PS4 external Drive just died

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 14:13

Hi there - i was using a 2tb HD external - for the ps4 - working fine . and then yesterday i turned it on and the PS4 would not recognise it. I have attached it to the PC and its saying it is not Initialized - when i went to try initialize it - it would not let me do it. I have tried a few diff programs and windows to let me do it.

It is powering up the spindle is spinning.

Any ideas what i could do to get this initialized and readable again. It does not show up in windows apart from when you go into to drive managment. i have even tried to recover the partition as it says it has none. That wont work either - i dont know if it is because it is a diff file system for the ps4 as for the pc.

thanks in advance guys

hyperseven · 26 Mar 2020 at 15:45

Use something like hdtune and get the smart info.

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 19:47

hyperseven said:
Use something like hdtune and get the smart info.

ill give this a go - a lot of the software i have been using is useless

Mcnumpty2323 · 26 Mar 2020 at 19:49

Tried cmd and disk part?
With clean command

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:08

hyperseven said:
Use something like hdtune and get the smart info.

it is not showing up on the list of hard drives on the software mate

Mcnumpty2323 · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:11

Use diskpart
From memory something like
Diskpart
List disk or disks always forget if it plural
Select disk X where X is the number disk you want
Clean

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:12

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Tried cmd and disk part?
With clean command

no mate - i tried to do it - what is it i need to do?

hyperseven · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:13

try a different cable. Is it under warranty? If not crack it open to see if has a standard SATA interface and connect directly to PC

Mcnumpty2323 · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:14

david gould said:
no mate - i tried to do it - what is it i need to do?

Cmd as administrator
Diskpart
List disk /disks
Select disk X where X is number of disk
Clean

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:14

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Use diskpart
From memory something like
Diskpart
List disk or disks always forget if it plural
Select disk X where X is the number disk you want
Clean

i did that and it said cleaning completed BUT i still can not accsess the drive or initalize it

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:17

hyperseven said:
try a different cable. Is it under warranty? If not crack it open to see if has a standard SATA interface and connect directly to PC

no it is now out of warrenty - this is the second cable to try - it is a sata connection inside the housing that then links to the PS4 / pc via a usb connection

Mcnumpty2323 · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:19

david gould said:
i did that and it said cleaning completed BUT i still can not accsess the drive or initalize it

Next option then as hyperseven said
Would be remove it from the caddy and connect directly to the motherboard
It may be the caddy is faulty
Not the hard drive

david gould · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:22

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Next option then as hyperseven said
Would be remove it from the caddy and connect directly to the motherboard
It may be the caddy is faulty
Not the hard drive

I have done this and the same result - it is not the caddy

Mcnumpty2323 · 26 Mar 2020 at 20:24

david gould said:
I have done this and the same result - it is not the caddy

Sorry then am out of ideas other than a donor pcb from a 100% identical drive
Not done that in years as price of mechanical drives now don't warrant it
Unless desparate to recover data

ic1male · 27 Mar 2020 at 10:13

david gould said:
i did that and it said cleaning completed BUT i still can not accsess the drive or initalize it

Strange. If the drive shows up in DISKPART and those operations completed successfully, there is nothing wrong with it. Are you sure you're using Disk Management properly?

david gould · 27 Mar 2020 at 10:42

ic1male said:
Strange. If the drive shows up in DISKPART and those operations completed successfully, there is nothing wrong with it. Are you sure you're using Disk Management properly?

yeah it defo shows up as online in the diskpart - i am not sure if i am . can you help me maybe do that?

ic1male · 27 Mar 2020 at 10:46

Run the DISKPART commands again. If you're going to use it on the PS4 again, just plug the drive in and see if you can re-initialize it in the PS OS.

If you want to use it on Windows, then follow the instructions on this webpage

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-hard-drive-windows-10

Scroll down to "How to create and format new partition using Disk Management"