Can’t get an external hard drive expansion to work

[red lichen]

I’ve got 2 hard drives that I can’t get to work. One of which is an official Xbox/Seagate hard drive, and the other id a Western Digital “easystore”. I got the WD from a friend, and the Seagate came from my brother. He bought it new, and wasn’t able to get it to work, even straight out of the box. I can’t get either to work to store Xbox games. What could I be doing wrong?
I play on a Series X, my brother plays on a Series S, but we tried the hard drives on a One S, and still couldn’t get them to work.

[flint umbra]

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[red lichen]

I have tried formatting the hard drives, but that didn’t help

[teal oyster]

what does "doesn't work" mean?
what does it do?

[red lichen]

I plug them in, and it recognizes that the drive is there, but it won't let me move games onto it

@teal oyster

[teal oyster]

you have to format it on the console not a computer: https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/storage/manage-storage

[red lichen]

I'm 90% sure I've done that, but I'll go double check real fast.

Alright I plug it in and it asks if the drive will be used on multiple consoles, or if it will stay plugged in to one console. I select multiple consoles.

Then nothing happens, so I go to manage storage devices --> the drive in question --> format

Then when I hit confirm or whatever, nothing actually happens? Or at least it doesn't look like anything is happening?

The link you provided does not give me the solution to the issue.

@teal oyster

[teal oyster]

those instructions have always worked for me when i get a new external drive idk

[hardy stirrup]

It wouldn’t ask this unless it’s already formatted for games. What is telling you you can’t use it to store games? Does it not show up on the list of targets for move/copy?

[red lichen]

It does show up, however when I move/copy a game, it doesn't actually do anything. I have assumed that it would show up in the queue like games do when I move/copy to/from my SSD expansion card. But nothing has popped up. Now something strange is happening...

I noticed a bunch of game tiles show up in my library of games that I don't have installed, and a lot that I don't own. I thought "Oh, it must recognize the hard drive? And maybe my brother did get it to work at one point, and had some games on it?"
The hard drive wasn't plugged in...? So I plugged the hard drive back in, and then more game tiles showed up in the library. I unplugged it again, then all of the game tiles except 2 disappeared. If I try to uninstall them (as if I'm uninstalling a game normally) nothing happens...

@hardy stirrup

[hardy stirrup]

It sounds like the games are actually on the drive? Are you able to play the tiles in question?

To answer though, move/copy should definitely make things appear in the queue (and take you to the queue). I’d make sure you’re not using a flaky drive somehow

[red lichen]

Nope

[red lichen]

I don't know why it'd be acting flaky.

[hardy stirrup]

These are tiles in your installed games section specifically?

[red lichen]

Yes. But when I try to open them, it opens up the game card, and instead of giving me the option to play it, it gives me the option to install