Speed up your load times and add tons of storage to your Xbox One.
[Editor's Note: A new Xbox One Elite bundle with a 1TB SSHD that "optimizes system performance so you can get to the action up to 20 percent faster"has been announced. While we haven't yet gotten our hands on this new Xbox, we've already seen big performance improvements with our best external hard drive pic, theWestern Digital MyBook -- so you don't need to buy a new system to get a speed boost.]
As many gamers already know, a new 500GB Xbox One can fill up fast. You don’t even start with that much space, due to the OS and other data installed to the drive. And then on top of that, modern AAA games are huge.
The good news is that the Xbox One supports any USB 3.0 external hard drive that’s 256GB or larger, so upgrading your storage is simple. You just buy the drive, and plug in a single cable. (Plus possibly an AC adapter, as well.) Your Xbox One should then recognize it as a storage source; if not, you just need to go into Settings -> System -> Manage Storage to format it for use.
So which is the best Xbox One external hard drive? That’ll depend on your budget, but allow us to make some suggestions.
The Best Xbox One External Hard Drive
Overall, the best external hard drive for your Xbox One is the Western Digital MyBook. At its current price of $130 for the 4TB model, it works out to a highly competitive $32 per terabyte. It also provides a slight performance boost over the Xbox One’s internal drive. It does need an AC adapter, but you're not going to find a drive this big and this cost-effective without one.
In our tests, games on the MyBook loaded as much as 38 seconds faster than on the internal drive. Install times also were slightly faster, but with a much smaller gain proportionately; Battlefield 4, for example, took 32 minutes and 11 seconds to install to the MyBook, which was about a minute faster than the 33 minutes 10 seconds for the internal drive.
| Western Digital MyBook | Internal Xbox One Drive | |
| Battlefield 4 (Resume campaign) | 17 seconds | 24 seconds |
| GTA V (Initial load) | 115 seconds | 153 seconds |
| Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Start Halo 4 campaign) | 8 seconds | 9.36 seconds |
| The Witcher 3 (Load last save after death) | 30 seconds | 45 seconds |
| Battlefield 4 (Install time) | 32 minutes, 11 seconds | 33 minutes, 10 seconds |
It’s not clear whether that performance gain comes from the MyBook’s faster speed (7200RPM) versus the internal drive’s (5400RPM), its USB 3.0 interface (which has a higher theoretical throughput rating than that of the internal drive’s SATA II connector), or both; real-world circumstances make it hard to compare USB against SATA in an easy, apples-to-apples fashion. There are other factors to consider outside of throughput rating.
But the exact reasons for why don’t really matter. If you want a simple option to turn your Xbox One into a 4.5TB behemoth that runs a bit faster, the Western Digital MyBook is it.
The Less Expensive Options
If you don’t want to go as big as 4TB, or don’t want to deal with an AC adapter, get the Toshiba 1TB Canvio Basics USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive. It’s dirt cheap at $55 for 1 TB (though the WD MyBook is a better deal per terabyte) and it’s USB powered, so there’s just one cable to deal with. It even runs a very tiny smidge faster, even though it’s also a 5400RPM drive just like the internal hard drive. Battlefield 4, for example, was about 25 seconds faster to install.
| Toshiba Canvio | Internal Xbox One Drive | |
| Battlefield 4 (Resume campaign) | 18 seconds | 24 seconds |
| GTA V (Initial load) | 122 seconds | 153 seconds |
| Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Start Halo 4 campaign) | 8.28 seconds | 9.36 seconds |
| The Witcher 3 (Load last save after death) | 34 seconds | 45 seconds |
| Battlefield 4 (Install time) | 32 minutes, 47 seconds | 33 minutes, 10 seconds |
Finally, if you already have a 3.5-inch hard drive lying around, just get this Plugable USB 3.0 Hard Drive Docking Station. It’ll let you connect any standard drive to Xbox One via USB, and in our testing, offered performance that was consistent with the WD MyBook.
Alex is IGN's Deals Editor. He spent his weekend running a stopwatch as games installed, and he did it for you. Follow him on Twitter, won't you?
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