External Hard Drive randomly disconnecting

Mr AwesomeLV · May 8, 2021

I've been using an external 5 terabyte Seagate hard drive for about 6 months now without issue. As of 3 days ago the drive started to suddenly disconnect and reconnect itself 30 seconds later. It has happened at least twice a day for the last three days. I'm worried that this sudden disconnection will corrupt the drive and possibly the games downloaded onto it. Any solutions I've come across for other people with a similar issue are from several years ago and aren't helpful. I've tried fully rebooting the system and switching USB ports. My console is a Gen 1 Xbox one, fully updated. Are there any recent developments with this issue that may help?

:)

XBF Mohammed C

I would recommend holding down the power button for about 10 seconds, until the console shuts off, then unplug the power cord, and wait for 1 to 2 minutes before plugging it back in and turning the console on!

In case the issue persists, you might want to perform a soft reset to the console: How to reset your Xbox console to factory defaults | Xbox Support

SammyVS

Do not uninstall from the external hard drive, just disconnect from your console. When finished resetting, do a fresh install right into your console's internal memory. Keep the external hard drive disconnected.

Ricardo Lechuga

If you have an external hard drive connected via USB disconnected and it performs a power cycle, check for the same error without connecting the external hard drive

-Brat

I get this issue sometimes for games. Usually they install to the internal hard drive and automatically transfer to an external, if you have one, and it sounds like you do.

Sometimes my Fortnite updates even force install to my internal instead of external, but transfer over once it's complete and any downtime is over. It could also be a developer preference, yes, where they'd rather you have the game on an internal hard-drive
instead of an external, maybe to prevent data loss if your external is disconnected randomly or incorrectly.

I hope this helps!

OpticRJames

You're welcome. If there is also an external hard drive connected to your console, turn off your console then disconnect it, turn on the console without the external hard drive and see if it works fine.

External Hard Drive randomly disconnecting