PS4 2TB Hard Drive upgrade: '2TB Seagate Spinpoint M9T' Thread.

*Update September 2015*

You can pick a compatible 2TB external drive from a few places now. Or buy a HDD only 'Samsung M9T 2TB' which is a bit more expensive than buying an external HDD and removing the HDD yourself.

I won't mention best places to buy here as not sure if it would breach the rules. Please be aware if you do choose to buy an external HDD and remove the portable housing the warranty is gone as far as the external product is concerned. I'm not sure if Seagate etc would honor on RMA on the drive itself if needed. Maybe someone has more insight on this. Tbh you would have to have hands like King Kong to do any damage to the drive itself by opening the housing..

The one I am using is the 2TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive. It's 2.5" and comes in a case with a black bottom and silver top (others colors are available albeit more expensive). Inside this portable drive you will find the 2TB Samsung Spinpoint M9T.

So let's get started.

First thing is to backup yours and other users save games etc. Do this by logging into each profile going to storage management and backing up the saves to your USB stick. Also sync your PSN trophies.

You will need the PS4 software, latest version atm is System Software Update 2.57. You can download this here - http://uk.playstation.com/ps4initialise/



(You need the full 800mb+ file)

Now you have backed up your saves, PSN trophies synced, and OS software downloaded and placed on USB, it's time to get to the hard drive..

This is what the box looks like




The external drive housing.



To take this thing apart, get a small think piece of plastic, like a guitar plectrum etc. Gently separate the top lid from the bottom. Working around the edges.



Till it starts to look like this.



When you get the lid of you will have this.



The drive can just be gently pulled out from the bottom of the case, it is not fixed in anyway to the black bottom part.

When fully removed the drive has foil around the egde, just peel this off it comes of easy. The sata to USB adaptor can be gently pulled off from the end.



Now you have just the hard drive itself, you need to remove the HDD installed in your PS4, the black shiny housing part on the PS4 will clip apart from the main case. Revealing the HDD slot. One top screw will allow the drive caddy to be pulled out. The drive itself is held in the caddy tray by 4 screws. Unscrew these and remove the old drive (In my case SSD) and in with the new drive. Screw it back together and slide the caddy tray back into the PS4. Put back the one top screw and fix the top panel back into place.






With your USB stick in the PS4. Turn on the system. You will get an error and be asked to attach your PS4 control cable and press the PS button. Now follow the instructions to install the PS4 OS. You will come back to the start screen to enter all your preferences. Region, Language etc. Click on your profile and sign into PSN to get your profile back. From here enjoy a much larger hard drive and get your games etc installed again

Good post, any chance of further details of the box/HDD caddy - basically batch/manu dates/codes.

ps3ud0

double post

ps3ud0

ps3ud0 said:

Good post, any chance of further details of the box/HDD caddy - basically batch/manu dates/codes.

ps3ud0

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Here's the info from my order.

Seagate BUP Slim Portable 2TB Hard Drive - Silver.

STDR2000201 2TB
Regulatory Model: SRD00F1
EAN: 7636490051579

Run speed 5700 rpm.
Storage space 2TB.
USB 2.0.
USB 3.0.
Weight 0.14kg.
Size H1.2, W0.7, L11.3cm.
Manufacturer's 2 year guarantee.

Solid State Hybrid Drive is the way forward for PS4 really though.

Spook187 said:

Solid State Hybrid Drive is the way forward for PS4 really though.

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SSD is best, my 1TB SSD was nice n fast cool n quiet in the PS4, but I would rather have it in PC now. Games are getting big !

With the hybrids I think they only up to 1TB in 2.5". In a few years maybe see 2TB 2.5", thing is you only get about 8GB flash, which boots the most used files.. Not useful for anything beyond that. Speeds comparable to other 1TB 2.5" drives. 2TB Hybrid Probably be quite pricey as well when they launch.

Using this 2TB 2.5" method it doesn't cost much more a 1TB 2.5". Gives double the HDD space and using Seagate's latest tech (Larger platters, faster than stock 500Gb PS4 drive).

Would def recommend doing this. The price is certainly right lol.

Seems a bit early to be doing this; by the time you need 2TB the prices will have come down accordingly. That said, the prospect of re-downloading/installing everything on the existing 500GB HDD isn't very appealing either, so it perhaps makes sense to do it sooner rather than later.

What's the price appx?

TheVoice said:

Seems a bit early to be doing this; by the time you need 2TB the prices will have come down accordingly. That said, the prospect of re-downloading/installing everything on the existing 500GB HDD isn't very appealing either, so it perhaps makes sense to do it sooner rather than later.

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Good point, although atm the pre-order for this drive is circa £150. Doing it this way costs you about half. So the price could still be high for the drive only version for a while. Your right about -re-downloading everything. It's pity, hopefully won't need to change the drive again so plus side is getting it out of the way early before getting even more games etc.

The blue screen bit puts me off. I'm more interested in bigger storage than speed. I've never ever been bothered by load times on a console game.

So is it completely hit and miss as to whether or not you get this blue screen error?

Noxia said:

The blue screen bit puts me off. I'm more interested in bigger storage than speed. I've never ever been bothered by load times on a console game.

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Same here, the only reason I put the 1TB SSD in their is cos it was bigger than the stock drive and I had it lying around. Put that in my PC now. 2TB is ideal for PS4 imho, the game installs are all 30GB+ plus DLC etc.

andshrew said:

So is it completely hit and miss as to whether or not you get this blue screen error?

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It's to do with the time the drive takes to power on. It effect some TV's as HDMI doesn't handshake with PS4 properly. The way to bypass is to power on the PS4 first and then power on the TV after. Simple fix, I'm positive Sony will fix this with update as soon as the M9T is officially launched as an stand alone drive. It isn't released until March 31st.

It's a Seagate product in external form but the actual drive is a Samsung Spinpoint M9T, (Seagate own Samsung HDD) priced around £150 on pre-order. About half that price if you buy it as external drive and take it apart Official support should come with the launch of the standalone Samsung drive..

I may just go for a 1.5 as I do not buy digital games and I'm not convinced I'd get even close to filling a 2TB. Good guide though as the method remains the same,

That is a great guide. But I think having any more than 10 games at the one time can be kinda pointless. A 1tb should hold roughly 15-20 games. That's including dlc and averaging each game as 50gb.

But as said, the time it takes to install ect, 2tb would be great. Will need to look into this when I get one.

Games being 50GB or even 30GB on average is a load of rubbish.

Fifa is around 12GB as is War Thunder.

Lego is around 4-6GB

BF4 is around 45GB with DLC, Killzone is around 40GB without DLC.

your talking about a 20GB average on a full PS4 game, PSN games like dead nation, resogun are tiny so they bring the average down further but I'm going to ignore them as they aren't "proper" games but if I were to include them the average would be like 10-15GB.

Over the years I could see the average increasing to say 30GB which is a 50% increase on the current average of around 20GB, but even then It's hard to see in games like fifa where all that extra data is going to come from unless they start adding a lot more to them.

a 500GB drive should easily do 10-20 games.

personally I'm waiting for the price of a 360 GB SSD to hit <£75 before buying one, I don't need any more than 200-300GB so would get a 300-400GB drive to be on the safe side.

Have they fixed the issue with the m9t?

Psycho Sonny said:

Games being 50GB or even 30GB on average is a load of rubbish.

Fifa is around 12GB as is War Thunder.

Lego is around 4-6GB

BF4 is around 45GB with DLC, Killzone is around 40GB without DLC.

your talking about a 20GB average on a full PS4 game, PSN games like dead nation, resogun are tiny so they bring the average down further but I'm going to ignore them as they aren't "proper" games but if I were to include them the average would be like 10-15GB.

Over the years I could see the average increasing to say 30GB which is a 50% increase on the current average of around 20GB, but even then It's hard to see in games like fifa where all that extra data is going to come from unless they start adding a lot more to them.

a 500GB drive should easily do 10-20 games.

personally I'm waiting for the price of a 360 GB SSD to hit <£75 before buying one, I don't need any more than 200-300GB so would get a 300-400GB drive to be on the safe side.

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I dunno about that mate, PS4 has been out for about 4 months. My HDD is using 250GB+ with just 6 PS4 games and the PS+ stuff. Imagine how much space it will use up in 1 year or 2 years. I don't think 360GB would cut it. You would have to uninstall everything after you play. Every time you put in a Disc it allocates a certain amount of space and partitions the drive. Would be pity trying to just use 360GB, constantly having to delete things.

I guess if you only have 1 or 2 games and no PS+ stuff it would be ok. I would rather be able just to throw it all on though so it's already there when I want to use it. Apparently towards the end of the year PS+ will start getting the AAA games. That means large installs not just the few GB indie stuff.

steveo said:

Have they fixed the issue with the m9t?

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Did you read the OP?

You need to power on the PS4 a few seconds before powering on the TV. This fixes the no display issue some people have. Sony will likely issue an update to address this when the Samsung M9T officialy launches at the end of the month. It's not available to buy as a standalone drive yet, when it is Sony will likely give it full support.

the max number of games I ever play within the same 6 month period would be 5.

so even at 50GB per game I could still get 5 easily onto a 350-360GB SSD.

i have a 500GB hybrid atm anyway, it's going to take another year or two for 350GB SSD's to drop to that level (<£75), so I have 12-24 months to make my mind up and see what my usage is over that time.

i only buy like 3 games per year on average at best. fifa, fps and one other. the only reason i own killzone is I got it for 85p, otherwise I wouldn't of bothered.

my PS4 excluding killzone would only have 80GB used currently but it stands at 120GB currently.

once i complete killzone (halfway through chapter 4 ATM), i shall try out the multiplayer, if it's crap the game will simply be deleted, never to be played again.

i'm not a hoarder and i don't buy lots of games, therefore a small SSD will suit me fine. most of the games i get for free on psn plus i don't like anyway. the only one currently is resogun but after a week i stopped playing that. didn't really like the controls of dead nation but i'll give it a whirl again, all the other free ps4 games have not been to my taste.

Great thread will be getting a PS4 around summer time the 500 gb it comes with is useless will upgrade to 2TB straight away thanks for the quide.

spike2011 said:

Great thread will be getting a PS4 around summer time the 500 gb it comes with is useless will upgrade to 2TB straight away thanks for the quide.

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It's only useless if you enjoy paying more for digital only games. Or like to have 10 games on the system instead of actually finishing them.