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BestExternal Hard Drives for XboxWindows Central2020

The Western Digital My Book is a worthwhile purchase for anyone looking to install a large number of games on their Xbox One, taking full advantage of a whopping 3TB of storage.

Our pick

Western Digital My Book

Boasting a large amount of storage for the price

Western Digital makes some great mechanical drives and this My Book is a great external storage solution for your Xbox console.

Who should buy this external hard drive

If you find yourself filling up the internal drive of the Xbox One and need to keep clearing games you don't play too often, adding an external storage device like this 4TB unit from Western Digital will allow you to store many more. It's also reasonably priced, so you don't need to break the bank.

Is it a good time to buy this drive?

Yes. Any time is a good time to purchase an external drive (or storage in general). The prices of many new drives are reasonable right now. It's also possible to score some excellent deals on mechanical drive-touting enclosures like this WD unit.

Reasons to buy

• From 3TB of space
• Plug and play
• Store countless more games

Reasons not to buy

• Not as fast as an SSD
• Need a spare outlet for power

Expand your Xbox One capacity

Not only are you investing in a quality storage brand in Western Digital, but the prices of the company's My Book line of external enclosures are incredibly competitive. Some purchasers have even found the drives contained within the products to be priced more as standalone units than when inside the My Book protective casing, so you know you're getting a solid deal for the Xbox One S or Xbox One X.

With games becoming more complex and sizes hitting insane amounts for downloads, it makes sense to pick up an external drive to offset some of the burdens, since the Xbox One S only comes with either 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of internal space, which simply isn't enough anymore. The Xbox One X suffers from similar storage constraints. Throw in a 4TB Western Digital My Book and you have up to 6TB of storage space.

WD has you covered with 4TB of space, ample enough for many games.

The My Book is essentially a WD drive plugged into a daughter circuit board, which then runs via USB to the Xbox One S. That's pretty much it, aside from the protective plastic casing, of course. No thrills, no cool LED lighting, but when all you require the drive to do is spin up with the Xbox and store games, that's pretty much all you could ever need in an external drive.

WD offers the My Book series in 3TB, 4TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB and 16TB configurations. The latter two options are dual-drives, sporting larger cases with two drives inside. It all depends on how much you want to spend and how much capacity is required.

Alternatives to the WD My Book

The My Book isn't for everyone. If you demand the best speeds for load times, you'll want an SSD. Or perhaps you only require a drive, since you already have an enclosure. We rounded up some additional options to suit these needs.

Runner-up

Seagate Game Drive Hub 8TB

You'll likely never run out of space.

When you need serious capacity and are a serious Xbox One gamer, this is the drive for you. Massive storage on a single drive.

With a massive capacity of 8TB, this Seagate Game Drive is ideal for those who need to store a colossal library of Xbox One titles on their consoles but only wish to make use of a single drive. It's also designed to fit right in with the Xbox console itself.

Value pick

Western Digital My Passport

More affordable than others

Want a portable drive you can take with you to various LAN events and Xbox parties? My Passport family of drives is worth a look.

Not only is the My Password from WD great value for 1TB, but it's also perfect for taking along for the ride to LAN events and parties where your Xbox may also have an invite. While it's not designed alongside the Xbox, there are numerous colors to choose from to match your taste.

Portable SSD

Samsung T5

Don't spend too much money

Sporting transfer speeds of up to 540 MB/s, the Samsung T3 external SSD package is a great solution to expand capacity.

What makes an SSD a worthwhile purchase for an Xbox One console are the read and write speeds, making it an ideal upgrade over the mechanical drives located inside the console. Samsung makes some of the best SSDs on the market so your collection of games is in good hands.

Speedy pick

Samsung 860 Pro

Expensive, reliable and super quick

Wanting increased read and write speeds of SSDs over traditional hard drives? Samsung's 860 Pro series is among the best.

Samsung's PRO range of SSDs is incredibly fast considering they connect via slower SATA cables rather than hooking up through PCIe. This also makes them ideal for the Xbox One. All you need to do is purchase a small SSD enclosure to house this drive and manage the connection between it and your console, and you're good to go.

Bottom line

While you cannot go wrong when it comes to external hard drives, especially if you have a few units lying around and simply need to purchase an enclosure, we believe the best option for the Xbox One S and Xbox One X is the Western Digital My Book. Not only does it add an insane amount of storage to the console, but it also offers great reliability and portability.

With this external drive, it's possible to add up to 16TB of storage for your games. With console games getting larger over time, it's important to consider just how many you'll be able to save locally without having to deal with physical media, which is becoming obsolete.

Credits — The team that worked on this guide

Rich Edmonds is a staff reviewer at Windows Central, which means he tests out more software and hardware than he cares to remember. Joining Mobile Nations in 2010, you can usually find him inside a PC case tinkering around when not at a screen fighting with Grammarly to use British words. Hit him up on Twitter: @RichEdmonds.

Best Gaming External Hard Drives

Jez Corden is a full-time writer for Windows Central, focusing on Xbox, Surface, and Windows PC. He spends the vast majority of his time gaming, or writing about gaming, with a mission to provide gamers in the Microsoft ecosystem the best and most up-to-date info possible.

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