Keep clicking next to progress through, you can also choose a name for the drive under the ‘Volume label’.

The New Simple Volume Wizard will open.

Now right-click on the unallocated block and choose ‘New Simple Volume’.

Repeat the process for all partitions until you see one large ‘Unallocated’ block.

The first thing to do is to delete all the existing partitions – this is done by right-clicking on each of the blocks and choosing ‘Delete Volume’.

You can use the size to tell if you have the right drive, as well as it having many partitions (15+).

It’s critically important that you select the right disk – if you do this to another disk you will loose data.

All the drives connected to the computer will be listed in the lower half of the Disk Management window.

Right-click on the Windows start button and choose ‘Disk Management’.

using a USB caddy or internal SATA cable)

Connect the PS4 hard drive to the computer (e.g.

This process DOES NOT require you to install third-party software, a potential source of malware. These steps will show how using Windows 10, but will be similar for Windows 7 and 8. To make it work in Windows you’ll need to remove the existing partitions and create a new partition that is recognised by Windows. This is because the PS4 uses a format not recognised by Windows. We recommend exFAT, because it supports files that are over 4GB in size.If you’ve recently upgraded the hard drive in your PS4 and want to use it on your computer – you’ll find that the drive doesn’t appear in Windows Explorer. You’ll need to make sure your hard disk, SSD or USB drive is formatted using the FAT32 or exFAT file systems – the PS4 doesn’t support the NTFS file system.

This is because the PS4 doesn’t encrypt and format the entire drive when making backups – it leaves your hard disk or SSD free to be used for other tasks if you’ve got the space.

If you want to use an external drive to store console backups the process is only a little more complex. Pick the option to Format the drive as extended storage, and the console will take care of the whole process.Īs ever, you do need to remember to use a USB 3.0 product with a capacity between 250GB and 8TB, otherwise the process won’t work. This is because the PS4 uses its own encrypted file system when using a hard drive or SSD as extended storage.Īll you’ve got to do is plug your drive into the console, head to the Settings menu, open Devices, and then USB Storage Devices.

If you want to format an external hard drive for PS4, the process couldn’t be much simpler.

How to format ps4 hard drive for mac