The present era of consoles might need elevated gaming to a brand new stage, however because of Microsoft’s choice to make the Xbox Collection X and S a part of the identical ecosystem as Xbox One, they’re all suitable with the identical equipment.

That features exterior onerous drives to retailer giant sport collections.

There are some caveats, particularly with the newer machines, however if you wish to retailer 10s (even lots of) of Xbox One and/or backwards-compatible video games in your new or previous console with out having to redownload them every time, you are able to do so on a USB 3.0 drive (or above).

Plus, unique to Xbox Collection X/S, you can even use an official Seagate Storage Enlargement Card to develop the inner storage capability.

This is easy methods to do each.

Earlier than we begin, it is value noting that an Xbox One will use an exterior drive in precisely the identical method as its inside drive, so it is an excellent resolution and will tremendously enhance the variety of video games you possibly can retailer without delay.

The Xbox Collection X and S can solely play next-gen video games from their inside drives (or Storage Enlargement Card), however can play Xbox One, Xbox 360 and unique Xbox video games from a USB various (even with fast resume enabled), so it may very well be that you just put all of your backwards suitable video games on an exterior drive, reserving your inside SDD for native X/S video games.

Selecting a drive

In case you have an Xbox Collection X or Xbox Collection S, you possibly can go for a Seagate Storage Enlargement Card that slots into the rear of both next-gen machine.

It’s obtainable in 512GB, 1TB and 2TB sizes however is pretty costly. Nonetheless, it really works precisely the identical as the inner storage and is the one enlargement that may allow all of the next-gen options and loading instances boasted by each machines.

Seagate Storage Enlargement Card for Xbox Collection X

$150 $220 Save $70

Alternatively, you should use an exterior drive so long as it’s USB 3.0-enabled or above (actually, you should use as much as three of them, one for each USB port on the Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Collection S, or Xbox Collection X). Keep in mind although, as we have said above, video games with optimisations for Xbox Collection X and S is not going to play from a USB drive, so it is a resolution for Xbox One and different backwards-compatible video games solely.

For those who’re pleased with that, there are many exterior drives to select from. We opted for a 2TB Seagate Sport Drive designed particularly for Xbox. It’s USB 3.0, does not require an exterior energy supply so does not take up a further socket underneath our AV cupboard, and its Xbox-adorned facia makes it a very good match.

Alternatively, you can even get an Xbox version or customary model of the WD_Black P10 Sport Drive. It’s specifically designed for gaming, with a sturdy construct and storage of as much as 5TB for simply over $149 / £140, so is one thing of a discount for that quantity of capability.

You may even pay a bit extra and go for a 7200 RPM drive as a substitute (the Seagate Sport Drive is 5400 RPM) and even an exterior USB-driven SSD, however we have gone for comfort, no noise and value.

Observe although, an exterior third-party SSD may provide quicker loading instances, however will not behave in the identical method because the official Storage Enlargement Card.

The set-up

We now have included footage of easy methods to arrange an exterior drive with the Xbox One, however it’s equivalent on Xbox Collection X/S.

After getting your drive handy, set-up is easy. Plug it into one of many three USB ports when your Xbox is on. A message will pop up onscreen to point out it recognises that the drive has been related.

You may both go to the settings by interplay with the pop-up or head there manually and enter the “System” settings.

In there, you will note the “Storage units” icon. Choose it and the following web page will present your present exterior onerous drive alongside the brand new one.

In all chance, the drive will must be formatted earlier than it may be used for something aside from storing video, image and music recordsdata, particularly if it is come straight out of the packaging. The Xbox wants to do this itself. So select the brand new drive and scroll right down to the choice “Format”. Choose “Format storage machine” and a brand new display will pop up with a keyboard to pick the drive’s title.

We stored the default title “Exterior” and selected to put in new video games and apps to the brand new drive when requested.

Formatting the drive takes not more than 5 – 6 seconds and also you’re good to go.

In your My Video games & Apps display, you’ll now see that your complete storage obtainable, each internally and externally, is gathered into one statistic.

We additionally suggest you utterly shut down your Xbox One/Collection X/S and reboot. We did and the drive labored very properly straight after.

Transferring video games and efficiency

Naturally, the efficiency distinction between an exterior drive and the SSD contained in the Xbox Collection X/S is important.

Nonetheless, on the subject of Xbox One fashions, our exams discovered no discernible distinction in loading speeds usually.

Transferring video games between drives on the consoles depends upon the completely different applied sciences – it is clearly a lot faster on next-gen. However, transferring round 60GB on an Xbox One X to an exterior drive took simply over 40 minutes in complete.

One advantage of transferring video games from the inner to the exterior drive is that it is possible for you to to play your downloaded titles on a pal’s Xbox One or Collection X/S by simply connecting the onerous drive to his or her console and signing into your profile. You do not then have to redownload any video games you want to play.

The identical is true if you wish to transfer your individual video games from Xbox One to Collection X/S.