Best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs in 2024: upgrade your storage for less

If you’re looking for the best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs, potentially pick up in the Black Friday Xbox deals, then you’re in luck - as there really aren’t that many models to choose from. If you’re looking for a storage device that can natively run games designed for the Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, then there’s exactly two options on the market. Microsoft has opted to go for a proprietary Expansion Card format this generation, very unlike the standard SSDs that are compatible with the PlayStation 5. This massively restricts your options, as just Seagate and Western Digital are manufacturing these cards right now.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, as it does make for a relatively straightforward shopping experience. There are loads of compelling reasons to consider upgrading your storage too, especially if you own the original Xbox Series S model. This machine offered just about 360GB of storage out of the box, which is just not going to be enough for most players. While there is now a black 1TB model on the market, plus a white 1TB model on the way, buying a new console is obviously going to be more expensive than just picking up a storage device.

Luckily, the official Expansion Cards are not your only option. You can also pick up an external hard drive, which provide huge amounts of storage at affordable prices. The compromise here is that external hard drives cannot be used to run Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S games, though you can store them to free up space on your console. Backwards compatible Xbox One and Xbox 360 games can be run from these drives with a slight bump in load times, which also makes them a good option for those that prefer older titles.

The quick list

The best overall Xbox Series X SSD

The Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card is always the first product that comes up in conversations about the best Xbox Series X SSDs. Launching the same year as the console itself, it enjoyed a reputation as the be-all-end-all of storage expansion for Microsoft’s current-gen machine. That may not be as true now as it was before 2024, but it’s still a superb choice for gamers looking to greatly increase storage capacity.

The bad news is that the Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card doesn’t come cheap. However, being a few years old now, the card does regularly see discounts at online retailers like Amazon, so it’s always worth keeping an eye out. If you do decide to invest, you will be getting a speedy drive that’s a touch slower than the one installed in the console out of the box.

When testing the drive, we found that it took 45 seconds to boot up a Yakuza: Like a Dragon save from the home screen as opposed to the 37 it usually takes when loading from internal storage. It’s nonetheless still a fantastic option for extra storage, especially for all the Series X and Xbox Series S enhanced titles that regularly land on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Although the Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card launched in 512GB and 1TB capacities, a newer 2TB model has emerged for those with a large budget who need the biggest storage boost. If you need even more storage, consider picking up an external hard drive instead or in addition to this card.

• Read more: Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card review

The best budget Xbox Series X hard drive

If you’re after a cheap, no-frills hard drive expansion for your Xbox Series X|S console, it’s hard to go wrong with the Toshiba Canvio Basics hard drive, which punches slightly above its weight thanks to its reliability and affordable price tag.

There’s three sizes of the hard drive available to purchase, and you can expect to spend less than $100 / £100 for all three. It’s not much of a looker, but as a storage device it doesn’t really need to be. Being so aggressively budget-oriented, it also performs a little slower than other models on our list. But it’s hard to find a better value HDD out there that supports Xbox consoles and is so affordably priced.

• Read more: Toshiba Canvio 4TB review

The best value SSD for Xbox Series X

While second on our list, there’s still an argument to be made that the WD Black C50 Xbox expansion card is as good – if not better – than Seagate’s excellent offering. The C50 comes with its own advantages and drawbacks when stacked up against the Seagate card, but it’s still a fantastic option worth considering for buyers with smaller budgets.

The WD Black C50 comes in three variants: a 512GB model,  a larger 1TB version, and a much newer 2TB version. We found the 1TB model to be better value overall, and we’d recommend purchasing it over the smaller offering if your budget allows for it.

It's worth noting that the WD Black C50 boasts impressive transfer speeds. It took us just 78 seconds to move Fortnite (45GB) from the Xbox Series X's internal storage to the drive. However, running games direct from the C50 will result in longer boot times. In our test of Forza Horizon 5, we found that booting from the C50 adds 10 seconds to the clock compared to using internal console storage, coming to 69 seconds in total.

When we first reviewed this model, there were no options above that 1TB capacity. Luckily we now have a 2TB model, but this larger capacity option is extremely expensive. If it's the one that you want to go for, try and keep an eye out for sales or discounts.

• Read more: WD Black C50 review

The best external SSD for Xbox Series X

The WD Black P40 is an external SSD, which means that it offers faster speeds than an external hard drive but still can't be used to play Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S games. It's a good choice if you want to copy particularly large files on a regular basis, like games with big install sizes such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, as it will be able to do this substantially quicker than a hard drive.

The lack of any moving parts also means that this SSD is much more robust than most hard drives. It comes in a sleek black design with a hard aluminium shell, which is ideal if you intend to frequently take it out and about. It sports an eye-catching RGB strip on its exterior too, which, while entirely cosmetic, can be customized in its PC software and lends it quite an appealing overall look.

Unfortunately, there are some downsides to bear in mind. The big one is the price, which is much higher than a hard drive of the same capacity. In my testing I also noticed that the drive tended to quite become hot to the touch after extended periods of use, which might cause some thermal throttling if you're copying files for a long time.

• Read more: WD Black P40 review

The best value hard drive for Xbox Series X

The Seagate FireCuda Gaming Drive is utterly fantastic value for money if your aim is to store as many games as possible without needing to delete them. Once again, it’s unable to run Xbox Series X|S games natively, but for last-gen and backwards compatible titles it comes highly recommended by us.

You can pick one up for yourself from Seagate’s official website for just 9.99 / £89.99 for the 1TB model. Upgrading to 2TB will cost you 09.99 / £119.99. However, the star of the show is the huge 5TB variant, which doesn’t cost too much more at just 79.99 / £209.99. This, in our opinion, is the model to go for for sheer bang-for-your-buck value.

It’s a lovely looking drive, too. While a bit on the bulkier side compared to other entries in our list, you’re also getting slick RGB lighting much like the WD Black P40. If you don’t mind its relatively large physical size, you’ll be hard pressed to find a hard drive that’s better value than this for your Xbox games.

The best Xbox Series X hard drives - FAQs