Sony PlayStation 4 1TB Console - Black

Product Information

Another hybrid drive, the Seagate 1TB Gaming SSHD main selling point is the improvements granted by its dual SSD and HDD heritage - shorter load times, faster installs, etc- but without the price hike. The caveat, of course, is that since this SSHD does also rely on a physical disk spinning at 5400RPM, the improvements may not be as dramatic as with a traditional SSD. Upgrading your PS4 hard disk does take a little bit of research, and it can be daunting to open your console – even if the process is pleasingly simple. However, whichever decision you make, you'll be happy with the expanded space. On the regular PS4 you'll notice the hard drive is not yet in full view. There's one screw we need to unscrew to release the frame that holds the hard drive, using a Phillips screwdriver.

You can only have one extended storage drive connected to your PS4, so you really want the biggest drive you can afford. Games these days can eat up vast amounts of storage space, so unless you’re exclusively planning on playing Fortnite or Minecraft, you’re going to need a large external drive. 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 actually a simple plastic drive cover that's not held in place with screws but a basic clip. Once you're happy you're not about to wipe out your gaming history, make sure there's no disc in the drive and turn the PS4 off completely (not standby). If your PS4 heads to standby as standard, hold down on the PS button until the power menu pops up, then select turn off PS4. Next, unplug all the PS4's cables (that's the HDMI lead and power cable most likely).There are four more screws that hold the hard drive to its metal frame. These sit on its sides, and can be released using the same Phillips screwdriver you used to free the HDD frame.

How to choose the best external hard drive for your PS4 What should you look for in a PS4 hard drive? Any drive you install into your PS4 needs to be under 9.5mm tall thanks 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 little limiting as many 4TB hard drives are a shade too chunky. Beyond that, this is a well-built drive with a tough anodized aluminium casing, and it even comes with both a USB Type-C cable and Type-A adapter bundled in. You don’t need to spend more on an SSD for your PS4, and the pricing is nearly in HDD territory. Crucial’s drives don’t quite have the performance levels of Samsung’s 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 PS4’s internal drives, and they’re just as reliable as Samsung’s products. If you’re on a tighter budget then you can ditch the hybrid portion of the hard disk and opt for a conventional drive. This won’t deliver much of a performance boost over the PS4’s normal hard disks, but Seagate’s drives are certainly no slower.Just insert the drive, then in the PS4 menu go to settings > application saved data management > saved data in system storage. Here you'll see an option to copy your saves to a USB drive. You need to select the files game-by-game so you might want to leave out any titles you're never going to play again.

Right now, there are only two reasons to choose a desktop external hard drive. First, they can run to larger capacities: even the biggest portable drives max out at 5TB, while desktop drives go up to the full 8TB maximum capacity. You’d have to have a massive games library, though, to make that a deciding factor. Otherwise, some desktop drives have a 7,200RPM spindle speed, where portable drives usually only manage 5,400RPM. This can mean slightly better performance, and slightly shorter loading times. Once it's free of its moorings, you'll be able to lift the cover off to reveal part of the PS4's metal skeleton. There's not much damage you can do here, though, as it's just the hard drive on show. When it comes to running games on PS4, it’s actually the fastest HDD we’ve tested. In A-B tests with the Seagate FireCuda Gaming Hard Drive, it shaved 12 seconds off the time it took to load The Last of Us Part II, and 13 seconds off loading a saved game. Differences in other titles aren’t so noticeable – we’re talking just a second or two with Resident Evil 2 – but this is a great HDD if you want your PS4 library close to hand, or want to make the most of PS+ Extra. Going beyond the extra space a hard drive provides, if you slot a super-fast SSD into your console, you'll also see a significant speed improvement. Although you'll want to read up on the pros and cons of using an SSD before you do that. Interface type: Any USB 3 drive of almost any size will work; 250GB is the minimum capacity and a whopping 8TB the maximum. Neither the PS4 nor PS4 Pro support USB 3.1 gen 2 or USB Type C, so don’t worry about spending extra on a drive that sports these newer interface standards.This is such a good SATA-type SSD, that I'm even considering it for my PS3 to breathe new life and durability into that console! And, if you’re able to use an SSD, then you can get a great speed boost as well as lashings of extra capacity. Whether you go for a hard disk or an SSD, it’s a no-brainer. Crucial is another well-known and trusted storage maker, and their most recent additions - the X6 and X8 primarily - Emake for solid PS4 SSD options - as well as cross-gen ones for when you're ready to move to PS5. (Please note: this is a USB-C drive but comes with an adapter.) A key benefit to upgrading your hard drive is adding extra storage space to your PS4. There's only 500GB of space on the standard PS4 and PS4 Slim and a larger 1TB on PS4 Pro. On base hardware, it'll only take a few big games to completely fill up your hard drive.Games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Marvel’s Avengers need over 100GB of hard drive space, making upgrading your PS4 hard drive very tempting.

The best external hard drives for PS4 1.Toshiba Canvio Flex: Best all-round external hard drive for PS4When it comes to wanting to upgrade your PS4 hard drive, the first thing to do is to buy your replacement hard drive or SSD. The PS4 uses a 2.5-inch SATA format for hard disks and SSDs, and it’s quite an archaic design now – it’s generally only used for more affordable drives. For enthusiast gamers, you'll no longer have to delete games to make space for the new additions to your library. Just think about it: the biggest games can top 100GB these days, and the PS4’s original 500GB and 1TB drives just can’t store that many games.