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

[Boomstick777]

*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

 

[Boomstick777]

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

ps3ud0

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.

 

[Boomstick777]

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

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.

 

[Boomstick777]

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.

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.

 

[Boomstick777]

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.

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.

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

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..

 

[Boomstick777]

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.

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.

Have they fixed the issue with the m9t?

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.

 

[Boomstick777]

depends on what you want to save time or money?

most of my games are digital anyway (in fact all of them are apart from one). so i could let mine all install overnight, etc by just sticking them all on to download and then standbying the console, it's not a huge problem for me.

if you had a lot of disc games then it would be a PITA so you may opt to buy big now.

Yeah part of the reason I switched now. I wanted to use the SSD I had in the PS4 in my PC at some point, so thought I'll get it out of the way before I get a load more stuff on there. Another incentive is the drive being so cheap.

If you're not planning on getting many games or digital downloads PS+ etc then having a large drive isn't a priority.

 

[Boomstick777]

Looks like the 1.70 firmware releasing in the next 2 weeks will resolve the HDMI handshake issue by giving users the option to turn HDCP off in the options.

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/03/19/new-ps4-update-add-share-enhancements-hdcp/

 

[Boomstick777]

why have you posted that in this thread rather than the PS4 thread?

Because it should solve the HDMI handshake issue with this hard drive.. The hard drive that this thread is about lol.

 

[Boomstick777]

But do you honestly need more than 1TB of storage for the PS4? I see that they're big files, but i'd imagine you'd get bored and even stop playing most of them later on in life.

Think a Hybrid is the way to go for PS4s

This drive is using the latest platters it's surprisingly fast and quiet, if you buy it in the enclosure it can be had for similar price to a 1TB 2.5" HDD. Well worth it imho, the extra space may come in handy. Game installs are getting bigger and bigger..

didn't realise the hard drive caused a hdmi handshake issue.

how hot does your ps4 get out of interest with this drive installed?

Yeah the HDMI handshake issue is a pita, can cause a black screen on a cold boot up. Once you can turn off HDCP with FW 1.70, it should work perfect.

The drive is 5400rpm same as the stock drive, but it uses the latest Samsung/Seagate platters, it's fast and runs cool and quiet. Perfect for PS4 imho. At the price you can get it in the enclosure it's an absolute steal tbh.

 

[Boomstick777]

And even if it was a handshake issue
turning off hdcp doesnt stop it handshaking

That's exactly what turning it off does

"HDMI/DVI HDCP Handshake Problems & How to Avoid Them

http://www.quantumdata.com/resources/white paper/hdcp_wp.pdf"

Will install 1.70 later today and have a play around.

 

[Boomstick777]

Can confirm 1.70 'HDCP turned off' fixes no display boot issue on 2TB drive!



Cold boot now works perfect, thank you Sony.

 

[Boomstick777]

Did you actually try it without disabling HDCP, it could have been the update that fixed the issue and not disabling HDCP.

It's a good point bud, my system has been left in standby mode to avoid the blank screen issue, so the new update installed from that mode and then once on 1.70 and in the system menu I disabled HDCP and turned the system completely off. It's worked fine from every cold boot since, no more blank screen..

I don't want to test if turning it back on causes black screen issue again lol. Hopefully someone else has 2TB installed and can guinea pig that

80 Squid for 2TB and working perfect now. Bargain imho.

 

[Boomstick777]

Going to be doing a clean install of one later, just picked up the drive

Did you buy the external enclosure? Good luck taking it apart bud. Cheap upgrade for such big storage in 2.5" form factor.

 

[Boomstick777]

all dismantled took less than 5 minutes, for the game backups and firmware update do the usb sticks need to be in fat32 or ntfs meh will try fat32

Fat32. Worth syncing your trophies and backing up saves to USB as well. How much did you pay for the drive?

----------------------------

Seems just the update 1.70 is fixing some of the PS4's HDCP handshake issues even when it is still enabled - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=110070853&postcount=584

Interesting to see if other peoples 2TB drives work straight from the get go with fresh install of 1.70 and HDCP still turned on. I'm leaving it switched off in my PS4, it's working perfect now. Don't want to change anything lol. If it ain't broke...

 

[Boomstick777]

It was tanking waiting for the hd to spinup
nothing to do with the hdmi handshake
anyway its fixed now so all is good

Yes it is 1.70 has fixed the HDMI handshake issue, it's being posted all over the net lol.

right all installed and updated, left HDCP enabled and turned of the machine, how long should i leave it to test

I powered mine down for about 10 mins, even switched off at the wall to be sure lol. 1.70 Has fixed HDMI handshake issues. It doesn't just fix the 2TB issue but people having problems with certain other 1TB drives and those using receivers. Sony did good

2TB PS4, hopefully will last whole lifecycle, even if it doesn't in 4 - 5 years all types of drives SSD/HDD will be that much cheaper / better.

 

[Boomstick777]

ok left for for 15min each test one tv off powered ps4 on all ok test 2 tv on powered ps4 all ok. pretty pleased, now to have 20gb ish downloading for updates lol

Nice one, you got it all re-downloaded now? Nice to know you will prob never need to do it again

Got over 1400GB free on my drive lol.

 

[Boomstick777]

I'm pretty sure this is the same drive I bought but mine was silver. Great price from OCUK.

10+ in stock for immediate despatch
£79.98 inc VAT

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-312-SE

 

[Boomstick777]

The PlayStation 4 hard drive upgrade guide

Digital Foundry tests faster HDDs, hybrid drives and SSDs. Do games load faster and play more smoothly?

Lol at Digital Foundry suggesting taking apart a 2TB USB 3.0 "passport" can provide the best value upgrade

They mention that although the 2TB is 5400rpm, because it has the latest platter technology (Higher density) it is actually faster than the stock 500GB PS4 drive. Something I can agree with having not noticed much difference between 500GB, 1TB SSD and this 2TB drive.

the 5400rpm stock drive isn't that much slower than the upgrades. Although disappointing in some respects, it's actually good news in others - why spend the extra money on a hybrid drive, when a 2TB 5400rpm unit isn't that much more expensive? It seems that just like PS3 upgrades, cost per gig is the biggest consideration in choosing a new HDD.

we saw little to no in-game improvement when we compared game performance from the standard stock drive to an SSD. Trials Fusion texture pop-in apart, loading time improvements are the only real benefit we can see right now.

Something worthy of serious thought is a 2TB 5400rpm drive: typically, the higher the storage, the more data is crammed onto the platters, so while 5400rpm may not sound particularly fast, bandwidth does increase according to data density. If we were to start this feature from scratch, we would probably swap in one of these drives in favour of the hybrid SSHD

the variable success we got from the onboard caching suggests that the price premium isn't really worth it. On the flipside, while 2TB 2.5-inch 5400rpm drives are expensive, USB 3.0 "passport" variants are actually cheaper, and only a little pricier than the hybrid drive. There's another bonus too: prise the drive out from the enclosure and not only do you have a PS4 upgrade, you also have a caddy in which to house your old 500GB HDD.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-ps4-hard-drive-upgrade-guide

 

[Boomstick777]

Just picked up this drive less that an hour ago from high street shop for £90 was going to pay £120 but keying it in brought up £90!! Happy Bunny

Nice one, let us know how you get on with the install.