[Solved] PS4 Not Recogizing/Reading External Hard Drive  

[Solved] PS4 Not Recogizing/Reading External Hard Drive 2023

Updated on Jun 12, 2024 | by Edwards

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If your PS4 won't recognize your USB external hard drive, it's likely because the drive isn't connected properly or the file system is incompatible. To fix this, you can recover your data from the drive and then convert the file system to one that's compatible with the PS4. This should resolve the issue and allow you to view your files.

It sounds like you're having trouble using your external hard drive with your PS4. The PS4 does support external hard drives, but it's possible that there might be a compatibility issue or a problem with the drive itself. You might want to try checking the drive's compatibility with the PS4 or trying a different drive to see if that resolves the issue.

Many people are wondering why their PS4 won't recognize their USB hard drive, which is a problem since it means they can't extend their PS4 storage. However, don't worry - this issue is easily solvable. To resolve the problem, you just need to follow two simple steps.

Step 1. Recover Files from the USB hard drive that PS4 not read without losing data

To resolve the issue of a PS4 not recognizing a USB hard drive, the drive's file system will be converted to a PS4-compatible format. This process will erase all files on the drive, so it's essential to recover files from the USB hard drive first. This will ensure that your data is preserved before the file system conversion.

Recover files from USB hard drive with cannot be read by PS4 with Data Recovery

You can download data recovery software from the internet, but choose a professional one for your data safety. I recommend Deep Data Recovery, a tool specifically designed for individuals to recover files from computer hard drives and external hard drives, with features that make it easy to use.

Your Safe & Effective Data Recovery System

(Trust Score 4.7 by 2693 Users)
  • Support file types, including videos, audio files, and pictures, can be recovered from a USB drive in just 4 simple steps.
  • File recovery software can help restore deleted or lost files due to various reasons such as accidental deletion, file system crashes, drive failures, factory resets, and formatting. These tools can scan the affected device or storage media to locate and retrieve the lost files, often with a high success rate.
  • Quick Scan recovers files quickly, while Deep Scan ensures to recover even more lost files.

To recover files from a USB hard drive, download and install Deep Data Recovery software on your computer, either a PC or Mac, by clicking the DOWNLOAD button and selecting the correct version for your operating system.

  1. Connect your USB hard drive to your computer, allowing it to appear as an external hard drive. Then, launch the best USB flash drive data recovery software to begin the recovery process.
  2. In the next window, select the USB hard drive as the target device to recover files from, and click "Scan" to initiate the scanning process.
  3. select your ps4
  4. After the undelete or unformat USB software finishes scanning, select the file types in the left menu and view the details on the right. Once you find the target files, select them and click "Recover". You can also try the "Deep Scan" option for a more thorough search.
  5. recover ps4 files

To recover files from the USB hard drive, you can use a data recovery software like Deep Data Recovery Wizard. This software can scan the USB hard drive and recover any lost or deleted files.

Step 2. Convert USB hard drive file system to PS4 friendly file system

To fix a PS4 not recognizing a USB hard drive, first ensure the connection is secure, then check if the issue is due to a file system mismatch. The PS4 only supports exFAT and FAT32 file systems, while most USB drives use a raw file system. To resolve this, you can change the file system of the USB hard drive to exFAT or FAT32, which will enable the PS4 to recognize it.

  1. Connect the USB hard drive with your computer.
  2. Right-click My Computer or This Computer and select Manage.
  3. Right-click on the USB partition and select "Delete Volume…", turning the USB hard drive into an empty, unallocated space.
  4. Right-click on the Unallocated disk and select "New Simple Volume…".
  5. To format a Windows volume with the exFAT file system, follow these steps: Select the "Format this volume with…" option from the built-in guide, then choose exFAT as the file system. This is the only step needed to format the volume with the exFAT file system.

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