What Size Hard Drive Ps4

How to upgrade your PS4 difficult drive

By Contributions from Adam Vjestica , Mike Jennings , Matt Hanson last updated 25 April 22

We show y'all how to upgrade your PS4 hard bulldoze, including the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro, plus reveal the best hard drives available right now

Do you need to upgrade your PS4 hard drive? Chances are that if you lot're constantly deleting games from your library, the respond is a resounding yes! Thankfully, upgrading the hard bulldoze on your PS4, PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro isn't as tricky as it sounds and y'all'll find the clear and simple instructions in this guide brand the whole procedure stress-free.

While y'all can definitely accept reward of the best PS4 deals available right now and handbag yourself a new machine at a cracking cost, yous'll save a lot more money if you simply upgrade your PS4 hard drive. This nifty fiddling fob is a great way of extending the life of your motorcar and get it performing at its peak once again.

Ane of the large benefits of upgrading your difficult drive is to create extra storage space. There'due south only 500GB of that available on the standard PS4 and PS4 Slim and 1TB on the PS4 Pro, so it only takes a couple of big games and you're soon out of room.

Some games, like Call of Duty and Marvel's Avengers, need about 100GB of hard drive space, so yous can meet how apace your space would exist used up if you're a fan of storage hogs such every bit these. Beyond the actress space, if you lot slot a super-fast SSD into your panel, you'll besides see a meaning speed comeback, although you'll want to read up on the pros and cons of using an SSD earlier you lot practice that.

In that location are two ways to expand your hard bulldoze capacity on PS4: replace the internal drive or attach one of the best external hard drives. These are both good options, simply fitting a new internal drive is undeniably a cleaner option.

This guide will prove you lot how to upgrade your PS4 difficult drive, including instructions for the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro and a video to walk you through everything. Oh, and don't worry, no matter what drive you're slotting inside your machine, it won't void your warranty.

All-time hard drive upgrades for PS4

Earlier taking your PS4, PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro apart you need to have a replacement drive set up – which means doing a chip of inquiry. We've washed the numbers to find out which drive is the best option, whether you're looking for an all-round pick, a budget product or a super-fast SSD.

Best difficult 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 correct now, then you should seek out an SSHD. These drives combine platter-based storage with smaller, faster portions of flash memory, and they acquire which files you use frequently and move them to the faster flash storage – so they can be loaded faster. If yous play the aforementioned games frequently, yous'll see a performance comeback.

The 2TB chapters means that you'll get loads of extra infinite even if the games you install don't benefit from the flash retention portion of the drive, and it'll certainly never be slower than the PS4'southward internal drives. It'due south not particularly expensive, either.

Best upkeep difficult drive for PS4

Seagate Barracuda 2TB

If you're on a tighter upkeep and then you can ditch the hybrid portion of the hard disk and opt for a conventional drive. This won't deliver much of a functioning heave over the PS4'south normal difficult disks, just Seagate'southward drives are certainly no slower. They're available in loads of capacities, only 2TB is as high as you lot tin get before the drives become too thick to fit inside Sony's consoles. The prices on offer are tempting: a 1TB model costs simply $50, and the 2TB model is the best-value option thanks to a price of $77.

Best SSD for PS4

Samsung 870 QVO

Samsung is the kind of consumer SSDs, and so information technology's no surprise that the business firm's solid-state products are the best options for slotting inside your PS4. The 870 QVO offers great performance levels that are several times faster than the PS4's difficult disks, and y'all'll encounter noticeable upgrades to loading times and performance in the PS4 and PS4 Slim and even larger speed improvements in the PS4 Pro, which has a more modern storage interface.

Samsung's drives offering slap-up speed and reliability, and their consequent 7mm form factor means yous can choose a bulldoze with a chapters between 1TB and 8TB depending on your needs – SSDs don't take the same physical size restrictions are difficult disks. Equally ever, though, SSDs are more expensive than hard disks – the 1TB and 2TB models price $110 and $224 respectively, and the 4TB and 8TB drives sit down at hefty prices of $450 and $899.

Best budget SSD for PS4

Crucial BX500

Crucial'due south drives don't quite have the performance levels of Samsung's drives, but in the PS4 that is less important cheers to their older storage connectivity systems. Drives like the Crucial BX500 still deliver a skilful performance heave over the PS4's internal drives, and they're simply equally reliable as Samsung's products.

The BX500 is a little cheaper, too. Information technology's possible to go a 480GB bulldoze for $49 if you'd like to give your PS4 a speed boost without any actress infinite – handy if yous ofttimes play the same selection of games. Its 1TB and 2TB models come up in at $100 and $199 respectively.

What you demand

1x PS4
1x Phillips screwdriver
1x ii.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD
1x USB stick or 1x FAT32 USB HDD or SSD
1x laptop or PC with net
1x PS4 controller
1x microUSB cable

Step one: find the right replacement

When it comes to wanting to upgrade your PS4 difficult drive, the start thing to exercise is to buy your replacement hard drive or SSD. The PS4 uses a two.five-inch SATA format for difficult disks and SSDs, and information technology'south quite an archaic design now – it's generally just used for more than affordable drives.

Whatever drive you install into your PS4 needs to exist under 9.5mm alpine thank you to the size of the caddy that lives inside the PS4, which protects the drive and keeps it in place. This is no problem for SSDs, but it does prove to be a niggling limiting as many 4TB difficult drives are a shade too chunky.

When looking for a new hard disk drive or SSD there are plenty of things to bear in heed – click here to read our guide on the pros and cons of hard disks, SSDs and solid-state hybrid drives.

There are a few rules of thumb if yous're in a rush. Hard disks are the more affordable options only even vii,200rpm drives won't have great functioning – at all-time yous'll go a slight speed boost over the console'due south existing drive, at worst y'all'll simply equal it while improving capacity. A 1TB or 2TB difficult deejay volition cost yous around $60 (effectually £50, AU$fourscore) or less than $80 (around £100, AU$160).

An SSD will evangelize a more than significant improvement to loading times and game performance, especially on a PS4 Pro console, but SSDs are more expensive – 1TB and 2TB models tend to cost around twice as much.

Step ii: Redundancy your PS4

Got the hard bulldoze? The next stride is to backup annihilation you definitely don't desire to lose on your PS4. The bad news is that you lot can't backup game installs. Your dwelling internet will just have to take a beating to reinstall the lot.

You lot should starting time past syncing your Trophies first since they won't be included in the backup data. Only press the 'OPTIONS' button on your controller and select 'Sync Trophies with PSN'. Your Trophies will at present be safe and sound.

PlayStation Plus subscribers don't need to worry also much about game saves either, as they will automatically be saved to the cloud. However, if you want to exist extra-safe, you tin can back them upward to a USB stick or external hard drive.

Just insert the drive, and so in the PS4 menu go to settings > application saved data direction > saved data in organization storage. Hither y'all'll run into an option to copy your saves to a USB drive. You need to select the files game-by-game and then you might want to leave out whatever titles you're never going to play again.

To support everything on your console outside of its trophies, head to the organization card and then into the fill-in selection. Y'all'll be able to select what you want to preserve, cull a USB drive to use and run across how much space you'll have left over on the drive afterwards. Confirm the procedure, and the PS4 will restart before making the backup.

Step three: uncovering the hard bulldoze

Once you are happy you're not about to wipe out your gaming history, brand sure there'southward no disc in the drive and plow the PS4 off completely (not standby). If your PS4 heads to standby equally standard, hold down on the PS push until the power carte pops up, then select turn off PS4. Next, unplug all the PS4's cables (that's the HDMI lead and power cable most likely).

Set the PS4 on a steady surface, put a hand on the shiny top plate and move it to the side a little. This is really a simple plastic drive cover that's not held in identify with screws just a bones clip.

Once information technology's complimentary of its moorings, y'all'll be able to elevator the cover off to reveal part of the PS4's metal skeleton. There'due south not much harm you lot can do here, though, every bit it'southward simply the hard drive on show.

To uncover the hard drive inside the PS4 Slim, unclip the plastic cover by manus. This prune can be found on the left-hand corner of the PS4 Slim at the rear of the console.

With the plastic clip removed you'll meet the difficult drive caddy of the PS4 Slim secured with a single screw.

To uncover your PS4 Pro's difficult drive, simply identify the system upside down on a flat surface and locate the small plastic panel on its rear. Use the little tab beside the Ethernet port to popular the console off.

With this cover removed you'll come across the difficult bulldoze caddy and the single spiral holding information technology in place.

Step four: freeing up the caddy

On the regular PS4 you lot'll notice the difficult bulldoze is not yet in full view. At that place's 1 screw nosotros need to unscrew to release the frame that holds the hard bulldoze, using a Phillips screwdriver.

It's the largest one on the metal surface yous'll see, and is inlaid with the classic PlayStation button icons.

In one case the spiral is removed, you can only pull the drive caddy out horizontally from the PS4'south body.

To replace the difficult drive in the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro, yous'll just need to unscrew the single screw that holds the caddy in identify.

You will then be able to slide out the difficult drive caddy.

Footstep five: releasing the difficult drive

In that location are iv more screws that hold the difficult drive to its metal frame. These sit down on its sides, and can be released using the aforementioned Phillips screwdriver you used to free the HDD frame.

It's just the screws we need to take off, though. Yous'll also observe some rubbery bits the screws rest against to absorb whatever shocks to the bulldoze: leave those there.

This is pretty much the same process for replacing the hard bulldoze of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.

Pace six: Swap the hard drives and replace

One time you've freed up the original hard bulldoze, it'south but a example of putting your new hard disk or SSD inside, and so reversing the process you lot've merely performed. So put those four screws in the sides, get the caddy dorsum in the PS4, fasten information technology in identify with the big screw and put the shiny plastic HDD embrace back on the PS4.

If you accept the PS4 Slim or PS4 Pro, the procedure will be the same. Identify 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 bulldoze or SSD doesn't fit, are yous sure you checked it was a 9.5mm-tall or less 2.5-inch SATA drive before buying?

Should the process become every bit swimmingly every bit information technology went with us, y'all should be washed inside 15 minutes.

Stride 7: download the PS4 software

At present you have a PS4 with a completely blank retention. The console's Bone is stored on the hard drive y'all just removed, and the drive within your console is completely blank.

You need to download the software in standalone class, using some other reckoner. You lot'll find it over at the PlayStation website (opens in new tab), and it takes upwards effectually a gigabyte now.

You'll need a USB drive or external hard drive or SSD with plenty space to hold the download, and it must exist formatted using the FAT32 file system and installed into the correct folder – full instructions are available on the PlayStation website. Printing and hold the PS4'due south power push for seven seconds – or until you lot hear two beeps – to boot the PS4 into safe mode.

You can then connect your controller with a USB cable and select option 7 to reinstall your organisation software. Then, once that's done, you can restore your backup file and your PS4 should be back to normal, albeit with a newer, better hard disk or SSD.

Conclusion

Is upgrading your PS4 difficult drive worth doing? Absolutely. It's easy, takes less than half an hr - if y'all're quick - and can fifty-fifty be relatively inexpensive: around the cost of a make-new game if you're using a hard disk. And, if y'all spend more on an SSD, you can get a solid speed boost for your auto, likewise. It doesn't even invalidate your warranty - it's every bit though Sony is willing you to exercise it!

The key question as of the arrival of the 4.l firmware is whether to opt to upgrade the internal hard drive or go external. The other big question is whether to opt for a more affordable hard disk or a pricier, quicker SSD.

If you're tempted to stick with an external, USB-connected product instead of an internal upgrade, then bear in mind that yous'll demand to observe infinite alongside your console for a new product – and retrieve to take information technology with you whenever yous move your panel.

Upgrading your PS4 hard deejay does take a trivial flake of enquiry, and it can be daunting to open your panel – even if the process is pleasingly simple. However, whichever decision you make, y'all'll be happy with the expanded space.

For enthusiast gamers, you'll no longer have to delete games to brand space for the new additions to your library. Only think about it: the biggest games can pinnacle 100GB these days, and the PS4's original 500GB and 1TB drives merely can't shop that many games.

And, if yous're able to use an SSD, and then y'all can get a keen speed boost likewise every bit lashings of actress capacity. Whether yous go for a hard disk drive or an SSD, it's a no-brainer.

Check out our picks of the best PS4 games

You lot might also want to check out the best PS5 external hard drives (opens in new tab).

Andrew is a freelance announcer and has been writing and editing for some of the Great britain's tiptop tech and lifestyle publications including TrustedReviews, Stuff, T3, TechRadar, Lifehacker and others.