People often wonder how to tell if an Xbox console has a 500 GB drive or a 1TB drive. Which one you need really depends on the games that you play and how much you can afford to spend. The 1TB drive is more expensive than the 500 GB console. If you are buying a used console, you will want to make sure that you are getting what you are paying for.

The reality is that there is no difference between these consoles besides the size of the hard drive. Otherwise, they are identical. Read on to learn how to tell if your Xbox console is 500GB or 1TB.

Check the Original Packaging

If you have the original packaging, you will be able to find out if you have a 1TB or 500GB hard drive. If you are looking at a new Xbox, it will be 1TB because Xbox is only making consoles with 1TB hard drives. However, if you are looking at a used console, you can still find a 500GB hard drive. If the console comes with the original packaging, you will be able to see the size of the storage drive on the box. It is important to check to make sure that the Xbox console fits the description of the box and is the console that came with the box.

The difference in price between older Xbox Ones with 500GB drives versus Xbox Ones with 1TB hard drives is about $50. However, it will be hard to know what size drive it has based on price because sellers can set the price at any number.

Register the Console Online

You can sign on to the Microsoft.com website and register your device. You can go to account.microsoft.com/devices and register your console. It will tell you the amount of storage the console has. It will not tell you how much is available or what you have used but it will tell you what the console has.

Check the Storage on the Console Itself

When you turn your console on, you can check the storage. You should go to settings, then system, and storage. It will tell you the available storage on the console.

When you decide which console to get, keep in mind that the hard drive also holds the operating system and the pre-installed software. On a 500GB drive, you only have around 362GB remaining. When you play games a lot of data gets downloaded and stored on the hard drive. You may run out of room if you play a lot of games or games that use a lot of storage.

The 500GB version works for someone who doesn’t play a lot of different games. If you need more space, you can get an external hard drive. If you know that you are going to play a lot of games, you should consider spending the extra $50 for the 1TB hard drive.

With the 1TB drive, you are left with 862GB of usable storage. This allows you to play more games without worrying about running out of space. If you still find that you don’t have enough room, you can get a 2TB hard drive, which gives you close to 1.6 TB of usable space.

If you run out of storage on your Xbox console, you can add an external drive to it. This will free you up to play more games. If you don’t want to buy an external drive, you can always delete games you no longer play to free up some storage space.

If you are buying a new console, you will only find the 1TB models. If you play more than ten different games, you will want a larger hard drive anyway. However, if you are buying a used console, be sure to find out what size the hard drive is.