Summary :
To reformat a drive on Windows: Plug in the drive and open Windows Explorer. Right-click the drive and choose Format from the drop-down menu. Select the file system you want, give your drive a name. Windows 7 and Windows Vista sport the Convert utility, which changes the disk format to NTFS for certain types of storage media. The Convert utility doesn’t reformat the media, so no information is deleted. Choose Format from the shortcut menu. The Format command is dimmed for media you cannot format, such as an optical disc.
What is the Xbox One external hard drive format type? This post shows you the correct Xbox external hard drive format type and also offers the most easy-to-use Xbox one hard drive format tool for you to have a try.
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As all-in-one entertainment system developed by Microsoft, Xbox One is now gaining popularity all over the world. It is a strong competitor of Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Wii U and Switch.
As you may know, Xbox One comes with 500GB or 1TB/2TB built-in storage space. However, the problem is that Xbox games are huge and each one could take 50GB around disk space. So the built-in drive is easy to fill up.
Luckily, Xbox One accepts external hard drives to be connected for extra storage space. However, these drives should meet specified requirements.
Part 1: Xbox One External Hard Drive Requirements
According to support.xbox.com, for an external storage drive to save games and apps from Xbox One, it must meet the following requirements:
- It uses a USB 3.0 connection. If you’re using a USB hub, the hub must also be USB 3.0 or later.
- It has 256 GB or larger storage capacity.
- It has a partition. Typically, drives should come with a preformatted partition. For more information about partitioning an external hard drive for Xbox One, please refer to Part 2.
- No more than 3 storage devices are connected to the console at the same time. Xbox will recognize only 2 external drives at one time.
Devices that don’t meet these requirements will be treated as Media Storage for music, video or pictures.
Part 2: Xbox One External Hard Drive Format
First Move: Make Sure the External Hard Drive Is Already Partitioned
As mentioned above, before it can be formatted to that kind of storage device, a partition needs to be created on the external hard drive. If you found no partition on the drive, here is the guide for you to go through the partition creation process.
In Windows, you have two options to finish this job, choose either one you prefer:
Option 1: Use MiniTool Partition Wizard
Step 1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard. Install and run it to get the main interface.
Step 2. Select the unallocated space on the Xbox One external hard drive and then choose Create Partition.
Step 3. Keep the default settings for this creation and click OK.
Step 4. Finally, hit the Apply button.
Option 2: Use Windows Disk Management
Disk Management is another good thought for it is the built-in tool of Windows operating system:
Step 1. Run “diskmgmt.msc” in the RUN box.
Step 2. In the graphical interface, right-click on the unallocated space of the Xbox One external hard drive and then choose New Simple Volume.
Step 3. Follow the instructions and keep the default settings to go through all the process.
But if you are running the Mac OS, you need to follow this guide:
Step 1. Go to Finder and then navigate to Applications. How do i back up to an external hard drive.
Step 2. Scroll down to the bottom to locate and find Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 3. Find the external hard drive under External and then click Partition on the top menu of the right panel.
Step 4. Click the “+” button to create a new partition on the device. In the format column, choose FAT or exFAT files system.
Step 5. Confirm the creation and wait for Disk Utility to finish.
Second Move: Add and Format Xbox One External Hard Drive
Please make sure you don’t have any important information stored on the Xbox One external hard drive before setting it up with your Xbox One.
Next, it is time formatting the Xbox One external hard drive.
Note: To save games and apps, you need to do this formatting on Xbox One itself because the Xbox One external hard drive format type is a proprietary one. After that, it is impossible to read the game files on Windows/Mac PC.
Step 1. Plug the USB 3.0 Xbox One external hard drive into one of the free USB sport on your Xbox One Console.
Step 2. The Xbox will detect the drive and ask how would you like to use this drive: for media (music, videos, and pictures) OR for games & apps? If you choose media, you will keep any content that’s currently on the drive; if you choose games & apps, the drive needs to be formatted and can be used only on Xbox One.
Step 3. Choose Format storage device and then give your device a name.
Step 4. In the next page, choose Install new things here and then Format storage device. Be aware that any data on the drive will be wiped clean. When finished, all is done.
Kind Remind: If you cancel formatting a storage device, you can set it up later by following these paths:
Step 1. Open the guide and select System> Settings > Manage Storage.
Step 2. Select your device, and then select Format for games & apps.
With all things done, you can now save more games & apps on Xbox One external hard drive. Like this post? Share it with more Xbox One users!
Part 3: Use Xbox One External Hard Drive for PC
While a lot of users complained their Xbox One external hard drive cannot be recognized by Windows anymore, we find that the drive is actually detected in BIOS and appears in Disk Management but shows as Disk Unknown not Initialized. Xbox One just changed the way for communication so Windows cannot recognize the drive. How do i change dimensions of a jpeg.
And two ways are offered here for Xbox One external hard drive format NTFS so that you can use the drive normally in Windows PC.
Way 1: Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to Recreate
In MiniTool Partition, not initialized hard drive will be shown as unallocated disk space. And in this case, you just need to create a new partition on the drive. Please refer to Part 2 (First Move) to create a new partition OR you may follow the Help Tutorial.
Way 2: Use Disk Management to Create
Disk Management is another Xbox One hard drive format tool to make Windows recognize hard drives. But when an Xbox One external hard drive is connected, no partition is displayed. You need to initialize the hard drive first and then recreate.
Step 1. Select the Xbox One external hard drive which shows as “Disk Unknown Not Initialized” and choose Initialize Disk from the context menu. Then choose a partition style and confirm.
Tip: You may read MBR VS GPT to know their difference before you can make a decision.
Step 2. Now select the whole unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume. Follow the guide to go through all the steps.
See also:How to Free Create FAT32 Partition on External Hard Drive
Now you regain the ability to use Xbox One external hard drive in Windows PC and you can save files to that external hard drive.
Wrapping Things Up
Have you thought of expanding your Xbox One’s storage capabilities by adding an external hard drive? Now it is your turn to have a try on the suggested Xbox One external hard drive format. Someday if you want to use that external hard drive for PC, you also have the solution.
If you have any suggestion, please put it in the comment zone. And if you come across any difficulty when using MiniTool software, don’t hesitate to let us know via [email protected].
Updated on November 23rd, 2020
This article shows you how to format an external hard drive via different methods, and you can follow these methods to format external hard drive for PC, Mac or Linux.
External hard drive is popular storage device and it can be used to store all kinds of digital information such as images, documents, apps, emails, etc. You can connect external hard drive to computer via USB cable and then transfer data with internal hard drive. Regardless of the brand or model, the first thing you may need to do after purchasing an external hard drive might be partitioning and formatting it.
Formatting external disk can be done via various methods and it can be formatted to a range of file system so that you can use the disk under different operating system platforms. The formatting process removes all data on the partition and thus causes data loss. You should create a backup for important data before formatting if the disk contains significant files.
A brand-new external hard drive is usually partitioned into s single partition with NTFS file system. Still many users would like to format the external hard drives and people do that due to various reasons:
- Format external hard drive to required file system. The brand-new disk you purchase might not be formatted to the file system type you need. To change file system type, formatting should be done.
- To quickly remove content from external hard drive. Quick formatting is able to format a partition within seconds, and all data on the volume will be deleted. This is a good solution to delete data and free up disk space.
- To optimization performance for disk. Formatting can clear data fragmentation quickly and easily.
- Remove virus or malware. Since external hard drive might be used on many computers, it tends to infect virus. Many users would format it to clear virus and avoid more damages.
- To fix file system errors. Sometimes external hard drive may become RAW or reports errors like “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”, you can fix these errors by formatting the volume after file recovery.
Step 1: Connect your external hard drive with your computer and open Windows Explorer to check if it can be recognized.
Note: if you have stored data to the drive, please back it up before formatting the disk.
Step 2: Right-click on the external hard disk and select “Format” option from context menu.
Step 3: On the formatting window, select Quick Format option, choose file system format, and click Start. Also you can enter a name for the drive under Volume Label.
Step 4: System prompts formatting removes all data and asks confirmation for the action. Click OK and formatting starts.
This method formats external hard drive using Windows built-in utility Disk Management. If your external hard drive does not show up in Windows Explorer, you can follow this instruction to complete the formatting.
Step 1: Access Windows 10 Disk Management by right-clicking Start menu and selecting “Disk Management” item from the list.
Format Usb External Hard Drive
Step 2: Locate the external hard drive in Disk Management and check its status.
If there is not partition on the disk or the disk is marked with Not Initialized, you cannot format it directly.
The next step assumes the external hard drive is full of unallocated space and shows how to format it.
Step 3: Right-click on unallocated disk space and select New Simple Volume from the context menu.
Step 4: You can see the “Welcome to the New Simple Volume Wizard” now. Click Next button to proceed.
Step 5: The wizard will ask you to select set partition size, drive letter, file system, format method, etc. step by step. You can follow suggested option to complete the process.
Want to use external hard drive under both Windows PC and Mac? In this case, you should consider the hurdle that these operating systems support different filesystems. The default file system in Windows is NTFS, while Mac OS users HFS. The filesystem that is compatible with Windows and Mac is exFAT and FAT32.
exFAT VS FAT32, which one should be chosen for Max and PC? It is recommended to use exFAT by many experts, because FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size limit and exFAT does not has such limitation, and exFAT also performs better than FAT32. FAT32 is also a good choice if you do not store files whose single size does not exceed 4GB.
FAT32 and exFAT file system is supported by Windows though, they are originally designed for removable storage devices like USB flash drive, SD card. When you try to format an external hard drive which has very large capacity in Windows, FAT32 or exFAT may not be available. Also, some users may encounter error “The volume is too big for FAT32”. In this section, we’ll use a free Windows partition manager to complete the formatting task.
Eassos PartitionGuru is free Windows partition manager and it supports various file systems such as FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, Ext2, Ext3, Ext4, etc. and the formatting process is very simple.
Step 1: Install and launch Eassos PartitionGuru from your computer and find the external disk you want to format.
Step 2: Right-click on the partition to be formatted and select “Format Current Partition” option from context menu.
Step 3: Select Filesystem type from the drop-down list and click Format button.
Step 4: Click Yes button when Eassos PartitionGuru asks confirmation for the operation.
How To Format External Usb Drive
This part of this guide applies to format external or portable hard drive to Ext2, Ext3 or Ext4 file system under Windows 10/8/7, so that the drive can be used under Linux.
Step 1: Connect the portable drive to computer and launch Eassos PartitionGuru. Then you can see the drive is displayed in the software.
Step 2: Select the partition you want to format to Linux file system, and click “Format” button from toolbar.
Step 3: The Format window pops up and you can select Linux filesystem from Ext4, Ext3 and Ext3 from drop-down list. Then click Format button.
How To Format An External Disk Drive
Step 4: Click Yes button to continue and formatting will be completed within a couple of seconds.