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PS4

Running out of disk space on your PS4 with those monthly PlayStation Plus releases? Maybe those long load times are slowly eating away at your sanity. That tiny, slow drive that comes standard with the PS4 leads to naught merely heartbreak, only yous practice have options at your disposal. Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to swap out the default hard drive for something much amend, only what about all the cool stuff already on your drive?

Today, we'll walk through the process of backing up your files and how you lot can upgrade your console with petty more a screwdriver, a new internal drive, and an external backup. And if you're worried about losing your copy of P.T., this process will keep your game installations safe even if you suffer a drive failure.

3 Backup and Restore

Brainstorm the backup process

To become the ball rolling, y'all'll need to plug in your external drive over USB. It needs to be formatted using FAT32 or exFAT, and if you want to support a total bulldoze, the external bulldoze should have at least the same capacity every bit the internal drive.

Launch the Settings app from the PS4'southward main menu. Select the System option, go downwardly to Back Up and Restore, and and so get into the Support PS4 sub-menu.

At this point, yous may be notified that your trophies can't exist backed upward. Of course, trophies sync over PSN, so that'south not a problem. If you're certain that everything is already synced, but select "OK." If you want to make sure that all of your trophies are properly synced, you should back out, launch the Trophies app, and make certain that everything is copacetic before continuing.

4 Backup PS4

Decide what gets backed upwardly

Once you get to this menu, you'll likely have to await a few minutes while the total data usage is tallied. Once it's washed scrutinizing your drives, you'll come across how much space is beingness taken up by captures, saved data, settings, and installed applications. On the right-hand side, you'll meet how much space yous'll have left on the external drive after the back up is finished.

Encounter that checkbox adjacent to the applications section? Unchecking it volition skip the back up process for your game installations. Since virtually all apps and games tin be downloaded once again from PSN at any point, y'all can skip this office of the back up if you'd like. However, information technology's possible that some titles will eventually become inaccessible (like P.T.), so you're ameliorate off safe than distressing.

Afterwards y'all've chosen what you lot want to dorsum up, hit the "Next" button.

5 Confirm

Brand the back up

From here, you'll be able to give the back up a descriptive name. When you're gear up to proceed, press the "Back up" button. Y'all'll exist greeted with a screen that says "Preparing to back upward," and you'll see a progress bar. In one case finished, the screen will go blank, and your PS4 will reboot.

After a small wait, you'll be told that you're in the process of bankroll up your data, and that you shouldn't plough off your PS4. This part of the process will most certainly have up the nigh amount of time. Depending on the size of your back up, and the speed of your external drive, it could even take hours to cease.

Once information technology'due south done backing upward your information, the screen will say "Backup consummate. The PS4 will restart." Brand sure your controller is on by pressing the "PS" button on your DualShock four, and then select "OK" on the screen. Once the reboot is finished, you lot're all set. You tin use your PS4 every bit normal, or follow the rest of this guide to upgrade your drive, and restore your data.

Buy a replacement drive

If you're going to bother swapping out your hard drive, you should definitely pick a replacement that'south both faster and college capacity. When I bought my PS4 at launch, I snagged this 1TB 7200RPM drive from HGST. It'south not the biggest or fastest, just information technology'due south a nice step upward from the default 500GB 5400RPM drive, and it's quite affordable.

You can go with an SSHD or SSD if you're willing to spend the extra coin, but the performance improvements will vary wildly depending on which games you play and how you use your PS4. Just make sure you buy a ii.five-inch SATA II-compatible bulldoze that's ix.5mm thick or smaller, and everything should piece of work out fine.

If you want to apply a bigger drive on your PS4, the Nyko Data Banking concern is an affordable way to make that happen. There accept been some issues in the by with drives with a capacity over 2TB, but the latest firmware seems to have solved the issue. Your milage may vary.

Open PS4

Open your PS4

Once you have your bulldoze ready to go, power downwards your PS4, and unplug everything. Move it over to a large open surface, and slide off the shiny office of the PS4's case. Set it aside.

PS4 Screw

Supervene upon the bulldoze

With the top of the example off, you'll see where the drive sits right abroad. With a phillips screwdriver, remove the single spiral belongings the bulldoze in place. Slide out the tray, bandy the drives, replace the tray, and secure the screw. Slap on the case once again, and plug everything dorsum in.

Initialize

Initialize

When y'all boot up the PS4 with a new bulldoze, you'll need to initialize it. Push through the menu, and follow the on-screen prompts. If everything goes equally planned, the PS4 should kick to the primary bill of fare once the initialization is finished. Now you can log into your PSN account over again.

7 Start Restore

Navigate to the restore menu

When you lot're fix to restore from your external bulldoze, launch the Settings app from the PS4 chief menu. Become to System, and then push button through to the Back Up and Restore menu. Now, go to Restore PS4.

8 Select Backup

Restore from a backup

From here, select which fill-in you want, then press the "Restore" button. Depending on the drive and size of the backup, this procedure could have a very long time to complete. Follow the prompts, don't turn off your PS4 during the process, and have patience. One time everything is finished, everything volition be back where information technology belongs.

Mission accomplished

Finally, your new difficult bulldoze is in place, and you lot have room to keep your library installed. And if you're looking to give your drive a workout, check out some of the free-to-play titles bachelor on the PS4. This is the perfect opportunity to aggrandize your horizons without having to uninstall your favorite games.