How To Download Game Into Your Ssd

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Most of the Xbox One Games have a size in two to three digit figure (in GBs), and if you only have a 500 GB or a 1TB hard drive, running out of space for a regular gamer is not a surprise. Adding to this, if you are into buying digital games, re-downloading the games take a toll on your bandwidth, time, and especially those big updates.

Good news is that Xbox One supports external drives which can be used for to install games and keep them there, while you still use the internal storage for downloading, and install the new games. In this post, I am going to share how you can achieve it.

While I am using Games in this context, you can also move apps to external drives as well. It’s an uncommon scenario, but its possible, and works the same way as it works for the game.

Install Steam and most games in one large HDD but some popular games on a separate SSD [duplicate]. Next time you download a game you can choose where to put it. Jan 10, 2014 - Just got an SSD and I have about 10-12 steam games on my hard drive. Mostly because I live in a rural area and although my download.

Hardware Requirement & Initial Setup

You will need a hard drive of at least 256 GB with USB 3.0 support. I use my Western Digital hard drive, and it works fine. However, if you are picking a new one, take one with high storage space, and faster speed for the performance.

Setting up a new Hard Drive:

Plug in your drive into any of the Xbox One USB port, and it will prompt on how you intend to use it. You can use it for storing media files, like DVR game clips, etc., or you can use it for installing games. If you select gaming, it will format the hard drive as per Xbox One need, and it cannot be used for anything unless you format it. This is a screenshot of what happens when you plug a hard drive into your Xbox One. Select Format Storage Device.

When you select this option, all your data on the drive will be erased permanently. So if you have anything on the drive, make sure to back it up.

In case, you accidentally choose Use for Media, follow the steps below to convert it for games.

  • Press Guide button on your Xbox One controller.
  • Navigate to the right using the right bumper to System.
  • Select Settings, and navigate to System section, and select Storage.
  • This will list all your drives, both external, and internal.
  • Use the cursor keys on your controller to find the hard drive you want to use for gaming.
  • Once you find it, press A button on the controller to open the options.
  • You should see
    • View Contents.
    • Format for games, & apps.
    • Set as Capture Location.
  • Select Format for games, & apps.
  • In the next screen, select Format Storage Device, and give a unique name to the drive.
  • Post this, Xbox One will prompt if you want to choose this as default storage device for games from now on. Choose Keep Current location.
  • You will have to re-confirm it again, and you should get a message that the drive is ready.

Transfer Xbox games to external hard drive

Now that our setup is complete let’s learn how to move the games from your internal drive to external drive.

The primary reason I suggested not to set the new external drive as default storage location was for performance. Internal drive will always be faster, and you can always use the external drive to move games which you are not playing for now. If you intend to play them once in a while, you don’t have to move them back, but always play from right there, seamlessly.

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Let’s start:

  • Make sure you are signed in with your account.
  • Press the Guide button, and open My games & apps.
  • Go to the game you want to move using cursor keys on the controller.
  • Press the Menu button on the controller. Then select Manage Game.
  • Surprisingly, the next screen offers two options.
    • Move All: This will copy all related content over to the external hard drive.
    • Copy All: This will keep a copy on both internal hard drive and external drive.
  • Select Move All.
  • Confirm the drive on the next screen.

Once done, you will see your drive listed with the name you gave it. It will list the game you moved here and a progress bar. This will give you a fair idea of how much time it might take for the game to be moved. The bigger the game is, the more time it will take.

That said there are some important things you should know:

  • You can cancel the transfer anytime, and your games will still work. There is an option to pause it as well.
  • The reason why there is a copy option is that if you are planning to transfer the games to a new console or another one, you will need to have a copy left on your primary console.
  • Lastly, you can perform multiple move or copy. The next game will be added to the queue. You can see it under “Queue” section in My apps & games.

To transfer the game back to internal storage, follow the same steps, and this time choose internal storage instead of external storage.

How to bulk transfer Apps and Games on Xbox One

Microsoft has built an option for bulk transfer for those who have too many games to move to an external drive or internal storage. Its called as Transfer, and you can move both apps, and games using this.

Microsoft recently added the ability to transfer items between drives in bulk, to ease the process during big transitions. This should be especially helpful for those upgrading to the Xbox One X this fall, allowing large games (and their 4K updates) to be transferred with ease.

  • Go to Settings > System > Storage, and open it.
  • Navigate to the drive from which you want to bulk transfer.
  • Press A on the controller for the menu.
  • Select Transfer.
  • This screen offers
    • Option to select the destination if you have multiple external drives.
    • Select All or select ones you want.
    • Sort by name or last used or last update or by size.
Ssd
  • Next select Move Selected.
  • This will initiate the transfer, and you should be able to see them in Queue.

This covers up all the options for transferring, moving, and copying files from Xbox One to internal storage, and back to internet storage. How many games you have on your console? Do you use an external drive? How are you managing things when storage falls short? Let us know in the comments.

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As part of the PS4 system software 4.50 which went live this week, you’ll see that we’ve added the much-requested ability to download and store your games and apps on an external HDD storage device. It’s super easy to set up and use an external HDD with your PS4 or PS4 Pro, but before you get started, this guide may come in useful.

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Minimum HDD spec

The most important thing to remember before you buy a new storage device – or try to use one you already own – is to make sure it meets the minimum requirements for use with your PS4:

Connection: USB 3.0 or later

Storage: 250GB (min) – 8TB (max)

Note: There is no guarantee that all USB storage devices are compatible with your system.

Format your external HDD

Most storage devices will be a specific format out-of-the-box (usually FAT32/exFAT/NTFS/HFS). To prepare it for use with your PS4 you’ll need to format it to a special type to ensure it will work:

  • Go to the Settings menu from your PS4 home screen.
  • Scroll down to the Devices menu.
  • Choose ‘USB Storage Devices’.
  • Select your external HDD, then choose “Format as extended storage”.

You’ll see a number of warnings that formatting your device will remove any previously installed data, so before you hit ‘OK’, make sure that there’s nothing stored on the device that you don’t want to lose.

It’s also important to note that once you’ve formatted your external HDD to this specific PS4 format, you can only use it for PS4 games and apps – you won’t be able to store screenshots and video clips, saved data, Themes or any other types of media, documents, pictures on it, without re-formatting to its original state.

Once formatting is complete, you’ll see a message confirming that it’s been successful and a small green light will appear next to the device’s name, letting you know it’s activated as the main storage location.

Installing games and apps (and adds-on) to your external HDD/internal storage

Once formatted, your external HDD will be set as the default download location as long as it remains plugged in.

If you want to switch back to your PS4 internal storage for downloads (and back again to the external HDD), that’s easy too:

  • Go to the Settings menu from your PS4 home screen.
  • Scroll down to ‘Storage’.
  • Choose which location you want to download to – either System Storage or your external HDD.
  • Press the ‘Options’ button and select ‘Application install location’ to set the target download location – either ‘System Storage’ or ‘Extended Storage’.

Moving games and apps onto your external HDD device

If you want to organise the games and apps that are currently installed on your PS4 internal storage, you can easily move them over to the external storage device:

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  • Go to the Settings menu from your PS4 home screen.
  • Scroll down to the ‘Storage’.
  • Select ‘System Storage’, then ‘Applications’.
  • Press the ‘Options’ button, then choose ‘Move to Extended Storage’.
  • Choose which games and apps you want to move by ticking the boxes that appear next to their names. You can select as many as you like, providing your external HDD has enough free space to store them.
  • Select ‘Move’ then hit ‘OK’ to begin the transfer.

Removing your external HDD device

It’s very important not to remove your USB storage device when your PS4 is switched on without properly disconnecting it.

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To remove the external HDD, access the Quick Menu by holding down the PS button on your controller, then choose ‘Sound/Devices’ then ‘Stop using extended storage’. Once that’s done, you’ll see a message that it’s safe to disconnect the device from the USB port.

Anything else?

  • When your external HDD is plugged in, games and apps will display as normal on your PS4 Home Screen, with the most recently played games appearing first.
  • If you don’t have your external HDD connected, the games you’ve played from it will still appear in your Home Screen list and Library – however, they’ll display a ‘!’ symbol to show that they can’t be played until the device is re-connected
  • You need to connect the HDD directly to your PS4. A USB Hub cannot be used in between.

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So that’s it – no more agonising choices of which games to delete when that hot new title hits PlayStation Store. With up to 8TB supported for external storage, even the most avid trophy hunter should have plenty to keep themselves busy. Enjoy!