External USB Drive - Always Is Default Drive For Download Games

I have a Western Digital 4 TB USB 3.0 External drive. I wonder, can I tell the Xbox One when I download a digital game, that I want it to install on the Xbox One's internal 500 GB drive instead of to the External drive.

It appear that I made a purchase of Alien Isolation, digital download game, the game appears available for download from the Internal and External drop down menu. So I selected it from the Internal drop down menu and it appears available to install.

I started the installation, it began to down load, but it appears it's downloading to the External drive, as I can see the drives light blinking at different paces while the down load is taking place.

Is it that once you install the External drive, by default all downloaded games go to that drive and the control of "moving games" is only available when the game is already either on the Internal OR External drive.

Thanks!

:)

 

XB1 X sees external drive but can't play any game installed to it.

Strange issue

It sounds like it's only allowing the drive for media access, rather than games and apps.

Did you try (a) a different usb port (b) a different usb cable (c) formatting the drive whilst connected to the xbox, setting the drive as the default install location and then downloading the smallest game you own and see if that installs to the drive ?

I have 2 external drives, with my WD drive being set as default install location and games always download and install there by default. I'm also using an xbox one x, running on the "delta" insider preview dashboard.

 

External Hard Drive power settings when set as default. Best settings?

Hi, i recently purchased an external 2 TB Western Digital Passport X drive for Xbox. By default, the option "turn storage off when xbox is off" is checked, my Hard drive i have selected as default to download all the games and apps into.

My question is, if i keep the external hard drive as default and purchase a game from my mobile device, previously it would download the game, when xbox was switched off, but now my external storage would be switched off due to this option. Will it still
download the game?

i don't want to keep my drive turned on always as it sounds like it would wear off quickly.

but i dont know hence, what is the recommended setting for longevity of the drive? to keep the "turn storage off when xbox is off" option checked or unchecked?

 

Skier,

I have the same drive, it spins @ 7200 RPM, is yours 7200 RPM?

When I installed it I chose the option to use the external as default drive for D/L's and installs because oddly enough games load faster from that drive than the consoles 5400 RPM 500gb internal drive, it's not life altering faster, 8 seconds average
maybe. On my ext drive are Titanfall, Halo: MCC, GTAV, & Dragon Age: Inq. all load noticeably faster.

I'm at work and not near my console, but am pretty sure that in "Settings">"Manage Storage" you can tell the console which drive to use as default for installs. If not answered further, by the time I get home tonight, I'll double check that for ya.

 

Hi Geddy,

Thanks for responding. Yes I do recall when I first installed the External drive, it asking me if I wanted to use it as default. Problem is that now I don't see any way to revert and make the internal default again. It definitely does load faster from External
vs. Internal. However, here are some issues I've experienced.

Initial installation went fine. First game I moved over was Halo MCC. No issues. Then I decided to download a purchased digital - Alien Isolation and it's DCL. It started, but after several hours an error appeared indicating that Installation Stopped to
insert Disc (there is not Disc, it’s a Digital Download. Could go further from here. Did forced resets by holding the X button on the console for 7+ seconds, etc. and letting it reboot. Same error. So I decided that I would have to format it. So I moved Halo
MCC back to my internal and formatted, then another hard reset and disconnected the Xbox from the Power brick. Then took the external off the Xbox One.

Back on with the Xbox One, connected the external and it was recognized. Didn't ask me about if I wanted it to be the default -even though it was formatted. Tried to download Alien Isolation and now I noticed that the external went into standby, yet the
modem lights are blinking (nothing else connected to the router (Ethernet or wireless). After waiting and no progress noted on the game, I again turn the Xbox One off. This time I went into settings and turned off the setting to turn off the external when
the Xbox is off. Turned the Xbox off and the external went to sleep. Appears it doesn't care about the Xbox's setting, it will standby (slow blinking 2.5 seconds, it never really goes totally out).

I started download again and after a while it indicated that it was Ready to Begin Play. I tried, but it wouldn’t Begin, just kept downloading. This was around 50% downloaded. So I let it finish and when I came home last night, it had finished downloading
and it would play. I do have the option to move to the internal drive, but still see no option to change to the internal drive as a default drive.

So it appears that my only option is to download to the External, then move if I want to.

Let me know if you see it differently on your Xbox One with an option to change that drive option setting.

What appears odd is that even after I formatted the drive the 2nd time, I never was given the option to choose the internal drive as the default download drive again.

Thought I share my experience with you and others that might read this and see what they have experienced.

Otherwise though, the game plays fine and is faster, but that initial period of time to get the Alien Isolation on was a little cumbersome!

 

The drive chosen as default as a coloured triangle top right corner, if you click the other one you will get the option to use that as default.

 

Hi GrowlingYapper,

OK, I will click the Internal drive.

To be more specific - are you going to Manage Storage in
Settings and from that screen, both drives are displayed, I can then click the Internal drive to make it default?

I am pretty sure I've clicked it before and it just shows me the games/apps and queue for that drive - no options appear on the screen. Are you indicating to use the "menu button" on the controller to see options available?

 

Once in setting click on the System tile then the manage storage ,the drives connected to your console including the internal will be shown, click on the drive you want as the default using the A button a screen will show options to use that drive as the
default drive.

 

Thanks for the details!

Understood! Let me try that when I get home later and I'll post back my experience. I do remember going to
System Settings>Manage Storage, clicking it and seeing the two drives. I am not sure if when I selected the Internal drive, it showed me options.

All I recall is that it listed all the games on the drive and if I scrolled to the right, it showed me the other games that are in my cloud profile, ready for download.

I’ll check again to see and let you know.

 

Mine works exactly as Yapper describes, post again if you still have issues mate.

For my preferences I bought such a big drive so I could have many games installed on it at the same time and not have to delete any then re-download if I wanted to play them again.

I went 7200 RPM because I read some test results on CNET about bench testing load times for games, textures, etc. and it seemed that 7200 was the best compromise for value and speed. I also have a 64G 3.0 thumb drive for media since the console formats drives
differently for games than it does for media.

 

Hi Guys,

Well GrowlingYapper was 100% correct! When I navigated to Settings>Console>Manage Storage and selected the internal drive, I saw the option to use it as the default Drive.

Actually the only reason I wanted to select the internal is because I was having issues with the download as I mentioned in my thread earlier. I was having issues with the external and thought I use the internal, since it always worked fine.

I agree, the external loads faster - 7,200 RPM vs. 5,400 for the internal. Now everything appears to be working fine. I also did notice that for a 2nd time, something downloaded last night about 200 MB and after the download it said, "Storage drive successfully
installed" - this is the 2nd time I get this message, the first time was when I installed during the first format.

Maybe Xbox/MS sensed an issue and downloaded the External drive software again.

Again thanks both of you for your help!

 

If either of you know, with this Western Digital 4 TB drive totally empty, after formatted in the Xbox One, I had 3.6 TB free. Is this what you guys experienced with the maximum available space starting from an empty drive?

 

I know they never are what they say, I have Seagate 2tb but it says 1.8tb it does seem a lot to loose.

 

Hi Growling Yapper,

If yours is 2 TB and it shows 1.8, then mine being 4 TB, should reflect being double 1.8 or 3.6 TB, which appears is what I'm seeing. Yes, that's a lot of GB's to not really have available - almost 500 GB, the size of the drive the Xbox One comes with.

In doing some reading on this afterwards, it "sort of" makes sense - but doesn't make me thrilled, ha! ha!

The ratio used to convert:

For Tbyte the ratio is 0.9094947

2 Tbyte multiplied by 0.9094947 = 1.8189894 Tbyte or 1,819 Gbyte
HDD's - the Advertized size vs the Actual size. - Windows 7 Help Forums

and in my case.

4 TB X 0.094947 = 3.6379788 or 3.64

It has to do with conversion method they use.

 

Next time I go to buy one I will ask for a 1.8tb see what they come up with.