Xbox Series X and Series S: How To Use An External Hard drive and SSD Expansion


We get it, you have a new Xbox Series X/S for Christmas, and you just cannot wait to play everything and anything on it! We’re with you on that.

Though, you can’t just go and download your entire Xbox Library of games all at once, if you want to you’ll first need some extra storage for your machine!

Check out our guide below on how to use an external USB hard drive, and read our recommendations for the games you should download when you have more space!

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…

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Expand that storage! Source: Xbox

If you’re 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!

Read More: Xbox Series X and Series S: How To Change Your Gamertag

What games work on an External Hardrive

Quite a few actually, any Xbox Original, Xbox 360 or Xbox One games can be stored on an external hard drive.

However, because they are not stored on the console’s SSD (solid-state drive), they won’t receive any enhanced load times or quality on the external drive.

If you want to take full advantage of your console’s capabilities, you’ll need to store games on an SSD.

For note, Xbox Series X/S games can only be stored on an SSD, and not on the external usb hard drive at all.

Read More: Xbox Series X And Series S: How To Enable Cross-Platform

How to use an SSD Expansion Card

If you want to expand your SSD storage, firstly you’ll need a compatible SSD expansion.

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SSD Drives for the win! Source: Xbox

Make sure you buy an official Xbox one as SSD drives aren’t all the same. The official one is pricey, but it’s your only option.

Then just plug your new card into the Storage Expansion slot in the back of your console and you should be ready to go!

We hope our guide helps, please check out our others if you need any more Xbox Series X/S help!

For more articles like this, take a look at our Xbox, Gaming News, and Console News pages.