How to Format USB Flash Drive for Xbox 360 on PC?

Scenario

“I have a 16GB USB flash drive and I plan to use it for my Xbox 360. But when I connect it to the console of the Xbox 360, I found that the USB flash drive cannot work with Xbox 360. I figured out that’s something wrong with the USB flash drive format. So, what format does the Xbox 360 use for the USB flash drive, and how to format USB flash drive for Xbox 360? Any help will be appreciated!”

The Xbox 360 is a dedicated machine – “games console”, researched and developed by Microsoft with the purpose of dethroning Sony's PlayStation. Compared with its predecessors, the Xbox 360 is more powerful. Far more than a video game console, It is a total media center, with which users can play, network, rip, stream and download all types of media, including high-definition movies, music, digital pictures and game content.

What format does Xbox 360 use for USB?

If you’ve had your Xbox 360 for a long time, you probably find its internal storage runs out of space. Luckily, you can use a USB flash drive as an Xbox 360 storage device and store up to 2 terabytes (TB) of content. However, in order not to affect the performance of your Xbox 360 game console, the prepared USB flash drive must be larger than 1GB (up to 2 TB in size), and must be formatted to be Windows FAT32 file system. The Xbox 360 does not support NTFS or exFAT file system.

How to format USB flash drive for Xbox 360?

From above, we know that the proper format for USB flash drive used on Xbox 360 is FAT32. Now, it is necessary to learn how to format USB flash drive to FAT32 for Xbox 360. You can format it on PC or on the game console directly. Two methods will be explained in detail below.

Note: Before you format a USB flash drive as an Xbox storage device, make sure you have the latest console software update.

Method 1. Format USB flash drive for Xbox 360 on PC

If the USB flash drive is less than 32GB, you can use Windows built-in Disk Management or File Explorer. If it is over 32GB, you have to use the third-party partition manager since Windows native tools cannot format 32GB+ partition to FAT32 file system. If you are in such a situation, the free partition manager AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a great choice. This freeware can format a partition, with maximum capacity of 2TB drive, to FAT32 successfully.

Step 1. Download, install and run the software. Right click the USB flash drive and select “Format Partition”.

Step 2. Select the FAT32 in the File System menu and click on “OK”.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, click on “Apply” to commit the pending operation.

Method 2. Format USB flash drive via Xbox 360 controller

If you don’t want to format USB flash drive on PC for Xbox 360 usage, you can directly format it on the game console, follow these steps:

Step 1. Plug a USB flash drive into a USB port on the front of your console. Press the Guide button on your controller.

Step 2. Select “settings”, and then select “System”. This will open a new menu

Step 3. Select "Storage" or "Memory" option. The label will vary depending on which model Xbox 360 you are using.

Step 4. Select “USB Storage Device” to open the "Configure USB Device" menu.

Step 5. Select either “Configure Now” or “Customize” to format the USB flash drive for Xbox content.

☞Configure Now: it will convert the entire USB flash drive space to the Xbox 360 storage format. Select Configure Now, and then confirm that you want to erase all data on the USB flash drive.
☞Customize: it allows you to choose how big you want the Xbox 360 partition to be and you can use the rest drive space for other data. Select “Customize” and you can use the slider to set how much space for the Xbox 360 storage.
☞There is 512 MB reserved for system use.

Step 6. Select "Configure".

Step 7. The console will test your USB flash drive to make sure it works correctly with the console. After your USB flash drive passes this test, you can use it.

Summary

So, this is how to format USB flash drive for Xbox 360 on PC or on the game controller. If your large USB flash drive is now of NTFS file system, you can also use the “FAT32 to NTFS Converter” of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, which can convert file systems between FAT32 and NTFS without reformatting this drive. Apart from those great features, the freeware also supports cloning USB flash drive, wiping USB flash drive, copying Windows to USB flash drive and so on. If you are a Windows Server user, you can use the AOMEI Partition Assistant Server.