External hard drive won't format - stuck in format loop

Prospero89 · Oct 7, 2015

I have a bare sata 3, 2.5 inch drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure. The drive works great in every other machine except the Xbox one. The Xbox recognizes the drive and let me use it for media, however, the minute I try to format the drive for games it lets me go
through the wizard and I select format then the drive blinks and then the Xbox acts like I plugged it in and asks to format the drives for games again.

I have done all the regular troubleshooting. I hard reset the console. I've formatted the drive in both NTFS and FAT32. Any thoughts?

:)

Miss Bijoux · Oct 7, 2015

Format external hard drive

Hey there -

That's something you'd want to check with >>Western Digital<< for assistance with. We are unable to provide support of
this nature for third party products.

Thanks for understanding.

MaximumExtreme · Oct 7, 2015

Format external hard drive

Also if you wish to use the hard drive again on xbox you need to format it back to ntsc format. This is the only format the xbox and Microsoft use

GrowlingYapper · Oct 7, 2015

When you did the hard reset did you also unplug the hard drive if not try that plug hard drive back in after you restart your console'

The hard drive needs to be usb 3,0 compatible for games and apps.

GrowlingYapper

When you did the hard reset did you also unplug the hard drive if not try that plug hard drive back in after you restart your console'

The hard drive needs to be usb 3,0 compatible for games and apps.

StuartATrueRed

Have you formatted the hard drive? If not, have a look here for instructions on how to do this on the console.

https://www.trueachievements.com/n40186/how-to-format-external-hard-drive-xbox-one Also make sure your hard drive is a usb 3.0 hard drive, otherwise the drive will not work on the console.

KrizanLovich

as per the other comments about the use of the external hard drive for the 360 I am in the update preview program which allows additional External hard drives to be used.I purchased the same Seagate 2tb external hard drive as per my xboxone but when I apply
the format on the xbox360 as per the instructions it replies with unable to format. Would like to know what external hard drives are compatible? I no the hard drive works as tried it on the xboxone after it would not format for the 360

thanks

NZ Racer

XBF Brad A

Hello Edward,

Thanks for the replies. We recommend trying to format the external hard drive on a PC. Make sure to format to NTFS. Also here is a guide for issues

detecting external hard drive. If the hard drive is not compatible with the console it will read it as a media device no matter the format.

Thanks,

Brad

ClubbedEric

Either format that drive or buy a external hard drive and use

External hard drive won't format - stuck in format loop