Topic: External HDD support is finally coming!!

i'm also assuming any External HDD that's listed as XB1 compatible will work on the PS4 too

Finally I can use my original HDD as an external HDD since I already upgraded it!
Now it would be nice if some tech sage could explain me if the original HDD, once put in a Usb3 case, will run faster than the new internal 5400rpm HHD...

An external HDD is going to be so handy. Won't be able to get one just yet, but it'll be a huge relief having some extra room.

The specs are identical to those for the Xbox - USB3.0, min size 256GB and a max size of 8TB - just make sure its connected directly and not running through a Hub. If you have one you use for other things too, you will lose everything if you opt to connect it to the PS4 so either use a 'new' one or transfer your data from it first.

@andreoni79 The original PS4 HDD's are all 5400rpm anyway so it should run just as well as your new 5400rpm internal if you convert it.

So when I hook up the harddrive to it when I want to save or install a game to do I have to tell it to save it to the external one or will it do it on its own?

@Tasuki apparently the external one becomes the default while it's connected so it automatically installs everything to it

The 4.50 update is live in North America! Very easy to install, once you plug in the USB cord it basically walks you through the whole process. First game I re-installed was Killzone: Shadow Fall, the very first game I played on the console.

@KratosMD Ouch! Is it not recognized or the does the console clearly say the HDD is not supported?

@KratosMD Strange... It must be 3.0 since it worked with XB1. I'd try one of those noob tricks of mines, like turn everything off, unplug everything, wait few minutes, plug everything, turn everything on, proceed as nothing happened before, cross fingers. Sometimes it works just because machines are more stupid then we think.

@KratosMD It might not be USB 3.0 as I'm sure the Xbox supports 2.0 as well as 3.0.

@crippyd @KratosMD yeah XB1 supports USB 2.0 too, i know this because the HDD i have connected to my XB1 is 2.0 and it works fine

Sorry Mr. @KratosMD, I thought you used that HDD for storing XB1 games. In that case it had to be 3.0, at least according to Microsoft itself:
"If you have a USB 3.0 external drive that has a capacity of 256 GB or more, you can use it to store games and apps. Or, you can use the drive to store media.
If you have a USB drive that doesn’t meet these requirements, you can still use it to store media."

There's only one word that can describe having a 5tb HD now for all my games

So finally finished installing most of my games ( the ones I know I am going to play anyway) and I gotta say it's so nice not have to worry about space, as it I have used about 11/2 TB out of the 5tb. Now I just have to rebuy some games that I got rid off like GTA V. I hopefully should be set now for the rest of this gen.

@KratosMD sounds strange, perhaps it wasn't connected properly when you first tried it or maybe you was using the wrong USB cable?

@KratosMD perhaps but at least it's working now right

Just had a chance to test out a couple of things and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

1. Game icons stay in your folders/content manager even if the hard drive they're installed on is disconnected. An icon appears next to it saying that the device it's stored on isn't connected, but the fact that it still displays is pretty neat imo.

2. You can use multiple hard drives on the same system. I guess this was confirmed when they said that you'd be able to use an external hard drive to use on a friend's PS4, providing you either log in with your account, they also own the game digitally, or (if it's retail) you have the disc. Again though it's pretty neat as I was half expecting them to limit it to one drive per PS4, which actually leads on to my final point..

3. You can actually use more than one external hard drive! Although only one can be used at a time, there's nothing stopping you having multiple drives connected via USB at the same time. You can then switch them on or off in the settings, depending on which drive you want to access. Seeing as you can only run one game at a time anyway I see no problem with this and it means that now you can potentially have an insane (with the 3 USB ports of a PS4 Pro) nearly 24TB of external hard drive space connected to your PS4!

@KratosMD me too, i got over 200gb worth of games installed now that i wasn't able to play ^_^

@FullbringIchigo I have about 500 gb myself and I still have alot of the PS+ games to go as well.

So now that people have been using external HDD for 9 months but nobody has started a new thread about it -

Have people just been fine loading & running everything off of their external drives? The geek in me wants to move all of my seldom played games - like FFXV waiting on episode Ignis - onto the external and install my hew games onto the internal just to be safe. My old external HDD on my Wii U burned up, that sucked.

I know it shouldn't matter, but it's a gut feeling that's hard to shake.