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March 15, 2017 Update: The new PS4 firmware 4.5 introduces a slew of features, but one of the most welcome updates is external hard drive support. Internal hard drive installation has never been that difficult to begin with, but not everyone wants to take apart a $300+ console, and you're only limited to one drive. With an external drive, it's literally just plug and play, and you get to keep the internal storage and just add on more.
Once you've properly connected and formatted your external drive, the PS4 will treat it as an extension to your internal storage. Digital downloads and game installs will be done directly to your external drive. You can also choose to transfer existing files from your internal drive to your external drive.
There are a ton of hard drive options out there, but there are some guidelines we would recommend you stick to:
(1) Your drive must be USB 3.0 compatible
This is a no-brainer because USB 2.0 drives are not compatible. Fortunately most new drives are USB 3.0 compatible. But you should still double-check.
(2) Don't buy an SSD
Although an SSD with a USB 3.0 interface would work, you would see little to no increase in performance. The bottleneck is with the PS4 hardware itself, not the drive or the USB interface.
(3) For 3TB drives or less, stick with a portable hard drive
The cost difference between a portable hard drive and a desktop hard drive for 3TB and smaller drives is insignificant compared to the convenience of portable drives. Not only are they much smaller and easier to tote around, they are entirely USB bus-powered. That means a single USB cable will serve double duty as both charge and sync. Desktop hard drives are bulkier, louder, draw more power, and require a separate AC adapter for power. They also won't offer noticeable performance improvements over their portable brethren if all you are using it for is PS4 storage.
(4) For 4TB drives or more, consider a full-sized desktop drive
Here we see a more of a price gap between the two. Additionally, there simply aren't many portable drives over 4TB, so the full-sized drive is usually the only way to go. Of course if you have the money to burn, or you move your PS4 around alot, I'd still recommend a portable drive.
(5) More likely than not, you don't have to stick to any brand name
Because the USB 3.0 interface is universal, and storage is just storage, you don't need to stick to a particular brand, even if Sony recommends one. It's very likely that any USB 3.0 drive will be compatible with the PS4.
(6) Have an internal drive already? Buy a USB 3.0 enclosure!
Buying an enclosure is much cheaper than buying an entirely new hard drive, and you'll finally be able to put that old drive of yours to good use. There are tons available on Amazon and they start at about $10.
(7) Ignore the extra bells and whistles some hard drives include
Some drives offer more software or security features. There's absolutely no need for any of this stuff for PS4 storage. For example, the main difference between the WD Passport and Elements is that the Passport includes WDsmartware Pro for automatic backup, cloud backup feature, and better encryption. None of this is even usable on a PS4, so the only reason to get the Passport is on the rare occasion that it is cheaper.
So with all that out of the way, these are the best PS4 external drives you should consider picking up. They're cheap, they're reliable, and they're the drives we're personally picking up to expand our own crammed-full PS4s.
1TB Portable Hard Drives
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2TB Portable Hard Drives
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4TB Portable Hard Drives
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Full-Sized (Non-Portable) Hard Drives
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