Unable to select internal SSD as an install path on Windows

Hi DOC0516! I’m more than happy to help you! There may have been recent updates to your Xbox console, and you may need to manually update the system to detect your external storage. You can update it as follows. Press the Xbox button to open the guide, and select Profile & System > Settings > System > Updates, and if you see Update Available, there is an update to install.

If you see Update Available, there is an update you need to install. When you have finished installing the update, go back to Settings and select System > Storage Devices. Check to see if your device is listed. Best Regards, Jerome

Hello Diesel_X,

Thank you for sharing your concern here in Xbox Community Forum and we hope that all is well.

Based on my understanding, the issue started after moving the 8TB M.2 SSD from internal drive to external drive and putting back the 1TB M.2 SSD that comes with the device making it your internal drive. Let us see what we can do to help.

We would like to ask few questions to help us isolate the issue further.

1. Did you remove 1TB M.2 SSD when you decided to move internally the 8TB M.2 SSD in your device or both was installed in your computer?
   
2. What was the disk letter assignment for 1TB M.2 SSD when it was connected to your device?
   
3. What was the default drive path location selected for your Xbox games and apps?
   
4. When moving externally the 8TB M.2 SSD, did you mean you installed back 1TB M.2 SSD and set it as your internal drive?
   
5. For games that launch after moving your 8TB M.2 SSD and got an error, did you install it through your 1TB M.2 before?
   
6. Are you able to launch your Windows application just fine after moving the 8TB M.2 SSD externally?
   

It is possible that due to the changes with your drive, your device is able to detect the external drive which is your 8TB M.2 SSD and not able to detect the 1TB M.2 SSD which become your internal drive since your internal drive before was moved externally.

We look forward to your response. Kindly let us know, if there is any misunderstanding or clarifications of our description by sending us a reply.



Sincerely,



Microsoft Community Moderator

Hello ,

Thank you for sharing your concern here in Xbox Community Forum and we hope that all is well.

Based on my understanding, the issue started after moving the 8TB M.2 SSD from internal drive to external drive and putting back the 1TB M.2 SSD that comes with the device making it your internal drive. Let us see what we can do to help.

We would like to ask few questions to help us isolate the issue further.

1. Did you remove 1TB M.2 SSD when you decided to move internally the 8TB M.2 SSD in your device or both was installed in your computer?
   
2. What was the disk letter assignment for 1TB M.2 SSD when it was connected to your device?
   
3. What was the default drive path location selected for your Xbox games and apps?
   
4. When moving externally the 8TB M.2 SSD, did you mean you installed back 1TB M.2 SSD and set it as your internal drive?
   
5. For games that launch after moving your 8TB M.2 SSD and got an error, did you install it through your 1TB M.2 before?
   
6. Are you able to launch your Windows application just fine after moving the 8TB M.2 SSD externally?
   

It is possible that due to the changes with your drive, your device is able to detect the external drive which is your 8TB M.2 SSD and not able to detect the 1TB M.2 SSD which become your internal drive since your internal drive before was moved externally.

We look forward to your response. Kindly let us know, if there is any misunderstanding or clarifications of our description by sending us a reply.



Sincerely,

Tomm_A

Microsoft Community Moderator

The 1TB M.2 SSD was and still is currently not used as the drive was too small for my needs. The drive was very soon replaced with the 8TB capacity M.2 SSD instead, because the initial 1TB capacity SSD was too small. With games like Gears 5 at 119GB, Call of Duty with Warzone at 240GB and Flight Simulator quite large with global regions installed; one would be lucky to even install several big titles on a 1TB drive despite having 200+ games on just Steam alone.

1. Yes I previously removed the unused 1TB drive when I initially installed the 8TB drive. Both drive's did not coexist within the computer as the 8TB had become the internal drive and the 1TB had become the external 'unused drive'. The then external drive 1TB drive was formatted and given E drive letter and the 8TB drive was formatted and assigned the D letter before beginning installing anything to the 8TB drive. Clean fresh start.

2. I believe it may have been E, however when both drives were initially swapped over they were both formatted/initialized as a fresh start.

3. When first beginning to install Windows/Xbox PC games onto my laptop, the default path would have been changed from the standard windows default of the C: boot drive to that of the installed 8TB drive. The C drive is merely 512GB and understandably just two big games would break this drives capacity in one go. The default game install locations can be changed within the Windows Xbox app's settings and one can also set it to ask the user where they wish to install the game upon every separate install.

4. Now that the 8TB has been moved externally and the 1TB back internally, the drives continue to retain their assigned drive/volume letter and thus the now external 8TB drive with all the games stored on it remains the D drive and the now internal 'unused' 1TB drive remains as the E drive/volume.

5. No, the 1TB drive remained dormant and unused, and the 8TB drive had all the games and worked fine when it was being used internally.

6. Windows applications appear to be fine and unaffected. Only the games are affected with the exception of only Flight Simulator which works fine (and Solitaire that originally is supplied with Windows). Also as mentioned, all Steam games, Uplay, EA, Battle.net and other game clients/launchers appear to be fine and unaffected in any way.

Yes. You can back up/move any of your games on the SSD to the HDD (as long as you have the required space). This will not affect a clean install of Windows on the SSD. It doesn't matter if the driver is internal or not.

Unfortunately some games installed via the Xbox app may not be recognised after a clean install. There should be no such issues with games installed via Steam, Epic, GoG etc.

Hi,

I have just started to download Gears 5 via Game Pass on my D:\ drive which is a HDD. I Have four drives on my PC, two SSD's - which don't have enough space - a 3.5" Internal HDD and an external drive. Both HDD's could be selected for the install.

I can only assume the problem is with your Windows Installation or configuration. Do you have any additional security software running on your PC? What applications launch on your PC along with Windows?