External HD wont Format

shobud123 · Sep 1, 2014

My console only has the 4GB Flash Memory. A friend of mine had a 250GB Xbox 360 S Hard Drive so he gave it to me. I purchased an official Microsoft Data Transfer cable from GameSpot and connected to my console . It recogonizes the Hard Drive but my friend
wanted me to format the drive so it wouldn't possibly confuse my system with his. When going to settings> Storage the Format option is grayed out. How do I get The external HD Formatted? Thanks Eddie

:)

ThiagoGlorioso · Sep 1, 2014

Format

Do I need to unplug the external HD when I format the Xbox?

SGO Joshua · Sep 1, 2014

External Hard Drive Custom Format using Xbox 360 option

Hello,

I recently bought a WD My Book Essential 2 TB External Hard Drive with the goal in mind to use it to store game saves and installed games on it. However I found out that it is in NTFS format, and I know that the Xbox 360 uses FAT32 format. Regardless I
plugged in my External HD and went to "system settings > Memory" to see the storage devices and saw that my external HD was recognized by the Xbox 360 giving me the normal "Configure Now" and "Customize" format settings. Now I want to use the custom format
option so that not all of my External HD is formatted. When seleting that a popup tells me that the External HD isn't formatted or that its in a format that isn't recognized (because it is, its in NTFS format) and that it will erase all data on it.

Now here lies my question(s).
(a) if I do format the External HD using the Xbox 360 custom option, will it only erase the 16GB that I want to use as storage (seeing as thats the max on any usb storage device no matter its actual size) or will it erase the entire 2 TB External
Hard Drive? (b) Now if it only erases the set 16 GB and turns it to FAT32 format will the remaining memory remain in NTFS and functional on a PC or if it erases my entire External HD will it convert it all to FAT32 format and will it also
be functional on a pc if done this way?

Sorry if these questions sound confusing, please ask me to clarify them further or ask for any additional info needed. Thanks in advance for the help.

-Joshua

Smwutches · Sep 1, 2014

The transfer cable is only needed if you were transferring information from one hard drive to another. You wouldn't not need it in this case. You would need to connect the hard drive directly to the console and then try to format it.

Smwutches

The transfer cable is only needed if you were transferring information from one hard drive to another. You wouldn't not need it in this case. You would need to connect the hard drive directly to the console and then try to format it.

CTRMamba24

I formatted external HD then i plugged into pc transfered all of my movie and audio files but now console wont recognize the files at all it will recognize the drive but it shows nothing in it..

Dérek Augusto

Hope you solved the offline update procedure.

On HD, it does. You will need to connect it to a PC, format it to NTFS and only then the console will recognize the external HD again.

MarkMoore793

Not used an external HD, but have done the same with a USB stick with no issues, so I suppose my question would be "did you have to format it?" As I say, I have not done, this, but am thinking there might be a difference between wanting to us the external
HD to expand you XBox storage (which might need a format) and using it as a media drive (which should not need a format) Were you offered the option of formatting the drive, or did it happen automatically?

XBF Diego M

Hi AyeYaya,

It sounds that the external HD may have gotten corrupted causing the Xbox One to shutdown since you are able to use the console fine without the external HD plugged in.

Do you happen to have another external HD that meets the requirements for testing purposes? Or would you happen to be able to try that HD on another Xbox?

You may need to delete what you have on there, re-format the HD for the Xbox One, and then download what you had on there again.

External HD wont Format