PS4 storage issues

[Casual Shinji]

Now I'm not very tech savvy, and maybe this is just one of those issues that has already blown over for most people, but my PS4 hard drive is starting to get pretty cramped already. And that while I only have 6 feature-length games installed on it.

For those of you who don't know (though probably do, but I'm going to mention it anyway just for myself) the PS4 fully installs every game you play, only using the disk as a certification that the game can be played. And these games take up between 40 to 50 gigs of room. And though the PS4 comes with a 500 gig hard drive, nearly 100 of those are locked away for the sake of firmware updates, leaving roughly 400.

I recently checked and I have about 120 gigs left, meaning at best three more games and I'm gonna have to start playing musical chairs. Now obviously hard drives are going to fill up eventually, but after 9 games already? And yes, I could delete games I'm not playing at the moment, but A) that means I'll have to reinstall it along with all the patches when I do wanna play it again and servers don't last forever, and B) I just don't frigging want to.

Now this could be solved by buying a big fat external hard drive, except that apparently the PS4 is sorta iffy about that. You can apparently hook up an external drive, but you can't use it to download digital games into. Which in an era where digital-only distrubution is pushed as the future of media seems slightly retarded.

So how do I solve this? Or am I just missing the facts here?

 

[stroopwafel]

Recently had the problem myself when I tried to install GTA5 and couldn't b/c the harddrive was full. I have no other explanation than in an era of DD with games over 50+ GB in size having a harddrive of only 500GB is a fucking joke. I deleted a few games I completed and am unlikely to replay anytime soon(if ever) but yeah, its definitely grating. They could have easily solved this by selling models with a lot more storage space(like they did PS3), but I guess for marketing reasons they didn't want to go beyond their 299 price point(or whatever it was/is).

 

[Casual Shinji]

Recently had the problem myself when I tried to install GTA5 and couldn't b/c the harddrive was full. I have no other explanation than in an era of DD with games over 50+ GB in size having a harddrive of only 500GB is a fucking joke. I deleted a few games I completed and am unlikely to replay anytime soon(if ever) but yeah, its definitely grating. They could have easily solved this by selling models with a lot more storage space(like they did PS3), but I guess for marketing reasons they didn't want to go beyond their 299 price point(or whatever it was/is).

Well, you can replace the hard drive with like a 2 terrabyte one, but there's a bit of a hassle in getting the system update to actually make it work. And I'm too much of a scaredy cat to tinker with my consoles, though I may be forced to.

With the PS3 it was a nice option, but with the PS4 it seems to be a necessity if you're planning on getting more than 9 games.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I've been really straining the 120GB drive in put in my PS3, though the only titles I have that are not small PSone Classics are FFX HD and the Ratchet and Clank Collection. I could easily clear off some things that I usually just play on my PSP.

Still though, 100GB reserved for the system? I figured it would have been around 50GB. All three console makers really screwed us with the small built in storage space, and that only makes it worse.

Well, you can replace the hard drive with like a 2 terrabyte one, but there's a bit of a hassle in getting the system update to actually make it work. And I'm too much of a scaredy cat to tinker with my consoles, though I may be forced to.

That might be your (and every PS4/xbone owner's) best bet. Wait a little longer to see if Sony releases a firmware update that makes upgrading to a 1 or 2 TB less risky. Then do it and keep your old HDD in the anti-static wrapper the new drive came in and keep it safe, just in case something goes wrong. (I still got my old PS3 bluray drive I had to replace, just in case some other part on my new one goes out.

 

[NiPah]

Also make sure you clear unwanted video captures located in the capture gallery.
I frequently save videos but they do take up quite a bit of space.

I was also unaware the PS4 had issues with installing a 1TB drive, my friend did it and all it involved was removing a screw, pulling out the tray, sticking the new one in, and it formatted the drive automatically (he's had no problems with it since).

 

[stroopwafel]

This company Nyko should release a PS4 Data Bank soon that can read 3,5'' harddrives. The Data Bank docks on top of the PS4 so no internal installs means no hassle/risk of damaging your system. Seems like a really clever solution. I'll definitely be getting this when it comes out.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-07-ps4-data-bank-dock-hard-drives-game-saves-installs

 

[Casual Shinji]

This company Nyko should release a PS4 Data Bank soon that can read 3,5'' harddrives. The Data Bank docks on top of the PS4 so no internal installs means no hassle/risk of damaging your system. Seems like a really clever solution. I'll definitely be getting this when it comes out.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-07-ps4-data-bank-dock-hard-drives-game-saves-installs

Hmm, that looks pretty handy.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[CrystalShadow]

I've been really straining the 120GB drive in put in my PS3, though the only titles I have that are not small PSone Classics are FFX HD and the Ratchet and Clank Collection. I could easily clear off some things that I usually just play on my PSP.

Still though, 100GB reserved for the system? I figured it would have been around 50GB. All three console makers really screwed us with the small built in storage space, and that only makes it worse.

It probably isn't actually reserving 100 gigabytes.

Hard drive numbers have always been a bit iffy. For one the formatting alone takes up space, but also they play games with the definition of a 'gigabyte'

For computers and filesizes in general, a gigabyte is 1024^3 = 1,073,741,824 bytes

For a hard drive, manufacturers for some reason use the decimal definition 1000^3 = 1,000,000,000 bytes.

You see that this is a difference of 73,741,824 bytes per gigabyte. With the numbers hard drives are quoted in being this many bytes smaller... That amounts to 70 megabytes less per claimed 'gigabyte' of storage space, or about 34 gigabytes less for a '500' gb drive.

Add the losses due to formatting, and you have more like 460 gigabytes in reality, for a 500 gig drive. (actually, the drive in my laptop totals 463 gigabytes of space for a supposed 500 gig drive.)

it's a nasty trick hard drive manufacturers play, but they've been doing it for decades...
Just, the effects become more apparent the larger the drives get.
I dread to think how large the discrepancy for petabyte drives will be...

So anyway, getting to the point, the drive is really only 463 gigabytes in practice, and the OS reserves those 63 gigs for whatever reason...

 

[Gigano]

I think Sony will be opening up access to install PS4 games to external hard drives soon enough.

Why? Because they probably make more money off sales from their own PSN store, than they do from physical retail. And if people are forced to uninstall their games all the time, then they're going to want a disc lying around to reinstall them with. Instead of having to download all 40+ GB from PSN again.

This is probably why they made it so easy to upgrade the PS3 hard drive as well, and apparently allow for the PS4 one to be upgraded too. And why the PS4 utterly suck as an offline/DLNA-based media center. But external drives are even easier to use, and a lot of people don't want to tinker with their console (...as it's meant to be Plug & Play, that's the core strength of a console).