of its disappearance, so I’m pretty much ready to call it stolen. I just can’t make sense of why someone would walk off with it (and not my computer, laptop, whole 360, PS3, etc. etc.) – it just seems so random. I guess the quotes were unnecessary – it’s clearly not there, it’s definitely missing – just don’t know if it is lost or stolen.

Pure speculation follows -
If this was a younger suspect, I’d imagine it felt like a smaller object and therefore less serious - kind of a “testing the waters with a seemingly minor act of larceny.” If it was an older individual, they’re likely after your stored info and a more significant theft than a used PC or something of that ilk. Either way, your personal follow up has to be the same and it sounds like you’ve done that part. I do wonder if the HDD has a trackable serial number like the console, but I doubt it. Police likely won’t chase after a missing HDD, either. I’m not sure who these people were, but I sure as heck wouldn’t invite them back. If it was some people who were subcontractors, contact the company that hired them and file a complaint. You likely won’t get anything for your trouble, but the crew will certainly have a mark against them and be unlikely to get hired again by that company. It’s small potatoes, but it might make you feel a little better and it would also protect future customers.

You could possibly contact MS support and check with them to see if your gamertag was signed into Live from another system/IP (before you changed anything).

Very good advice. It does have the feel of petty theft. While I can’t completely discount my kids (and at 11yo and 14yo they may be entering an “experimental” age into that sort of thing), I believe that they are sincere in having no knowledge of this. Also it’d be a strange thing to steal since they KNEW I’d find it missing almost immediately (a day or two, tops). There is always the possibility of a neighborhood kid (and we have had stuff stolen from my wife’s car a couple of years ago – due to her leaving it unlocked), but unless we left the basement door unlocked (something we are very careful about not doing) there would be some sign of entry. Also, it seems someone breaking in would take advantage and steal the much more valuable stuff I have in the room.

As for the HDD, you are right that it may be trackable (likely not) but even so it won’t be sought after by the police. When stuff was stolen from my wife’s car they didn’t do anything (and I don’t blame them, not really much that could be done to find the stuff).

The non-family individuals in the home were some cleaning people. The leader of the crew of two has been with us for over a decade but I’m not that familiar with the buddy he had out helping him. My daughter was also in the room during the entire time but was obliviously focused on Sims Medieval on my desktop. Still, it seems unlikely – I mean, why?

But still, I feel like I have to go into some bit of lockdown and the obvious starting point is releasing the cleaners. I hate to do that, though, and am mortified that they might not have done anything.

I may try that, thanks!

Maybe someone broke it and doesn’t want to own up. It seems a really strange thing to steal in isolation.

Maybe someone bought/downloaded something they weren’t supposed to and is clumsily trying to cover their tracks.

Cancelling your CC seems like overkill to me. I’d change your XBL password and recover your gamertag elsewhere as soon as possible to prevent the one on your HDD from connecting. I’d also contact MS customer support ASAP, and if they tell you to cancel your CC, well, there you go.

But it’s not like your CC is stored in plain text on the HDD for people to view. As long as they can’t buy stuff from your account any more, there shouldn’t be any danger.

We had a HDD stolen here in the office a while back, and these steps solved it. We were also able to track down the culprit because the dumbass friended his real-life friends from our company xbox profile, which we were of course watching like a hawk.

You don’t have to cancell the CC, just report the data comprimised, and they’ll send you a new CC with a different number on it, it’s a fairly easy process with most companies these days.

But yeah, it’s very possibly an unnecessary precaution - though better safe than sorry.

One of these has to be the explanation right?

Playing around, popped it out, broke the connection do-hickey trying to get it back in, buried it in the back yard…

the perfect crime.

Just my two cents worth but it sure sounds like an “inside” job based on the fact that nothing else was taken…

Either that or maybe somebody doesn’t want Dad to fire up the 360 and see “This account has been suspended until 31/12/9999…”

At that age range my brother did this a couple of times. He’d break something of mine then hide it. It didn’t occur to him that I’d notice it missing and look for it. It was usually under his bed.

I’m not saying to give your kids the third degree or anything, but maybe a discreet room check is in order?