xbox question

[tigersaw]

I bought a 250gb xbox in April 2011 and a live sub for a year. I went through all the setups, made a profile etc.
I downloaded a couple of the marketplace games, and played portal2 for a week then put it in a cupboard.

I've just got it back out and fired it up, its updated the front end and added loads of junk.
I want to prepare it for sale - what is the best way to get it as close to its initial state?
I see there is a format option - will that delete all traces of my profile and games, or is that a bad idea?

You can erase all your stuff off it with format, yes. You can back it up to a memory card or USB stick first if you want to keep it, though your profile info (gamertag and achievements and such) will forever be stored on MS's servers for you to recover later. Likewise the games you bought are associated with YOUR account so you could go to a friend's Xbox and download them provided you signed in with your account on their console.

'Initial state'... Format everything, remove all your profiles, disconnect your network connection and see how it looks when you've started it up again after.

Only the associated gamertag can load saves made with it, so you don't have to worry about someone else getting hold of your account and going into CoD calling people "f*g nooblars" and getting you in trouble so long as you remove all your profiles from the HDD.

[tigersaw]

Thank you kindly - I'll go give it a go

[tigersaw]

All done. Its like I never opened the box.

Excellent, glad it worked.

Keep hold of your Live sign-in and password as you can use those to remotely access your account and download whatever games and such you've bought onto any other Xbox. You need to be signed in too (albeit as a Silver 'free' member) but could be useful for weekend at a friend's house or something.

To do that first 'recover' your gamertag to their console and then you have access to all your games again.