PS4 HDD upgrade question

RareEntitee · 1 Oct 2015 at 15:02

Hi guys so space on the original 500gb filled quickly, mostly with game installs and am now attempting to upgrade to a 2tb hdd housed in an caddy as a external hdd

I was thinking of backing up the ps4 applications and games on the 2tb first, stripping it out and then replacing the stock hard drive with it. Would that work? or would i still have to re-download everything as i dont have any other capacity external hard drive to restore from

Zhokel · 1 Oct 2015 at 15:07

I think you will have to re-download everything again, as when putting a new HDD in you need to then have a system file that's about 800MB on a USB stick to reinstall the system software, which will basically reformat the new HDD. I could be wrong but I am 99% sure that is correct.

edit: Yep, this will wipe the new HDD: http://faq.en.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9522/~/safe-mode-on-ps4

RareEntitee · 1 Oct 2015 at 15:39

Zhokel said:
I think you will have to re-download everything again, as when putting a new HDD in you need to then have a system file that's about 800MB on a USB stick to reinstall the system software, which will basically reformat the new HDD. I could be wrong but I am 99% sure that is correct.

edit: Yep, this will wipe the new HDD: http://faq.en.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9522/~/safe-mode-on-ps4

Thanks for the help, what I think may work is backing everything to the 2tb hdd, copying the contents to a laptop, then inserting the ps4's original 500gb into the caddy with sata bridge in the current 2tb, then copying content from laptop to it and generate a restore after connecting it to ps4 again, whaddya think?

Zhokel · 1 Oct 2015 at 15:44

Should work if this reddit post is anything to go by (look for the poster phyber): https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/34tpub/can_i_copy_the_ps4_backup_off_my_portable_hard/

But I have no experience in it's backup system I'm afraid so can only go by what others have said.

Psycho Sonny · 1 Oct 2015 at 15:56

the backup system is for backing up to a spare drive.

e.g. you backup to that drive. install the new drive then re-install the backup from the spare drive.

you cannot do a restore without having 3 completely hard drives.

1. the original drive
2. usb backup drive
3. new internal drive