Xbox Series S|X External Drive Limit

This article explains the difference between using a regular external hard drive versus the custom external storage for the Series S/X- https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09...xbox-series-s-custom-storage-solution-primer/

An external hard drive used on the One will work for the Series S/X, but won't have the exact same performance as the one created for the Series S/X.

Thank you for the quick reply. Any plans on when it can be configurable ?

I'm afraid it won't ever be 'configurable'. The real reason why your games can't be downloaded to the external drive is because you can't actually run Series X|S games from an external drive.

External hard drives are far too slow to run Series X|S games. They need to be run either from the internal drive - which is a fast NVME SSD - or the optional memory expansion cards for the Series X|S consoles. Not even SATA based external SSD's are considered fast enough for X|S games.

You can move Series X|S games for archive purposes to copy back to these faster storage locations to play, but you can't run Series X|S games from external storage.

Games that have not been optimised for Series X|S have no such limitations.

Not sure why the 'Independent Advisor' doesn't know this well known fact.

You should be able to do that, yes:

"Power down your Xbox One.

1. Unplug the external drive.
   
2. Connect the external drive to your Xbox Series X, S.
   
3. Power on your Xbox Series X, S.
   
4. Wait for the external drive to be detected. This may take a couple of minutes.
   
5. When the drive is detected, you are free to copy any games you want onto the Xbox Series X, S internal storage."
   

Taken from here:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-data-xbox-one-series-x-series-s

Hi KhaledAbdul Ghani

Yes you can! As the Series S has limited space on the drive, you can connect an external hard drive to store games and media.

Are you sure about that?

I've got a Series S and all of my Series X|S games can ONLY run from either internal or expansion storage, they won't run from a slow external mechanical hard drive. Even an external SSD isn't considered quick enough for these games.

.

XBox One games can run from either but Series optimised games must run on internal or expansion.

You can back up Series games to external, but not run them there.

Get a PS5, problem solved. you can play games on external sdd no problems attached

You cannot store or play PS5 games from an external drive. At least with the Series X/S consoles, you can store the Series X/S games to external drives. You just have to move them to internal storage to play them. You can play PS4 games from an external drive hooked up to a PS5 though, just like you can play Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games from an external drive connected to a Series X/S.