How To Upgrade Ps4 Hdd

Should I Upgrade My Ps4’s Hard Drive

So, you might be thinking: do I even need to upgrade my PS4’s hard drive at all?

You might be fine with your base PS4 hard drive if you don’t really game all that much and don’t mind some potential performance issues. But, in most cases, the answer is yes.

The base PS4 hard drive is slow, has limited storage space, and can be prone to crashing. Even if you only have a handful of games on your PS4, you’ll experience some much-appreciated benefits if you upgrade your PS4’s internal hard drive.

Also, you could decide whether to use an external hard drive on your PS4 to increase your storage space there are pros and cons to doing so. But, if that isn’t the best option for you, then let’s look at the good and the bad of upgrading your PS4’s internal hard drive to help inform your decision.

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.

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.

Also Check: How Do I Factory Reset My Ps4

Clone Ps4 Hard Drive Faq

How do I transfer data from one PS4 hard drive to another?

To transfer data from one PS4 hard drive to another, you can take advantage of professional hard drive clone software.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the above part.

What hard drives are compatible with a PS4?

Here we list several best hard drives for PS4 in 2019.

Restore Your Game Data

Don’t Miss: What Is Better Xbox Or Ps5

Best Budget Ssd For Ps4

Crucial BX500

Crucials drives dont quite have the performance levels of Samsungs drives, but in the PS4 that is less important thanks to their older storage connectivity systems. Drives like the Crucial BX500 still deliver a good performance boost over the PS4s internal drives, and theyre just as reliable as Samsungs products.

The BX500 is a little cheaper, too. Its possible to get a 480GB drive for $49 if youd like to give your PS4 a speed boost without any extra space handy if you often play the same selection of games. Its 1TB and 2TB models come in at $100 and $199 respectively.

How To Upgrade Or Replace Your Ps4 And Ps4 Pro Hard Drive

Need more space for your growing library of games on your new PlayStation 4 Pro? Maybe you had a hard drive failure in your launch PS4 and don’t have the heart to get rid of it. Don’t stress! Replacing or upgrading the internal HDD in a PS4 or PS4 Pro is a simply process.

The two process are very similar for each system, but what differs is finding the drive rack.

When replacing the hard drive, you can use a standard SATA II hard drive or use a solid state drive no thicker than 9.5mm. As of the 4.5 system update, you can now use external HDD to store your games and saved data as well. The External Hard Drive must be USB 3.0 and a minimum of 250GB of storage with a maximum allowance of 8TB. Below are the directions for installation.

Looking for help with replacing your PS4 Pro hard drives? Find what you need here!

Don’t Miss: What Is Playstation Now Free Trial

Why Upgrade Your Ps4

When you first purchase your PlayStation, it seems like you have everything you need, outside of the games you want for it. And for a little while, you do.

But once you get two or three games, your hard drive is already beginning to reach maximum capacity, throw in Netflix, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and the slew of other apps you will end up downloading, and now youve got to figure out what to delete when the next GTA gets released.

But, upgrading your hardware allows you to forgo the headache of deleting games and re-downloading them when you want to hop back on it.

Not only that, but it gets you in and out of your games faster as well. Imagine all those hours you sit waiting at loading screens throughout the year. Now imagine you can cut that down 20 to 35 Percent. Better hard drives offer you that opportunity.

Not to mention the money you can save by purchasing a hard drive yourself rather than paying a bunch of extra money on a system with only an additional 500 gigs of storage. Go ahead and buy the system with the smaller hard drive and then swap it out with a larger one you purchase yourself.

The All In One Solution To Increasing Your Ps4 Memory Space And Game Loading Speed Time

This kit includes everything you will need along with clear and easy to follow instructions to easily upgrade your PS4 hard drive. It comes with an Fantom Drives aluminum enclosure so you can also reuse your original PS4 hard drive for additional storage or as a regular portable hard drive.

And that’s why we call it…

You May Like: How To Add Pc Players On Ps4 Fortnite

Reinstall The Ps4 System Software

The next step will need your computer and a USB drive with at least 1GB of free space, formatted to exFAT, FAT32 or FAT you can use the one with your saved games on it.

Because your PS4 now has a brand-new drive in, youre going to have to reinstall the system software manually.

On your drive, create a folder named PS4. If youre using the USB drive with your save files on, there will already be one with that name. Within that folder, create another folder called UPDATE.

When youve done that, head here to find the latest version of the PS4 system software. At the time we did it, the file was around 900MB in size, and it took around 10 minutes to download. Make sure you only get the software from the above link, because there are several other sites out there with incorrect software.

Once its downloaded, drag your file into the UPDATE folder on your hard drive.

Youll next need to plug all your various wires back into your PS4, plug in the USB drive with the install file on it, and attach your DualShock 4 via USB cable.Next, boot up your PS4 in Safe Mode. You do this by holding the power button on your PS4 down for seven seconds or longer itll beep to let you know its booting up in Safe Mode.

When youre presented with a selection of options, go down to number 7 Initialise PS4 .

Once youve been through that, youll have to add your PSN account and sign in properly to be able to download all your games and apps.

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.

You May Like: Can You Use Dualshock 4 On Ps5

The Best Sony Playstation 4 Games For 2020

Now that your PS4 is super-charged, try it out with one of our picks for The Best Sony PlayStation 4 Games.

Like What You’re Reading?

Sign up for Tips & Tricks newsletter for expert advice to get the most out of your technology.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

Best Hard Drive For Ps4

Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB

If you want to upgrade your PS4 hard drive and are looking for the best hard drive option right now, then you should seek out an SSHD. These drives combine platter-based storage with smaller, faster portions of flash memory, and they learn which files you use frequently and move them to the faster flash storage so they can be loaded faster.

If you play the same games frequently, youll see a performance improvement. The 2TB capacity means that youll get loads of extra space even if the games you install dont benefit from the flash memory portion of the drive, and itll certainly never be slower than the PS4s internal drives. Its not particularly expensive, either.

You May Like: How Do You Charge Playstation 3 Controllers

Ssds Vs Mechanical Hard Drives

Before we swapped out the PS4s hard drive with an SSD, we tested the hard drive that the system came with by measuring the amount of time the PS4 needed to boot up to the screen where the OS asks you to press the PS button on your controller. We tested it twice and got times of 27 seconds and 24.9 seconds.

Once we replaced the PS4s stock hard drive with an SSD, we ran the boot tests again and got boot times of 19.2 and 19.4 seconds with the SSD in there. So, boot-up is roughly 5-8 seconds faster with an SSD than with the mechanical hard drive that the PlayStation 4 ships with.

If you dont think thats significant, remember that loading save games, levels, and more will also get substantially faster. Over time, those shaved seconds will make your PS4 feel a lot faster.

Locate A Hard Drive For The Ps4

The standard PlayStation 4 hard drive holds just 500GB, which is enough space for about a dozen modern games, at best. Upgrading the hard drive allows you to store more content and ensure your system runs at peak performance for years to come. Learn how to perform a PS4 hard drive upgrade without losing any games saved to your console.

Since Sony doesnt manufacture hard drives specifically for the PS4, your first step is finding a compatible hard drive. The PS4 comes with a hard disc drive, but you can install a solid-state drive if you prefer. SSDs typically run much faster, but they’re sometimes less durable and they’re also more expensive.

Your best bet is to purchase a hard drive from a company like Seagate, which manufactures hard drives optimized for the PS4. That said, any 2.5″ laptop hard drive no more than 9.5mm thick should do if you’re making the effort to replace your PS4 hard drive, though, you might as well upgrade to at least 1 or 2TB.

Changing your console’s hard drive doesn’t void the warranty.

Recommended Reading: When Is Playstation 5 Restocking

Can A Hard Drive Upgrade Boost Game Performance

While the PS4 has up to 5GB of RAM available for use in games, filling that space up isn’t easy – users could be faced with extremely long loading times, and having all the assets in RAM for a particular level/stage limits the potential to have more varied details on screen. In order to get around these issues, many games utilise the PS4’s hard drive as a cache, streaming graphics data into RAM when needed. Trials Fusion is one such title and uses a similar system to the one used in id Software’s Rage, where textures are quickly transferred into memory from the console’s hard drive in small chunks – a process known as virtual texturing. This allows for a wider range of artwork to be displayed on screen and less instances of texture repetition across the environment. The downside is that transitions between texture mip-maps are noticeable during gameplay as the PS4’s HDD struggles to keep up.

Performance in this area is definitely much better with the SSD however, the results aren’t quite as remarkable as we expected given the boost in read/write speeds, and especially access times – there are still some texture streaming issues when restating a course after a crash, and when cycling through the various terrain options using the game’s creator mode. This does suggest that streaming speed in Trials Fusion is limited by other factors than hard drive speed, and this is also something that translates over to many other games we used in our tests.

Install New Hard Drive/ssd

• Unbox and open the new hard drive or SSD.

• Put the new drive in the encasement holding the old hard drive.

• Dont worry if the new hard drive doesnt touch the button of the case like the old PS4 harddrive. The screws will keep it in place.

• Put the new drive back in the PS4

• Screw in the PlayStation screw, put back in the cover.

• Plug in the PS4.

• Plug in the external storage, attached the PS4 controller to a usb cord, and attached that to the PS4.

Read Also: How To Turn On Footsteps On Fortnite Ps4

Wait For Ps4 To Transfer Data

• The PS4 is now transferring the backup data to the USB drive or external hard drive.

• Note: For me, 220 GB of data took 5 hours to transfer. If you are transferring anywhere close to 1 TB or more it could take the whole day!

Restore Your Data And Reinstall Your Games

You will need to log into your PlayStation account again, as if you were setting up a new PS4 for the first time. Before continuing, though, you need to restore the data you backed up by inserting the USB drive and heading to Settings > System > Back Up and Restore > Restore PS4.

If you backed up via PS Plus, head to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in Online Storage > Download to System Storage instead.

You then need to re-download and/or re-install your games, but once thats done, you should be able to hop back in like you never leftand with shorter loading times getting you in to play as fast as possible.

Also Check: How To Connect Media Server To Ps4

Install The Ps4 Software Update

You’ll now follow the same steps you had to take when you originally purchased your PS4 such as setting the date and language preferences.

Ps4 Best Replacement Hard Drive Quick Picks

If you dont want to read the entire article, here are our top picks for the best playstation 4 hard drive upgrade.

The Oyen Digital Hard Disk Drive is an extraordinarily effective HDD that can add a little bit of extra speed for your loading times. While it may not be the best ps4 hard drive, it is perfect for anybody that wants to add some storage space and give their system a little speed boost. The best part is, it also comes with the tools necessary to complete your upgrade.

Here are some of the features of the Oyen Digital:

• 8-gigabyte flash drive for transferring your data from your old hard drive to your new hard drive
• Included screwdriver for removing the hard drive from your PlayStation
• 72000 revolution per minute spindle rate

The Verdict

Having a spindle rate that is higher than the original ps4 hard drives yields surprisingly good results. While a spindle rate of 7200 rpms will not offer that much extra speed than the regular 5400 spindle rate, you can certainly see some difference in loading times.

You May Like: How To Turn On Auto Update On Ps4