Xbox & External Hard Drive

Live4Ever

Hey Guys,

Got an external hard drive recently (500GB). I put a few films on it so I could watch them through the xbox on my TV.

The xbox doesn't seem to recognize the hard drive. I have a white xbox. I also have an elite xbox and it didn't work on that either.

Any advice? I've been reading that I need to format the drive to FAT32? Is this easy? I used to watch movies on my xbox through an 8GB USB, any reason why this worked and the hard drive won't? I used the hard drive in my parents TV which has a USB slot and it worked fine so I know the files are OK.

Any advice is appreciated!

TouchingVirus

Well don't format it until you take the movies off anyways - doing it now will wreck the data. It's also complicated to format large drives into FAT32 with the latest versions of Windows.

calex71

Drive has to be Fat 32 formatted for the xbox to see it.

alexlyons

if the drive is powered by USB and it is formatted in FAT32 and the xbox still won't see if, it could be that the xbox can't provide enough power to the drive through USB.

Live4Ever

Thanks for the ultra quick responses!

So:
I need to wipe the drive clean, format to FAT32 and reload the films onto it.

I have windows XP, will it be dificult formatting it?

Hmmm, yes it is USB powered, that could be the problem...

alexlyons

Plug it in. Open up My computer, right click the drive and select format. Make Sure FAT32 is selected and your done.

Live4Ever

Quick update for future reference:

Nothing worked, I'm putting it down to the USB port not providing the hard drive with enough electrical power.

Not sure what the craic is with the newer model Xbox (I tested on an Elite and standard white Xbox).

I bought an ASUS media player online for E75 incl shipping. Works a charm, and the HDMI cable came free! Thanks for the help boys.

TheDoc

Make sure your plugging it into the ports on the back.

The front USB ports are only USB 1.0 and probably and wont power your external drive.

Also be aware that the Xbox only recognises up to 16GB of external storage. So what I'd advise is partioning 20GB of your drive and format for the Xbox, so you can plug in and play.

What make is the drive? Western Digitals can cause problems because of their built in password protection, so you need to disable this for use with the Xbox

So to recap

• Plus drive into the USB ports on the back, not the front
• Ensure your drive is formatted to FAT32
• For optimal use partition the drive, assign 20GB to FAT32
• Ensure no password protection is enabled on the drive, or the Xbox wont recognise it

Hope it helps

Dermo

TheDoc wrote: »

Also be aware that the Xbox only recognises up to 16GB of external storage. So what I'd advise is partioning 20GB of your drive and format for the Xbox, so you can plug in and play.

This can't be true, I have 2 500gb hard drives hooked up to my xbox and both work perfectly

TheDoc

Dermo wrote: »

This can't be true, I have 2 500gb hard drives hooked up to my xbox and both work perfectly

Well it shouldn't. May have been one of the recent patches that came out to update the system files or something, cause afaik they shouldnt recgonise anything over 16GB. Must check that out

Dermo

I've had that setup for nearly a year and a half now. I'm pretty sure I also swapped in tb drive before as well. They are all externally powered.

TheDoc

Dermo wrote: »

I've had that setup for nearly a year and a half now. I'm pretty sure I also swapped in tb drive before as well. They are all externally powered.

WoW, did not know that was the case. Remember racking my brain with mine for a few days years back and was told could only recognise up to 16gb, something must have changed down the line.

Must lob my 320GB into it so, I've one sitting there doing nothing pretty much.

Apologies to mods if this is dodgy question feel free to remove, but in theory could moves and TV shows I acquire, be played directly off the HD externally?

If so would really be an added bonus for the new xbox I'm getting, as I was going to have to have the PC on streaming to the Xbox, whereas this , I can move the files directly to the external and plug into Xbox, job done

Dermo

I am able to play the majority of avi files, some of the older files have dodgy codecs.

TheDoc

Dermo wrote: »

I am able to play the majority of avi files, some of the older files have dodgy codecs.

Awesome, if I can play the stuff I do be "acquiring" I'll be a happy bunny

Think most of em are avi