USB 3.2 External Drive does NOT work with XBox One or Series X

Hi,

You can use USB external SSD drives on Series X/S or you can buy a 2.5" PC SSD and attach it to a SATA to USB 3.1 adaptor.

These drives are a lot faster than a standard USB 3 external HDD. However, you can only play Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox BC titles directly from them. Series X/S games can only be played from the internal drive or the optional Expansion Card.

Just one question Sensi, why are you concerned about the USB 3.0 transfer rate?

The maximum transfer rate of USB 3.0 is roughly 640MB per second, that's much faster than most external hard drives can handle, even when they are also USB 3.0.

So what would be the point of putting in USB 3.1 or even 3.2 when there isn't yet any external hard drives that can transfer at those speeds?

Hi,

If your game is now a Series X optimised title, it can no longer be played off an external hard drive. It must be moved to either the internal storage or an optional expansion card.

External USB hard drives are too slow to play Series X optimised games. None Series X games will still run from your external drive. The internal storage in the Series X is a fast NVME SSD. These drives are several times faster than mechanical hard drives.

If you have an Xbox One with an external USB 3.0 hard drive connected to it with games installed on it. Then just disconnect the drive from the Xbox One, and connect it to the Series X, the drive should be recognized, and you should be able to play the games without having to install them.

Yes you can plug in the hard drive on the Xbox Series X, and the Xbox One, Xbox 360, & Xbox games will be able to be played straight away. If you have games on disc, just insert the disc, and the game should play as it does on the Xbox One.

Just remember you cannot play Xbox Series X games from the external hard drive, only from the internal and external SSD storage devices that are available for the Series X.