Here I would be giving you details on How to Upgrade your PS4 Hard Drive. Maybe you have been finding it difficult to place all of your favorite games on your PS4 due to insufficient space, and you have deleted some o your games in order to have enough space on your PS4.
Then you have found yourself in the right article. We would be guided on how to upgrade your PS4 hard drive. And the good news is that in order to upgrade your PS4 hard drive, you do not have to go through much stress in order to achieve that.
The Capacity of PS4 hard drive
The capacity of the hard drive determines how well you would enjoy your gaming or other activities you use your system.
The standard or the normal space of your hard drive (PS4) is 500GB, while the PS4 slim has the storage space of a large 1TB on your PS4 Pro. It would take really large games to be able to fill up the space on your PS4 hard drive. There are large games like Call o Duty: Warzone and Marvel’s Avengers. And both of these games occupy up to 100GB of space of your hard drive.
You could change the Hard drive to SSD for a faster and better speed and improvement.
How to know when to Replace my Hard drive
In order to be able to upgrade my Hard drive, then I have to know when it is faulty and if it needs a change or an upgrade. The following are the way to know:
- Downloads are corrupted.
- You tend to see errors in games and applications.
- Whenever you switch on your console, you see the database will begin the rebuilding process without a previous loss or mistake.
- Your computer would crash in forms and colors.
- Another thing you would notice is a sudden reboot, which is a sign of a possible hard drive failure.
- Youtube will have issues like stuttering, freeze or would not even load or start.
PS4 Hard Drive Upgrade
You might be wondering what is the essence of upgrading your PS4, then the main benefit of upgrading your PS4 is to have enough space to be able to do all your activities without lagging or any obstruction on your PS4. There are different methods or opinions on how to upgrade your PS4 hard drive.
You either upgrade your HDD to a higher HDD or you are changing your HDD to SSD for better and faster performance. Changing your HDD to a higher storage capacity would also give you a faster and better performance.
Changing from HDD to SSD
Note:
Before you get started, you would be needing the following:
- PS4 or a PS4 Pro.
- You would be needing your SSD.
- An adjustable screwdriver.
- And 2 USB flash drive.
Changing your HDD to SSD might also be another option that ensures better performance on your PS4.
According to the discovery we read from “Digital Trends”: “Before we swapped out the PS4 hard drive with an SSD, we tested the hard drive that the system came with by measuring 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 twice and got times of 27 seconds and 24.9 seconds. After it was replaced with an SSD, the test was run again and the boot time changed to 19.2 and 19.4 seconds, which is the boot-up is approximately 5-8 seconds with an SSD than an HHD or mechanical hard drive that the PlayStation was shipped with”.
That was the review gotten from Digital Trends, Which means the SSD would function faster than the HDD in performance and speed level.
Steps:
The steps below are to be followed in order to change from HDD to SSD.
- On your PS4 home screen, navigate to the settings option, and click on the “Application saved data management” and “saved data” in system storage.
- Next, click on the “Copy to USB storage device” option in order to save all your files to the second USB flash drive.
- Turn off and unplug your PlayStation 4.
- You slide the panel leftward, if the panel slides off there would be no need for screwdriver. Then you would need a screwdriver that aids you to remove the panel safely.
- Look for a screw located at the front of the PS4 that aids to hold the hard drive properly. When you see the screw, unscrew It out for access to the hard drive.
- After the unscrewing, you pull out the hard drive case. You would be expecting to see the hard drive but the hard drive is inside the case in order to secure it properly.
- Now, the next part is removing the hard drive from the case. The case is secured with four black screws and the screws are located at the four sides of the case.
- After you unscrew those screws on the case, then you will have access to the hard drive, pull out the hard drive, and slide in your SSD for replacement.
- Just like we unscrewed the case in order to have access to the HDD, we would screw the four screws around the case in order to keep the SSD secured.
- Next, place back that case into the previous location it was removed from, which is from the front of the PS4. Remember to tighten up the screw after placing the case back.
- Do not turn on the PS4 immediately, instead, bring out the other unused flash drive.
Installing
Using the other flash drive, you use a computer and download the updated PS4 operating system in order to download the updated operating system and send it to the flash drive.
The next thing to do is to bring out the unused flash drive and connect it to your computer. Inside the USB flash drive, you create a folder named PS4, and inside the PS4 folder, you create another folder Update.
After successfully downloading the PS4 Operating system and the name of the update on your download folder inside your computer would be named “PS4UPDATE.PUP”, you drag the folder or copy the folder and drop or paste the folder in your Update folder already created in your PS4 folder inside your USB flash drive.
After sending the folder, you eject it from your computer and plug the USB flash drive into one of the PS4 ports. This is the time to turn on the PS4, you turn it on by holding on to the power button for 7-10 seconds until you hear the beep sound. This boot would be in safe mode.
From the safe mode menu, click on “initialize PS4”, this is to reinstall system software. Let’s not forget we connected a USB flash drive to the PS4, back to that. The PS4 would scan the flash drive and this process would take 20-30 seconds. After scanning, you would be shown a page to install the PS4 OS into the SSD.
To get installed, you have to click on the X button on your controller (click on the X button like 3 times, until you see an option that notifies you that the PS4 OS is installed).
With these steps, your PS4 operating system has been fully installed, you can now send in your games files that were sent to the other USB flash drive.
The last step, you click on “Application Saved Data Management” click on “Saved Data” on the USB storage device and click on “Copy to system storage”.
You have successfully changed from HDD to SSD!!!!!.
Best Choice for a Change of Hard Drives and SSD for your PS4
Planning on changing your hard drive for better functionality of your PS4, then we have some of the best decisions for you, that would give you a smile whenever you are using your PS4 device. Note: All these hard drives listed below comes with different storage space and as the storage space are different the price and the rate at which you get them would be different.
- Seagate Expansion Portable.
- WD_ Black P10 Game Drive.
- WD my passport portable gaming storage.
- Seagate game drive.
- SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD.
- Seagate Expansion USB 8TB for desktop.
- Samsung T5.
- Seagate FireCuda Gaming S SHD 2TB.
- Seagat Barracuda 2TB.
- Samsung 870 QVO (SSD).
- Crucial BX500 (SSD).
Upgrading your Hard Drive
Before we get started, you would be needing:
- PS4.
- Philips bit screwdriver.
- 5 ich SATA HDD.
- USB stick or FAT32 HDD.
- PC with internet.
- PS4 controller
- microUSB cable.
Let’s begin:
Back-Up
You have back up all those contents you find very important and don’t want to lose after changing your HDD. In order copy those important contents, you have to navigate to the PS4 settings and click on “application saved data” and under that option, you click on saved data in the system storage, this is to be able to send all your saved contents into the USB drive.
Unscrew
Once you turn off your PS4 after sending all your saved contents, then you can place the PS4 on a flat surface and then slide off the plate that covers the inside. Then you would see the HDD inside a case, you pick out the case and unscrew the case in order to get access to the HDD.
Swap
After you have safely take the hard drive from the case, then swap the hard drive with the upgraded hard drive. Then you place the upgraded hard drive into the case and place the case into the PS4, gently, and fix all the screws back.
Download Software
You have downloaded an updated version of the operating system. With the use of the PC with the internet, you download the updated operating system and send the unused flash drive. The next thing to do is to bring out the unused flash drive and connect it to your computer. Inside the USB flash drive, you create a folder named PS4, and inside the PS4 folder, you create another folder Update.
Another option is to choose option seven to install again an updated version of the operating system.
Restore
You have successfully done the upgrade and the reinstallation of the operating system, then you restore your backup file and you can continue to use your PS4 in a refreshed way.
FAQ
Can I upgrade without losing my data?
Well, if you follow the procedure or steps properly, you would remember that you should have two USB drives. One of the USB drives would be the drive that would contain all your USB drives.
After backing up your files, then you go to your settings, under the settings, you go to system, under the system, you select “Back up and Restore”, and under this option, you choose the “Restore PS4” option. From the “Restore PS4” option, you would see the files you have backed up from the inserted USB drive.
Can I upgrade from 500GB to 1TB?
Of course, you can, if you feel that the 500GB is not enough and you need enough space, then you can upgrade to 1TB to have enough space for all games.
Is there a benefit to upgrading my Hard drive?
One of the main benefits of upgrading your hard drive is that it gives you enough space to your PS4. And the largest space for the standard or normal PS4 is 500GB while for the PS4 slim, you see space like 1TB which gives you enough space for all your games and contents.
Is Worth switching from HDD to SSD?
Yes, it is totally worth it, this is because SSD tends to be faster than HDD. And SSD reduces the startup time and makes all your activities on your smooth and fast without any lagging. And the higher the SSD, the better it performs and it takes less than 10 seconds to start up.
How long does PS4 hard drive last?
How long does PS4 hard drive last? This is a good question because you do not want your hard drive to stop functioning. You have to know the limit of your hard drive. Well, the PS4 hard drive lasts for three to five years on average.
