Troubleshooting Disc Read Errors with a Digital Download on the Xbox 360
Last Updated: April 2, 2024
Question: Why am I getting a disc read error when playing my digital copy on the Xbox 360?
Answer: If you see an error message about not being able to read a disc, but you have a digital download of the game, the troubleshooting steps below may clear up any issues.
Before troubleshooting, please do the following:
Restart your console
Unplug all power cords and accessories, and then plug them back in and make sure the connections are secure
Update your console software
Clear System Cache
Select Settings
Select System
Select Storage
Highlight the HDD
Press Y for Device Options
Select Clear System Cache
Select Yes when prompted to perform Hard Drive Maintenance
Note: Deleting the cache will remove temporary game files and updates. Saved games, profiles, DLC, etc. will not be removed.
Clear the Game Cache
Clearing the game cache resolves many problems in games that rely heavily on the Xbox 360's cached memory. Some of these problems include, but are not limited to, NPC issues, random textures, hitching, lagging, and slow gameplay.
As the game is launching, hold the Left Bumper, Right Bumper, and the X button all at the same time on the Xbox 360 controller until you see the Main Menu or Title Screen of the game.
There will be no other notification to you that this process has completed.
Re-Install the game to a new portion of the Hard Drive
Typically, when installing and reinstalling games the system will attempt to reinstall over the same block of space on the HDD. While there is no function to manually force the game to install on a different block of space, there is one possible workaround that might force the game to install on a new section.
You can try and force the game to install to a new portion of the hard drive by uninstalling the game, clearing the cache, and installing some other program. Once this is done it should force the game to install to a new portion of the hard drive. To do this, use the following steps:
Uninstall the game from the Games and Apps folder. Delete everything related to the game that is not a save file
Clear the system cache as previously described
Install an amount of unrelated content equal to that of the games size (in most cases this is roughly 3-5 GB)
If you have Xbox Live Gold, the simplest solution would be to download a large number of demos from the Xbox network
The point here is to fill up hard drive space, so the content isn't important
When you reinstall the game, this will force the console to install the game to a section that was not previously used
If you do not have an internet connection, installing 10-12 music CDs should use up enough space, although more might be needed
Reinstall the game
If after trying these troubleshooting steps the issue is still occurring, we highly recommend contacting Microsoft support: