PS5 SSD / HDD Support Explained: Here’s what happens to additional...

PS5 storage support has certainly been a topic of conversation since the full coverage of PS5 testing came out. When it comes to internal and external PS5 storage options for expanding the internal 825GB PS5 SSD – only 667.2GB of which is actually accessible to gamers – these are actually quite limited at launch. Let’s give a quick rundown of the exact score:

PS5 compatible SSD for internal upgrades

While there is an SSD storage expansion slot in the PS5 that can accommodate M.2 SSD stick drives, Sony has announced that the slot itself will be disabled on startup. Support for this slot will be added in a “future update” according to Sony speaking to The Verge.

“It’s probably a little over [launch]So please wait until you hear from us, “said PS5 architect Mark Cerny in his GDC talk in March.

In the same lecture, Cerny explained that PS5-compatible SSDs must deliver a bandwidth of more than 5.5 GB / s over a PCIe Gen4 connection and must be thin enough to fit into the PS5 SSD expansion bay. Of course, it must also be compatible with Sony’s I / O controller to boot, so it will definitely be a pretty specific list when Sony confirms the full proliferation of PS5-compatible SSD drives for internal upgrades.

PS5 external hard drive support

When it comes to PS5 external hard drive support, it’s a little more complicated. From day one, you can connect any external hard drive to your PS5 and use it for additional storage. You can even take the hard drive you use for PS4 and then plug it into PS5 directly. It will detect all of your games, then queue any patches or updates it might need – handy.

Personally, I bought a brand new SSD – a 1TB Samsung option – to set up as a dedicated PS5 drive. Internally, we also tried a number of hard disk drives, including those already filled with PS4 titles, to confirm it was a seamless transition.

There is a catch, however. You cannot currently use these external hard drives to store PS5 games – even on a correspondingly fast external SSD. You can Only move PS4 titles on external drives on PS5, which means that you have to keep all PS5 games that you want to install on the internal storage of 667.2 GB only.

Sony says this will be addressed again in the future, but there is no timeline for it.

However, you can make sure to go to the Settings menu> Storage> Extended Storage and set all PS4 games to automatically install to the external drive (if you have one plugged in) to make sure that you are usually everything inside for pure PS5 gaming.

Please see below for more information: