# Can the XBox 360 read any size protable drive?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [November 13, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455 "2009-11-13T17:13:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455/1 "2009-11-13T17:13:15Z")

</div>

Mine can see my 5 GB flash drive just fine. It will not detect my 240 GB portable drive.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455/2 "2009-11-13T20:29:00Z")

</div>

Stab in the dark here.  
Aren’t flash drives done in FAT? What is the upper limit in disk size in FAT? Could the 240 GB be NTFS or something?

I don’t know if thats your problem but it can really foul up things.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455/3 "2009-11-14T07:43:56Z")

</div>

Yip. While most new hard drives are formatted FAT32, some do come as NTFS. The XBOX can only read FAT32 or HFS+ (Mac) formatted hard drives, and that’s only if you have the iPod compatibility patch.

Also, Windows won’t let you format your drive over 32MB, so you’ll need a [third party app](http://www.heise.de/software/download/h2format/40825). And FAT32 has an upper file limit size of 4 GBs, no matter what OS you use. HFS+ support in Windows requires a program called [MacDrive](http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/).

Of course, none of this is a problem if you use Linux or a Mac.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-xbox-360-read-any-size-protable-drive/517455/4 "2009-11-14T20:52:40Z")

</div>

> [@BigT](#):
>
> Also, Windows won’t let you format your drive over 32MB

You must’ve meant GB, not MB, and it depends which version of Windows you’re using. Oddly, a googling seems to indicate XP or later have this limitation, but 98 doesn’t. :dubious: Good going there, MS…