RETRIEVED GAMETAG - HOW DO I GET MY FULL GAMES BACK ON MY HDD

I believe you will need to perform a License Transfer and then possibly re-download your games, please see this link:

www.xbox.com/.../Home

I am in a similar situation only with a couple more twists.

My two sons were sharing an Elite and I was on another Elite. I purchased a Slim for myself and did the Recover GT. Then I did the same for one of my sons onto the Elite I was using. The only one that hasn't lost any campain/career data on his games is the son that didn't have his GT moved. The two of us that did now have to start every game over from the beginning. We've been playing since the 360 launched so, alot of work would be involved to get back all the data for every game we've played.

Can I reverse the Recover GT procedure and get all of our data back the way it was?

I didn't do a License Transfer. All 3 360's are under my name. Do I transfer my Elite License to the Slim, then put one sons info on the empty Elite, then transfer him over to it? Will this still leave him with missing data and having to start all games over from the beginning, as his GT is tied to the other Elite that his brother is still on?

Any content purchased via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace is tied to the following:  1) The account it was purchased with 2) The Xbox Console (not the HDD) that it was purchased with.

If you change consoles, then the content will only work when the purchasing account is present _and_ connected to Xbox LIVE.  If it's a new console you own and you want the content to be used offline you'll need to do a license transfer.

If you're using the console it was originally purchased on any account can use it online or offline and all should be well.

I hope this clears everything up.

Then the best I can hope for is one account not working. As the boys are both tied to the one Elite, doing a License Transfer will only help one. As we can only do this apparently once a year on our own, I would have to go through Xbox Support for this whole procedure.

Thanks for your help in this matter!

Called Xbox Support and now I have everyone in my house up and running. Here are the steps I was told to use:

1) On the new 360, make sure no Gamer Tags are signed in, then click on Recover Gamer Tag

2) Sign in when tag is recovered and then click on Transfer License

3) Sign out when step 2 is completed

4) On the old 360, make sure no Gamer Tags are signed in, then click Recover Gamer Tag

5) Sign in when tag is recovered

6) Insert USB Thumb Drive in USB port and click on the silver Xbox Guide button. Scroll over to the Settings tab and click on System Settings. Click on Memory and you should see your hard drive and thumb drive. Click on the thumb drive and the steps to format the drive will be shown. Just follow the steps.

7) From the Xbox Guide, scroll to Settings and click on Account Management and then on Download History. All the DLC, games, videos etc. that were purchased on the 360 are shown. This is for all Gold & Silver accounts and all Gamer Tags.

Click on a game that is listed and you will see the files associated with that game (If more than one user played the game, you'll see the Gamer Tags beside the files). Click on one of your files and follow instructions to move it to the Thumb Drive. Repeat this for other files you want to move for that game (Some files won't let you Copy them, you'll have to Move them).

8) Sign out and remove the Thumb Drive

9) On the new 360, do the Recover GT steps again and then sign in

10) Insert the Thumb Drive then locate it in the Memory listing. Follow instructions to move the files onto the new 360 hard drive. Remove Thumb Drive when done.

11) Check to see that the game is up and running properly. You will have to redownload your DLC and other items again from the Market Place (It is free to do this for previously purchased items linked to the Gamer Tag).

12) If all is running properly, go to the old 360 and Recover Gamer Tag, sign in and insert the drive repeating the steps to Copy/Move files.

Files for each game can be moved one at a time or all at once to the Thumb Drive. I think you can also move all DL History items at once to the drive. I went through each file one at a time to dble. check because there were 4 different people using the same console.

Don't delete any files from the old or new 360 till you are sure they will not be needed.

You can use any USB Thumb Drive as long as you format it on the 360 first. The size of the drive should be between 4 and 16 GB. The 360 can only handle a maximum of 16 GB. You don't need an expensive one. Mine was $16.00 for a 16GB.

When I first tried moving my data to the new 360, I didn't do the License Transfer or try to move any files over. So, when I went to play my games, I had to start over from the very beginning on each one (only tried 3 games). This left me with saved files for these games. Before I moved any files over, I dble. checked the game files and deleted them off the new 360.

Hope this helps others that need the procedure explained a little more thoroughly. Use this as a guide but, go through Xbox Support first. Or, if you know of someone that has done this before, get them to walk you through the steps.

Would like to thank Nathan from Xbox Support for his help! He made sure I had an understanding of the steps to take and was even willing to walk me through them as I did the file transfering at home (I declined that offer but, impressed at how some things have changed at Support!).  

Forgot to mention that a License Transfer is required for each GT that is being moved permanently. You won't be able to perform this transfer again for 121 days should you want to move again.

This is not the procedure to use if you are just going to move your GT temporarily over to a friends 360 to play games, then move it back home again.  

This is actually quite helpful. Very good discussion.