Games are much bigger these days. External storage devices are a great way to store and manage today’s video games. () especially the triple-A titles.) However, you may find your self in an ugly scenario where your Xbox external hard drive is not working. In this article, we will help fix just that.
Over the years, the Xbox has evolved, and as every generation has come and gone, the role that hard drives play has also changed.
The Xbox 360 and Xbox One both ran on a hard disk. You could also store and play games directly off an external HDD or SSD. While this would only work on compatible devices, it was still a welcoming option if you wanted to play old Xbox games on a newer console.
Why Is My Xbox External Hard Drive Not Working?
When the new Xbox Series X arrived, it used velocity architecture and a super-fast internal M.2 SSD. In the new Xbox series X, external hard drives are better used to store large games to free up space.
While you can play older games directly from the external hard drive, the Series X games must be transferred to internal storage before playing.
If you do want to play Xbox Series X games directly from an external storage device, you would need to opt for an Xbox extension card.
How To Detect External Storage Drives On Xbox?
1. Press the Xbox button and select Profile and System.
2. Select Settings choose System and Access Storage Devices.
3. See if you can locate your external drive.
Apart from this, there isn’t much to worry about. If you encounter some of the common issues below, we can move on to troubleshooting solutions.
Common Xbox External Hard Drive Issues
1. Incompatible Drive-
Not all drives are supported by Xbox you can refer to their website to figure out which ones are.
2. Faulty Connections-
Cables or port issues are fairly common, make sure to try out different drives and ports to rule out the possibility.
3. Drive Corruption-
If everything else is in order, you likely drive or the data inside it may be corrupted.
Troubleshooting Solutions To Fix Xbox External Hard Drive Not Working
1. Restart Your Xbox
This is extremely basic but effective. Shut the console down for a couple of minutes, then power it on to see if the issue has been resolved.
2. Check Drive Compatibility
Please ensure that your external hard drive is compatible with your Xbox. external storage devices that don’t meet the requirements are treated as media storage (videos, music, etc.). To find out if your external device checks all the boxes, you can refer to the list below-
1. USB 3.0 connection.
2. A storage capacity of 128GB or more.
3. A formatted partition.
4. Ensure that no more than 3 storage devices are connected to the console.
3. Update Xbox Console
There may be a chance that your console missed the automatic update. You can update your Xbox manually by following the instructions below-
1. Press the Xbox button and select Profile and System.
2. Select Settings, choose System and Access Updates.
3. Select the Update Available option if it is present and install the new update.
4. After installing the update, verify if the issue has been resolved.
4. Recover Data from Corrupted Hard Drive
If nothing works, then the data with your drive or the hard drive itself may be corrupted. During such scenarios, you will need professional recovery software to extract all the game files before formatting the drive.
SFWare Data Recovery is a professional recovery tool that can extract corrupted data from damaged drives. With an extremely user-friendly interface and advanced algorithm, you will be able to recover all your game files if everything goes well.
Requirements:
1. A laptop/ PC equipped with SFWare Data Recovery.
2. The damaged Xbox external hard drive.
3. A healthy drive that is formatted to meet Xbox specifications.
Xbox External Hard Drive Data Recovery
1. Connect both the healthy drive and the damaged drive to your PC.
2. Download, Install, and open SFWare Data Recovery.
3. Select the damaged drive and click on Start Scan.
4. Select all the files within the drive and click on Save.
5. Select the Healthy Drive as the save location.
Once the data is safely secured in the new healthy drive, you can now format the corrupted drive, to fix it. After formatting simply transfer all the data back to the repaired drive and verify if the issue has been resolved.
5. Factory Reset Console (Last Resort Only)
If nothing has worked, I would recommend that you contact an authorized professional to look into the matter.
If not, then a factory reset is the next best option. Please note that with a factory reset, you will lose all locally stored data on your Xbox. If you do have data on your Xbox, make sure to create a backup.
Part 1: Backup Xbox External Hard Drive
You can Backup your data to Xbox Cloud storage by following the given steps-
1. Press the Xbox button and select Profile and System.
2. Access Settings, select System, and Choose Back up & transfer.
3. Select the Backup My Settings option and go with the follow-up instructions to complete the backup process.
After creating a backup, you can follow the instructions below to factory reset your Xbox
Part 2: Factory Reset Xbox
1. Press the Xbox button and select Profile and System.
2. Access Settings, select System, and Choose Console Info.
3. Select Reset Console and choose the Reset Option. (You can also choose the keep my games & apps option or the remove everything option.)
Also Read: How to Recover Data from PS4 Hard Drive?
To Conclude:
Unlike PCs, every new generation of consoles comes with a bit of a learning curve. I hope that this article was able to help you resolve your issues. If you have any further doubts or queries, please feel free to reach out.
