How to Find the Best Hard Drive for PS4?

Finding and upgrading your PlayStation’s hard drive is way easier than you might think. To that end we got you covered with an easy to follow guide on how to find the best hard drive for PS4 and put it in the place of the old one without breaking a sweat.

If you want nothing but the best for you PS4 in terms of performance, then the answer is pretty straightforward – SSD. It’s the fastest and most reliable type of storage devices on the market today. Regarding brands, plenty offers excellent quality SSDs: Toshiba, Western Digital, Samsung, Seagate, Transcend, Freecom, etc.

Criteria for choosing an SSD drive for PS4

Even that the mentioned brands are considered as the best on the market, you will still need to pick one from what’s offered. The following criteria should ease up the selection process:

• Make sure that the drive doesn’t have less than 1TB storage.
• The SSD you are considering needs to have a user rating that is not below 4.5.
• Buy only from reputable manufacturers (the ones mentioned earlier are genuinely some of the best)
• Compare prices. Keep in mind that some brands are more expensive than others while offering the same features and same warranty.

Stick to the criteria and the one that is right for you will reveal itself. As far as the storage capacity is concerned, we recommend at least 2TB, but if you could afford, more is always better.

We have already published several guides on the use of SSD in PS4. the PS4 SSD Upgrade Guide is the most detailed guide on this issue. There’s also a guide for PS4 Pro that discusses in details why we recommend an SSD for PS4 Pro and not for the standard model of PS4. View it here.

Moreover, if you’ve already made up your mind to get an SSD for your PS4, you may be interested in the best SSD for PS4 then.

Benefits of SSD

SSD is the storage technology of the future, all experts agree on that. In future, all hard disks will be SSD. Here is what this exciting new technology brings to the table in terms of performances and features:

• SSDs speeds are in the range between 35 to 100 microseconds. That’s almost 100 times faster than the standard hard drive.
• SSD uses flash memory to store data and has no moving parts. Because of that SSD is super reliable and lasts much longer your typical HDD.
• They are way more energy efficient. That translates into lower energy consumption.
• No moving parts mean no noise.
• They are not affected by magnetism, unlike the HDD.
• SSD creates less heat than standard hard drives. That too translates into extended longevity.

The only real downside is the price tag that follows this type of hard drives. However, if you consider their longevity and lower energy consumption than the price doesn’t seem that much of an obstacle. But in the end, if all you want maximum performance than SSD is your only choice.

Nowadays, all professional gamers use SSD almost by default. That way no one has an advantage over others as all have it. In case you want one day to be part of the competitive world of gaming, then not having one is more than a disadvantage than anything else. But you still, though, have a chance with an alternative to SSD. Why not try an SSHD instead, if your budget is just too limited?

You can get a detailed information on PS4 hard drive upgrade before you finally decide which one is most suitable for you. Additionally, if you own PS4 Pro, try viewing our PS4 Pro hard drive upgrade guide then.

Before you buy one

Aside from the brand, bear in mind that PS4 uses 2.5 inches SATA hard drive. That type is usually found with laptops or slim external drives. The best hard drive for PS4 needs to be less than 9.5 mm tall because of the caddy found inside the PlayStation 4. Its goal here is to keep in place and protect the hard drive. You need to keep an eye to this detail as some 2TB hard drives are a bit bigger than that and don’t fit the caddy. So check that before you buy one if you don’t want to rush back and replace it with a proper one.

After you find the best hard drive for PS4, you will need to know how to swap it with the old one. Now, there are plenty of people that think of the swapping as a tedious and demanding process that requires many skills. However, that is not the case, as there aren’t too many steps in the process. Plus, there are dozens of great YouTube tutorials explaining every step in details so you won’t get lost along the way. The guide below should be sufficient for the average user to be able to complete the process easy and fast.

But before we go into details, you will need a few tools. The tools and accessories you need are:

• Phillips screwdriver
• PS4 controller
• micro USB cable
• laptop or PC with internet
• USB stick

Step 1: Create a backup

Once you’ve got all the tools and hard drive, you can go ahead and make a backup. That way you won’t lose stuff from your PS4. And by stuff, we don’t mean game installs as those will have to go. Of course, that doesn’t apply to PlayStation plus subscribers because their games will be safely saved on the cloud. Those that are not so fortunate to be PS plus subscribers can always backup them up on an external hard drive or a USB stick.

All it takes is to put in the drive, then access the PS4 menu from where you open settings. There you will opt for application saved data that will lead you to another set of options. From there choose to save data in system storage. In that department, you will find the option to save everything on a USB or an external hard disk. At that point, you can choose to save everything or select which games to save and which not.

Step 2: Swap the hard drives

For this, all you will ever need is a Phillips screwdriver. There will be few screws that will require your attention before getting to the old hard drive. Replacing the old with the new one shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. If you want to take things slowly, then time can get prolonged.

Step 3: Download the PS4 software

Once you are done swapping the old with the new hard drive, you will have a blank memory. PlayStation’s operative system is on the old hard drive you removed, while the new hard disk doesn’t have one.

You fix that by downloading OS from PlayStation’s official website. To that end, you will need a laptop or PC. The setup file is around 1GB, at present. Once the download is over, you can copy the file to your console from where you can start the installation. The installation process is pretty straightforward and doesn’t require some extra knowledge. Just follow the steps on the screen, and you will have no problems so ever.

Conclusion

Is it worth upgrading your PS4 with an SSD? Absolutely! Is it easy and fast? Another affirmative answer here. Two or more terabytes of SSD will serve you over an extended period, way longer than any other HDD could do. Not only that your new hard disk will last longer, but will be way quieter, the PS4 will run much smoother and faster; the games will run better and faster, all while being energy efficient PS4. The only sort of a downside is the initial investment you need to make.