Back Up Your Game Saves
Since youll be starting fresh with a clean drive, youll need to back up all your data before picking up the screwdriver. You need a USB drive to back up your game saves and other data, unless youre a PlayStation Plus subscriber, in which case you can back up to the cloud. Either way, your trophies wont be included. If you care, head to the Trophies section of the PS4 menu, press the Options button on your controller, and select Sync Trophies with PSN.
Insert your USB drive and head to Settings > System > Back Up and Restore from the home screen. Select the Back Up optionyou definitely want to back up Saved Data, since that includes your game saves. You can optionally back up applications like Netflix if you want to avoid re-downloading them all.
If you subscribe to PS Plus, you can instead head to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage and select Upload to Online Storage.
Once this process is finished, shut down your PS4 completely by going to Power > Power Options > Turn Off PS4. You dont want to be in Rest Mode. Wait for the light to stop blinking to ensure its completely off, then unplug the power cable before continuing.
How To Increase The Size Of Ps4 Hard Drive
Let us increase the size of the hard drive with these simple tips:
Best Budget Hard Drive For Ps4
Seagate Barracuda 2TB
If youre on a tighter budget then you can ditch the hybrid portion of the hard disk and opt for a conventional drive. This wont deliver much of a performance boost over the PS4s normal hard disks, but Seagates drives are certainly no slower. Theyre available in loads of capacities, but 2TB is as high as you can go before the drives become too thick to fit inside Sonys consoles. The prices on offer are tempting: a 1TB model costs just $50, and the 2TB model is the best-value option thanks to a price of $77.
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Reformat Ps4 Hard Drive With Easeus Partition Master
Step 01: Delete Partition
Step 02: Create Partition
Method 02: Format through Disk Management
How To Install Ssd In Ps4

- Place the PlayStation 4 on a secure surface and press the glossy black side of the top.
- Remove the screw on the front of the PS4 that secures the hard drive bay in place.
- Pull the hard drive base toward you and remove the hard drive from the PS4. It should slide out.
- When you remove the hard drive, you will find that it is still protected by a metal cage, locked with four black screws.
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Game Drive For Playstation
Tools needed:USB external drive
- To backup the PS4
- Must be formatted FAT32 or ExFat
Phillips head screwdriver
- Needed to replace the current hard drive
- Only 5 screws to take off in this process
USB flash drive
- With enough capacity to hold the PS4 OS file
Upgrade Process:Backup game dataNote:
- For Windows user format the drive in ExFat Disk Management
- For Mac users format the drive MS-DOS or ExFat in Disk Utility.
To backup the PS4 use the following steps:Note:
Replace the drive
Install the OS
How To Replace Or Upgrade Your Ps4 Hard Drive
- By Sebastian Anthony on November 14, 2013 at 5:27 pm
One of the joys of owning the PS3 was its easily upgradeable hard drive and the PS4 is no different. By sliding off the PS4s case and removing a single screw, you can easily slot in a replacement hard drive or SSD. The ability to upgrade to a larger hard drive in your PS4 will be very useful if you buy a lot of games, or if you opt to fully install games to reduce load times. If moneys no object, and you want your games to load really quickly, you can also replace your PS4s standard hard drive with an SSD. To find out how, read on for our guide on replacing the PS4s hard drive.
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Restoring Your Ps4 Backup
Now, the first thing you should do is to restore your backup. Plug in the external hard drive containing the backup files and go to Settings > System > Back up and Restore > Restore PS4. There should be one available option which you need to select. Your PS4 is now going to restore all backed up data which might take another couple hours depending on the size. My backup of 109.2GB, for example, took about an hour to restore.
Install The Ps4 Software
Now that the new hard drive is inside your PS4, you need to install the software which is on your USB drive. Plug in your USB drive and all cables into your PS4. Press and hold the power button for about 7 seconds until you hear a beep for the second time. Your PS4 will now boot into Safe Mode.
All you need to do now is to select option number 7 Initialise PS4 and press X. This will trigger the installation of the system software on your hard drive.
Once the installation is finished your PS4 will start up just like it did the very first time. Complete the steps of the initial setup and check out your new increased disk space.
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Your New Hard Drive Is Better Protected
Unlike an external hard drive, your PS4’s internal hard drive is better protected because it’s located inside your PS4.
This sounds obvious, but as long as your PS4which you’ve likely kept in a safe placeis in a danger-free zone, so is its internal hard drive.
An external hard drive, however, can undergo damage even if your PS4 is safe. For starters, you could drop it or something on it, spill water on it, or damage the wires. Not to mention, if you disconnect your PS4’s external hard drive incorrectly, you risk corrupting your game data.
Related: Ways to Safely Disconnect Your PS4’s External Storage Device
How Difficult Is It To Upgrade My Ps4’s Hard Drive
Whatever drive you choose, the upgrade process is very easy and doesn’t require any technical knowledge. Depending on your internet speed, the file download and drive switch combined shouldn’t take you more than 15-20 minutes.
If you follow these steps, none of your save data or digital games will be lost and your upgrade should ensure that you have plenty of space to store your favorite games and media.
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Procedure 4 Install The Ps4 System Software On The New Hard Drive
Hard disks installed in PS4 need to be recognized and reformatted by PS4 itself. Then, you need to install the newest PS4 system update software.
Step 1. Visit the PS4 System Software Update page. Follow the instructions to download and install the update on a USB or an external device.
Step 2. Install the software, enter PS 4 Safe Mode by pressing and holding the Power button until you hear the second beep.
Step 3. Select “Initialize PS4 “, and press the “X” button.
Step 4. Plug the external storage device with the system update into a PS4 USB port. Click “OK” and press the “X” button.
Step 5. Choose “Next” and press the “X” button. The update file is copied to the PS4.
Step 6. Once the copy is complete, read the System Software License Agreement, select “Accept”, and press the “X” button. The system software is now installing onto the PS4.
Step 7. After the update is completed, the PS4 will restart. Then, press the PlayStation button on your controller and log in with your user profile.
Step 8. Sign in with your existing account on PSN or create a new one.
Step 9. Verify the system version by going to the “Settings > System > System Information” screen. Your system is now updated.
Replace The Ps4 Hard Drive

The hard drive is secured to the console by a single screw bearing the symbols found on the PlayStation controller. Remove the screw with your Phillips head screwdriver, but don’t lose it.
You should now be able to remove the hard drive by pulling on it. The actual hard drive casing is held together by two or four screws, which you should unscrew and set aside. Take out the old hard drive and insert the new one without touching the bottom of either drive to avoid damaging them. Make sure the metal pins are facing inward, and close the casing by re-securing the screws.
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How To Access Hard Drive
- Plug the USB external hard drive into the USB port on the extension and wait for the USB LED to light up.
- Remark. If the external USB hard drive has power, you need to use it to turn on the USB hard drive.
- Use your computer with a wired or wireless connection to the EX8000 or EX7000.
- Open your internet browser, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
Restore Your Game Data
Connect the external hard drive containing your backup data.
From the home menu, go to Settings > System> Back up and Restore.
Choose Restore PS4, select the backup file and follow the on-screen instructions.
When your data is successfully restored, the system with restart one last time.
When the PS4 home menu comes back up, it should look identical to how it did before the hard drive swap change. Your user profile, save data, and trophies will all be intact.
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Ps4 Hard Drive Not Recognized On Pc
There are two scenarios of this issue.
The first is that it shows no hard drive, and the second is that it sometimes recognizes it and sometimes not. For both cases, you can use the software rebuild methods.
Also, ReadHow to Move Programs from SSD to HDD?
Restore Your Data To Your New Drive
- If you followed the steps correctly and everything went smoothly, you should now be asked to sign into your PlayStation account using the setup wizard. Skip through most of it until you arrive at the familiar PS home screen.
- Insert the USB drive with your backup files.
- Navigate to Settings, scroll down to System, then move down and select Back up and Restore. Select the Restore PS4 option.
- Once youve arrived at the Restore PS4 screen, you should see your backed-up files on the inserted USB drive. Select the backup. Youll be taken to a confirmation screen. Take heed of the warning screen, then select Restore. Do not remove the USB drive or manually shut off the system for any reason.
- At this point, the PS4 Pro system should shut down, apply the update, restart, and if all goes well display your original home screen, with your accounts, games, captures, saves, and the like.
Congratulations! You just expanded the storage of your PS4 Pro and kept your files intact in the process!
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Ps4 Hard Drive Upgrade Minitool Partition Wizard
In the above part, we have introduced the first method to upgrade PS4 hard drive without data loss. And now, we will introduce the second method to upgrade your PS4 hard drive.
Fortunately, to upgrade PS4 hard drive, there is another program of MiniTool that can help you. It is MiniTool Partition Wizard that can also help you to upgrade PS4 hard drive without data loss.
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a piece of professional partition manager which can be used to optimize partitions and disks without data loss with its various powerful features, such as repairing hard drive or partition, fixing MBR, converting MBR to GPT, cloning hard drive and so on.
Therefore, in order to upgrade PS4 hard drive without data loss, MiniTool Partition Wizard is competent.
Just get MiniTool Partition Wizard Free edition immediately and we will show you how to upgrade hard drive PS4 with step-by-step guide with screenshots.
Step 1: Connect the PS4 hard drives to your computer
Step 2: Install and Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard
Step 3: Start to upgrade PS4 hard drive
Step 4: Choose a target disk
What Is The Best Hard Drive For Ps4
Top 5 PS4 Hard Drives 1. Seagate 2TB Hard Drive 2. Seagate 1TB Hybrid SSD 3. Mushkin Reactor 1TB SATA III SSD 4. OWC DIY Drive Upgrade Kit 5. Crucial M500 960GB Internal SSD 7mm SATA .
Ssd power cableCan I use a SSD as an external hard drive? Yes, you can use an SSD in an external enclosure, in fact, you can buy it like that. You won’t get the full performance of an SSD if your system and chassis don’t support USB 3 or eSATA, but it will be faster than most USB drives and more reliable than an external hard drive. What kind of cables do SSD’s use?The SATA cable is used to connect the SSD installed in the computer as an internal de
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Solution 0: Using Control Panel Administrative Tools
Remove The Old Ps4 Hard Drive

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