What do the usb ports on the front of my external hard drives do?

It's so you can still charge or use your controller, or plug in other peripherals if needed. As for plugging in another hard drive. It's not advised to do that. Use the USB ports on the Xbox for the external drives.

I still use a 2016, Xbox one, not X, or series X, I know, definitely need an upgrade. I have no issues formatting the hard drive, everything goes smoothly until install, error code received is 0x8007045d and I do not use any other externals, only things in my USB ports are my a40 mixamp headsets, and a keyboard, I also tried swapping ports, keyboard is the front port, as it’s wireless, a40 headset is port 1 in the back and port 2 is the external hard drive housing. Appreciate you looking into this, look forward to a reply!

I understand that, I have since connected both of my 2 External Hard Drives to the 2 rear ports on the Console - both have their own power supply.

I have a 4 Port USB hub that is connected to the front USB port. There are 4 ports that make up the Hub, each with its own on/off switch. I do not have a power supply connected to this USB Hub at this time.

I have been able to use the new USB 4 Port Hub (which I have connected to the front USB port of my Xbox Series X) to power my Wireless Xbox Headphones Dongle, Charge Controllers, Charge My Wireless Xbox Headset, etc.,etc.,etc. Anyways looks like everything is fine now.

Edit: Whoops

Interesting. My friend had the SAME issue and unplugged the USB fixed the issue. I wonder why. Maybe try different USB ports?

I told him to wait a week (which is this Sunday) and not use his external drive to see if It's the culprit.

We may be on to something! Without a external USB source he has had 0 issues (knock on wood).

Which port was your friend's external drive plugged in to? My cable that was on the front of the console didn't have anything connected to it as I had unplugged my charging controller but kept the cable in the console like I usually do for my PS4 Pro.
My external drive is plugged in to the back of the console so I wonder if it's all ports or just the one on the front causing issues.

Edit: Whoops

Interesting. My friend had the SAME issue and unplugged the USB fixed the issue. I wonder why. Maybe try different USB ports?

I told him to wait a week (which is this Sunday) and not use his external drive to see if It's the culprit.

We may be on to something! Without a external USB source he has had 0 issues (knock on wood).

Which port was your friend's external drive plugged in to? My cable that was on the front of the console didn't have anything connected to it as I had unplugged my charging controller but kept the cable in the console like I usually do for my PS4 Pro.
My external drive is plugged in to the back of the console so I wonder if it's all ports or just the one on the front causing issues.

I believe it was the back port he said. Mine is the front same issue.

No issues since last update but we'll see.