Topic: Dealing with a 500 GB HD

So due to Sony's brilliant idea of only including a 500 gb HD in launch PS4's (Probably the worst idea with the PS4) I was wondering how you all handle all your games on it? I am at the point where I have installed all the games I play on a regular basis. I really don't want to delete them mainly so I don't lose any of my progression in the games and have to start over and I don't want to have to reinstall them and delete something else everytime I play them.

I know you can replace the harddrive with a bigger one but honestly I am afraid to do that on my own, I am not to handy with electronics plus I have to idea how to transfer my save files etc to a new hard drive.

The other option is upgrading to a 1 TB PS4 but I really don't want to do that since I don't want to have to spend 400 for pretty much something Sony should have included in the first place. And again I don't have a clue how I would transfer my save files to a new PS4.

So here are my options

1)Can I use like flash drives to store so of the smaller indy games and load them up to the PS4 that way?

2)Does anyone have any clue when Sony will allow external HD like the Xbox One and Wii U does?

3) Any other tips for dealing with this would be really helpful.

1) Nope
2) Nope
3) Just upgrade the hard drive, it isnt that tough, though I havn't done it it's a very simple case of taking a drive out, putting a new one in and installing the firmware. You'll need to install all your games and download patches though. Watch a few youtube videos on it and get it done

Although I would say you can uninstall your current games and you wont lose your save data. You do need to redownload patches though, which is a pain if you uninstall something like Witcher 3.

I have the same problem, I cant be doing with buying a new hard drive and spending a couple of hours sorting it out (lazy I know) so I'll sit tight for a Neo, and in the mean time uninstall stuff as I finish playing it

The first thing I did was upgrade the hard drive to a 1TB hybrid drive it speeds up some processes if you are using them on a regular basis. Now thats full I will move up to a 2TB drive. 1) I do not think you can use flash drives for storage of games thats just really for movie files and music. 2) I do not think it will ever get external drive support. 3) Personally I would upgrade to a 2tb which is what I am about to do. I did manage the problem initially by just deleting games but now I have reached a point where I just have my regular games and so nothing can be deleted. The process of actually accessing the hard drive inside is very simple all you need is a few screw drivers and its a quick process. You can back up everything on an external hard drive and then copy it back to the new drive inside your ps4. I think though the external drive needs to be formatted to the same as the PS4 which is different to how a hard drive would normally be formatted. Also you need a USb stick with the current firmware on it. There are a lot of guides on how to do it and honestly Sony have made it as pain free as they could. No knowledge of how a console works is required much simpler than even doing it on a PC. Not sure if I can post a link here or not but a rival website did a good guide a few years back. Also lots of them on youtube.

All your saves should be backed up to the cloud assuming you have your games set to do that with the ps plus

@kyleforrester87: Hmmm I guess that's an idea, just start saving up for a Neo.

@dryrain: If they are saved to the cloud, can't I just redownload the saves from that, rather then backing them up to another HD?

@Tasuki: Yeah, honestly it's not too bad uninstalling games to free up space. As I say, you keep your saves, so you only need to download patches, and many games don't really need patching to work fine in single player.

Edit: and yeah your saves will be in the cloud, so just change HDD, install firmware, install games, download patches, saves will be tied to your PSN account.

Never tried that but you should be able to. You can also just backup your save files to a USB stick thats an option. Here is the link I talked about.

http://www.gamesradar.com/how-to-upgrade-PS4-hard-drive/

Tbh I think 500gb was smart. Keeps cost down and gives yo u the minimum you need to get start. If you need more get more.

But yeah you should wait for neo or upgrade the hard drive. I recommend a 1-2TB SSHD.

What Sony could of done is put in a small HDD specifically for the OS only. Then it would be a much simpler case of just swapping HDD's as the OS is already on the console in the 'small' unaccessible HDD inside. Obviously the easiest and best way would of course be to add HDD support. It would make it a LOT easier to transfer games over to the Neo!!

I don't know if it's me or not but it seems like newer games are getting bigger and biggger, then of course you have all the patches, DLC for games and then the OS update patches. It just irks me that Sony wasn't thinking long term that's all, or at least give us the option for an external.

i agree we NEED external HDD support and i know i could just upgrade the HDD but i have stuff on there that you CAN'T download anymore and if i change the HDD i will lose access to them and i'm not willing to do that

i will just keep deleting the games i can (and reinstalling when i want to play them because thankfully the PS4 installs pretty quick unlike the XB1) until Sony get their act together and add External HDD Support LIKE THEIR COMPETITORS HAVE!

really it's STUPID the PS4 doesn't have such a simple and easy function

of course they could just give us the option to NOT install games to the HDD or at the very least only PART of the game (like the PS3 did), i am willing to put up with longer load times if it means saving space on my HDD

@fullbringichgo You can backup you whole hard drive and then just restore it when you upgrade to the new drive

Never understood the 500GB HD space when the PS3 had a 500GB version as well. On top of that, the file sizes for PS4 games are usually two to four times bigger than PS3 games.
I usually try to finish the games before uninstalling them so that I don't have reinstall them again. Sometimes it gives me more incentive to finish some of the older games on my PS4 if I have new games to play.lol

@dryrain Is there a setting for Cloud backups? I noticed some of my games are not updating regularly to the Cloud storage.

@Tasuki I agree. Ever since they released the 1TB version, Sony and developpers are acting like that's the standard. It should have been the standard to begin with, but fact is that most PS4's have 500GB space.

The way I solved it, a year ago now, is to upgrade the hard drive. Sure, it took 50 dollar/euro, but I'm pretty happy now that I upgraded. I never ever worry about space, as long as I delete the games that I never plan on playing again in the near future. And I use my old PS4 HDD as a backup for my music and movies.

But, with the PS4K coming up, I would recommended holding out for that I guess. Who knows, maybe it'll come with a 2TB drive. I still need to find a way myself to scrap the money together, as I'm pretty poor.

I knew 500GB wouldn't be enough, so I simply replaced the HDD with a 1,5TB HDD day-1.
Still plenty left, and since I sell some games now and then that I won't play anymore, I can delete those and that frees up space as well.

At this moment though, and you do plan on getting the Neo, I'd wait.
If not, just upgrade. It's really, really easy to do. YouTube has some vids.

My biggest hope at the moment is that Sony see sense and offer External HDD support - just like MS and Nintendo. I know you can buy internal HDD's and upgrade those to 2TB but I would MUCH prefer an External. I have a 5TB external plugged into my XB1 and as soon as I buy the Scorpio, I can unplug my External and connect it to this and start playing these games - no transferring necessary. Also I can get more 'storage' at better prices too. Based on the cost of XB1 Slim, there is a £100 difference to increase my storage by 1.5TB - I spent £100 to increase my storage by 5TB - well under because of formatting and that reduced its overall capacity but still a LOT more. My OS remains on the internal.

Looking ahead, with the upcoming Neo, I would love to have this option in place. Maybe you can swap HDD's over - put your PS4 HDD straight into the Neo. However if the Neo comes with a 1TB or more, it won't make sense to swap it out with a 500GB storage. Personally, if Sony offered external HDD support, then I would buy a 500GB Neo as that is more than sufficient for the OS and spend the difference between internal HDD sizes on an External. I can get much more for far less and make everything far easier to swap between. Especially if I move my PS4 to my second TV - I could just unplug the External and move my entire library between both consoles...

Freaking Nintendo offers external harddrive support. It is completely asinine that in mid-2016 the PS4 still doesn't have what should've been a day one feature.

I do not mind not having external support you can fit a 2TB drive which is enough for most gamers. I do understand that some people are not happy but I can not see the situation changing.

@dryrain: you know HDD size wouldn't be in issue if you didn't have to install the entire game to the HDD even if you buy the physical version

and with games going over 50GB for installs now a days it soon adds up

yeah you can replace your internal HDD and it's great but the OPTION to use external HDD's should still be there and when every other system has this function the PS4 not having it is just plain stupid

@FullbringIchigo: I agree on both fronts. Yeah the HDD might be easy to swap out, but I don't like to do something like that on my own. I rather have someone there doing it with me. Yeah there are Youtube videos out there, but maybe I am just paranoid but my first time doing something like this I'd like to have someone there.

It's also not the size of the game but as a games life cycle goes on they add patches and DLC and all that adds up to. Especially if your like me and play several games that publishers support for awhile (Black Ops, Diablo, Overwatch)