Although the Xbox One comes complete with either a 500GB or a 1Tb hard drive, many keen gamers soon realize that it isn’t enough. As the systems keeps all your data up-to-date by synchronizing with Xbox Live, that capacity soon fills up. So how exactly can you make sure that you don’t run out of space? By connecting an external hard drive of course. However many people don’t realize just how simple it is to format a hard drive for use with an Xbox One. But luckily for you, we’ve jotted down the steps to make sure you know exactly how to make your console work for you.

First, you’ll want to check your free space. To do this, head to the Home screen and press the right trigger. You can then select My games & apps. On the left of the screen you’ll see a meter that shows how much space is used and how much you have left. If you’re running low, now is the time to format a hard drive to enable it to act as an extension of your device.

To do this you first need to connect a compatible external storage drive. Once you have done so, the Xbox system will detect it and ask you whether you want to set up the external storage device. Once you’ve pressed ‘Yes’, the drive will then be formatted, and any existing data stored will be wiped. It’s important to note here that you cannot swap the drive between other platforms – so it is only for use with the Xbox One.

Once this is done, you’ll simply need to rename your hard drive. It’s best to name it something unique in order to ensure that if you format multiple devices, you can keep track of which is which. When you have named the drive, the console will ask you whether you want to save things on it by default. If you choose ‘yes’, any new game or app you download or install will be saved on the external drive instead of the internal one. This is a great idea as games tend to install and load faster from an external drive, compared to the internal one.

And it’s as simple as that. However it’s worth noting that the requirements for storage are:

• a capacity of 256 GB or more
• uses USB 3.0

If your device doesn’t meet these requirements, it will be treated simply as media storage – such as for music and video.

If you’re looking for an external hard drive, Data Memory Systems have a wide range available to suit your needs. Simply browse our range available to purchase – complete with on-line shipping – now!