How to Install Games on External Hard Disk in PlayStation 5

The PlayStation 5 comes with a lot of exciting features including support for 120Hz gaming, as well as the new DualSense controller with its adaptive triggers. However, the console only comes with a relatively tiny 825GB SSD. That means you’ll be hard pressed to install many games on your console. Fortunately, you can at least install your PS4 games on an external hard disk and play them on your PS5. So, here’s how to install games on external hard disk in PlayStation 5.

Use External Hard Disk to Play PS4 Games on PS5

Since all the next-gen games make use of the PlayStation 5’s high-speed SSD, you can’t transfer them to external storage. However, there are a lot of PS4 games that you might be playing on your new console. You can easily install these games on external hard disks or external SSDs on PlayStation 5 to save space on your console’s extremely limited SSD.

In this article, we will discuss how you can use an external hard disk to store your PS4 games and play them on the PS5. We will also discuss how you can automatically install PS4 games on your hard disk, and everything else you need to know about using removable storage for PS4 games.

As always, you can use the table of contents below to skip over to any section in this article.

Format External Hard Disk to Store PS4 Games

If you’re connecting a new hard disk to store PS4 games on, you will have to first format it with your console. Here’s how you can do that.

• Connect your external hard disk or SSD to the PS5 console.
• Go to Settings -> Storage.

• Select ‘Extended Storage’ and then go to ‘Format as Extended Storage’.

• Click ‘Yes’ on the warning screen that shows up.

Your external hard disk will be formatted as extended storage for your console and you will be able to store PS4 games on your hard disk.

Enable/Disable Installing Games on Extended Storage

Once you have set up an extended storage device for your PlayStation, it will, by default, install new PS4 games on the extended storage. This way you don’t need to worry about last-gen games taking up precious space on your SSD. However, if you don’t want this feature, you can easily disable it as well.

• Go to Settings -> Storage.

• Select ‘Extended Storage’ and turn off the toggle next to ‘Always Install PS4 Games to Extended Storage’.

Any new PS4 games you install on your PS5 now will not be automatically saved to your external hard disk. Instead, they will be installed on your PS5’s internal SSD.

Eject or Disconnect External Hard Disk from PS5

Now, most of the time, I think you probably just remove your external hard disks from your PS5 by yanking the cable out the port. That’s not recommended and can result in data loss, and it can even corrupt your hard disk. So, here’s how you can disconnect and eject an external hard disk from your PS5 in order to plug it out of your console.

• Go to Settings -> Storage.

• Select ‘Extended Storage’ and click on ‘Safely Remove from PS5’

You can then remove your external hard disk from your PlayStation 5 without worrying about data loss or corruption.

Save Storage Space by Moving PS4 Games to External Storage

Space is at a premium on the PlayStation 5’s SSD. Moreover, until Sony releases the list of SSDs that can be used to increase storage space on the console, there’s basically no way to get more storage on your console. So, it’s a pretty nifty feature to have at least your PS4 games stored on an external hard disk or SSD to save space on your PS5’s SSD. Well, are you going to start installing PS4 games on an external hard disk? Let us know in the comments.