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[Seraphis Cain]

I'm replacing my PS4's stock 500GB HDD with a 1TB SSHD. Just wanted GAF's advice on which would be faster/less of a pain in the ass. I could either redownload ~400GB of data (on a 35/5 connection) or backup and restore via an old USB 2.0 external hard drive (remember those old 2009/2010 Seagate Expansions that were all doomed to failure eventually? Yeah, one of those, no idea how it still works). I used the external back when I upgraded my PS3's hard drive, and I remember that being painfully slow, and it was only ~100GB of data. So I can't imagine how long 400GB would take. But on the other hand, even though I have no data cap or anything, 400GB would take forever to download and eat up my bandwidth for...probably a solid day, at least.

So I dunno, GAF. Which of these options would be less painful? And no, unfortunately buying a USB 3.0 external isn't a possibility right now. I wish though. That'd make this whole thing a non-issue.

 

[Flunkie]

Having just did it for Pro: redownload everything if you don't have a data cap.

 

[crimilde]

I just redownloaded everything. It took too long to backup/restore the data.

 

[FStop7]

The transfer process is slow af. It took over 2 hours for 90 gigs. Imagine how long it would take for a full drive.

 

[Soulflarz]

Redownload unless you have a specific reason not to, such as a data cap.
You can proxy server PT if you really need it again later.

 

[Toki767]

Took me about 4 hours to restore 980GB using a USB 3.0 external hard drive.

That said, it took me like 7-8 hours just to backup that 980GB using the USB 2.0 ports on the original PS4.

 

[secretanchitman]

It took a few hours for me to restore everything from an external hard drive (500GB) to a 2TB drive I put in my PS4...all thanks to P.T. because I didn't want to lose it.

Otherwise I would just redownload everything. Make sure your saves are backed up though!

 

[tearsintherain]

If you have both machines side by side, take a network cable and plug it into both PS4's (no router). It can transfer between the two 10x faster than going over a router, its like an hour or two tops for 1-2TB of stuff.

Barring that, or if you sell your old PS4 first, then yeah I guess redownload although one thing to keep in mind: You can ONLY restore saves on a drive for games that are INSTALLED. So if you give away, trade, loan, etc old physical games you cannot restore the save for it if you can't reinstall it.

Its still up on the cloud (if you have PS+) so its not lost forever, but something that throws people for a loop sometimes if they backed up dozens of game saves but don't have most of the game discs anymore.

 

[jack....]

I opted to redownload everything so my HD won't be full of stuff that I'm not playing at least for a while.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

If you have both machines side by side, take a network cable and plug it into both PS4's (no router). It can transfer between the two 10x faster than going over a router, its like an hour or two tops for 1-2TB of stuff.

Barring that, or if you sell your old PS4 first, then yeah I guess redownload although one thing to keep in mind: You can ONLY restore saves on a drive for games that are INSTALLED. So if you give away, trade, loan, etc old physical games you cannot restore the save for it if you can't reinstall it.

Its still up on the cloud (if you have PS+) so its not lost forever, but something that throws people for a loop sometimes if they backed up dozens of game saves but don't have most of the game discs anymore.

This isn't for a Pro. Just upgrading my HDD.

 

[Goose_Se7en]

I deleted everything and backed up only my screenshots, clips and most importantly PT. Everything else I installer via disc and downloaded via PSN

 

[Seraphis Cain]

Welp, pretty unanimous, looks like downloading it is!

 

[EL CUCO]

I just backed up a couple digital games I might actually play (including PT), along with all the settings and stuff on an older external USB HDD. Took about 40min for just over 100gb.

 

[playXray]

I just did this. I deleted everything except Skyrim and PT, and the USB backup took about 20 minutes. I then re-downloaded the rest of my games over the next day or so, and had Skyrim to play on while I waited

 

[daveo42]

Redownload if you can, backup if your internet is slow, you have data caps, and/or if you don't have much to transfer over. Took about 4 hours to backup and then another 4 to transfer about 500GB. Long ass process that I did overnight.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

USB 2.0 drive will take forever to backup and restore. I tried with USB 3.0 and it didn't take long

 

[dimmer]

Did this a few days ago:
Deleted everything except PT, made sure all saves/trophies/profiles were on cloud and then backed up to a USB stick,made the transfer and redownloaded.

 

[family_guy]

Redownload what you want. The benefit is that you can clean up your installed library and push stuff out you don't play anymore.

 

[Kilau]

Took me about 4 hours to restore 980GB using a USB 3.0 external hard drive.

That said, it took me like 7-8 hours just to backup that 980GB using the USB 2.0 ports on the original PS4.

OG PS4 also has USB 3.0 ports.

 

[Poot Poot Splash]

I just redownloaded everything. I don't have data caps and i have a 300mb connection.

 

[tebunker]

Redownload if you can, backup if your internet is slow, you have data caps, and/or if you don't have much to transfer over. Took about 4 hours to backup and then another 4 to transfer about 500GB. Long ass process that I did overnight.

I find this odd. I went from 500gb to 1 tb on one system and 500-2tb on another and neither one took more than 2.5 hours. Both systems had approximately 400gb of stuff on their drives.

Honestly the best thing to do is determine exactly what you really need on the new drive and just delete the rest. PSN speeds suck.

 

[Lemmy Caution]

Quick question related to this.

My first step before transferring from my old PS4 will be to pop a new 2TB drive into the Pro.

Can I do that before even booting up the PS4 Pro? Is there anything I need to do first to prep the Pro for the new Hard drive?

 

[Marty Chinn]

I just did this and definitely do a transfer. Mine was transferring at about 1 gbps which is way faster than my Internet connection is. So unless you have gigabit Internet, it'll be faster to transfer.

If you have both machines side by side, take a network cable and plug it into both PS4's (no router). It can transfer between the two 10x faster than going over a router, its like an hour or two tops for 1-2TB of stuff.

No, you're wrong about the timing on that. The PS4 has a gigabit port on there. It can transfer at most roughly 360GB an hour. So 1 TB is going to be at least 3 hours.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

I just did this and definitely do a transfer. Mine was transferring at about 1 gbps which is way faster than my Internet connection is. So unless you have gigabit Internet, it'll be faster to transfer.

Yeah, I ended up doing a transfer. It only took ~3 hours to backup, and it's taking about the same amount of time to restore, according to the estimate.

So yeah, way faster than I could have redownloaded everything. And that's over USB 2.0, at that.

 

[holygeesus]

Why have they made it that you can't individually back up apps to USB? It means you have to delete everything but PT rather than just checking one app and backing up that way. Seems an odd way to do it.