Top positive review
3 people found this helpful
Yes even you can upgrade your PS4 HDD, no experience necessary!!
By Rineenerdad on Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2016
I had read on a couple of forums that this HDD is one of the most economical ways to upgrade space on the PS4. I purchased 2 of them, one to use in the PS4 and one for the backup and to load movies on for the car trips so this will be a review as well as a little step by step for those of you looking to use this unit for the same thing. DISCLAIMER: I have never opened a computer on purpose and am not trained in any way on how to do what I did, but it was super easy following the steps laid out by Sony. In order to use this drive for the PS4 backup I used my laptop to format the drive to FAT32. The default format is ntsf and will not work for the PS4 backup. Plus there is some install files that are not needed for this use. I then used this drive to back up the nearly 500GB of apps and player data following Sony's guide for this which is here: [...] It took about 3 hours using this drive because of the write speed. A solid state drive would have been faster and probably twice as expensive. Then I formatted the other drive keeping the ntsf format but ridding the drive of the unnecessary files. Removing the drive from the case is fairly simple using the smallest screw driver I had in my set from about a half inch away from a corner sliding it along the seam towards the corner until one of the clips pop. The lid then comes off easily under fingernail power. NOTE: this will void the warranty so make sure you have formatted and tested the drive prior to breaking the case seal. Be careful not to crack the case, we are going to use it later. The drive is held in the case by 4 rubber screw covers that keep it snug. Turn it over and with a gentle tap it falls loose. Take the covers off the screws and remove the screws. There is a foil cover protecting the usb adapter which you should remove carefully and set aside with the screws and rubber covers (I'll explain why in a bit). The adapter comes of easily with a little wiggle. Installing the drive is super easy thanks to Sony having the foresight to know 500GB just wouldn't be enough memory. Follow these simple directions to install the drive: [...] Make sure to download the reboot update file to a thumb drive prior to restarting your PS4. You will also need your PS4 controller cable to use the controller until the initialization is completed. DO NOT SIGN INTO PLAYSTATION NETWORK UNTIL YOU RESTORE YOUR PS4 FROM THE BACKUP DRIVE. It takes as much time to restore as it did to backup so be ready to do something else for a bit depending on how much data you have... oh wait, I have an idea, lets use the old PS4 drive to make another 500GB external drive! Put the drive back together using the removed USB adapter, screws, rubber covers, and aluminum sticker shield. DO NOT START THE FORMAT PROCESS UNTIL YOUR PS4 IS INITIALIZED, RESTORED, SIGNED INTO PSN AND YOU HAVE CHECKED FOR ALL OF YOUR DATA, APPS AND GAMES. YOU MAY REGRET NOT LISTENING TO THIS ADVICE IF THE DRIVE IS CORRUPTED. Unfortunately you are not able to initialize the PS4 drive the same way you can the other HDD. You have to manually delete each partition and format from Computer Management. I found the step by step on this here :[...] The hardest part was finding where to go to find the drive because the author of this post missed a step on how to get there. What I did was went to CONTROL PANEL> SYSTEM AND SECURITY> ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS> COMPUTER MANAGEMENT and found the drive the same way you would on file explorer. The rest of the instructions are fairly straight forward. Now having used the PS4 for about a week I can tell you that it works great, has plenty of storage room, and is quiet during operation. I did a lot of research on solid state drives prior to picking this drive instead because for me the speed gained was not worth the extra money watching the side by side reviews like this one : [...] I feel like I made the best choice for my budget, experience, and needs. I have since also installed the second drive into the other PS4 we have and used the 500GB drive I made from the first PS4 upgrade for the backup.
Top critical review
558 people found this helpful
PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE PURCHASING THIS ITEM
By CJK on Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2017
I've owned a number of Seagate products including two similar external drives purchased for my kids about 2 years ago. I have used Seagate and WD drives for years without any issues. This purchase was to replace another external Seagate drive that was starting to make noise during operation which is to be expected after 5 or 6 years of use - I understand stuff wears out. The challenge is that apparently Seagate's quality has slipped considerably since my last purchase. After purchasing this 2 Tb drive I moved about 600 Gb of data from my old drive to the new one over a period of several days. On Day 4, the drive developed a squeak when operating, which as it turns out signals the beginning of the end for the drive. After several hours of trying to copy the data to other media, the drive is now a stylish paperweight. I did a bit of research and it appears that these drives have a 15% failure rate. This isn't an issue if it fails during the original set-up - Amazon will replace it without question. I requested a replacement and it was at my door 2 days later. (BTW - Amazon gets 5-Stars for their customer service and replacement policy) The challenge is that once you've spent a few days loading data on the drive, then find out you have purchased one that falls into that 15% failure category; plan on investing some more money to recover your data. Seagate's Marketing Team has you covered. They've developed a strategy to provide a recovery service that ranges in price from $79 (download on sale right now - YIPPEE) to nearly $600 if you want Seagate to recover your files. I figured that I'd click Seagate's little "Try Before You Buy" option, but it still doesn't recognize the drive. The implied solution is to try the "Technician Download" for more than $100. Spending more money is apparently my only option. Good for Seagate, bad for me. BOTTOM LINE - Before purchasing this drive, PLEASE read the 1-Star reviews. I made the critical mistake of not reading the reviews before this purchase - I figured Seagate was a reliable option as it had worked for me in the past. When the drive failed on Day 4, I visited the Amazon page and found a significant number of recent 1-Star reviews who have experienced the same issue - CATASTROPHIC FAILURE after a few days to a couple of months. My recommendation is that you spend a few more dollars and look at another brand before purchasing an external drive. Second, I realize now that I mistakenly assumed that I could move the files from my old external drive which had signs of failure to this one. Poor assumption on my part. If your system is operating and you can copy the files - do so. Otherwise be prepared to have Seagate's hands in your pocket or get used to the idea of losing your files. At least I've got a stylish paperweight as a reminder.
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