1TB PS4 is still not enough; Upgrade to a 2TB hard drive now

This week, Sony is releasing the new PlayStation 4 Ultimate Player 1TB Edition, which is simply a 1TB PS4 that comes bundled with a PlayStation TV (if you pre-order). It’s really not a bad bundle for people that don’t already have a PS4 to call their own; the PS4 originally shipped with a 500GB hard drive, which any gaming enthusiast will tell you is not enough storage for an 8th generation console expect for maybe the Wii U.

It’s nice to see Sony doubling the PS4’s storage to 1TB, but you might find even that amount of storage to be less than adequate in just a few short years. That’s why I suggest upgrading your 500GB PS4 or even your new 1TB PS4 to a 2TB HDD. Thankfully, Sony engineered the PS4 to have its internal HDD easily swapped out.

Here’s how you do it:

What You’ll Need

• PlayStation 4: so many bundles to choose from
• Phillips Head: here’s a great set of bits for all your gadgets
• USB Flash Drive with at least 1GB of space: any of these will work
• External HDD to back up your PS4 games, applications, and save files: any of these will work
• 2 Terabyte 2.5″ hard disk drive: the Seagate Momentus has never failed on me
• PS4 controller with microUSB cable (all PS4s ship with these)
• A Mac, Windows, or Linux computer

Note: OWC put together a great bundle on Amazon that comes with everything you need to upgrade your PS4, as well as an external drive enclosure so your PS4’s old drive can be used additional external storage (just not on your PS4).

Prepare your Storage Devices

Your new 2TB drive, your USB flash drive, and your external hard drive for backing up might be properly formatted out of the box, but to be safe, I highly recommend formatting them yourself. Any Mac, PC, or Linux system can handle the job, but I’m a Mac guy, so I’ve included the process for using Disk Utility to prepare your storage devices.

1. Connect your storage device to your Mac via USB; to connect your 2TB drive, use a USB 3.0 to 2.5″ SATA III adaptor. If you get an error message, ignore it.
2. Run Disk Utility
3. Select your storage device
4. Partition Layout = 1 Partition
5. Format = MS-DOS (FAT)
6. Options… = Master Boot Record
7. Click ‘Ok’, ‘Apply’, ‘Partition’
8. When your drive has been formatted, click ‘Eject’ and unplug your device
9. Format all of your devices using step 1-8

Back Up your PS4

In firmware update 2.50, Sony added the ability to back up the entire contents of your PS4 to an external USB device (previously the process was manual and required you to re-download all of your games and then move your save files back into place). Attach your freshly formatted external hard drive to back up the data you’d like to carry over to the new drive, which presumably is everything.

To back up your PS4 go to:
Settings → System → Back Up and Restore → Back Up PS4 → Select OK → Select Back Up

After you’ve started the back up process, the PS4 will reboot into a dedicated back up utility. When it’s complete, turn on a controller and select ‘ok’. This will reboot your PS4 into the home screen.

Power down your PS4 and disconnect all cables to prepare for the hard drive upgrade.

Upgrade PS4 with 2TB Hard Drive

Sony made it incredibly easy to upgrade the PS4’s hard drive, it takes nothing more than sliding the cover away, removing 5 screws, replacing the old drive, putting the screws back in, and finishing by sliding the cover into place. Very simple.

Install the latest PS4 System Software

Now you’re ready to reconnect your PS4 and install the latest PS4 System Software.

1. Download the latest PS4 System Software by clicking here (download begins immediately)
2. On your USB flash drive, create a folder called ‘PS4’ and in that folder create a folder named ‘UPDATE’
3. Move the PS4 System Software file ‘PS4UPDATE.PUP’ to the folder named ‘UPDATE’ on your USB Flash Drive
4. Connect your USB Flash Drive to the PS4
5. Connect a controller to the PS4 with a microUSB cable
6. Power on your PS4
7. Press OK and choose ‘yes’ when it prompts you to initialize the PS4

The final few prompts will take you through the installation of the PS4 System Software and system initialization. When it’s completed, you will have successfully upgraded your PS4 to a 2TB HDD. The final step will be restoring your PS4’s data.

Restore your Games, Applications, and Save Data

Connect the hard drive that contains your backed up PS4 data to your system.

To restore your PS4 data, go to:
Settings → System → Back Up and Restore → Restore PS4 → Select your Back Up file → Select Restore

Once you’ve restored your data, you’ll be ready to resume sitting in front of the TV for hours playing video games free from the fear that you might fill up your PS4’s once-tiny hard disk drive.

 
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or shoot me a message on Twitter @joecorbett.