Create A Volume And Format The Drive
With your external hard drive initialized, youll now need to create a volume Windows can read. Right-click on the area labelled Unallocated. In the menu that appears, select New Simple Volume. This will launch the New Simple Volume wizard. This tool will format your external hard drive so that it can be used with your PC. Simply follow the prompts by clicking the Next button.
If you want to make changes, such as assigning a letter to the drive or formatting it to a file system other than NTFS, you can do so. Finally, complete the formatting operation by clicking the Finish button. You will now have an external hard drive that is recognized by Windows 10.
Image credit: External drive connected to computer by DepositPhotos
Why Wont My Xbox Read My External Hard Drive
There are a few reasons why your console might not read the external drive you are trying to hook up to it. The main reason, particularly in the context of this article, is the issue of formatting. Hard drives use a variety of file systems to store data. The two most common file systems are the NT File System and the File Allocation Table , the most common version of which is FAT32.
Now, here is where the problem of formatting rears its head. While MOST modern external drives use NTFS, some still employ the older FAT32 system. Unfortunately, if your drive is part of the latter group, then it will not be detected by the console.
Another thing that can result in your Xbox failing to detect any connected drives is if any major console updates are yet to be installed.
According to the official Xbox support page, you will need to access the devices Profile & system settings to check for any downloaded updates. If the system indicates that updates are available, then they must be installed. Next, you must restart the console, access the settings menus once more, and head to storage to see if the external drive has been connected.
Sometimes, although rarely, the consoles failure to detect your external drive is simply a result of using a faulty or damaged USB port. Try changing ports and see if that will make a difference.
Nintendo Switch: Microsd Storage Ftw
Bringing home a Nintendo Switch soon? Youll need a storage solution for the games. Internal memory for the Nintendo Switch is 32GB and a portion of the storage is reserved by the system, reportedly 6.1GB, leaving you with 25GB of actual storage. Why is this important? If you download a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it will occupy 14GB of memory. Doing the math in your head? It means we need more storage.
Great news! Expanding storage is as easy as inserting a microSDXC or microSDHC memory card into the device. This is great, as the library of Nintendo Switch games will grow over time, including digital only Nindies .
Remember, purchasing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild game card means you dont have to install the game on your Switch. Nintendo announced DLC for this game in the future. All DLC will install in the storage of the console, akin to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, not the game card.
I know what youre thinking. Ill just buy the game cards for everything on my Switch. That would be a nice way to help save on storage, but do you want to carry around a bunch of game cards with you? I know I dont, but hey, to each their own. Either way, more storage, more games!
Why is 64GB the sweet spot? This option allows Switch owners to buy many digital-only games and still have room for plenty of DLC and patches.
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How To Use An External Hardrive
So we have some good news and some not so great news.
You can use an external USB hard drive! Just not with every game
Expand that storage! Source: Xbox
If youre looking to use one, just grab any USB external hard drive, plug it into your Xbox Series X or Series S and then format it using the console.
After this, you should be set and ready to use it, find out what games can be stored on it below!
Best Speed: Samsung T7 500gb Portable Ssd
This isn’t a hard drive but rather a solid-state drive ideal for console gaming. For the additional space enabled by an external drive, but with speed benefits over the cheaper mass-storage solutions, you’ll land on options like the Samsung T7 SSD series. This external USB SSD brings faster read and write speeds, with numerous benefits to everyday usage, and provides a middle ground beneath the Microsoft-approved expansion cards.
The switch to SSD technology brings several fundamental changes to what you can expect from an external drive, but speed is the number one reason to pick this product. We consider the Samsung T7 SSD series, the latest 2020 refresh in its portable offerings, the best external USB SSD for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles. It delivers high performance with 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write peaks, which on paper results in half the speed of Microsoft’s custom NVMe SSD tech.
That means faster speeds over an external hard drive, reduced load times, and potential performance gains for titles played directly on this drive. While the same system-wide limitations on USB drives mean you won’t play Xbox Series X|S Optimized titles here, the backward-compatible Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games all play great. And in the context of backward compatibility, which doesn’t use Xbox Series X’s full potential, an external USB SSD often matches the load times as the internal SSD.
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What Drives Work With Xbox Series X Or S
The Xbox Series X and S both come with lightning-fast NVME SSDs that reduce load times dramatically, but neither one has all that much storage. The Series X ships with a 1TB drive, and the Series S with a 512GB drive, and a decent amount of that space is taken up or reserved by the operating system.
You can only play Xbox Series X or S games if they are installed on the internal NVME SSD drive, or installed on the optional expansion drive. The expansion drive fits into a slot on the back of the Xbox Series X and S, and it provides transfer speed just as fast as the internal drive.
We tried a super fast USB 3.1 NAND drive with transfer speeds of 520 MB/s and write speeds of 420 MB/s, and that wasnt even fast enough. The Series X or S will only play games from the internal SSD or expansion card SSD that provide 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput.
Does Seagate Work With Xbox One
Boost your consoles storage capacity with the Seagate® Game Drive for Xbox, the only external drive designed exclusively for Xbox One and Xbox 360. Game Drive for Xbox is compatible with both Xbox One and Xbox 360, and plugs directly into any USB port in your console. 1 Average game size is 35GB to 50GB.
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How To Choose The Best External Hard Drives For Ps4 And Xbox One For You
The primary thing to consider when purchasing one of the best external hard drives for PS4 and Xbox One is storage space. If youre running a bit short on space but dont buy games all that often, a 2 TB hard drive or even less will do just fine. On the other hand, if you find yourself with some huge new game every week or two, only an 8 TB model is going to keep pace with your library.
You should also consider brand name. As computer parts go, hard drives are relatively prone to failure Im sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but its true. As such, its important to have a major manufacturer backing its product up, rather than a no-name company thats going to disappear as soon as something malfunctions. A reliable hard drive manufacturer also makes it less likely that your device will fail in the first place, which is quite important, considering that youre entrusting a hard drive with your games and save data.
- The best gaming headsets can enhance your PS4 and Xbox One sessions
Seagate Expansion Portable: The Best Value Hdd For Xbox One
Price: £44 , £57 , £92 , £97 |
Its not the fastest drive and far from the most stylish, but the Expansion Portable gives plenty of room for your games library or Games Pass downloads along with very respectable speeds. The 2TB version reaches read speeds of 132MB/sec and write speeds of 129MB/sec, both in excess of the 120MB/sec quoted. True, its a chunky little slab of plastic, but its more robust than many budget drives and very quiet. The 2TB version is the one to go for if youre short on cash, but if you want the most gigabytes for your buck, the 5TB version is an absolute steal.
Key specs Type: Portable HDD Connectivity: USB 3 Spindle speed: 5,400RPM Size: 117 x 80 x 15mm
Price: £68 , £99 |
Seagates Xbox One Game Drive should be the obvious choice for storage upgraders. It comes in Xbox green, white or a special edition Sea of Thieves design, and bears the Xbox logo. Its slim, quiet and as easy as any other drive to get working and the pricing is competitive.
The only thing that counts against it is that most models use the same hard drives as the slightly cheaper Seagate Expansion, with near-identical performance. Youre effectively paying between £2 to £40 more for the casing . Unsurprisingly, theres more of a price premium on the 4TB models, although we feel it’s arguably still worth the little extra.
Key specs Type: Portable HDD Connectivity: USB 3 Spindle speed: 5,400rpm Size: 117 x 80 x 21mm
Price: £70 , £94 , £115 |
Price: £88 , £140 , £275 |
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How To Choose An Xbox One External Hard Drive
All Xbox One games must be installed on the console’s hard drive before use, including those purchased on a disc. The Xbox One’s built-in hard drive cannot be replaced or upgraded without voiding your warranty, so unless you’re into the hardware-mod scene, you’re stuck with the stock drive.
Luckily, the console supports the use of external drives, making it easy to expand your storage space for games and other content. External drives must be at least 256GB and support USB 3.0 on Xbox One. Slower USB 2.0 drives are not supported, ensuring data will transfer very quickly between your console and the drive. Those compatible external drives work with all Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games, unlike the limitations enforced on next-generation titles for Xbox Series X|S.
When choosing a drive, your first consideration should be storage space. The console has a 16TB limit on external storage size, making most drives compatible. For most, 1TB externals provide a welcome boost, ideal for those on a budget. Making an upgrade to 2TB offers more flexibility, while 4TB and 8TB prove overkill for many.
Entry-level 1TB and 2TB drives are an excellent upgrade for first-time buyers. We’ve rounded up a few of the best-value picks right now, also which join the lineup of best hard drives for Xbox Series X and Series S.
Why Cant A Drive Used For Xbox One Be Used Simultaneously With A Pc
One might think that since Microsoft develops both Windows and Xbox One, that you would be able to swap the drive between machines. Unfortunately, this isnt the case. After youve formatted a hard drive as external storage for your Xbox One, it will no longer be recognized by a Windows-based PC.
All games, whether disc-based or downloaded, are written to the drive of the Xbox One. Because modern games are so huge, installing parts or all of the game to the hard drive helps with loading times. Since the bulk of game data is stored to the hard disk, Microsoft doesnt want anyone to be able to access that data on a PC. Therefore, the reason why Windows doesnt recognize Xbox One-formatted drives boils down to piracy.
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A Few Of The Best Xbox One Hard Drives You Can Buy For A Decent Price:
- WD 1TB Black USB 3.0 My Passport Portable External Hard Drive $60 on Amazon
- Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0
- Seagate 1TB FireCuda Gaming SSHD $80 on Amazon
- Samsung T3 Portable SSD 500GB USB 3.1 External SSD $180 on Amazon
- Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD
Recommended By Our Editors
In the end, if you want to lead an all digital life for this new generation, the only way to avoid having to frequently manage your storage capacity is to grab your favorite spudger and screwdriver set, and very carefully bust open your Xbox One. Consult the iFixit guide if youre feeling courageous.
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Managing External Storage On Xbox One
Once you’ve formatted the drive, it’s all set to go on your Xbox One. To manage your storage, hit the Xbox button on your controller to open the menu, then use RB to scroll over to your profile icon and choose Settings. Open System > Storage.
You’ll see a section on the right that breaks down all your connected drives. Select one to see various options, such as setting it as the default install location, viewing what’s installed on it, transferring content between devices, and more.
Your Xbox treats all available storage as one big pool, so in My Games & Apps, you’ll see everything you have installed regardless of where it’s stored. Thus, you don’t need to worry about where a game is saved, unless you want to move it due to speed or space concerns.
Seagate Expansion 8 Tb Hard Drive
Are you in search of extra storage to rely on and are looking for something easy to take wherever you go thats easy to plug in and out? The Seagate Expansion 8 TB hard drive will be perfect for you. It provides 8 TB storage to cater to an ever-growing collection of games and files.
Setting it up is very simple it does not require reformatting and works with Windows right of the box, but it needs an external power adaptor which is supplied by the company. All you have to do is plug in the drive to your Xbox One and you are done.
The Seagate Expansion drive automatically synchronizes with Windows and there is no need of any software and configuration. The USB 3.0 connectivity delivers enhanced compatibility and allows you to save files easily. The drive is much lighter than its rival large capacity hard drives.
Also, the drive is super portable so you can comfortably travel with it. Some of you might find this drive expensive, but the reliability this drive offers is worth the price.
Pros
- Too expensive for some people
- Needs an external power source
Verdict
The Seagate Expansion hard drive offers a large storage space although it might seem expensive, it will surely make your gaming experience far more convenient and comfortable.
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How To Format A Hard Drive For Xbox One
As stated above, we can easily connect Xbox One to a Windows 10 system and use it in different ways. If you want, you can do Xbox One internal hard drive format or connect any external hard drive to it as well. The process to format hard drive for Xbox One is the same for both kinds of disks and can be done in the following way.
Step 1 To start with, you need to launch the Disk Management utility tool on your Windows. To do this, you can go to the Start menu, open the Run prompt, and just enter the âdiskmgmt.mscâ command.
Step 2 Alternatively, you can also go to the Start menu and just look for the Disk Management tool or open it via Control Panel > Computer Management > Disk Management feature.
Step 3 This will display all the disks connected to your system with their partition listings. If you are using the disk for the first time or its space is unallocated, then just select it, right-click, and choose the âNew Simple Volumeâ option.
Step 4 If you are already using the disk, then right-click to get the drive/partitionâs context menu. From here, you can choose to format the drive instead.
Step 5 This will launch a new wizard that you can follow to format the hard drive in the file system of your choice. Mostly, Xbox One supports the exFAT or FAT32 file system that you can pick from here and choose the partition size as well.
The Need To Perform Xbox One Internal Hard Drive Upgrade
Xbox one is the successor of Xbox 360. Since it was firstly released in November 2013, it has attracted a large number of gamers relying on its internet-based features, such as the ability to record, the capability to integrate with a set-top box, voice control and the 4K video playback and HDR10 supported by Xbox one S version.
However, many users will ask how to perform Xbox one internal hard drive replacement for the following purposes.
â Insufficient hard drive space. Microsoft equips each Xbox one a 500GB or 1000GB hard drive it is definitely not enough for a game console. And after years of use, the internal hard drive would be running out of space. You can delete some games and files to free up space, but it doesnât do much help. Instead, replacing the Xbox one internal hard drive with a large one can solve this issue better and thoroughly.â Better gaming experiment. Like other HDD, the running speed of Xbox internal hard drive is much slower than SSD. As the price of SSD has sharply fallen, many users want to upgrade their Xbox one internal hard drive to SSD for better gaming experiment.
In the following article, we would like to illustrate to you how to upgrade Xbox one internal hard drive to a larger HDD/SSD.
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