One of the drawbacks that PS5 owners suffer today is that the internal storage unit cannot be expanded with discs that offer the same read and write performance. For that we will have to wait, so in the meantime all we have left is to continue using external USB drives as usual.
Organizing your PS5 storage
Taking into account that native PlayStation 5 games require the maximum reading speed, they must be installed in the internal memory of the console to guarantee the best possible performance. With a free space of just over 650 GB, the internal memory of the PlayStation 5 requires a certain order on the part of the user, since if we decide to install a lot of things in it we could run out of space very soon.
With games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and its installation of more than 100 GB, it is easy to fill the PS5 disk with several installations, and that is where the user must learn to select and organize the installations according to the type of content.
Can I use an external hard drive on my PS5?
If you are running out of space, the first idea you will have is to install an extra large capacity hard disk to continue installing games without stopping. This is a possible solution that you can do immediately, however, it will have limitations that you should take into account.
What can I install on the external hard drive?
The first thing you should know is that games for PS5 or versions optimized for PS5 must always be installed in the main (internal) memory of the console. This unit offers extremely fast loading times and reads, and that is exactly what new generation games take advantage of to be able to load textures quickly and load games almost instantly.
If you decide to download and install a PS5 game on an external storage drive, the game will not start, and it will ask you to move it to your PS5’s internal memory to run it.
Therefore, external storage units will only be used to store games as a collection library (you must move them to the internal memory each time you go to run them) or to install PS4 games, which can be played without problems from there.
What external drives can I use?
When connecting an external USB hard drive, you must make sure that it meets the following characteristics:
- That has more than 250 GB capacity (up to 8 TB maximum)
- That counts, if possible, with a SuperSpeed connection of 5 Ggps or later (valid USB 3.0, USB 3.1 and USB 3.2)
- Do not connect more than one external unit at the same time
- Do not use a USB hub for your connection
Some recommended models that you could buy are the following:
PS4 games are installed on the internal SSD, can I change it?
Knowing that PS4 games can be run smoothly from an external drive, what if you leave the internal SSD exclusively for PS5 games and the external disk for PS4 games? That would be an ideal configuration, so we are going to show you how to confirm it so that when you download or install a PS4 game, this title goes directly to the external hard drive without going through the SSD.
In order for PS4 games to automatically download to PS5 expanded storage, you will need to do the following:
- Go to Settings> Storage> Extended storage
- Enable the option Always install PS4 games in extended storage
With this option you will no longer have to worry that PS4 games are taking up space on the internal SSD of the console. Now we only have to expand the SSD, but for that Sony will have to activate the function and announce the disk models compatible with the system, so we will have to keep waiting until that happens.