How to use an external HDD or SSD on PS5
You can use any kind of hard drive as long as you use USB 3.0 or later. In fact, it’s the most important thing to know about your external hard drive. You don’t have to worry about compatibility, so there’s no need to spend time researching!
You’ll be able to plug in external hard drives into the PlayStation 5’s USB-C port. Unfortunately, the USB-C port on the front will only be able to handle 2.0 speeds, meaning that you can’t use USB 3.0 hard drives.
The primary issue with hard drives is their size. Even if they seem tiny, a large number of them can quickly fill a hard drive bay. That’s why it’s important to be careful about what you buy. To avoid running out of space, make sure to choose an external hard drive that’s the right size for the needs you have.
If you’re using the same external hard drive that you used for your PS4, the process is very simple. Plug in your external hard drive, follow the prompts, and you’re good to go. Games that you already installed on your external hard drive will appear on your PS5.
Plug in the drive and format as extended storage when prompted. You don’t want to remove data from the drive, because you’ll be taking it out and putting it into a new one.
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What you can store on a PS5 external hard drive
The PS5 will not let you store PS4 game files on an external drive, only game saves. So, if you want to move games you have already played to a new PS5, you will need to back them up first and then format the PS5.
The PS4 is equipped with enough internal memory to hold a handful of games, so there’s little reason to save pictures or videos to an external hard drive. Even if the PS5 has an adequate amount of internal memory, however, there is still no good reason to save media or data to a secondary storage device since that would limit the amount of storage you’d have for your games.
Thankfully, there’s a way around this limitation. If you want to store your captures on an external hard drive, simply plug in the hard drive and don’t format it. This preserves the data in the drive and prevents any data loss.
After you install the game, you will need to choose your external hard drive or SD card as the place where you’ll back up the game. You can also move the captures you want to copy to the external drive. You can also do so while the game is installed on your external hard drive.
Your choices are limited to either installing a game on an external hard drive or using the internal storage of the PS5. The internal storage is slower than the external and it won’t load all the extra data needed to play some games, but the benefits of it outweigh this. You can check it also Compatible Seagate external hard drive for PS5.
Benefits:
1. Portable Gaming Library
An external hard drive is a portable device that’s used to store all of your digital media. External hard drives make it easy to take all of your digital files with you wherever you go, and you can always add storage to your system if need be. You can even use an external hard drive to back up files so they’re protected from data loss or corruption.
You can carry your save data to a friend’s house if you use physical games, and you won’t have to wait as long because their PS5 will install the game data if you use an external hard drive.
If you want to play your favorite games on your PS5, then it’s time to purchase a new hard drive. Connect it to the console and you can log into your PlayStation Network (PSN) account and access your games just as if you were sitting in front of your own machine. It’s a pretty seamless experience.
2. PS5 With Extensive Storage Space
The PS5 will come with an internal storage of 128GB as well as a MicroSD card slot that supports up to 2TB, so you’ll have plenty of room for everything from your games to movies, music and other things you like to store on your PlayStation. Plus, if you add a USB 3.0 hard drive or SD card, you can have even more storage!
The PS5 will be able to store more than just 5 games! In fact, a new feature in PS5 allows users to keep their old games and play them on PS5! And that means you won’t need to uninstall any of your games to play them again on your PS5.
3. Easy to Set Up
Setting up a PS5 with an external hard drive should be fairly straightforward, assuming you use the correct steps. Formatting an external HDD for PS5 should be as simple as it sounds – it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes and you can start using your new external hard drive right away.
The nicest part is that you won’t have to open your PlayStation 5 or worry about having the proper internal storage device measurements. All you’ll need is a USB 3.0 or higher external hard disk with a USB-A connection that’s between 250 GB and 8 TB.
If it happens that you have some problems using an external HDD on PS5, please visit this very helpful article.
4. Make Up for The Physical Size
External hard drives can take up a lot of space in a console’s console. There are good reasons for external hard drives to exist and there are reasons why it’s okay for you to have one in your PS5. But we still think you should only keep things important on an external drive. It could be placed next to or on top of your PS5.
5. Back Up Internal Storage
A hard drive is basically the digital equivalent of a CD or DVD. When it comes to storing your data, this is your ultimate back-up device. A backup is essential, especially if you plan on sharing your PS5 with other people. Don’t forget, you can also share your own media via the PS5’s built-in media library!