How to Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive [Step-by-Step Tutorial]

Key Takeaways:

• Make the full preparation for PS4 hard drive replacement.
• Get the step-by-step guide to upgrade PS4 hard drive to a bigger hard drive or SSD without losing data.

When you use your PS4 for too long, you may encounter many problems, such as PS4 storage space not being enough, PS4 running slow or loading time being too long. To get a better gaming experience and enhance performance, you may want to upgrade your PS4 hard drive or upgrade your PS4 hard drive to SSD.

Don't worry! Whether you have a PS4, PS4 Pro hard drive, or PS4 Slim hard drive, you can follow the step-by-step instruction in this tutorial to run PS4 hard drive replacement without losing your data! 

Check out the following necessary information to upgrade your PS4 hard drive:

How to Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive

PS4 system storage capacity can not meet the needs of game enthusiasts. For this reason, we need to find ps4 hard drive upgrade max size and upgrade PS4 hard drive performance. According to PS4 Storage research, SSD can break the PS4 built-in hard drive storage capacity limit: PS4 can reach 16TB, PS4 Pro PS4 and PS4 Slim have 10TB of storage capacity.

The most traditional way to upgrade your hard drive is to trade in your old one for a new one. This is not a difficult task. This guide will provide detailed step-by-step instructions for upgrading your PS4's hard drive, with the following step-by-step instructions for the different stages:

1. What Do You Need to Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive
2. Choose the Best PS4 Hard Drive Replacement
3. Remove the Hard Drive From the Enclosure
4. Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive With Professional Tool
5. Install the Hard Drive

What Do You Need to Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive

Before you start, prepare the following tools:

• 1 PS4
• PS4 controller
• A Phillips screwdriver
• A working Windows computer
• An external storage device with at least 1GB of free space.
• Standard SATA II hard drive or solid-state (flash) drive no thicker than 9.5 mm.

Choose the Best PS4 Hard Drive Replacement

Before taking apart the hard drive of your PS4, PS4 Slim, or PS4 Pro, we need to choose a best-fit replacement. You'll need to select a PS4-compliant drive that's no thicker than 9mm and has a capacity greater than 160GB for any drive. Here we have some drive reviews from Android Central and present three popular PS4-compatible drives:

• Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSD
• Seagate Game Drive for PS4
• Western Digital Blue SSD

For more information about PS4 hard drive: Best External Hard Drive for PS4

The ps4 hard drive replacement cost is a little more expensive. 1TB and 2TB are between $110 and $224. 4TB and 8TB are up to $450 and $899. You can choose from budget, high-speed SSDs, or HDDs.

Remove the Hard Drive From the Enclosure

After selecting the hard drive to upgrade, you will need to remove the PS4 hard drive to replace it. The exact procedure varies depending on the PS4 version. Follow these steps to remove the PS4's internal hard drive:

Step 1. Turn off your PS4: Go to Power > Power Options > Turn off PS4 to completely turn off your PS4. And then, unplug all PS4 cables.

Step 2. Turn on the hard drive. For different PS4 models, the position of their lids varies slightly:

• Original PS4: Lay the PS4 flat and slide the glossy panel on top of the unit to the left.
• PS4 Slim: Turn the unit, apply pressure to the port's left side, and remove it.
• PS4 Pro: Invert the system on a flat surface, find the notch on the side and use the small tab next to the Ethernet port to eject the panel.

Step 3. Remove the hard drive: The hard drive does not fully show when the cover is unbolted. We need to use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the screws and loosen the frame holding the drive in place.

Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive With Professional Tool

Once you have removed the PS4 hard drive, connect the original PS4 hard drive to your computer along with another better one. And use the professional disk tool - EaseUS Partition Master to upgrade the hard drive. This tool is a powerful and secure hard drive management tool. It provides a clean interface to help you solve problems with new and old hard drives.

Download and use this tool for free to help you upgrade your PS4 hard drive without losing data:

1. Initialize the New Hard Drive

If it's a new hard drive, you need to initialize it to MBR or GPT format first. 99% of all disks are already initialized. If you have an uninitialized hard drive error, refer to the following steps:

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master and got to Partition Manager.

Step 2. Right-click the target disk - HDD or SSD and select "Initialize to MBR" or "Initialize to GPT". Click "Execute Task" and "Apply" to save the changes.

0:00-0:18 Initialize to MBR; 0:19-0:44 Initialize to GPT;

Once the initialization is complete, you can proceed to use the tool to clone the game data and settings to a new hard drive to use:

2. Clone PS4 Hard Drive to A New

Using EaseUS Partition Master to clone an old hard drive to a new one can help you save very much time and effort. It can also clone only the used space. Download this tool and do the following:

Step 1. Select the source disk.

• Click the "Clone" from the left menu. Select the "Clone OS Disk" or "Clone Data Disk"  and click "Next".
• Choose the source disk and click "Next".

Step 2. Select the target disk.

• Choose the wanted HDD/SSD as your destination and click "Next" to continue.
• Read Warning message and confirm "Yes" button.

Step 3. View the disk layout and edit the target disk partition size. 

Then click "Continue" when the program warns it will wipe out all data on the target disk. (If you have valuable data on the target disk, back up it in advance.)

You can select "Autofit the disk", "Clone as the source" or "Edit disk layout" to customize your disk layout. (Select the last one if you want to leave more space for C drive.)

Step 4. Click "Start" to start the disk cloning process.

This tool can also check for problems with your old PS4 hard drive and repair them. Using this tool, you can also upgrade Steam Deck SSD without effort.

As a PS game user, you may also like to know the following topics:

Install the Hard Drive

Once the cloning is complete, install the new hard drive into the PS4 console to replace the old one: you need to put the new hard drive into the hard drive case and reverse the process of uninstalling the hard drive: 

Step 1. Place the new hard drive into the hard drive cage.

Step 2. Screw the four screws to the side and place the tray back into the PS4.

Step 3. Secure the tray case and place the plastic hard drive cover back on.

After reinserting the drive into PlayStation 4, you can reinsert the power cord. Then turn it on and use it.

Note: EaseUS Partition Master can help you clone the partitions and contents of your PS4 hard drive in its original packaging. If the cloned SSD does not work, there may be a mistake in the cloning process. You can re-clone or enter from PS4's safe mode, initialize the new hard drive, and re-download the PS4 software.

For PS4 hard drive replacement, if you still have questions about the disk, you can check out the detailed guide on Youtube from Austin Evans:

The above is the detailed guide to upgrade PS4 hard drive. By upgrading PS4 hard drive to a larger one, you can also increase more storage on PS4 and fix PS4 storage full error. For more solutions to get more storage on PS4, click the link below:

Conclusion

This guide provides a detailed guide to upgrading your PS4 hard drive. This tutorial allows you to upgrade your PS4 hard drive without reinstalling games and downloading software. EaseUS Partition Master lets you initialize a new hard drive and helps you clone games and data to the new hard drive. Once the PS4 hard drive replacement is complete, you'll get shorter game load times to get into your games as soon as possible.

If you think this guide is helpful for upgrading PS4, you can click the social buttons below to help others in need.

FAQs About How to Upgrade PS4 Hard Drive

This section provides some additional questions about upgrading your PS4 hard drive. If you are interested, please read on.

1. What is the best PS4 internal hard drive format?

The PS4 uses a 2.5-inch SATA HDD. Its file system format is exFAT. exFAT is the best PS4 internal hard drive format. It improves space allocation, technical support, and more secure file storage.

2. What is the largest hard drive that a PS4 can support?

PS4 supports any USB 3.0 drive. It can have a drive capacity of up to 8TB.

3. Can I upgrade PS4 to 2TB?

Sure, you can upgrade PS4 to 2TB. PS4 has a maximum capacity of up to 8TB. If you upgrade from 500GB to 2TB means, you can get extra space load.

4. Is it worth replacing hard drive in PS4?

Sure. There are some benefits to upgrading your PS4 hard drive. If you upgrade your PS4 hard drive to a larger one, you can have more storage space to save your games. If you replace the PS4 hard drive with SSD, you can improve the loading speed of your games and reduce the number of game crashes.