How To Connect An External Hard Drive To Your Ps4 Or Ps4 Pro
PS4 with a connected Seagate 5 TB HDD
It was a long time coming but you can finally connect an external hard disc drive to your PlayStation 4 or PS4 Pro. The days of swapping games in and out of the meager 500 GB internal drive in the PS4 or the larger 1 TB drive in the PS4 Pro are over. Connecting the HDD to either console is easy and only takes a few minutes. Heres how to do it.
You can use any external HDD that has a USB 3.0 connection. The PS4 and PS4 Pro will address up to 8 TB of storage. I used a Seagate 5 TB Expansion drive and the process went very smoothly.
The external drive needs to be formatted to work with the PS4s and after formatting, I had 4.6 TB of usable storage space. Keep that large footprint in mind when considering the size of the external HDD you plan to use.
The PS4s will only recognize one external storage drive at a time. If a drive that has been previously formatted for external storage on the console is connected, it will not format a second drive and will not recognize a previously formatted second drive. Also, the external drive cannot be connected to the console through a USB hub, it must be directly connected to one of the USB ports on the PS4 or PS4 Pro.
Format as extended storage
Here’s how to connect the external HDD.
Under Settings, go to Devices.
Under Devices, go to USB Storage Devices.
Under USB Storage Devices, press Format as Extended Storage.
Thats all there is to it. My 5 TB drive took less than a minute to format.
Using An External Hard Drive To Store Games And Apps On A Ps4
Seagates product lab team has been testing the new feature during the beta phase and its been working great! Set up is simple just plug your external USB 3.0 drive into one of PS4 USB ports, navigate to Settings, Devices, USB Storage Devices, then select your new drive and choose Format as Extended Storage.
Then to tell your PS4 to save all your future data on your new, bigger drive, just highlight the new drive in the settings , press Options on your controller, and choose Confirm all data will henceforth be saved to your new drive.
You can even move any of your existing content from your PS4s internal drive to your new external drive. Just choose Manage Content from the confirmation screen, highlight any game you want to move and click the Options button, then select Move to Extended Storage.
What Can You Do With An External Hdd On Ps5
You may be wondering why you should buy an external HDD for PS5. The answer is simple: if you’re planning to play a lot of PS4 games on your next-gen console, then you’ll need the additional storage space. With the SSD being relatively small and required for PS5 playback, offloading your backwards compatible PS4 games to an external HDD gives you a dramatic amount of freedom. It also helps with the following: How to Remove Other Storage Space from PS5.
At the time of writing, you can use an external HDD to store and play PS4 games only. All of your Create button Media Gallery content and Saved Data will be stored on the PS5’s SSD. It’s also currently impossible to transfer PS5 games for safekeeping. If you don’t currently have an external HDD you can use, then check out the following link for some recommendations: Best PS5 and PS4 External Hard Drives.
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How To Upgrade Your Ps4 Hard Drive To An Ssd For Faster Loading Times
If your PS4 takes too long to load, you don’t have to wait around for the PlayStation 5. Install an SSD into your gaming console and start playing quicker.
Sonys upcoming PlayStation 5 has a fancy, built-in SSD, but until that console materializes, youre stuck with agonizingly slow loading times on the PS4. In the meantime, you can upgrade your current consoles drive to an SSD, and breathe new life into an aging gaming machine.
The 5400 RPM hard drive that comes with the PS4 and PS4 Pro is bone-chillingly slow. Im not generally a launch day kind of buyer, so even this late in the PS4s lifespan, an SSD has been a nice upgrade. It wont make loading times instantaneous, but it can decrease them by 10 to 20 seconds or more. Every game is different, though, and some may not see as noticeable benefitsbut hey, when youre sitting there waiting, every second counts.
You dont have to worry too much about choosing the fastest possible SSD, but you will need to make sure you buy a 2.5-inch modelnot the M.2 SSDs that have become popular in PCs recently. Im using this Western Digital Blue model, which offers great performance for the price.
Ps4 Internal Hard Drives
Reasons to avoid
If you’re looking for a more permanent solution to your PS4’s storage, the Seagate Firecuda is the SSHD to pick. It’s a 2.5″ drive, so it’ll fit neatly into your console , and Seagate is a big, well-established name in PC HDDs, so this model is always going to be reliable and efficient.
While most now choose external PS4 hard drive storage, as you can set-up an external HDD as extended storage, there’s a lot to be said for keeping a clean gaming set-up by having an internal drive. What’s more, the Firecuda offers better read and write speeds than a standard HDD, which means you get near-SSD performance at a cheaper price. That’s common sense, right there. Check our video above for learning how to install an internal SSHD into your console.
Reasons to avoid
Now is the time to swap an SSD into your PS4 Pro. With the price of SSDs constantly tumbling, thanks to a vibrant PC market, drives like the brilliant Samsung EVO 860 are now affordable and easy to use. When it comes to SSDs, the EVO series has long been the gold standard, and the 860 EVO replaces the 850 series, thanks to superior performance and more modern design and parts. It’s actually cheaper than most 850s now too.
Reasons to avoid
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Kesu 500gb Ultra Slim
250GB is the minimum storage size for an external drive that PS4 supports. However, 250 GB is not enough space for gaming, and buying an external hard drive of this size is not very cost-effective. Hence, we recommend that you purchase a 500GB drive as a minimum. Most of the 500 GB external hard drives are available today from less well-known companies, so you can take the risk of buying them.
But if you want extra storage at the lowest possible cost, the KESU 500GB Ultra Slim is a solid offering. It’s the same physical size as the other flash drives we’ve looked at. A 500GB drive won’t give you a lot of space for games, but it’s the cheapest option worth looking into.
If you can bump up your budget a bit, we definitely recommend looking at a 1TB drive from a trusted manufacturer like WD or Toshiba. You’ll get more storage and better reliability for just a little more cash. Additionally, keep in mind that you can only connect one external drive to your PS4 at a time. It’s wise to buy a storage large enough for your needs the first time to avoid data transfers every time.
Ps4 Memory Expansion Process
As stated above, you can expand PS4 memory either internally or externally, depending on your preference. In this section you will learn both methods and its up to you then to pick the one that suits you best.
As for internal memory expansion, you need first a PS4-compatible internal hard drive that meets the following specifications:
- 2.5-inch form factor, in order to fit into PS4 drive cage.
- SATA interface, as PS4 motherboard only support this interface.
- Maximum height is 9.5mm. Thats also to fit into PS4 drive cage.
If you notice, this is a laptop hard drive in fact that PS4 accepts for upgrading its memory. But you can though use a desktop hard drive with the help of an equipment called Data Bank. We dont currently support this method anymore for some reasons we preserve lest prolong this article.
As for the tools you will need to carry out the upgrade process, they are:
- Philips-head screwdriver in order to unfix the screws that hold the stock hard drive.
- USB flash memory to store the PS4 system software and re-install it on the new drive.
- A USB 3.0 external hard drive enclosure, to make use of the replaced hard drive as an external memory.
Once you have all that in hand, you are ready to expand PS4 memory internally. Just make sure to download the full package of PS4 system software and store it on your USB flash drive before starting with the process.
Now watch the following video and carefully follow the instructions illustrated:
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Six: Swap The Hard Drives And Replace
Once you’ve freed up the original hard drive, it’s simply a case of putting your new hard disk or SSD inside, then reversing the process you’ve just performed. So put those four screws in the sides, get the caddy back in the PS4, fasten it in place with the large screw and put the shiny plastic HDD cover back on the PS4.
If you have the PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro, the process will be the same. Place the hard drive or SSD into the caddy, secure, then slot it back into the Slim or Pro console, screw it in, and replace the plastic cover.
If the hard drive or SSD doesn’t fit, are you sure you checked it was a 9.5mm-tall or less 2.5-inch SATA drive before buying?
Should the process go as swimmingly as it went with us, you should be done within 15 minutes.
New Support For Ps4 External Storage
Whats more exciting? Sony now allows you to use a PS4 external hard drive with USB 3.0 port. You can increase the storage of PS4 for games and apps by getting a Seagate Game Drive or the PS4 USB flash drive. It hands over the power to you for rearranging your schedule to make more free time for games.
After you have been playing for too long on PS4, youll easily find the speed of PS4 is slower than before. This is probably because it takes too much time to load the games and applications saved in the internal hard drive . Thats why an external hard drive is necessary.
Note:
Equipped with large capacity, the external hard drive also allows you to improve movie experience a lot. You can connect an external hard drive to PS4 to watch movies anytime you want.
It comes a long way to make this happen. Now, the days of storing games in and extracting it out of the meager 500 GB internal drive in your PS4/PS4 Pro are finally over.
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Ps4 External Drive Usage Tips
We’ve covered most of what you need to know about PS4 external drives, but there are still a few points to keep in mind while using one.
First is that you can connect external drives to your PS4 without formatting them for game storage as above. This is an option even for devices that don’t fit the above requirements, like USB 2 drives and small flash drives.
When you connect a drive like this, your PS4 can play videos and music stored on the drive. In addition, you can move replay clips and save game data to these drivesâperhaps for backup purposes.
If you disconnect your external drive, any games stored on it will still appear on your PS4. But when you try to select one without the external drive connected, you’ll see a message that it’s not playable until you connect the drive.
Be aware that you can only have one external drive used for games connected at a time. Even if you have two compatible drives connected, you have to choose one of them to use as extended storage. If you need even more space, it’s also possible to replace the internal hard drive of your PS4. This is slightly more complicated, but still an easy process.
Finally, if you experience an error with your external PS4 drive, see the PS4 extended storage error codes section of Sony’s PS4 external hard drive support page. Most of the error codes are fixable by formatting your drive again or disconnecting and reconnecting it. Be sure to restart your PS4 if you run into trouble, too.
What Isnt On Extended Storage
Any themes and saved data will only save to the internal storage. You can only save screenshots and video clips to the internal system storage as well. If you think you will want to save many of these, then its probably best to keep your games and other applications saved to the external hard drive, so you have room.
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Five: Releasing The Hard Drive
There are four more screws that hold the hard drive to its metal frame. These sit on its sides, and can be released using the same Phillips screwdriver you used to free the HDD frame.
It’s just the screws we need to take off, though. You’ll also notice some rubbery bits the screws rest against to absorb any shocks to the drive: leave those there.
This is pretty much the same process for replacing the hard drive of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.
Why Expand Ps4 Memory
If you take into consideration the limited memory size of PS4 that comes in either 500gb or 1tb of capacity, and if youre a little savvy, youll realize that this amount of memory cannot meet the modern storage requirements of regular users, in a world that the top titles are released in up to 80gb of file size and even more.
Add to that the numbers of new applications you have to install, and the movies you need to store locally on your game console. All that contributes more and more to the concept of upgrading/expanding PS4 memory to a larger volume, in order to avoid running out of space any sooner. This matter is explicit in enthusiasts/power-users who have exceptional needs and cannot get enough from the available storage space offered by the manufacturer. Moreover, users who share their PS4 with other family members will need more memory to cope with this situation.
What if you get to know also that the stock memory device provided by PS4 is an obsolete and low-quality drive, and if you replace it with a modern one youll get a noticeable performance boost and enhance your gaming experience with PS4 like you never expected to happen before .
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How To Upgrade Hard Drive For Ps4 Pro
- Turn off and unplug your PS4 Pro and place it, upside down, on a table or other flat surface.
- In order to access the hard drive, you first need to use your finger to remove the plastic covering all the way to the right on the back of the console.
- Once the plastic covering is removed, you should be able to see the hard drive mounting bracket, which is held in place by a screw.
- Use the screwdriver to remove the screw and pull the mounting bracket out. You should see four screws holding the hard drive in its mounting bracket.
- Remove all four with the screwdriver and pull the hard drive out of its mounting bracket. Then, insert the new hard drive.
- From here, you will go back through the steps in reverse. Replace the four screws to secure the hard drive into the mounting bracket. Reinsert the mounting bracket into the PS4 Pro, and replace the screw to secure it in place. Finally, put the plastic covering back in place.
How To Add More Storage To Your Playstation 4
Here’s how to get a bigger hard drive in your PS4, plus a few tips we learned along the way.
Storage space is at a premium with game consoles. Even if you’re more inclined to pick up hard copies than download full games, patches, DLC and installs can fill up the standard hard drive on your PlayStation very quickly.
On the bright side, it’s very easy to add more storage to your console. You can either replace your current hard drive with a new one or, since software update 4.50, simply connect an external one.
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How To Set Up An External Hard Drive On Ps4
Once you have your PS4’s external hard drive, it’s easy to set it up. PS4 must have system software version 4.50 or later to use an external drive.
First, connect the external drive to your PS4. Sony states that it must be connected directly to the system, so avoid using any USB hubs. Once connected, you will need to format it .
To do this, turn on your system and go to Settings -> Devices -> USB storage devices. Select your device and choose Format as Extended Storage. push the button “on your console to show this option if it does not appear automatically.
This is it You have successfully added external storage to your PS4. The system allows you to keep games, applications, downloadable content and game updates on the external drive.
However, the saved data, themes and captured video footage will always be saved to the internal drive. The system will use the new volume automatically, but you can make some changes as per your preference as well.