How to Format an External Hard Drive for Xbox One

First of all, let's talk about what's compatible with your Xbox One. You will need to own a hard drive that supports USB 3.0 as slower USB 2.0 drives will not work with an Xbox One console. The old USB 2.0 interface is considerably slower at transferring data compared to the younger 3.0. In terms of capacity, an external drive must be at least 128GB in size with a maximum capacity of up to 16TB. Unless you are buying solely digital games, a 1TB or 2TB hard drive should be more than enough to accommodate most people's needs.
When buying a new external drive, speed should also be considered. Your Xbox One comes with an internal 5400RPM hard-disk drive (HDD). RPM stands for revolutions per minute — essentially the higher the number of revolutions the quicker games will install and load. Most hard drives on the market today either come in a 5400RPM configuration or a 7200RPM with the latter providing a small boost in terms of speed. However, if you really want to cut down on your load times, you're going to want an external solid-state drive (SSD). An SSD is blisteringly fast compared to an HDD, but that performance usually comes at a much higher price.