XBox One X SSD Upgrade - LFC 

One thing people forget when they say that you should connect a USB SSD is that the OS is on the Internal drive. Just running the OS off an SSD makes a massive difference to how the Xbox feels to use.

An alternative option when reloading the OS - it is possible to re-image the Xbox without holding down the Bind and Eject (and without wiping the NAND memory) which will save gamer accounts - simply install the drive, boot up (without holding the Bind and Eject) and you will see a System Error E106 screen - select Trouble Shooting and then Offline Update (with the USB stick connected) - this method will save your gamer account information while still re-initialising the new hard drive (although games will still need to be reinstalled).

The Project Scorpio One X was a limited edition version that was available for pre-order and at launch

Did this swap/upgrade tonight :) I feel like I was phenomenally over-cautious, but it was my first time taking a console down that far. The disassembly and re-assembly went well enough, but my dumb ass brain turned off completely at needing to format my flash drive in NTFS for the OS install 🤦🏻‍♂️ After getting that right, it worked out fine :)

I did this a couple of weeks ago with instrictions from iFixit, after my One X was refusing to boot with the original HDD and couldn't even install a new image on it. Internet says it's more likely a power supply issue that keeps corrupting the hard drive, but fingers crossed... it's worked so far. Edit: Oh yeah, I must have spent 10 minutes at 17:00, figuring out how to put the top cover on. If you got it wrong, you really had to wrench it out to try again. I was sure I was going to break it.

Bear in mind that every time you perform an offline system update you’ll lose the boot animation/splash screen as the file is not included, however it is included on the monthly online system update, or you could also add it manually but it’s not worth it in my opinion.

I did this just before getting my Series X. Makes a huge speed difference. Load zones in some games disappear. It's also a chance to clean the dust out.

It works and if you are doing using SSD 1 Tera byte that's fine. This new update will recognize the 1 terabyte instead of the former update that only was recognizing 500gb.

'Rust' is a game that loves an SSD.. loads in 1 minute vs 10 minutes off a HDD 😂

Amazing video my dude! I have been looking for sometime at different videos to do what you make look easy. Most videos are outdated and say you need to clone your old hard drive or run a script to make the new drive readable by the xbox etc. This is the best tutorial I have seen to date. I also have a repair store but I dont mess with consoles, I have the know how to take them apart and replace parts but the software is what gets me. Im so glad microsoft updated the way to reinstall the os its much easier than it used to be.

Did this for my model and at least I know that even if it's not as fast as what the new consoles do with SSD's, I alt least know the SSD will last longer than the stock hard drive

Couldn't you just have cloned the disk?

Anyone who is a fan of open -world and/or expansive games will love this upgrade. Even a relatively simple game (you'd think) like BFV sees a great increase in loading times when going into multiplayer and the like. Also, techy peace of mind that you know the bottleneck will be fully related to the CPU/GPU rather than other controllable factors.

Someone asked me if I could do this upgrade to his Xbox One X. I told him when I learn how to do that I will call him. Guess what I just learned. Thanks Graham.

You want the Queens English, none of that American rubbish!!! As an American, I am not insulted!

Thank you for sharing this great video. I've upgraded my Xbox One X with the very same model of SSD last year. However, i didnt force the console entering manual trouble shooting mode. I just powered on and used the controller to select trouble shooting mode to allow installing osu1. The SSD was initialized under windows 10 for consistency and bad sector check before being installed to the console. So i erased the MBR(with PartedMagic) and then installed SSD into the console. It's pretty import to erase MBR to make it as "uninitialized" because too many users encounter E10x. If the SSD is recognized as fresh new(uninitialized) by OSU, there wont be any E10x issues. Just a kind reminder for anyone who wants to perform a SSD mod. For SSD other than Micron Crucial, you can also choose "secure erase" to achieve the same effect. Only Micron Crucial products dont support secure erase. Besides, only buy standard capacity of the following size 500GB/1TB/2TB. Other capacity will neither be fully partitioned nor be properly formatted by OSU,and you might get the annoying E10x.

Yassss 🙌🏻 just took the dive on my Xbox one X with a 1tb Evo and it was the most pain free update I've ever done . Ordered myself a SATA to usb3 cable so I can install the Xbox bootup video files next time I can be bothered. What I've noticed ? It's smooth, QUIET, and games load levels and textures super fast. Control is a delight to play now 💓

Great video. I was a little nervous about changing the mechanical hard drive on my Xbox One X Project Scorpio and I decided to pluge in after watching this video. I decided to go with a Crucial MX 2TB SSD, followed step by step but after turning it up and going to Offline update, I was getting errors E100 - E200 until I remembered that this xbox is on the preview omega, so I went back to a regular system on the old hard drive and after the automatic update pushed by microsoft and then swapping the hd for the SSD, the followings steps for the offline system update were positives. Now thanks to your video I'm enjoying again a faster xbox and even quicker load times for my games. Thanks a lot. Also hoping that my misadventure will help someone that may encounter the same problem I did.

Its interesting the different approaches from Sony & Microsoft. With the PS3, PS4 & PS5 (expansion slot at least) the storage is very easily accessable, with no warranty stickers broken to replace that part. Arguably you could also include the PS2, with its expansion slot HDD. Its good that you can still remove HDDs on the Xbox One consoles, but its obvious the console build design wasn't planned with users easily replacing that part. The 360 models were easier to replace, but if you used a third party 2.5" drive I believe it required some preparation with files on HDD etc. Whereas on PS3 & PS4, pop in any 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD, grab a USB for reinstallation file and you are good to go. I swapped a 1TB Crucial MX500 into my base PS4 at the end of 2020. Despite that model PS4 being limited to SATA2, it is still a good upgrade over my old 1TB HDD. Typically load times are reduced by about a 3rd (eg 1m rather than 1m30s) but some games, like 'Death Stranding', loading the same save from main menu was about 1/2 the HDD speed (SSD 36.81s vs 66.19s HDD). Along with general system performance (the PS4 UI is comparatively pretty sluggish on HDD), improved response when taking video clips, some texture load improvements etc. All in, I've been very happy with the result. I think I swapped my PS3 HDD once or twice. I started on a 80GB drive in my 'phat' and when my 2nd PS3 died (yeah 2nd), it was on a 320GB HDD. I replaced my dead 'super slim' PS3 with a used, but boxed slim 160GB and just left the original HDD in there. I still have the 320GB drive, I use it as a spare backup drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure. I used a 640GB HDD in an enclosure, old drive from my old laptop for backup, when I swapped the PS4 internal drives. It allowed me to copy most of my installed games over, saving me from having to reinstall discs, and the PS4s old 1TB HDD is also now in an enclosure and is basically a data mule for the SSD, as its relatively quick to copy things back & forth.

The Xbox One S upgrade video popped into my recommendations 10 months ago and convinced me to subscribe. Nothing to regret and I'm glad to see another video like that one.

He said American rubbish.

Thanks for the video, just put a Crucial 2TB SSD in my One X. Cheers!

Great explanation of what actually makes an SSD fast

I just watched all of this and I don't even have an Xbone! Interesting all the same :)

Do I follow the same steps installing a SSD into the OG xbox one?

I use to solely use MX500's or BX500's in SSD upgrades a good offerable drive, but after the treatment, I got as a business doing a warranty claim (The claim was for a 2TB drive that was misreporting hrs on & TBW, latest firmware & Crucial Storage Executive) for a business client of mine recently with phone calls to America from Australia as they wouldn't respond to email contact, I now refuse to promote their products & only use Samsung SSD's although their Samsung Magician software doesn't work very well on most older pc systems in my experience why I don't know on modern systems all's good.

Was there anything on the old HDD? What about save games? What are you going to do with the HDD?

I have an Xbox One I got from my nephew, it would crash a lot, then would go to green screen and stick on start up. He ended up getting a new Xbox one X. I pulled the hard drive out of the xbox one, ran a HDD test program on it on my pc and found it was indeed Bad. I orderd a new 1TB ssd for maybe a hair over $100. Installed it into the xbox one, had to use a thumb drive to upload a file to the xbox so it would format the new SSD and now the xbox one runs better than it did when it was new and loads game much faster than my nephews xbox one x. When his warranty runs out I will put a SSD in his.

Just done mine, found out the hard drive needs to be blank before putting it in. I reused an SSD that had win 10 on it and kept getting errors.

Project Scorpio was the first release and was limited edition to the first so many buyers

Why not imaging the existing HDD and writing it to the SSD?

I did the swap , thanks for this video! I wasn't aware, but the Xbox One X won't format the drive correctly unless it's exactly 500gb or 1000gb. I wasn't aware of this, you probably said it in the video. I installed a 960GB drive and it formatted as though it was a 500gb leaving 365gb useable. So I took it apart again using your video and installed a 500gb.

Thank god microsoft allows for easy drive swapping with the newest software version. I remember you had to download a tool to format and add OS files onto your replacement drive before putting it into the console.

Wow, they couldnt have made it harder to reach the internal HDD. So much easier on Playstation consoles.

Wouldnt it be easier just to clone the xbox hdd to the ssd and plug it in?

PS4 is easier to upgrade to SSD. Was it not possible to copy the data from the old drive to a extern drive and after you doen the install. Put the old data in the SSD?

What do you think about the samsung 870 QVO for the xbox one x? I know that the EVO is a better drive but would it be worth it for a console?

Trying to put the ribbon back was an nightmare for me when reassembling it

@13:00 if it's never been open and you've had it since launch or bought one from eBay do a repaste regardless it takes away any chance of overheating and gets rid of the Tim that has surely turned into concrete / Chalk by now. It'll prolong the life of this console a lil longer.

"United Kingdom, none those American rubbish" - Graham Lord. Reminded me of a lot about Dave from EEV blog.

it's realy work?

Best tutorials explained to 100. New subscriber without a doubt.

You can always install external usb 3 ssd and an internal ssd for best performance.

Ok I was doing this step by step but after doing the offline install and first time assistant I'm only getting a black screen after reboot. any ideas?

I reakon he's done this before?

Anyone done an m.2 nvme in an enclosure upgrade yet? Is this possible and would there be any real benefit? A thought...if microsoft made an Xbox with easily removable parts but with lots of security seals to prevent the inquisitive and charged a bit more for them and marketed them as "enthusiast edition" would that be a thing gamers would want?

it BAFFLES the mind that a COMPUTER Company has such a bad way to replace HDD, The PS3 Did it WAY Better, LITTERALLY Plug and Play, Without even touching the Warranty... Wow Microsoft, just Wow

Great video -I appreciate the closeups and static shots to clearly show the disassembly and re-assembly! I know I'm late to this party, but can anyone verify for me the max size of SSD Xbox supports? I want to add a an EVO 4TB but only see vids for 1 and 2TB swaps. Is 4+ TB possible?

Quick question I've been all over the internet. I'm trying to figure out what the maximum size of an SSD drive for the one x ? 🤔 Could I install a 4tb SSD and follow these instructions and still work.

Thank you so much. Very accessible walkthrough that was surprisingly straight to the point. Subscribed!

Great video. This was a lot easier than I would have thought. Thanks for taking your time and explaining what you were doing along the way.

Replacing parts in the One X or just clean it, is one of the most easiest things. For myself Im cleaning the cooling fan right now and will replace the thermal pads for the CPU and put some new thermal paste on it.

870 EVO(best sata3 now) + one X is sooooo fast! (also MX500 is very nice good choice)

Just realised that I have a 2TB SSD sitting in a spare DVD dock for my laptop doing nothing.. That's going to save me £100. WD Blue 3D NAND too so I'll be fitting that.. ;-)

Why not cut out the OSU/PC steps and just use a SATA Dual-Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station to clone the old drive to the new one?

Wouldnt cloning the old drive onto the SSD be easier?

Just what I need for later as I'll be buying a used Xbox One X soon and will be fitting biggest SSD possible/affordable into it. Thanks. OH.. Any idea on largest possible size for SSD. PS4/Pro is 8TB. I fitted 4TB SSD into my Pro so hoping same will be possible with XBox One X.

"none of that American rubbish" while working on American product using an American Platform.

I accidentally broke the ribbon cable. Anyone knows if it's required to function? It only connects the front usb/sync button. It's giving me an e101 error but I'm not if it's because the ssd was not formatted correctly.

I repaired a standard Xbox one with the offline system update, but now it does not worl with the same stick, I still get error e101 when trying to update. The old HDD did not work either, which is why I replaced it. Does anyone have any ideas?

Im going to make a video going over some features of the one X. I am going to link to this video for people interested in upgrading the SSD. No way i can match this

2:58 image if it was that easy indeed I like that they made it that easy to upgrade or replace the ssd for the xbox series X now hopefully they continue that practice for future consoles generations great video! 👍

Please 2tb SSD to Xbox one s? Tank you

thank you for your video, I'll go ahead and do what you did, and hope it works for me, wish me luck.

is it normal for xbox one X to have the error E102 related to disk drives? Is it possible to put a 500gb ssd or it needs to be 1tb ?

If using an air compressor you should probably have an air hose line dryer.

Can confirm. Have that exact SSD for my (PC) games. Cheap (enough) at around 100 bucks for 1TB, and games load quickly enough.

The top case on this comes off SO much easier than the Xbox One 🤣

I decided to save a hundred bucks and stay with my one x oem hard drive.

You skipped the best part! Doing a reboot to see how much faster it starts up!

I did all of this but it just comes up with an e101 error code when I try to do the update

this video was brilliant as much as i only play pc it will help one day if a mate wants me to do a repair for him like this one. brilliant work :)

Hi, I have an xbox one x. I replaced HDD with an SSD but when I install on xbox, it stops at 0%. After about 10/15 minutes it switches off by itself. Do you know how to solve this problem?

Thanks for the extra tutorial about how to download and reinstall software. Will buy an SSD and come back to your video for reference.

THANK YOU! Such an easy to follow step-by-step tutorial. I was in a boot loop error, and nothing would work. Xbox no longer supports repairs which was a huge bummer because I didn't want to buy a new one so close to the next gen launch. So I did a hail mary and bought a 1TB Evo 870 for $89 and followed your video. Now my One X rocks! Not only is it fixed, and it's sooo fast now! I can open and close apps as quickly as I can on my S24, basically instantaneously!

Hey I recently done this but without wiping the nand memory, it runs normal tho except missing xbox splash screen and my gamerpicture wont show up either?

Did you add the boot sceen file?

Anyone have any idea where I can get replacement screws for the internals and what to look for? I accidentally wore down some of the screws with an old dodgy torx driver I have :(

Late to the game but just did this with a 2TB SSD Sandisk and works like a champ. Thank you! I really love the ability to still play 3d movies on the xbox one s and x and the optical for stereo connections directly from the machine vs hdmi splitting audio from video.

Not sure if this is an old thread but I've just bought a used Xbox one X which was disgusting inside and decided to upgrade to an ssd aaaand no joy.. purchased a new kingston 960gb and that didn't work and then tried a crucial bx1tb and that failed to work.. i purchased a new 32gb 3.0 thumb drive which i quick formatted to NTFS and downloaded the recommended offline unzipped file and followed the instructions but after 1percent of running the system update the update failed tried it several times but gave up in the end and just re installed the original harddrive.. 😞😞

I know it has been a couple of years for this video but I just did the upgrade and wanted to add a little something. I was getting error E101 during the update process, and after taking the drive out and copying the files many times I read on google that the problem could be the USB drive I was using to run the update from. After trying 3 different brands of USB I was finally able to get it to work properly using a maxell 16gb drive. 1 more thing to add is that the OSU that you download doesn't have the Xbox boot screen, you can either live with that or you can grab it off the old drive and place it on the USB and bob's your uncle. Great video as always.

Bit late to this party, but you just saved me $50 at the local repair shop to upgun my X1X to a 2TB SSD. Hitting the Patreon to show my appreciation.

Had my xbox one x start up but not have any input from the console to the tv and then it just powers down.. From googling and reading it sounds like the hard drive went bad in it so I am now looking to replace the hard drive so why not put a ssd in it lol thank you for the video!!

So you don’t need to partition the new ssd ? What if you install the new ssd drive and try to upload the offline system update from the usb flash drive and it still goes to the error screen? That’s what I am dealing with right now. And it’s still showing the same error code. E 102 00000C01 80070003 Any ideas what could be going on ??

Can you simply “clone” via an external HDD/SSD drive caddy as well, rather then manually downloading the MS XBox drive software?

Hallo! greetings from Germany! Good Video, cool voice and great english! Unfortuntely i found it too late so yesterday i broke my fingers trying to format an new ssd with a script...

Does this tutorial work on Xbox one S

how about an external SSD????????

I bought a used one it was was working fine until I filled the hard drive up about 60%, now nothing will load. It was factory reset when I got it, I will try it again but I'm thinking I need to replace the hard drive.

Followed your steps exactly with a Samsung evo 870 ssd and I keep getting something went wrong error 101 message, any ideas?

Doing this now 12.10.21 and the file is not 4.5 GB it is now 6.5GB for anyone new watching this. So make sure you have a usb drive at least 6.5 GB or larger

Plugging in the disk drive is a pain in the ass

The Xbox one s and the Xbox one x are still useful because Microsoft are still supporting them people are using them because you can't buy the new systems right now

i have a question. the games installed on xboxone x. if i MOVE them to a external drive before swapping out with ssd. would i be able to just move them from ext to internal drive and they play? i have nvr tryed it. so i wanted to ask if anyone has tryed that one

Can u use also the front USB port?

I have a Xbox One S would the process be the same to upgrade to an SSD and could I go to 4TB

I clone to a SSD and offline update doesn't work and it only starts up fully booting to home page when I put the old drive back in.

Hello , from where I download the driver after the format on hp , after restarting it writes avtomatik repair , then diagnostics it . A blue window comes up because it cannot repair , restart and it says advanced . I tried running it in safe mode from the advanced options , it gave an error again , so if this happens you have to reformat it . but you format it again when you install the driver , I found a way but it is not a solution . I was removing the hard disk or ssd and connecting it to another computer with usb to sata and I was starting the computer with it and plugging it into the computer that was failing again , then the laptop would boot up . Why is this happening? It only happens in HP brands. I became an apprentice in a mechanic for 1 month, I was getting nervous. Please inform me, I know I took so long, sorry for the long haul.

Best tutorial, I just swapped mine now installing the games. (1 terra Twinmos ssd)

YES!!! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TWwC85bfaGc.html - bro, finally some lad with common sense. THANK YOU!!!