Can't format USB drive

ozgadgetguy · Dec 13, 2016

Got a brand new XBOX One S yesterday. Set it up, immediately it updated to the latest software.

I am having problems adding a 4TB Seagate USB 3 external drive.

First off it had no "format" option so I used a partition manager to delete all partitions, create a single new partition and formatted it as NTFS.

That got me the format menu. I followed it through all the way, selected the final "format storage device" and nothing happened – it just went back to the storage menu.

I tried various other things, adding it with a blank partition (without formatting) etc and can't get the format menu back. I tried exFAT, NTFS, no partition at all.

I've tried partitioning/formatting with the built-in Windows disk tool and also two 3rd party utilities.

I have done a hard reset, I have even returned the console because I thought it may be a hardware issue but the new one behaves the same way.

I have also tried a 1.5TB Seagate, 960GB SSD and 500GB Hitachi. Can't get the format menu to even appear on them. The drives are recognised, just no option to format for use for storage. These are all USB 3.0 portable drives by the way. I've tried all USB
ports and two different USB 3 cables. All cables and drives work fine on my Windows laptop.

Just spent a fruitless hour with XBOX "tech support" who gave me nothing new to try and eventually told me all my drives must be incompatible and to go speak to the drive manufacturers. Yeah, right. So basically support was useless.

What I need is some real tech support where they diagnose using logs etc and find out what is going on but the guy I spoke to said there was no option for that.

I'm open to any other ideas...

:)

Bazajaytee · Dec 13, 2016

360 Slim Hard Drive Issue

What error do you see when you tried to format your USB stick?

Sounds odd you can't format HDD or USB flash drive.

Photonimus · Dec 13, 2016

USB drive help!

A USB stick/drive can't be made to have part set for xbox, and part for computer. Formatting for the xbox formats the USB completly.

Mister Cizl · Dec 15, 2016

Hey ozgadgetguy! When the drives are recognized, are you able to see them in the "Manage Storage" section? More info on how to navigate there can be found

here. Post back and let me know!

Mister Cizl

Hey ozgadgetguy! When the drives are recognized, are you able to see them in the "Manage Storage" section? More info on how to navigate there can be found

here. Post back and let me know!

Photonimus

A USB stick/drive can't be made to have part set for xbox, and part for computer. Formatting for the xbox formats the USB completly.

Bazajaytee

What error do you see when you tried to format your USB stick?

Sounds odd you can't format HDD or USB flash drive.

ngocphi

Well no as usb drives can't be formated ro ntfs

You have to use a ssd or hdd

MattSTKC

To use a USB flash drive with your console, the USB flash drive must meet these requirements:

A minimum of 1 GB storage capacity.

Formatted with the Windows FAT32 file system. Macintosh or Linux formats do not work.

Note Using a USB flash drive that does not meet the minimum performance requirements might significantly affect the performance of your console.

Your drive should work as long as it's FAT32 formatted. to format in FAT32 see here- (older guide but should still have relevant steps)
www.makeuseof.com/.../format-usb-drive

Can't format USB drive