Hello,
I just had a mi box today and i wanted to add an external hard drive to add more space.
I plugged the external drive which got recognized and i decided to format it as i ternal storage.
Problem is that it is now 1h that the screen is stuck on the formatting screen, and i wonder if people had same issue? (my disk is 500 GO)
Other issue is that usually unplugging the disk might kill it.
How long did that operation took for you??
It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. The thing with mechanical drive is some might need to draw more power than Mi Box's USB port can supply. The type of USB to SATA bridge inside most portable harddrives can also be the source of compatibility issue.
I'd suggest you trying a few USB sticks first to rule out firmware issue or hardware defect with your Mi Box.