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  • Christopher Ling August 9, 2015, 8:55 am

    You should definitely change the recommended SSHD for PS4 in the “The Best & Fastest Hybrid Hard Drive (SSHD) For PC & PS4” article, as the one you recommended is NOT compatible with the PS4.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov August 9, 2015, 10:03 am

      Hi Christopher. Thank you for your notification. I think I should write a note that WD Black2 will not fit into PS4 due to the special software it needs.

      Reply
  • David Tipakov September 5, 2015, 11:40 pm

    Thank you for this valuable information my friend. If you mean by this to be a comment on my hybrid hard drive for PS4 post where I said that PS4 users are limited to 1TB only of SSHD for their console, I just meant a ready internal replacement. But yes, people still can implement your trick if they seek a larger hybrid storage solution. I may add that to my article in the future update.

    Thanks again.

    Reply
  • Joshua January 21, 2016, 9:39 pm

    Is there any way to determine if an msata does or doesnt support Raid 0?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov January 21, 2016, 10:18 pm

      YES it does. Just make sure your motherboard supports RAID-0 for mSATA drives which you can ensure through BIOS settings.

      Reply
  • nekoliew May 22, 2016, 9:24 pm

    I would like to ask external hard disk to backup PS4. Do I really need to update PS4 firmware then can use external hard disk to backup PS4. If I don’t want to update PS4 firmware what will happen.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov May 22, 2016, 11:53 pm

      If you have version 2.5 or above you’ll not need to update the firmware software for this specific purpose.

      Reply
  • Edwin D May 30, 2016, 5:06 pm

    I tried to reformat my seagate 4tb hard drive to exFAT from my mac, i went to disk utility, hard drive, erase and formatted to exfat. now my problem is when i connect it to the ps4 to try and back it up it says there is not enough space. What should i do?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov May 30, 2016, 7:47 pm

      First, make sure the external hard drive is formatted correctly and works fine with the exFAT format. Try it on your system and see if it gets recognized and everything else is well. Then make sure to download and install the latest version of PS4 firmware software and it should fix that issue. Download it here.

      Reply
      • Edwin D May 30, 2016, 8:09 pm

        Yes i’ve made it exFAT format through the disk utility and erased it. only changed the name and the format i didn’t change the scheme. I did try to mess with the scheme and select a different scheme but that failed saying the disk was too large to support it. anyway my format is correct and my firmware is 3.50.

        Reply
        • David Tipakov June 9, 2016, 2:24 am

          Sorry for the long delay, I haven’t noticed your reply before now!

          If you’re still available, then answer my question: have you tried smaller capacity external hard drive with your PS4?

          If it works fine, then try to partition your external hard drive to two smaller parts. This is supposed to resolve your issue.

          Reply
  • Ezra June 29, 2016, 11:55 am

    So I’ve formatted my Seagate drive to exFat and it is now compatible with my PS4. Yet when I tried to back up my systems 400gb or so memory it said I don’t have the available space. It is a brand new 5tb drive so that shouldn’t be an issue. Alternatively I tried to save all of my saved game data one at a time, and it worked only for a few hundred megabytes before I was again told I have no space, on an otherwise empty drive. Please help.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov June 29, 2016, 9:01 pm

      Hi Ezra,

      I have just finished writing this article for you. I hope this will fix your issue.

      If you have any further inquiries please don’t hesitate to ask.

      Reply
  • Gregory September 15, 2016, 1:29 am

    Hello,

    I realize I’m new at this and this may come off as a dumb question and I apologize if it is but, I didn’t see an answer to my question in your article and yours seemed the most detailed so I thought I’d ask you guys. My question is: Take the game witcher 3 for example. Right now it taking up 69 gbs of space on my hard drive plus the 1gb of save storage. Will I be transferring the whole 70 gbs over to the external hard drive or just the 1 gb of save storage? Because a game can’t be played from the external hard drive does that mean if I want to play witcher 3 later on, after it’s been placed on the external hard drive, I will need to redownload the game (that multiple hour long update file) or just transfer it back the the internal hard drive?
    I hope that makes sense. (In my head it does at least.)

    Thanks.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov September 15, 2016, 2:06 am

      Hi Gregory, and welcome to our website.

      If you’re not going to uninstall the game from the hard drive, then backing up the game saves is sufficient. Otherwise, you’ll need to backup the whole game with its saves.

      Note that PS4 doesn’t allow you to backup an individual game to an external storage device. So you have either to take a full backup of the entire PS4 operating system with all its included data, or just specify a particular game’s saves to take a copy of.

      In conclusion, you can backup your favorite game installation files through a complete system backup process only, but, on other hand, you can specify which particular game saves to backup.

      I hope I have been clear enough to you.

      Reply
      • Gregory September 15, 2016, 9:24 am

        First off, thanks for your response and the welcoming.

        And I think I get what you’re saying I just want to make sure. So I have, for example, 800 gbs of game data installations. I would have copy/back up the whole 800 gbs to the external hard drive?
        If that’s the case, which it sounds like it is, how do you manage game data? Would I need to have 2 or 3 different “systems” entirely? Meaning, would games 1-15 always be on my fist back file and games 16-30 always be on the second back up? And if I want to play game #7 I would would start up back up file 1. But if I wanted to play game #23 I would use back up file 2?
        Same as last time, I hope that’s a coherent thought. Thanks again for your help.

        Reply
        • David Tipakov September 15, 2016, 1:02 pm

          Yes, exactly. Unfortunately this is what you have to undergo. That’s why PS4 enthusiasts are inclined to expand the internal storage space of their game console instead of going through this annoying process.

          I would like to thank you for inspiring me with a new reason for recommending a PS4 HDD upgrade over using an external HDD. This would surely adds to the value of my article. 🙂

          Reply
          • Gregory September 16, 2016, 12:29 am

            You’re welcome! Thanks for all your help it really did, help, for lack of a better word.

          • David Tipakov September 16, 2016, 1:16 am

            you are welcome too.

  • Gregory September 16, 2016, 7:44 pm

    So my new question is, if I choose to use the external hard drive method (mostly because of the sheer amount of memory available) how do I go about starting up different back up files? Where in the ps4 do I go in order to start up back up file 2 as apposed to backup file 1? When the ps4 turns on does it ask which backup I’d like to use?
    Thanks for all your time and effort. I do appreciate it.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov September 16, 2016, 7:45 pm

      Hi again Gregory,

      You are always most welcome.

      You have to go to Settings->System->Back Up and Restore->Restore PS4 and there you’ll see all your backup files listed. Just choose the one you prefer.

      Reply
  • Eric October 7, 2016, 6:05 pm

    I have a “My Passport Ultra” I want to back up my PS4 that has a 500GB hard drive but my PlayStation says that it is not compatible. When I was reading your web site it appeared that my external Hard Drive is compatible

    Reply
    • David Tipakov October 7, 2016, 7:35 pm

      Hi Eric,

      You need to download the latest firmware update for PS4 and your issue will be resolved.

      Reply
  • Andy October 15, 2016, 7:01 pm

    I am looking for a external hard drive for the ps4 and wonder how much the cost.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov October 16, 2016, 3:36 am

      You can check the prices here.

      Reply
  • Antonio Hernandez November 4, 2016, 3:30 pm

    silly question but here goes. going to upgrade my PS4 hard drive (up to 1tb). I have a WD 2tb My passport external hard drive. can I use that instead of a thumb drive to back up load the os once it I install the new Drive?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 4, 2016, 6:47 pm

      Hi Antonio,

      Yes, surely you can. Make sure first you have a higher version of PS4 software update than 2.5, then everything will go fine.

      Reply
  • Leon November 12, 2016, 2:38 pm

    Can you recommend a 2.5 9.5mm 3TB internal hard drive for PS4 PRO?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 12, 2016, 7:32 pm

      There’s none available so far. Seagate is on its way to release a 2.5″ 3TB and 4TB soon, so wait until this happens.

      Reply
  • Chris November 16, 2016, 9:53 am

    After reading your studies on PS4 hard drive upgrades I’m deciding between a 1tb sshd (seagate firecuda) or a 2 tb hdd (seagate barracuda w/ 128 mb cache). They’re similarly priced – but which is faster? I’m not a hard core gamer so I think 1 tb should be fine for me. My concern is speed: so it comes down to 128 mb cache HDD vs. 64 mb cache sshd.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 16, 2016, 11:32 pm

      Hi Chris,

      When it comes to installing games and launching them for the first time, the Seagate Barracuda HDD is the best option. But when it’s about launching a particular game frequently, then surely the Seagate Firecuda SSHD is better.

      I suppose that the SSHD is the best option for your case, as long as you’re not an extreme gamer who have tons of games to install and play.

      Hope I have answered your question sufficiently.

      Reply
  • John Jefferis November 21, 2016, 7:18 am

    I’m interested in the Sony PS4 Pro and need to know how I can playback my large collection of ripped bluray DVDs on my 8TB USB Seagate external drive. Can you please advise what is needed?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 21, 2016, 7:58 pm

      Hi John, and welcome to my website.

      Nothing actually is needed except that the format of movies should be either MKV, AVI, MP4, or MPEG-2 TS.

      Just launch the Media Player App on PSN, and you’re supposed to be fine with the rest.

      Note also that PS4 PRO only supports 4K playback from streaming services, so you won’t be able to play your movies on 4K resolution.

      Reply
      • John Jefferis November 28, 2016, 2:27 am

        Many thanks. I’ll need to get back to you in due course for more help. Where is best to buy the PS4 Pro?

        Reply
  • Lee Milburn November 23, 2016, 3:09 am

    Great article, knew nothing about hard drives until I read this!

    Just ordered a 2tb Firecuda SSHD from Amazon versus the 2tb Barracuda for my PS4 Pro……£108 versus £98.

    Amazon states that the Firecuda has a 64mb cache, but the Seagate data sheet states 128?

    I am assuming that this would make the SSHD a better choice than the HDD?

    Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 24, 2016, 9:51 pm

      Hi Lee,

      You have made the right option my friend. Yes, Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD is the best option so far for PS4, in terms of all aspects of performance.

      Barracuda was, until recently, our top recommendation due to the massive cache memory (128MB) it has, but now, since Firecuda 2TB is coming also with 128MB, then this is surely our top choice now.

      By the way, what Seagate says in the Firecuda’s datasheet is the authorized information you have to rely on.

      Reply
  • Nathan Wick November 28, 2016, 9:22 pm

    Hello,

    I made a mistake earlier in the week by ordering an external hard drive with the goal of expanding the memory on my ps4. I also found a bunch of people who were taking products similar to mine (Seagate 1.5 tb portable hard drive) and breaking it apart to make it usable in the ps4. This sort of thing makes me nervous and the idea of damaging my ps4 really scares me. I would really appreciate any advice before I give it a try.

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • David Tipakov November 28, 2016, 10:37 pm

      Hello Nathan,

      There’s nothing to worry about. If, for any reason, it doesn’t work for you, you can simply return the stock hard drive without any single issue.

      You’re welcome here to seek help if things get stuck in any stage of the upgrade process.

      Reply
      • Nathan Wick December 3, 2016, 1:11 pm

        I think it went well. I still need to download all my games again, but that’s going to take a while. Thanks for your help!

        Reply
        • David Tipakov December 4, 2016, 11:22 pm

          You’re welcome

          Reply
  • Dalton December 3, 2016, 12:05 pm

    I want a 2 tb hard drive for my ps4 and i want one thats better than the standard one but cheap can u suggest me one

    Reply
    • David Tipakov December 4, 2016, 11:25 pm

      Hi Dalton,

      If you need a cheaper option than $90, then I’m afraid I can’t help you in this regard. Seagate Barracuda 2TB hard drive is the most developed 2.5-inch hard drive with a vast cache memory (128 MB) that makes it the ideal PS4 HDD upgrade. Otherwise, look for an SSHD, which is going to cost you almost $40 additionally.

      Reply
  • Drew December 4, 2016, 1:38 am

    David, you said this “It’s perplexing, to me anyway, that Sony wouldn’t support gaming off an external drive [This has changed with software update v 3. Now PS4 supports external hard drive addition].”

    what does that even mean? does that mean I can now play games from an external HDD? you said it had changed so? thats what it sounds like to me.

    also I just read all the questions and answers below and I wonder, do you have any idea how long it may take for seagate to come out with the 3tb and 4tb internal HDD’s that fit perfectly into the ps4, and at what kind of a price might we be looking at?

    also whats the specs of the default ps4 pro’s hdd? like is it 5400rpm or whatever, and its cache size and is the seagate 2tb momentus the same speed? or faster?

    roughly how much bigger will game files be that support the ps4 pro’s features?

    I dont even own the pro yet, getting it for christmas, wish I could pay like an extra 100$ and get a 2tb HDD as default, ugh, sony, wtf were they thinking lol. heck even if they sold a HDDless console, that would be good, save a bit of money, as it is, when I get it, the 1tb is basically going into the rubbish bin. seriously, I dont want or need it.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov December 4, 2016, 5:35 am

      Hi Drew,

      Thanks for contacting us.

      That was a lapse. Our writer wanted to say that PS4 supports an external storage device, but he did not do it correctly. We should fix it shortly.

      As for your questions, here are quick answers:

      1- No, you cannot play games from an external storage on PS4.

      2- As far as we know, in the near future Seagate is not planning for a 2.5-inch hard drive that fits into PS4 hard drive bay. You can though use an additional equipment for upgrading PS4 hard drive to larger than 4TB (check out this article).

      3- The default specs of PS4 hard drive are: 1TB capacity, SATA-II interface (although PS4 PRO supports SATA III), 5400 RPM and 9.5mm thickness and 64 memory cache (not certain about this, but most probably).

      4- PS4 games are supposed to not be less than 30GB in size.

      5- Use the stock hard drive as an external hard drive for backup purpose, better than getting rid of it (smile).

      I will come back later and answer your other questions.

      Reply
  • David Gistl December 11, 2016, 11:29 am

    I just bought the Seagate Barracuda 2TB you guys recommended. Now after the second crash, I read that it has to be SATA II instead of SATA III, which is not the case. Is this the cause of the crashes?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov December 11, 2016, 11:45 am

      Hi David,

      SATA III is totally compatible with SATA II, and vise versa.

      Check the drive first on a computer to verify its rectitude, as sometimes it’s not formatted properly. If nothing appears to you, then try to perform a full format on the drive before adding it again to your PS4.

      Tell me then what you have ended up with.

      Reply
  • Pelen December 26, 2016, 12:53 am

    I was looking at the internal hard drive and noticed you guys added a rating onto it, you guys mention a 8gb cache memory but I don’t see that anywhere on the product. I only see a 64 MB Cache, and the other option (barracuda) has 128mb cache, which one should I buy. I bought my PS4 almost exactly 1 year ago from today.

    Reply
  • Shannon December 28, 2016, 12:49 pm

    When I try to format I am not seeing the new volume tab- I’m only seeing the spanned volume- striped volume – mirrored volume- and raid-5. Am I doing something wrong?

    Reply
    • David Tipakov December 31, 2016, 11:05 pm

      Hi Shannon,

      Send me a screenshot please

      Reply
  • Mike January 7, 2017, 5:35 am

    Hi, I’m having a problem with formatting a Ps4 hard drive to exFAT.
    I followed your steps up until it said to click on “New Simple Volume”. The problem is, I don’t have that option.
    Also, the hard drive I’m trying to format is the standard internal hard drive that comes with the ps4 (I’m replacing it)

    Please advise…

    Reply
    • David Tipakov January 7, 2017, 8:13 pm

      You should have right-click on the drive’s blank area, and it should appear. If this, for any reason, doesn’t work for you, try do a simple format, by right-click the drive’s icon on “My computer” and choose “format”.

      Reply
  • Brian March 13, 2017, 6:24 pm

    Regarding the PS4 external hard drive. You stated that you can’t play games or movies from the external storage hhd. That is not correct. I just bought WD 2TB external and it allows me to play my games from it. I do not have to switch them to my internal hhd. You should correct that mistake in your review.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov March 13, 2017, 7:58 pm

      Thanks for contacting us Brian,

      Just recently this feature has been supported. One week ago you couldn’t do that, and this article is almost one year old and we have to update it soon.

      Reply
  • Eric March 14, 2017, 8:33 am

    Western Digital 6TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive-USB 3.0-… Can i used that for my ps4

    Reply
    • David Tipakov March 15, 2017, 7:55 pm

      Theoretically yes. There seems nothing against it.

      Reply
  • Daniel May 25, 2017, 10:27 am

    Hello this may sound a little backwards but I have the original ps4 model number cuh-1115a 500gb and obviously I plan to upgrade the HDD so my origanl plan was to sell that and get a slim but some issues came up and I’ve decided to keep it although I already ordered a 1tb HDD that came off of a ps4 pro so to sum it all up will I be able to put that hard drive into the 1st ps4 or is it not going to work? Thank you

    Reply
    • David Tipakov May 25, 2017, 2:03 pm

      it will definitely work. no worries

      Reply
  • michael June 8, 2017, 1:12 pm

    Our PS4 is running out of space. Which is better—internal HD or external HD? Also, which specific HD would you recommend?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • David Tipakov June 8, 2017, 5:44 pm

      Hi Michael,

      Since your hard drive is full, it seems you’re not ready to waive any of the installed games on it. So, in all cases you’ll need an external hard drive, whether you’re going to upgrade the existing stock hard drive or not.

      So you can start from that point. Get a 2tb external hard drive and use it as an extended storage for the internal hard drive. I suggest to go for Seagate Backup Plus 2tb (Click here to view it on amazon).

      If you’re looking for a performance booster, then upgrading the internal hard drive is a must. But let it be a later step after you try the external hard drive which, in your case, you are in need of it anyway.

      Reply
  • William Ippolito June 20, 2017, 4:55 am

    Dear sir what is the maximum external hard drive i can use ob the sony PlayStation 4 pro ? Thank you so much.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov June 20, 2017, 1:48 pm

      Hi William,

      The answer is: 8tb

      Reply
  • Brian August 17, 2017, 10:07 am

    I just spoke to Sony Playstation support, plus from what I read on https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2017/03/10/how-to-download-and-store-ps4-games-and-apps-to-an-external-hdd/ says that you CAN play a game that happens to be installed to the external drive. It’s not just for storage. I was concerned that if you want to play a game that’s stored externally, you would have to move the game back to internal storage to actually play it, but that does not seem to be the case. Please do let me know if I’m reading this wrong, but otherwise you should update your article.

    Reply
    • David Tipakov August 17, 2017, 10:29 am

      Hi Brian,

      Yes, since Sony released PS4 System Software Update 4.5, users are able to play games directly from an external hard drive. It seems you have read one of our outdated articles. Please refer to it with its title so we can make it up to date.

      Thanks for the notification.

      Reply
      • Brian August 17, 2017, 11:02 am

        Thanks – the article is http://www.ryli.net/ps4-external-hdd-guide/ and is near the bottom under the section “How to use an external hard drive on PS4”. The line about “Unlike Xbox One, YOU CANNOT…” is no longer true.

        Reply
        • Brian August 17, 2017, 11:03 am

          Actually, there is another mention under “Upgrade or Get an External HDD Instead?” (next to the picture of an orangutan)

          Reply
        • David Tipakov August 17, 2017, 12:15 pm

          Thanks a lot for your help. Article has been modified on every area this issue is addressed.

          Reply