HOW TO USE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WITH THE PS4

External Hard Drive With The Ps4 –

Many users have a PlayStation 4 at home and who, on more than one occasion, have thought about how to expand the capacity of their hard drive to continue storing their games, games, or all kinds of digital content. Until recently, it was not an easy task, but with the recent update of the PS4 system, it becomes something that any user can do easily.

Therefore, if your PS4 has run out of free space and you cannot install a game unless you delete other things from the disk, you can now add it to an external hard drive in a simple way, thanks to the compatibility offered by version 4.5. of the PS4 operating system. If you want to know how to connect and use an external hard drive with the PS4 and thus store many more games and content, you have to follow these steps that we show below.

PS4 and external complex drive requirements

The first thing we have to do is have version 4.5 or later of the system firmware on our PS4 and then choose an external hard drive that adapts to the capacity and technology needs required so that our PS4 recognizes it and makes use of it. Of it correctly.

Specifically, the external hard drive that we will use to connect to our PS4 must have a capacity between 250 GB and 8TB and have USB 3.0 or later. If these requirements not meet, we will not be able to connect to the game console. In complying with them, the next thing we must do to prepare the disk and start using it in our console is to format it.

Steps to follow to connect an external hard drive to the PS4

To do this, connect the disk to the PS4, and from Settings> Devices> USB devices, select the disk that we have just secured and select the option to Format as Extended Storage. Once the formatting process finishes, the next thing we have to do is to do will be to indicate to our PS4 that this external hard drive will be the default one so that all the contents install and saved by default.

Therefore, in Storage, we select the disk that we have just prepared, and with the Options button, we mark this same device as the default.

Apart from that moment, on the external hard drive that we have just connected to our PS4, we will install applications and add-ons and download add-ons even if the associated application installs on the PS4’s Storage. Updates download to where the corresponding applications install and save data for applications, themes, screenshots, or videos cannot be stored on the external drive.

We will also download games and add-ons directly from the PlayStation Store to the external hard drive and move games from the PS4’s hard drive to the external storage drive.

To move applications, we will have to go to Settings> Storage, select the Storage where we want to move, and select Applications. We press the Options button and then Move to the destination, extended, or system storage. We mark the applications that we will need to move and finish by clicking on Move.

To disconnect the hard drive that provides us with this storage expansion, we must remember that we must make sure to do it safely to avoid damaging the stored data. To do this, we select Sound / Devices> Stop using Storage, and that’s it.

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What should remain considered when choosing a hard drive?

There are a couple of technical specifications that an external hard drive must meet to stay used as expanded Storage on PS4, and not just any will do:

  • Must have USB 3.0 or later connectivity
  • The minimum capacity must be 250GB. The maximum, 8 TB.

In addition to that, it must stay borne in mind that on the external hard drive that you are going to use as expanded Storage on PS4, you will only be able to install games, add-ons, and applications (the updates will remain downloaded in the place where the corresponding applications installed). Application data, themes, screenshots, or video clips cannot remain saved in Extended Storage.

It is also worth noting some important points related to the connection of these devices:

  • You can only use one external hard drive as expanded Storage at a time. You can have several. But if you connect two, only one of them will be active.
  • You can connect a second external hard drive for use with a Media player. But not for games, applications, and plug-ins.
  • It is not allowed to connect external hard drives through a USB hub. Only connecting them directly to one of the USB ports on the console.
  • It is essential not to interrupt the connection during the shutdown process and not put the console into sleep mode.

Considering all this information, at Vida Extra. We have selected a series of exciting external hard drives for PS4 based on their quality/price ratio. The models belong to the two or three brands that we consider most reliable. (There may be others a little cheaper in each case. But they still haven’t convinced us). And we have ordered them by their capacity.

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