Windows Game Install Error after SSD swap

Well, I seem to have solved this issue for myself. I actually tried to get MS support but they bounced me around different departments 4-5 times and then after a 30 minute hold, I was disconnected.

Posting here to for anyone who finds it useful in the future.

The only commonality that I found between my two computers with this issue is that they use a SSD for game installs that is not the same as the one that the OS and xbox app run on.

After updating to Windows 11, something about this caused issues for the xbox app. I had some suspicions about this given the text of the error. When I looked into it, Windows/xbox app were now set up to use the SSD that the OS is not (not my gaming SSD) for game and app installs. The games had previously been installed on the gaming SSD. I tried changing back to the gaming SSD but it did not solve the issue (in Settings > System > Storage > Advanced Storage > "Where new content is saved").

Despite being set up to use the OS SSD, the xbox app didn't seem to be writing to it or was unable to connect to it. I could even see that it files in the xbox games folder in the gaming SSD were still being updated somehow based on the file timestamps.

It was as if no matter what I changed, the xbox app was trying to work with the old gaming SSD. So I formatted the old gaming SSD. In the time while it was formatting, the error in the xbox app went away. And as soon as the format was done and the drive was back online, the error came back. Also, the xbox app immediately starting making folders in the SSD that I had just formatted. So regardless of what I changed, it was always trying to use the gaming SSD.

Next I turned off the PC and physically unplugged the gaming SSD. Again, with that SSD gone, the error went away. I plugged it back in and the error came back. Even when it was unplugged and the error was gone, it would not allow me to download games on the OS SSD (it would just put downloads into Pending). During this time I reinstalled the xbox app, gaming services, etc to try to break its obsession with the old gaming SSD. I found an article that pointed me toward registry entries to see where Windows was set up to install apps and games and it said the OS SSD but it would never write there.

So finally I reinstalled the OS on the OS SSD without the Gaming SSD plugged in. From there I was able to use the xbox app without the error and download games to the OS SSD. I plugged in the gaming SSD, formatted it and now I'll use it for Steam, Battle.net, etc but for whatever reason I can not use it with the xbox app without getting the error.

To summarize:

• The issue for me related to games being installed on a different drive from Windows/xbox.
  
• Removing the gaming SSD cleared the error but I still couldn't download games to any drive.
  
• The only way I could get windows to switch to a different drive was an OS reinstall.
  
• I dare not try to use a separate SSD for xbox app games again.
  

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.

Thanks, I have successfully installed to C:\ (main hard drive) instead of E:\ (SSD).

I had been swapping between file install locations before, that may have confused the installer.

Hello again, games may be running on Seagate SSD, but it is still the system that runs and manages the Swap of the games on the internal disk the SSD only serves as storage.

Further to that, I couldn't even get a cloned drive to work on the same Windows install; I had a separate SSD for just the Gamepass games for testing and got a different one to test. I cloned the entire drive and basically swapped their drive letters.
Windows and Xbox app treated it as if it didn't exist and I couldn't even delete the old files by normal means. Easiest way was to format the drive and download everything again...