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PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

DS
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

A couple of thoughts from me....

(and only thoughts, being as it's currently 2:14am plus the meds I'm on have turned my head to mush Crazy3 )

Yep, it's seen by the PC as a HDD - so no safely removing.

Does it have a password protection set up on a small partition - possibly connect it, and a small USB flash pen to the PC, then drag and move (not copy) to the flash pen. At least the copy can be put back if you send it back.

Did you plug it in to the PC initially and up popped the box including the format option? - Did you try via disk management (now the password file is elsewhere) and create the exFAT that way?

I could be wrong, but if a PN hub 1 can run a similar one, I'd expect a PS4 to be able to do the same

 

Ignore some, or all of the above as you see fit Wink

RPMozley
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Sounds like it's not a power issue. Symptoms of not enough power are usually drive not spinning up at all or making odd clicking noises.

Something is not right if windows isn't giving you a clickable "safely remove" option. It should be there for all external storage devices you connect to the computer (optical disc drives included). Maybe formatting hasn't completed correctly. Try an alternate program to format the drive.
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Strat
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

DS wrote:

Does it have a password protection set up on a small partition

No it doesn't and one of the things I tried was to delete and recreate the volume.


DS wrote:

Did you try via disk management and create the exFAT that way?

The drive is formatted exFAT through Drive Management

 

What's annoying is that so many answers on other forums simply say "Oh yes - it's formatted NTFS. Format it exFAT and it will work"

No it doesn't Knuppel

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DS
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Well, it was early when I posted, but it's later now than the earlier before!!!

All I can think of is...

... check the mAh output of the PS4 - compare the controller mAh (I presume it gets charged off of the PS4) - check both against the HDD consumption

.... to start the reformat again (based on valid comments above)

.... reformat using an earlier version of windows - doubtful but could it be a W10 issue?

.... get one of these - http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/akasa-usb-30-to-usb-20-internal-adapter-cable-a16rx

.... send it back and get a USB 2.0 HDD

 

I did continue reading, after my previous post, on the www and...

...a suggestion was to write a few music tracks to the HHD, connect to the PS4 and see if it see's the content (this did work in some cases)

... pull the USB cable out slightly from the PS4 as somebody said that was the only way they could get their HDD to work

 

That's about all I have to offer, but can't wait to hear how you solve this!!!

 

Strat
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Sorry to disappoint @DS but I have finally admitted defeat.

I have tried most of the suggestions you have outlined without success (also been browsing sites).

The split cable arrived and even with auxiliary power applied the USB drive wasn't recognised.

I have a old WD external mains powered USB drive (500GB which would be barely large enough) that IS recognised by my PS4.

I have therefore invested in it's bigger, more modern, mains powered brother and will see if that works (it had better).

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DS
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Live and learn.

 

(It must have been the HDD itself if the extra power did nowt)

Strat
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Just to finalise this topic I now have a WD Elements External Hard Drive 3TB (I didn't pay that much) which is working fine.

It was instantly recognised by my PS4 and I saved a few bits of stuff to it ok.

Seems to me that USB powered 'portable' drives are not compatible with a PS4 but mains powered 'external' drives are.

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RPMozley
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

Well, just that particular portable drive didn't work. Can't make too many conclusions from that small test case.
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Strat
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Re: PS4 and External USB3 Hard Drive

That's a fair point @RPMozley. I'm starting to talk like a politician Embarrassed

Any way the Grandson's PS4 has now had it's 500GB drive upgraded to 2TB and he's happy which means I'm happy.

The whole process took just under 4 hours which I considered ok.

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