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PS5 - External Drive Compatibility?

BlitzerRadic

BlitzerRadic

Member
I'm having a problem with using a Sandisk Extreme 1TB external drive with my PS5. Apparently, only "superspeed" (USB 3.2) drives are supported for extended storage. According to the spec sheet for this drive it has a USB 3.2 interface, and my PS5 sees it but wont format it. Is this a case of PEBKAC or is my PS5 or drive screwed up?
 
Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen said:
I have a 2TB SSD ready to plug into a usb 3.1 gen 2 enclosure (USB-C cable). Can't wait. But yeah I'm gonna wait until firmware addresses the drive corruption
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If you don't mind me asking, what else did you read about people having issues with external drives? Is it exclusively related to SSD hard drives, or running software from the drives, or have non-SSD external hard drives been causing issues as well?

I thought the main possible issue was with standby mode. Is the hard drive issue perhaps related to that, or are their two potential issues?
 
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Never mind, I'm having the same issues 🤦🏻‍♂️

I'm sure it's because I'm using an NVME in an enclosure. Tried formatting a dozen different ways and no luck.
 
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Australian PS5 Disc Edition owner here.

I have my 2TB Western Digital External HDD(USB 3.0) plugged in since I first set the console up yesterday morning. It has been almost 2 full days with the console now and had no issue using the drive, I've transferred games to the SSD and back to test, launched variable games and played from the external drive and the console has been powered on and off and in and out of rest mode quite a bit - 0 issues.
 
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Question:

Has anyone just plugged their current (or old, I guess) PS4 external HDD to their PS5 and play straight away? Did everything go smoothly and work with no issues?

Can't decide if I should transfer all games to my new external SSD before my PS5 gets here or just fresh install on the PS5
 
Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen said:
Question:

Has anyone just plugged their current (or old, I guess) PS4 external HDD to their PS5 and play straight away? Did everything go smoothly and work with no issues?

Can't decide if I should transfer all games to my new external SSD before my PS5 gets here or just fresh install on the PS5
Click to expand...

The first external I used was the 4TB I used on my OneX, and it fucked up my PS5, but I determined the actual external drive to be failing.
As a backup I plugged in the 2TB I used with my PS4 and it worked fine. No issues so far with it.
 
Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen said:
Question:

Has anyone just plugged their current (or old, I guess) PS4 external HDD to their PS5 and play straight away? Did everything go smoothly and work with no issues?

Can't decide if I should transfer all games to my new external SSD before my PS5 gets here or just fresh install on the PS5
Click to expand...

I think if there were real widespread issues with this, you'd be seeing it everywhere right now. Instead, it's likely a select number of people having hard drive issues and attributing that to the new console.

My intention to copy several PS4 games over to the PS5, and then safely disconnect the drive after using the appropriate menu option. At least for now, I don't think I'll play games them from the drive, just in case that's the thing that can potentially cause issues. I also don't intend to use the standby mode, as several journalists did say they had issues with that.

I'll also likely give it a couple more days to see if more people report having issues.

Pietanic said:
FFS. I bought this exact same SSD last week and moved all my PS4 games to it. I hope Sony patch this quickly, this is fucking stupid
Click to expand...

Sorry, does that mean you're actually running into problems, or you're concerned about potential problems?
 
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Pietanic said:
FFS. I bought this exact same SSD last week and moved all my PS4 games to it. I hope Sony patch this quickly, this is fucking stupid
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I had a bunch of PS4 games installed on it and when I plugged it in my PS5 said there was an error with the drive and wouldn't recognize it. Then I removed all the games and tried to format and it recognized it but said it needed to be superspeed USB.

Could you try plugging yours in and see what happens?
 
Great thread op. I wanted to get a drive for my ps5 (should I ever be lucky enough to get one) but wanted to hear about performance and compatibility first.

Appreciate all these posts
 
LegendOfKage said:
I think if there were real widespread issues with this, you'd be seeing it everywhere right now. Instead, it's likely a select number of people having hard drive issues and attributing that to the new console.

My intention to copy several PS4 games over to the PS5, and then safely disconnect the drive after using the appropriate menu option. At least for now, I don't think I'll play games them from the drive, just in case that's the thing that can potentially cause issues. I also don't intend to use the standby mode, as several journalists did say they had issues with that.

I'll also likely give it a couple more days to see if more people report having issues.



Sorry, does that mean you're actually running into problems, or you're concerned about potential problems?
Click to expand...

Youre probably right, bro. I'm just super paranoid. It's probably gonna be perfectly fine
 
BlitzerRadic said:
I had a bunch of PS4 games installed on it and when I plugged it in my PS5 said there was an error with the drive and wouldn't recognize it. Then I removed all the games and tried to format and it recognized it but said it needed to be superspeed USB.

Could you try plugging yours in and see what happens?
Click to expand...



LegendOfKage said:
Sorry, does that mean you're actually running into problems, or you're concerned about potential problems?
Click to expand...

sorry guys. Should clarify, I'm in Ireland and don't get console till the 19th so can't comment. Just venting :-)
 
Rayderism said:
Is it reasonable to assume that any external HDD that currently works on a PS4 should work on PS5?
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I was under the impression that was the case, but the error message I get is that the drive needs to be superspeed USB (USB 3.2) but other posters have said they were able to get USB 3.0 drives to work so who knows.
 
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BlitzerRadic said:
I was under the impression that was the case, but the error message I get is that the drive needs to be superspeed USB (USB 3.2) but other posters have said they were able to get USB 3.0 drives to work so who knows.
Click to expand...

I think it all depends on the cable. You need the 10gbs cable (3.1 gen 2) I think. The drive can be whatever.

I could be wrong here, just how I understand it
 
My non-SSD 4TB works fine. It did have to rebuild the DB for some reason.
 
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Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen said:
Question:

Has anyone just plugged their current (or old, I guess) PS4 external HDD to their PS5 and play straight away? Did everything go smoothly and work with no issues?

Can't decide if I should transfer all games to my new external SSD before my PS5 gets here or just fresh install on the PS5
Click to expand...
I did, I just plugged it in and away I went and had no issues.
 
So do normal usb 2.5inch laptop enclosed drives work? I've got a 1tb laying around I was planning to use for the few ps4 games I have.
 
Can someone please have a look how much the loading of a PS4 game is affected playing internal SSD vs external whatever. 😊
 
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kikonawa said:
Digital foundry has nice videos about that ( not with the ps5 but with ps4 pro) at least that can be an indication
Click to expand...

Yeah it's the PS5 one I need as if the compromise is too great I'll wait.

They did a Series X one and for legacy games an external nvme and Sata were only behind the internal in a few seconds. Only mechanical was far behind. I'm hoping the PS5 will be similar.
 
Using a WD P50 and got the whole crash during Spiderman saying my external was not disconnected properly even tho miles morales was installed on the PS5's internal ssd
 
Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen said:
Youre probably right, bro. I'm just super paranoid. It's probably gonna be perfectly fine
Click to expand...

So what did you end up doing or deciding to do? I think I'm going to go with the console to console transfer I mentioned above, just to be on the safe side. I should even be able to run my external from my PS4, transfer content onto the PS4, and then transfer that content to PS5. Not much extra work, and considering even a few more people on this forum are talking about running into some small issues with external drives, It's probably worth it for now.
 
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Imtjnotu said:
Using a WD P50 and got the whole crash during Spiderman saying my external was not disconnected properly even tho miles morales was installed on the PS5's internal ssd
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I also have a WD P50. I'ma keep it away from my PS5 when I get it next week.

I slowly get the feeling that this issue is the main reason for why Sony has disabled the expandable storage (the M.2 slot).
 
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Ok so I finally got my drive working. Turns out the cable included with PS5 is either defective or doesn't support superspeed USB.
 
I ended up plugging in my external SSD last night (I had preloaded it with all my PS4 games before unplugging my Pro) and so far it's working perfectly

hopefully I didn't just jinx it
 
I have 2TB WD My Pasport USB 3.0, separated into two partitions.One NTFS,and second xFAT.PS5 detected xFAT partition and asked to format it,i thought that will format only this partition,but deleted all drive.Lost all data.Copying and playing PS4 games works fine,but this HDD becomes unusable for other devices.Windows can't see it,Android TV too.
 
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Have a 4tb WD that was used for my PS4 Pro, seem fine no problems just plug and play.
 
There's also something many people don't seem to take into account/don't understand/don't believe is that USB powered external HDD's are SLOW, and I mean slower than the internal on a PS4, which is also slow. Then they complain about long load times. Especially on a PS5, you want an externally powered external HDD, if you're not going to use an SSD external.

I imagine that people who post vids of CP2077 with horrible texture pop-in or NPC's with no textures are using a crappy USB powered externals, and that's why they are getting those issues. STOP USING USB POWERED HDD's, they are junk for anything other than basic file storage.
 
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Rayderism said:
There's also something many people don't seem to take into account/don't understand/don't believe is that USB powered external HDD's are SLOW, and I mean slower than the internal on a PS4, which is also slow. Then they complain about long load times. Especially on a PS5, you want an externally powered external HDD, if you're not going to use an SSD external.

I imagine that people who post vids of CP2077 with horrible texture pop-in or NPC's with no textures are using a crappy USB powered externals, and that's why they are getting those issues. STOP USING USB POWERED HDD's, they are junk for anything other than basic file storage.
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There are 7200rpm external drives. Just make sure you don't get one labeled as "Backup". Those are 5400rpm drives that will die quickly as they're not made for constant access like with games. Seagate's that are labeled "Expansion" are usually 7200rpm and can handle gaming.
 
Just proves my point that many people just don't understand. Regardless of RPM speeds, USB powered drives are SLOWER than drives that plug into AC for power.
 
Been using a Samsung T7 for about three weeks now and not had a single problem. I don't use rest mode as I don't see the point when it takes 20 seconds or something to get to the UI but I understand it does play fine with rest mode.
 
I used a 2tb powered drive for Ps5 it just doesn't like it. It won't power off and keeps screwing the drive as it had to un plug it to turn the machine off!! Then recover it.

Gave up and got a 4tb USB for Christmas works perfectly. They need to sort the compatility out.
 
Low Moral Fibre said:
Been using a Samsung T7 for about three weeks now and not had a single problem. I don't use rest mode as I don't see the point when it takes 20 seconds or something to get to the UI but I understand it does play fine with rest mode.
Click to expand...

Same, I bought a RED Samsung T7 2TB and put all of my PS4 games on it. No issues at all. It did crash a few time before Spiderman was patched.
 
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