As your console recreation assortment grows, you’re going to want more room to retailer it — and the interior storage inside your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Sequence X / S isn’t going to final eternally. Which will go away you in a scenario the place you’re often uninstalling and reinstalling video games, juggling them round to suit the obtainable house.
You’ve got choices. The PlayStation 5 has an internal slot for expanding the onboard storage that’s fairly simple to entry by popping off a few panels and turning a single screw. On the Xbox aspect, you should buy storage expansion cards that plug into a delegated slot on the again of the console for a fast and simple (if typically costly) improve.
Including exterior storage drives can assist ease the strain, too, providing you with plug-and-play entry to gigabytes and even terabytes of extra storage. And since you’re merely attaching an exterior drive, this isn’t an advanced or time-consuming operation — although there are a couple of technical factors of order that you just want to pay attention to.
Methods to add an exterior drive to a PS5
As soon as system recordsdata are taken into consideration, there’s solely about 667GB of inner cupboard space on a PlayStation 5. Contemplating {that a} recreation comparable to Horizon Forbidden West can take up virtually 90GB by itself, it’s clear that critical avid gamers are going to return to some extent the place that house runs out.
As famous earlier, the PS5 comes with a slot for increasing the interior storage by way of an M.2 SSD, and yow will discover out how you can carry out the improve here. The console will deal with the SSD virtually like inner storage, and you may run video games straight from it.
Plugging an exterior drive right into a spare USB port on the PS5 is faster and simpler, however it comes with extra caveats. You should utilize these drives for storing and taking part in PS4 video games, however they’ll solely retailer PS5 video games. (Whenever you need to truly play them, you’ll want to maneuver them again to the interior storage.)
Nonetheless, it’s extra handy than having to attend for PS5 video games you’ve purchased to be downloaded once more. Any SSD or HDD you plug in must be between 256GB and 8TB in dimension and assist 5Gbps switch speeds or higher — generally known as USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and USB 3.2, or typically “SuperSpeed USB.” This implies most trendy drives will work however not {old} USB 2.0 ones. You’ll be able to double-check compatibility with the vendor when shopping for.
When you’ve purchased your new SSD or HDD storage (or repurposed a drive from elsewhere), plug it immediately into one of many giant USB-A ports on the again of your PS5 or the small USB-C port round entrance, as Sony recommends. The USB-A port on the entrance of the PS5 gained’t assist exterior storage, and also you additionally shouldn’t use a USB hub to attach the drive to your console.
Earlier than you should utilize a drive, you’ll must format it.
- Open Settings (the cog icon on the prime of the interface).
- Decide Storage > USB Prolonged Storage > Format as USB Prolonged Storage to begin the method.
To maneuver PS5 video games to exterior storage:
- Open Settings and select Storage > Console Storage > Video games and Apps.
- Choose a recreation, then Choose Gadgets to Transfer, and you may decide a number of titles to maneuver over to the drive you simply linked.
- It’s the identical course of for transferring them again: simply decide USB Prolonged Storage as a substitute of Console Storage within the Storage menu to seek out the video games you need to transfer.
- Observe: any PS4 video games you put in will robotically place themselves on the connected exterior drive. Whereas that is most likely probably the most handy place to maintain them, if you wish to change this for any motive — for instance, for those who’re not going to have your exterior drive all the time linked to your PS5 — you possibly can. From Settings, choose Storage > Set up Location > PS4 Video games and Apps.
- You’ll be able to eject the drive in Settings by way of Storage > USB Prolonged Storage > Safely Take away from PS5. It’s also possible to wipe it by deciding on the three dots simply to the suitable of the Safely Take away from PS5 button, then Format as exFAT. (exFAT drives may be learn by each Home windows and Mac in addition to Linux machines.)
Methods to add an exterior drive to an Xbox Sequence X / S
In the case of the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, you get 1TB or 512GB of inner cupboard space, respectively — although, in actuality, it’s not that a lot when system recordsdata are taken into consideration. There’s no inner growth slot like there’s on the PS5, so for those who want extra room, it’s important to go exterior.
The official Storage Expansion Card possibility is the only option right here since you’re ensured a seamless and high-speed storage expertise, however it’s additionally the most costly (though prices have fallen drastically recently). Solely Seagate and Western Digital make these playing cards in the intervening time, in 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB capacities, and so they slot straight into the devoted slot on the again of the Xbox.
Alternatively, you should utilize your individual selection of SSD or HDD and plug it into any spare USB port on the Xbox Sequence X or Xbox Sequence S so long as they provide a capability of 128GB or extra and speeds of USB 3.0 or sooner. This will likely be cheaper, however you gained’t have the ability to run video games made for the current-generation Xbox from the drive, solely retailer them — they’ll have to be moved again to inner storage if you wish to play them. (Video games made for older Xbox consoles may be saved externally and can run from an exterior drive, too.)
The steps for putting in and dealing with the Storage Growth Card or an exterior drive are virtually the identical, with the one distinction being that you just might need to format an exterior SSD or HDD for those who haven’t used it earlier than.
- If you happen to’re utilizing a Seagate or Western Digital storage growth card, plug the cardboard into the designated slot across the again: it’s simply above the ability cable socket on each consoles and is labeled Storage Growth.
- If you happen to’re utilizing a distinct exterior drive, you possibly can plug it into any of the USB ports on the entrance or again of your Xbox. If it’s a brand new drive or a drive you’ve used for one thing else, you might then see a immediate on the display screen asking for permission to format it to make it prepared to be used.
- With any sort of storage, you’ll see a message asking if you wish to change the situation settings for storing video games — you are able to do this when prompted if you’d like, however the identical screens may be discovered by opening Settings (by way of the cog icon on the prime of the interface), then System > Storage units.
- Select Change set up places to inform your Xbox the place to avoid wasting new Xbox Sequence X / S video games, backward-compatible (older) video games, and apps by default. In every case, you possibly can decide an inner or exterior drive or select Let Xbox resolve, which suggests a selection will likely be made for you primarily based on the place probably the most cupboard space is out there.
- If you wish to change the situation of a recreation, return to the Storage units display screen, select an inner or exterior drive, after which click on Transfer or copy. Choose a number of of your video games after which Transfer chosen to switch them to an exterior drive for storage or the interior drive for enjoying.
- Additionally on the Storage units display screen, once you select an exterior drive, you’ll see a Change how drive is configured possibility. This allows you to specify whether or not the drive is getting used with one or a number of Xbox consoles: the latter allows you to simply change video games between Xboxes. Nonetheless, for those who select that, video games gained’t be up to date robotically. To manually replace video games, choose the drive, then select View content material > Handle > Updates.
- Whenever you’re eradicating a drive out of your Xbox, energy down the console first earlier than unplugging it. To wipe it, choose it on the Storage units web page, then select Format.