Topic: Xbox360 Doesn't See My Usb Hdd (Read 131 times)

ac281 · « **on:** February 21, 2007, 10:59:00 AM »

Hey guys. I really want to be able to watch video files that I copy onto a USB HDD on my Xbox360. I've done it before, but now when I connect the drive to the Xbox and go to Media, the option for external devices is grayed out! I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong. I used Videora to convert a video file to mpeg and it still wouldn't show up.

Any ideas? Also, are there any compatible HD file formats I could play this way?

skankx · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2007, 02:58:00 AM »

Im having the same issue.... i have a 2.5 20gb laptop HDD sat in a usb case that works just fine with my PC...

I'll keep an eye out here but im also going to look through the tutorial again http://www.xboxscene.com/xbox360-tutorials.php as i have NEVER had mine running i just tried plugging it in the other day without any success. If you do manage to solve the problem can you please post back here or PM me.

Many thanks

ac281 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2007, 08:14:00 AM »

It's the weirdest thing! I think maybe an update caused this, because it was never an issue before. I used to be able to just plug in my little Seagate 40GB HDD into the USB port and play media from it. Now, it's like the Xbox doesn't even see it. The drive came formatted in FAT32, I even tried reformatting in NTFS (Obviously no luck) I'm gonna get a copy of Partition Magic and try recreating the FAT32 partition and reformatting and see if I have any luck.

Do you know what the best settings for Videora are?

skankx · « **Reply #3 on:** February 23, 2007, 02:24:00 AM »

I got mine working last night by simply re-formatting the drive (fat32) copied about 8gig of music on to it and plugged it in....

reading the tut anything over 37gig (i think) seems to be a pain and has to have a partition..... i pressume you know all this and nothing has changed since you last had it working... My xbox is fully up to date with all the latest updates etc so i dont think it has anything to do with that. i would try 1 of the other usb ports maybe the one on the back just to rule that out of the equation.

1 thing i did notice this morning when i woke up. Even though the xbox was power off and USB drive was still powered up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) that means i have to physically un plug the damn thing everytime i power down the xbox.... Is this the same for everyone else??? i cant believ in its powered down state the xbox still powers the usb ports???

ac281 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2007, 08:33:00 AM »

QUOTE(skankx @ Feb 23 2007, 03:24 AM)

I got mine working last night by simply re-formatting the drive (fat32) copied about 8gig of music on to it and plugged it in....

reading the tut anything over 37gig (i think) seems to be a pain and has to have a partition..... i pressume you know all this and nothing has changed since you last had it working... My xbox is fully up to date with all the latest updates etc so i dont think it has anything to do with that. i would try 1 of the other usb ports maybe the one on the back just to rule that out of the equation.

1 thing i did notice this morning when i woke up. Even though the xbox was power off and USB drive was still powered up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) that means i have to physically un plug the damn thing everytime i power down the xbox.... Is this the same for everyone else??? i cant believ in its powered down state the xbox still powers the usb ports???

Reformatting didn't work for me. I went and got Partition Magic and I noticed that the volume was on an extended partition. I deleted all the partitions and recreated a single primary partition and formatted it FAT32. After that the Xbox is recognizing the drive again.

Now I just need to figure out how to get some of my avis to convert properly and be viewable on the 360. Videora seems to convert everything to .mpg and the Xbox doesn't seem to recognize them. Any ideas on what the best settings to use are?

Also, my USB drive stays powered on even after I switch my Xbox off too. I remember it used to do that the last time I had my drive working too... so normal stuff there!

This post has been edited by ac281: Feb 27 2007, 04:36 PM

skankx · « **Reply #5 on:** February 28, 2007, 08:53:00 AM »

Dude the xbox will only playback WMV unless you use transcoder 360 which will convert it on the fly.... other than that try TVersityand this will need to be run via your PC obviously.... Therefore any movies on the HDD will HAVE to be wmv.

Hope this helps.

tribalnoise · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2007, 02:01:00 PM »

QUOTE(ac281 @ Feb 27 2007, 04:33 PM)

Also, my USB drive stays powered on even after I switch my Xbox off too. I remember it used to do that the last time I had my drive working too... so normal stuff there!

that makes sense that the USB is still powered when the 360 is off. that allows me to charge my wireless controllers without having to run the system.

nooz · « **Reply #7 on:** March 03, 2007, 04:14:00 AM »

I'm having the exact same problem guys and its doing my nut in...

I've formatted a 320gb drive to FAT32 with Partition Magic to around half of the drive size (149gb), I then added a couple folders of mp3s to the drive and also some to the root of the drive. Connect to front USB of 360 and power on, go to Music menu and "portable device" option is still grayed out!!! WTF!

Do I need to do anything else? Make it a shared folder or sumthin??

Please help!

maxx77 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 04, 2007, 04:52:00 PM »

The largest partition you're going to be able to use with the 360 is around 30-40 gigs, and it has to be Fat32. Given FAT32 limitations (no files over 4 gigs), you're much better off simply connecting your drive to the PC and streaming your content to the 360 via TVersity.

I bought an external 500 gig drive specifically for the 360 and went through this whole nightmare you're going through now of trying to get it to work. It's working fine the way I have it set up now (HDD connected to PC via USB2 port, PC sharing the files via TVersity to the 360 across my wireless network). It surprisingly works just as well as if I had the HDD connected directly to the 360 (with the added benefit of being able to use the entire drive and no filesize limitations).

sprkeh · « **Reply #9 on:** March 05, 2007, 12:46:00 AM »

I have a 320GB Western Digital drive, not partitioned or anything and my xbox picks it up no probs (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif) not sure what probs others are having, I just plugged mine in and off it went (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Author Topic: Xbox360 Doesn't See My Usb Hdd (Read 131 times)