How to Access PS4 Hard Drive on PC

by Paul | Last Updated: July 5, 2022

Accessing your PS4 data on your Personal Computer. Hard drives are not just for computing systems as they can be used for consoles. If you use a hard drive to expand the storage of your console can it be also used in a PC? A hard drive is not strictly designed for a console in a way it cannot be used by any other device but using is one thing and data access is another.

How to access PS4 hard drive on PC?

To access a PS4 hard drive on your PC is difficult because the data on a hard drive will be cleared once inserted into the PS4 as the file system is quite different from the windows (or OS) file system. The PS4 is designed to process and adapt the external hard drive connected to it, once this has been configured, you cannot just take it out and place another one. You cannot just carry files on it to another device either.

On the PS4, the file system is not FAT or exFAT like windows or macOS even if the console is designed to read an external drive but when a drive has been attached to a PS4, it automatically encrypts the data. There are tools you can use to decrypt the data.

Steps on How to access PS4 hard drive on PC

If you are trying to access PS4 data on your PC, this usually means you want to transfer the data to a drive with a bigger storage capacity or you want to play the game on your PC. There are a few ways to go about this, let us look at them.

1. Tools

Transferring PS4 data in a way it will be useful for your PC is quite the task, but it is possible (sometimes). You should get applications that can decrypt the type of files used in a console. These apps have editors that can shape these files in a way that they can be exported. As great as this sounds, it is not applicable to all games.

2. Game Storage

 If you have your game files synced to your cloud, you can easily access it on your PC. There is also an ease of transfer if the game is designed for cross-platform usage so you can send the data on your drive to the cloud then access it on your PC.

3. The SONY Advantage

Sony consoles (including PS4) are designed to allow you to store data in a USB stick or memory card. Even if that is successful, you will have to start the game from scratch on a PC. This is still dependent on the design of the game as if it is gaming console-specific, the difference between BIOS and decoding will render the transfer useless.

4. Disk Management

The main reason you cannot just copy game data from a PS4 hard drive is that the creators protect game data from being copied, it is even designed to prevent another PS4 from using it. The previous sentence might seem contradictory given the previous paragraphs but remember they are all loopholes that will not work every time.

Disk management via windows is another one of these loopholes. When you insert your PS4 Hard drive, you must use a converter (SATA to USB 3.0), then attach it to your PC. When you do that, if it is not visible on the left side of your file explorer on windows, use the shortcut- windows + x to access disk management.

When you open it, you will find your PS4 drive there. Access it and copy the files. That seemed easy right? Well, if it works it is, if it does not (which is more likely to happen) then you have your work cut out for you. Sometimes, the PS4 drives has too many partitions making it difficult to copy.

5. Online Platforms

Earlier, the process of uploading your game data on the cloud and assessing it through your PC for cross-platform games was highlighted. Now, let us discuss how we can use another online platform, YouTube. On your PS4, log in to your YouTube account, then transfer the recordings or capture on your PS4 to YouTube.

On PS4, navigate to the menu, there you will see the library option, open it, and access the application. There you can look through, then go to the capture gallery option, select the clip or recording you want on your PC then sharing options will appear.

Choose YouTube, once it is uploaded (remember to make it private), check YouTube on your page and download using popular download managers like IDM, Eagleget, and so on. This option is for data backup and not to assess the game on a PC.

Other reasons you might what to access your PS4 hard drive on PC

File or Data Recovery

HDDs have low data security so there are times where you might lose data owing to sudden power failure or corrupted data. To resolve this issue, get data recovery software (e.g. EaseUS). After you have downloaded the software, install and open it.

Connect your PS4 hard drive to the PC, click the drive and scan it. After the scan is completed, if you do not see the files you want, do a deep scan. When the scan has been complete, use the filter option to narrow the files to a specific format(s), then choose a location with sufficient space and recover data.

Storage Expansion

As you play games, get more games, the storage space of your PS4 will reduce. You might want to transfer data from your PS4 internal drive to your PC so that you can transfer it to another external drive. If that is what you plan to do, you should save yourself that stress by inserting the drive with a bigger storage capacity to your console.

Just put the new hard drive in an enclosure, attach it to your console. In your PS4 menu, go to settings and include the attached drive as part of your storage, the PS4 will convert the file system to be suitable for gaming.