Your standard SSD might work as an Xbox storage expansion

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Microsoft)

Xbox Series X or S owners in need of more storage space for current-gen software may be in luck if they have a spare SSD, according to one modder’s experiences.

Writing in a step-by-step post on the Chinese video-sharing site Bilibili, a user has discovered that it’s potentially possible to use any high-speed SSD in the Xbox Series X and S by using an adapter to convert the drive’s storage interface—instead of mandating that users who want to expand installable space for newer “Velocity Architecture” games purchase proprietary Series X/S memory cards. (Past-gen software on Series X/S can be installed to older, slower storage options connected via USB ports.)

The modder learned via a teardown video that the Xbox Series S uses two PCIe 4.0 ports to house its NVMe SSD and external expansion, and, crucially, that the console’s external expansion card uses the CFExpress protocol, which also uses an NVMe interface. (Asian video-sharing sites like Bilibili generally work like YouTube, except users can often post blog-style entries as well as videos, hence the tutorial.)