Xbox Consoles Set to Support 16+ TB External Storage Devices

[T0@st]

The Xbox Insider program has outlined a major upcoming feature upgrade for their home console lineup—Tuesday's Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring (2502.250120-2200) release notes reveal newly implemented support for larger capacity external hard drives. Naturally, inside program members get to play around with this early build—we presume that support will eventually trickle down to public level in the near future. The major announcement stated: "we are enabling support for external USB drives larger than 16 TB, so you can be sure your favorite games are always ready to play! Newly formatted drives that are larger than 16 TB will be formatted with multiple partitions to utilize all available space for games and apps. These will appear as multiple devices in the storage devices list."

Xbox-licensed external storage devices are only available with a maximum capacity of 12 TB—Western Digital's WD_BLACK D10 model wears the crown here. Console gaming enthusiasts—with a penchant for storing a huge library of titles on hard disk drives (HDD)—are best served by not selecting official Xbox-branded storage devices. Manufacturers do offer products with 18 TB to 28 TB capacities, but potential buyers will be greeted by hefty asking prices. There are a couple of caveats—for owners of 16+ TB drives—as noted in the Alpha Skip-Ahead Ring notes: "drives greater than 16 TB that have already been formatted will be unaffected by this change and would need to be reformatted to take advantage of the updated support for larger drives. Please be aware that we have identified an issue with formatting drives larger than 16 TB, and we're working on a fix." Interestingly, the notes do not disclose information regarding a new upper limit for compatible storage devices.



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[windwhirl]

Why do larger drives need special support? They're supported on any Windows device since forever and the Xbox is basically a glorified Windows machine

 

[GhostRyder]

I mean, I find this pointless overall. You still can only install Series X/S games to the stupid Expansion card which I believe only goes up to 2tb and cost a ridiculous price.

I really keep hoping at this point they would release either more options and at a better price. Or at some point a cable so we can use a normal External that can be formatted to support Xbox.

 

[Canned Noodles]

Who has an Xbox game library that necessitates such a large drive?? Is this is for someone who records every play session?

 

[windwhirl]

I mean, I find this pointless overall. You still can only install Series X/S games to the stupid Expansion card which I believe only goes up to 2tb and cost a ridiculous price.

I really keep hoping at this point they would release either more options and at a better price. Or at some point a cable so we can use a normal External that can be formatted to support Xbox.

Isn't that by USB tho? It's just 500 MB/s tops. Nowhere near the internal storage's speed.

Who has an Xbox game library that necessitates such a large drive?? Is this is for someone who records every play session?

If I had an Xbox I'd probably be that one guy, lol

Either because game recordings that I'd not delete or because I don't want to re-download games.

 

[GhostRyder]

Isn't that by USB tho? It's just 500 MB/s tops. Nowhere near the internal storage's speed.


If I had an Xbox I'd probably be that one guy, lol

Either because game recordings that I'd not delete or because I don't want to re-download games.

That's why I was saying a cable that can hook to M.2 externals. Or finally opening up again making your own/making a licensed adaptor. Because even with 3tb total that gets eaten up by alot of games quickly.

 

[DaemonForce]

Who has an Xbox game library that necessitates such a large drive?? Is this is for someone who records every play session?

This is the only way I could imagine that works unless there's a way to load up other stuff.
When I started playing the 360 a bit I really overshot HDD space by picking up a 240GB internal unit.
I still want to shuck my 60GB SSD in its place as that would have been way more my size(+speed).
Not sure what would be appropriate for Series S but one thing for certain, games have gotten HUGE.

If I were to record 1080p30 gameplay on one of these it would have to be through a capture card.
How and why would anyone be recording gameplay directly through the Xbox? That sounds so foreign.

 

[windwhirl]

If I were to record 1080p30 gameplay on one of these it would have to be through a capture card.
How and why would anyone be recording gameplay directly through the Xbox? That sounds so foreign.

A capture card is a foreign or even unknown thing for probably a lot of people tho.

 

[eidairaman1]

Why do larger drives need special support? They're supported on any Windows device since forever and the Xbox is basically a glorified Windows machine

Firmware

A capture card is a foreign or even unknown thing for probably a lot of people tho.

They are, gotta be a video buff to know about them, or an enthusiast, it was cool to have that function on an Radeon All In Wonder 9700 Pro back then

 

[Ruru]

I mean, I find this pointless overall. You still can only install Series X/S games to the stupid Expansion card which I believe only goes up to 2tb and cost a ridiculous price.

I really keep hoping at this point they would release either more options and at a better price. Or at some point a cable so we can use a normal External that can be formatted to support Xbox.

Exactly, now you don't need to waste that precious flash storage for older games, instead you can get a fast external USB drive for those.

Though not even nearly comparable, I have a 4TB PS4 licensed external HDD with my PS4 and works just as fine as its internal drive.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Or just make a model with internal M.2 ports...like the PS5 pro. You dont need a box the size of a docked switch to hold 16TB of storage. A single U.2 would suffice....

 

[EaGle1337]

Did no one else notice how it uses multiple partitions for larger drives? why?

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Did no one else notice how it uses multiple partitions for larger drives? why?

It's probably MS's tomfoolery biting them in the balls again. The xbox uses a custom version of NTFS, and while NTFS has a 16TB partition limit, the boot partition is limited to 2TB. How much you wanna bet MS managed to get that bug to show up int he xbox custom NTFS and cant figure out how to fix it?

 

[windwhirl]

custom version of NTFS

I wonder why the hell they couldn't use the standard NTFS

NTFS has a 16TB partition limit

Because this limit should be way higher since 8/16/32/64 KB clusters have been supported from before Windows 8

the boot partition is limited to 2TB

What would they use a boot partition for, tho? That'd be internal only anyway, not for external drives.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I wonder why the hell they couldn't use the standard NTFS

Because this limit should be way higher since 8/16/32/64 KB clusters have been supported from before Windows 8

What would they use a boot partition for, tho? That'd be internal only anyway, not for external drives.

I dont think they re using the boot partition rather they managed to pull that boot partition bug into their custom NTFS for xbox implementation. It's MS, nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[EaGle1337]

It's probably MS's tomfoolery biting them in the balls again. The xbox uses a custom version of NTFS, and while NTFS has a 16TB partition limit, the boot partition is limited to 2TB. How much you wanna bet MS managed to get that bug to show up int he xbox custom NTFS and cant figure out how to fix it?

Odd how I have 18 and 20TB NTFS drives. Xbox also can't boot it's os off of an external drive..

 

[GhostRyder]

Exactly, now you don't need to waste that precious flash storage for older games, instead you can get a fast external USB drive for those.

Though not even nearly comparable, I have a 4TB PS4 licensed external HDD with my PS4 and works just as fine as its internal drive.

Yea, my One X had a 4tb External that was great. I understand speed was a focus but come on this stupid proprietary adaptor that costs a ridiculous price is annoying. It would have bothered me less if they at least let you upgrade the internal easily.