Xbox One external hard drive - can you use any external hard drive?

[Draeger]

As part of his Christmas I am looking at getting our son an external hard drive for his Xbox One. I'm unsure as to what to buy, can I use any external USB hard drive or does it need to be specifically for the Xbox? Also, are they 'plug n play' or do you have to set them up or format them in a particular way? Can you download and install games to the hard drive and play them direct from it? I'm guessing if that is possible its best to go for an SSD?

Many thanks!

 

[Draeger]

Cheers!!! I kinda thought as much but wanted to check first

 

[Draeger]

SSD will give you more loading speed but less storage. If you have the series s or x and the game is optimised for s or x, it can be stored on the external drive but not played from it. Any non optimised game can be played from external drive

Perfect, thank you. He currently has an Xbox One so that sounds ideal. Cheers.