The Xbox One is likely one of the strongest gaming techniques on Earth. Relying on the mannequin, it performs cutting-edge triple-A titles, streams each totally different sort of media you may consider, and it’s bought a 4K Blu-ray participant inside. Although some fashions include extra storage than others, each Xbox One comes with a restricted quantity of file storage, and it’s essential to set up each sport you wish to play. Sport information might be large, so the cupboard space goes quick.

Sooner or later, you’re going to expire of room on the Xbox One’s built-in drive, so that you’ll have two decisions: both delete content material to make extra room or purchase an exterior exhausting drive. Most gamers choose to purchase an exterior exhausting drive as a result of they’re comparatively reasonably priced and might add terabytes of storage.

Shopping for an exterior exhausting drive to your Xbox One (or Xbox One S or Xbox One X) is the very best long-term choice since you’ll be capable to set up video games to your coronary heart’s content material with out having to fret about sacrificing quick load instances. However not each exterior exhausting drive works with the Xbox One, and never each drive that works with the Xbox One is an effective worth, so it pays to perform a little research forward of time. That’s in all probability why you’re right here, so let’s dig in to every part it’s essential know to pick the suitable exterior exhausting drive to your Xbox One.

Key issues

Necessities

The Xbox One has some distinctive necessities for exhausting drives it should work with. Listed below are the 4 most essential issues to know earlier than you begin buying so that you might be sure to purchase a appropriate mannequin.

1. It will need to have a minimum of 256GB of storage. This can be a Microsoft requirement: the Xbox One received’t acknowledge exhausting drives smaller than 256GB. In case you have been occupied with connecting an older, smaller exhausting drive to your Xbox One, you’re out of luck. Fortunately, there are many reasonably priced exterior exhausting drives that do meet the requirement.

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   It should be USB 3.0 appropriate. Though the evolution from USB 3.0 to USB 3.1 is properly underway, the Xbox One can solely hook up with exterior exhausting drives that help the older USB 3.0 normal. Some high-end exterior exhausting drives help USB 3.1 solely, so you’ll want to double-check one final time before you purchase.

3. It could actually’t be a flash drive. Even when you have a flash drive that meets the 256GB minimal requirement, you continue to received’t be capable to use it for storage in your Xbox One as a result of the information switch speeds aren’t quick sufficient to help gameplay.

4. You may’t use the exhausting drive for something apart from Xbox One storage. Whenever you join your exterior exhausting drive to your Xbox One, the Xbox will fully erase the contents of the drive and reformat it. As soon as that is achieved, you received’t be capable to entry the content material on the drive from every other gadget apart from your Xbox One – the information received’t be readable. The underside line is, don’t trouble attempting to make use of your Xbox One exterior exhausting drive as something apart from an Xbox One exterior exhausting drive.

Space for storing

The most important query to reply as you’re looking for an Xbox One exterior exhausting drive is, how a lot capability do you want? And, naturally, bigger drives are dearer than smaller drives, so that you’ll want to select the exterior exhausting drive that’s a great match to your gaming storage wants and your pockets.

Typically, the neatest factor to do is purchase as a lot storage as you may afford. The value distinction between a 4TB drive and an 8TB drive is often lower than $100, which means that the extra you spend, the cheaper storage will get on a per-gigabyte or per-terabyte foundation. Don’t be involved about having “an excessive amount of” storage. Sport information are getting bigger, and so are film information, so it’ll go quicker than you suppose.

Xbox One exterior exhausting drive costs

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Realizing how a lot to spend on an exterior exhausting drive might be difficult as a result of, in some circumstances, a small value distinction can imply a giant improve within the quantity of storage you get.

Between $50 and $100

In case you’re trying to spend between $50 and $100, you may get a great exterior drive with wherever between 500GB and 1TB. Mainstream video games, comparable to first-person shooters just like the Name of Obligation video games, can take wherever between 10GB and 120GB after updates, so when you’re a severe gamer, you’re going to wish extra space. In case you sport casually or don’t play that many alternative video games, a 1TB drive will probably be good.

Between $100 and $200

In case you can spend a bit of extra, you may get considerably extra storage. Pricier exterior exhausting drives are extra capacious, and in some circumstances include extra advantages like their very own energy provide. In case you’re a reasonable gamer, a 4TB exterior drive will probably be greater than sufficient, however when you’re severe about your Xbox One gaming, you’ll be higher off shopping for an 8TB or 10TB exterior exhausting drive.

Suggestions

• Affirm that any exterior drive you purchase works with the Xbox One. In case you’ve bought your eye on a selected mannequin, learn person opinions to see the way it performs with the Xbox One particularly. If customers report any issues getting it to work with the Xbox One, don’t purchase it.

• By no means unplug an exterior exhausting drive out of your Xbox One when the Xbox is on. All exterior drives have the identical weak spot: when you unplug it whereas it’s in use, it will possibly corrupt all of the content material on the drive, rendering the drive ineffective with out a full reformat. Play it protected: solely disconnect your exterior exhausting drive out of your Xbox One when the console is totally turned off.

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  Keep in mind that sport updates usually require fairly a little bit of storage. Whether or not you obtain them immediately from Microsoft or purchase them on bodily discs, video games take up numerous room - wherever from a couple of hundred megabytes to 60GB per sport – and that’s earlier than you obtain any updates. Sport updates can double the quantity of file dimension a given sport requires, so it’s at all times a great concepts to purchase extra storage than you suppose you’re going to wish.

• By no means purchase a used or refurbished exterior exhausting drive. There aren’t any acknowledged requirements for refurbishing a tough drive, so when you purchase one refurbished, you haven’t any thought what’s been achieved to it – if something has been achieved in any respect. Moreover, there aren’t any simple methods to find out if a tough drive is used and the way lengthy it’s been used, so any used exhausting drive you purchase might solely final a couple of weeks.

FAQ

Q. Why do some exterior exhausting drives require two open USB ports on the Xbox One?

A. USB cables aren’t only for transferring information – they’re additionally for powering units. In case you purchase an exterior exhausting drive that requires two USB ports to attach, you’ll want to plug them each in. One will permit information to switch efficiently, whereas the opposite will present energy to the drive.

Q. What else can I retailer on my Xbox One exterior exhausting drive apart from video games?

A. Along with Xbox One video games and apps, you can even use the exterior exhausting drive to retailer your private media information like photographs, music, or movies.

Q. Why are some exterior exhausting drives known as “SSDs” whereas others are known as “HDDs”?

A. There are two kinds of obtainable storage: the solid-state drive (SSD), which has no transferring elements, and the exhausting disk drive (HDD), which makes use of spinning platters to retailer information. SSDs are sometimes extra steady as a result of there are fewer transferring elements. They’re additionally sometimes dearer solely obtainable in smaller sizes than their HDD counterparts. SSDs are additionally a lot, a lot quicker, so in lots of circumstances the trade-offs are price it.