So for the past few months my hard drive has not connected to my ps4 at all no messages or errors when I plug it in. I’ve tried almost everything I could find except for interinlizing my ps4 it connects to my laptop perfectly and when I plug it in the light is solid instead of blinking. It worked when I first got it but after about 5 months it just stopped working please help I dont want 200 going to waste
I have no problems using my WD Elements and WD Passport USB External Hard drives with my PlayStation 4 Console.
How are you using the External Hard Drive ?
If you are using the hard drive as a “Media” drive on the PS4 (ie. Playback of Video, Music or Photos) … then the hard drive must be Formatted either FAT32 or exFAT (i recommend exFAT)
If it’s formatted any other way eg. NTFS, HFS etc then the PS4 will Not recognize the hard drive and it’s contents. (which is probably the reason why the light is solid and not blinking … because it can’t read any data)
The other way to use a hard drive on the PS4 is as “Extended Storage” for installing PS4 Games and Apps on.
This is done by formatting or initializing (not interinlizing) the hard drive while it’s connected to the PS4
NOTE: THIS WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THE HARD DRIVE
https://support.playstation.com/s/article/PS4-External-HDD-Support?language=en_US
And once formatted as Extended Storage, you will no longer be able to use the hard drive as a Media Drive, and your PC/Laptop will no longer see it. (except in Device Manager where you delete/format the partition back to a PC Hard drive … this will also erase any games or apps you have on the drive.)
