PS4 External Hard Drive Not Working/Recognized? Here Are Feasible Solutions

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is among the hottest gaming consoles of all time.  It gives an immersive gaming expertise that’s onerous to match. With its highly effective {hardware} and intuitive software program, gaming on the PlayStation 4 has turn into a pastime for thousands and thousands of gamers around the globe.

The PS4 comes with a good quantity of space for storing, however with the fixed stream of recent video games and downloadable content material, that house can shortly run out. That is the place PS4 exterior onerous drives turn out to be useful, as they’re a wonderful addition to PS4 and permit customers to retailer extra video games and media, which is particularly helpful for many who personal a PS4 with a smaller storage capability. 

Nevertheless, like all digital machine, points can come up when your PS4 fails to acknowledge your exterior onerous drive otherwise you simply discover PS4 exterior onerous drive not working. On this article, we’ll discover why this drawback happens and the way to repair it.

Attainable Causes for PS4 Exterior Onerous Drive Not Working/Acknowledged

The PS4 permits gamers to attach an exterior onerous drive to their console, which gives further space for storing for video games, apps, and media. Nevertheless, exterior onerous drives can typically encounter issues, similar to not working or not being acknowledged by the PS4. In case you are in the identical scenario, contemplate the next causes.

➣ Compatibility Points. One of the widespread causes for PS4 exterior onerous drive not working or acknowledged is compatibility points. Not all exterior onerous drives work with the PlayStation 4. To work appropriately, the exterior onerous drive must be formatted in both FAT32 or exFAT file programs. Moreover, the exterior onerous drive must be USB 3.0 or later and have a storage capability of at the least 250 GB.

➣ Defective USB Cable or Port. One other widespread trigger for PS4 exterior onerous drive not working is a defective USB cable or port. A defective USB cable or port can forestall your PS4 from recognizing your exterior onerous drive. It is best to strive utilizing a special USB cable or port to see if that solves the issue.

➣ Exterior Onerous Drive Corruption. Influenced by sudden energy loss, malware infections, file system errors, and different components, your PS4 prolonged storage may turn into corrupted, which might result in points with PS4 recognition and functioning.

➣ Bodily Harm. Bodily harm to your exterior onerous drive also can trigger it to not work or be acknowledged by the PS4. In case your exterior onerous drive has been dropped or in any other case broken, it might be past restore. On this case, chances are you’ll want to exchange your exterior onerous drive.➣ Outdated PS4 System Software program. The PS4 system software program must be up to date to acknowledge exterior onerous drives. In case your PS4 is just not working the most recent model of the system software program, it might not acknowledge the exterior onerous drive.

What to Do If the PS4 Exterior Onerous Drive Is Not Working/Acknowledged?

The PlayStation 4 is a strong gaming console that means that you can retailer a lot of video games and media recordsdata. Nevertheless, as your assortment grows, chances are you’ll discover that your PS4’s inner onerous drive is just not sufficient to accommodate all the things you need to preserve. Happily, you’ll be able to increase your storage capability by connecting an exterior onerous drive to your PS4. However what do you do in case your PS4 exterior onerous drive is just not working or acknowledged? Let’s dive in.

Case 1 PS4 Prolonged Storage Not Working from the Starting

Many PS4 customers have reported experiencing points with their prolonged storage not working from the start. As a PlayStation 4 person, you’ll have been battling getting your prolonged storage to work as nicely. Nevertheless, there are a number of steps you’ll be able to take to troubleshoot the issue and get your prolonged storage up and working.

1. Connect your PS4 exterior HDD to your laptop and study it for any harm. Whether it is functioning flawlessly there, examine the opposite level(s) and decide whether or not it needs to be modified proper now. 
2. Make sure that your exterior onerous drive is correctly related to your PS4. Examine that the USB cable is plugged in appropriately and that the exterior onerous drive is receiving energy. If the exterior onerous drive remains to be not working or acknowledged, strive connecting it to a special USB port in your PS4. Typically, sure USB ports on the PS4 could not work appropriately, and switching to a special port could resolve the issue.
3. Whereas the PS4 system doesn’t help wi-fi exterior onerous drives, affirm that the PS4 exterior onerous drive has a wired connection.
4. Examine to see in case your exterior onerous drive complies with PS4 necessities or is suitable together with your PS4. Confer with the person guide of your PS4 to examine the record of suitable exterior onerous drives. In case your exterior onerous drive is just not on the record, chances are you’ll want to exchange it with a suitable one.
5. In some instances, the issue might not be with the exterior onerous drive however with the PS4 itself. Due to this fact, strive restarting your PS4 and see if the exterior onerous drive is acknowledged. If restarting doesn’t work, chances are you’ll must replace your PS4 system software program. Sony releases common updates for the PS4, which might repair bugs and enhance the system’s efficiency.

Case 2 PS4 Exterior Onerous Drive Stopped Working All of a sudden

In case your PS4 exterior onerous drive was beforehand functioning nicely however has all of a sudden stopped working, attempt to reconnect the exterior onerous drive first by unplugging the USB cable from each the PS4 and the exterior onerous drive after which ready a couple of seconds to plug the USB cable again in. If this easy repair fails to get your PS4 prolonged storage acknowledged or working once more, then it is advisable troubleshoot additional.

Technique 1 Energy Cycle Your PS4 Console

fully turning off your PS4 and disconnecting it from the facility supply. Listed here are the steps to energy cycle your PS4 console.

Step 1 Save your sport progress to keep away from dropping any unsaved knowledge earlier than energy biking your PS4. 

Step 2 Press and maintain the facility button on the entrance of your PS4 till it beeps twice and the sunshine on the entrance of the console turns off. This means that your PS4 is totally turned off.

Step 3 As soon as your PS4 is totally turned off, unplug the facility cable from the again of the console along with the exterior onerous drive.

Step 4 Await at the least 5-10 minutes to make sure that the console’s energy has totally dissipated, plug the facility cable again into your PS4, after which activate the PS4 console.

Step 5 Reconnect the PS4 prolonged storage to your PS4. 

Technique 2 Replace the PS4 System Software program

Conserving your PS4 system software program updated is necessary to make sure that you’ve gotten entry to the most recent options, improved efficiency, and safety updates. This may additionally assist to troubleshoot the PS4 prolonged storage not acknowledged situation. Here’s a step-by-step information on the way to replace the PS4 system software program.

Step 1 Make sure that your PS4 console is related to the web.

Step 2 From the PS4 residence display screen, navigate to “Settings” > “System Software program Replace“. 

Step 3 If an replace is offered, choose the “Subsequent” or “Replace” button to get the discovered replace downloaded. 

Step 4 As soon as the obtain is full, click on “Downloads” to find and choose the downloaded software program after which observe the on-screen directions to finish the set up.

Technique 3 Get well Knowledge from the Corrupted PS4 Prolonged Storage and Carry out Drive Restore

In case your exterior onerous drive is just not acknowledged by your PS4 all of a sudden or is just not working correctly, it may very well be on account of drive corruption brought on by {hardware} failure, software program points, and many others. This is usually a irritating drawback, as the info on the drive could turn into inaccessible when drive corruption happens. Therefore, recuperate necessary sport recordsdata, work recordsdata, video recordsdata, and different recordsdata from the corrupted PS4 prolonged storage first after which attempt to get the drive repaired.

Step 1 Get well knowledge from the corrupted PS4 exterior onerous drive with iBoysoft Knowledge Restoration for Home windows  

iBoysoft Knowledge Restoration for Home windows is a strong knowledge restoration software program that may recuperate misplaced or deleted recordsdata from varied storage units, similar to inner onerous drives, exterior onerous drives, USB drives, reminiscence playing cards, and extra. This software program helps a variety of file codecs, together with sport recordsdata, images, movies, work paperwork, audio recordsdata, and emails.

With superior algorithms, this knowledge restoration utility is able to scanning the storage machine (whether or not it’s corrupted, inaccessible, or mistakenly formatted) and finding the misplaced recordsdata to get them again.  

1. Join the unrecognizable PS4 prolonged storage together with your Home windows laptop and go to iboysoft.com to obtain and set up iBoysoft Knowledge Restoration for Home windows in your PC.
2. Launch this system after which choose a restoration module that may greatest suit your wants. Right here, three restoration modules can be found, particularly, the Knowledge Restoration module, the RAW Drive Restoration module, and the BitLocker Restoration module.

3. Find and choose the corrupted PS4 exterior HDD from an inventory of detected drives and click on the “Subsequent” button to commerce a scanning of your drive.

4. Preview the scanned recordsdata, tick them if the recordsdata are required, after which click on the “Get well” button.

Step 2 Restore the corrupted PS4 exterior onerous drive

After file retrieval, it’s time to proceed with the PS4 prolonged storage restore. You may return your drive to regular by working the chkdsk command.

1. Join the corrupted exterior onerous drive to your Home windows laptop.
2. Open the “Begin” menu and enter “cmd” within the search field.
3. Proper-click on the cmd.exe program and choose “Run as administrator”.
4. Sort within the “chkdsk*: /f /r /x” command within the Command Immediate. Bear in mind to substitute the drive letter you need to repair for *. 
5. As soon as the restore course of is over, it is going to show a abstract of the scan outcomes. If any errors have been discovered and repaired, the exterior onerous drive ought to now be purposeful.

Notice that the chkdsk command could not be capable of restore all forms of corruption or harm to an exterior onerous drive. If the drive nonetheless can’t be acknowledged after utilizing the chkdsk command, chances are you’ll want to repair your PS4 exterior HDD in different methods.

Technique 4 Rebuild PS4 Database

Rebuilding the database in your PS4 may also help enhance efficiency and repair some widespread points similar to sport crashes, sluggish loading occasions, and the PS4 exterior HDD not acknowledged situation in our dialogue. 

Step 1 Flip off your PS4 fully after which maintain down the facility button till you hear two beeps. 

Step 2 Join a DualShock 4 controller to your PS4 with a USB cable and press the “PS” button. This can begin the PS4 in Secure Mode.

Step 3 Choose “Rebuild Database” from the Secure Mode menu and press “X” to provoke the database rebuilding course of.

Step 4 Await the method to finish. As soon as it’s full and the PS4 restarts, join the PS4 exterior HDD to your PS4 to examine if the difficulty will get resolved.

If the PS4 prolonged storage not working situation persists, it is advisable initialize your PS4, which is able to wipe all knowledge out of your console, together with person accounts, sport saves, and downloaded video games. It is a drastic step that ought to solely be taken as a final resort. Nevertheless, if you’re experiencing severe points together with your PS4 or you’ve gotten exhausted all different choices, initializing your PS4 can typically assist. To do that, simply repeat the earlier procedures to start out your PS4 in Secure Mode, however this time select “Initialize PS4 (Reinstall System Software program)” displayed within the Secure mode window.

Ultimate Phrases

Encountering points together with your PS4 exterior onerous drive not working or being acknowledged is a standard drawback confronted by many avid gamers. On this submit, we talk about some doable causes resulting in your PS4 prolonged storage not working in addition to some possible options. Hopefully, with the above-mentioned options, you’ll be able to resolve the difficulty and revel in your gaming expertise as soon as once more.