Having trouble with an Exteral HDD

[TavaresX3]

Hi. I've been searching through the forum trying to find a way to make my Switch identify my external HDD but I had no luck so far.
I used MiniTool Wizard to wipe clean an old 3.5 inch SATA II 500gb HDD I have lying around, then created an EXFAT primary partition.
I place XCIs and NSP on the root of the HDD and connected it to my docked switch, but it didn't work. I tried placing the XCIs and NSPs in the same folder structure as my MicroSD /sxos/xci, :/switch/games for example), and it still didn't work.
I have a 16gb usb pen, followed the same procedure, and I can play XCIs from it. But the external HDD is never recognized by the Switch (no XCIs appear on the SX OS menu nor in SX Installer).

I'm only trying to figure out how to properly config the HDD to work with Switch SX OS, because I'm waiting for a SATA III HDD that my brother sent and I wanted to make sure I can properly connect an HDD to my Switch.

Appreciate if anyone can spot what I'm doing wrong (or tell me if SATA II HDDs aren't compatible with the Switch).

 

[imprezgc8]

I do not use an external drive personally, but will try to help. The thumb drive you have that works is also formatted exFAT? Also have you tried using the SX Installer to see if they show up?

 

[yuseiocg]

The 3.5-inch hard disk needs extra power, and the 2.5-inch hard disk can be used directly.

 

[Hackerjac]

Not all chipset in external enclosure works on the Switch
I don't have a list over what works and what doesn't work

@yuseiocg i think OP knows about the power to the 3.5" since he/she have formated it and then placed xci and nsp files on it

 

[TavaresX3]

@imprezgc8 both are formatted to exFAT. When the USB is plugged, both SX OS menu and SX Installer recognize it and access my XCIs. However, neither the SX OS menu nor SX Installer show any files from the HDD.

@yuseiocg my HDD's enclosure is powered through a transformer, not through the USB connection. Wouldn't have been able to put XCI files in my HDD otherwise, so it was implied that it has always been properly connected to its power source.

@Hackerjac but does such a list exist? Or is it by trial and error?

 

[Hackerjac]

There have been a couple of posts inhere where other members have written what they have and was working, but a list i dont think there is

 

[yuseiocg]

Use the hard drive dock to recognize the game normally

 

[TavaresX3]

@Hackerjac @yuseiocg I'm gonna try with the 2nd HDD when it arrives. See if that one works. Otherwise I might backup and wipe my main external HDD from Western Digital, format it to exFAT and try that one if my brother's doesn't work. Might try that HDD dock too.

 

[imprezgc8]

@imprezgc8 both are formatted to exFAT. When the USB is plugged, both SX OS menu and SX Installer recognize it and access my XCIs. However, neither the SX OS menu nor SX Installer show any files from the HDD.

@yuseiocg my HDD's enclosure is powered through a transformer, not through the USB connection. Wouldn't have been able to put XCI files in my HDD otherwise, so it was implied that it has always been properly connected to its power source.

@Hackerjac but does such a list exist? Or is it by trial and error?

I do have a list started from the random posts, but have not had a chance to reformat and post as a stickie. I will try to get that done soon. It is not a very long list right now though.

 

[TavaresX3]

So I solved the problem.
Turns out it was the enclosure itself. Neither my old or the new HDD worked through the enclosure I had. My PC recognized the HDDs and they worked on it, but the Switch did not.
Got a new HDD enclosure with USB 3.0 for like 10€ online and tried it with the new HDD and it worked on the 1st try.

My guess is that the original enclosure was too outdated.

Thanks you all for your help.