Changing PS4 Hard Drive

Sorry if this has been posted by someone previously.

I was thinking of changing the hard drive in my PS4 for one is more space.

My only worry with this is that FFXIV won't work with the new hard drive if it thinks it's a new console because I believe the game links itself with the console rather than the PSN ID.

Does anyone know if changing the hard drive on a PS4 affects FFXIV at all?

Obviously that's assuming you played FFXIV on the old hard drive prior to switching.

The game links to your PSN id. All you'll have to do is reinstall the game and at the initial login you'll provide your details and it'll re-link. Make sure you back up your character settings onto a flash drive or send them to the cloud so you don't have to redo all your character sets and hotbars again.

I've swapped between hard drives and the game loaded up no problem.

The only problem I had was there seemed to be an issue with updates running on the new drive. The reason why I know switching drives is no problem was due to updates corrupting my install. But switching drives by itself? No problem.

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Originally Posted by 16bitBounty

The game links to your PSN id. All you'll have to do is reinstall the game and at the initial login you'll provide your details and it'll re-link. Make sure you back up your character settings onto a flash drive or send them to the cloud so you don't have to redo all your character sets and hotbars again.

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I have PlayStation Plus so my game saves automatically to the cloud. This should be enough right?

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Originally Posted by aesteval

I've swapped between hard drives and the game loaded up no problem.

The only problem I had was there seemed to be an issue with updates running on the new drive. The reason why I know switching drives is no problem was due to updates corrupting my install. But switching drives by itself? No problem.

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Does this mean as soon as an update comes out it'll no longer work? Sounds like a deal breaker if so. Is there a way around it?

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Originally Posted by Jinzuku

Does this mean as soon as an update comes out it'll no longer work? Sounds like a deal breaker if so. Is there a way around it?

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No idea. Not entirely sure on an exact cause. The drive change being an issue doesn't make any sense. It could be coincidence and speculation. It could be a compatibility issue with the specific drive. It could be a bad drive. It's an open and unsolved question.

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Originally Posted by Jinzuku

I have PlayStation Plus so my game saves automatically to the cloud. This should be enough right?

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I'd personally manually upload the saves and not rely on the auto upload. But I spent enough time tweaking HUD and hotbars I'd be liable to quit playing than redo everything.

I'm pretty sure the PS4 has the same back-up system that the PS3 has. I assuming this. I don't have a PS4, but surely it must have. So back-up the info on your old hard drive onto an external flash drive or HD. Install the new drive into the PS4 and reinstall the back-up. Everything gets transferred as it was in the old hard drive. There's no need to reinstall anything from the PS store or redo your macros.

It sounds like I should be pretty safe to change hard drives without FFXIV being affected.

I don't change the HUD so I'm not too worried about that. The hotbars would be a pain as I've got skills in certain places due to muscle memory.

I will save the FFXIV files to USB and if they don't automatically download from the cloud I will restore from the USB.

I changed my PS4 harddrive a while back ago and it was as simple as redownloading FFXIV from my library and then playing as normal. You are changing Hard drives, not PS4's. If you are changing PS4's you have to activate the PS4 as your primary PS4.

But since the OP is just changing hard drives, there is nothing to worry about.

As someone has stated, you could back up your PS4 data onto a flashdrive or something and then pump all that bakc into your new HDD when it's done.

Before changing the HDD, prepare an extern HDD to do a backup (have to be formated as exFAT). After you changed the HDD you can just restore the backup to the new HDD and don't have to download and install all your games again.

How to backup and restore on PS4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyQ0iYHT4ok

I just recently upgraded my PS4 to a SSD. No issues with FFXIV even after patch 3.3. Like everyone said, just back up your FFXIV save files to a flash disk or the cloud, then re-download FFXIV from PSN. If you have a physical copy, you can register it the included serial number so you can have a download option.

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Originally Posted by Jinzuku

Does this mean as soon as an update comes out it'll no longer work? Sounds like a deal breaker if so. Is there a way around it?

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Fully initialize the new drive after you swap it. don't use quick initialization, it's rarely worth it.

No need to make it sound complicated.
Put the new hard drive
Install ps4 software
Sign in to the psn
Download ffxiv again from library
.simple as that.

I also changed my hd to a 1 tb drive several months ago, had no issues at all

Thanks for all your help everyone, I'm much more at ease with changing the hard drive now.

I guess the remaining question now is to find a hard drive to replace it with. I'm looking to go as far as 2TB but not solid state as that's too rich for my blood.

Currently I'm looking at a Samsung M9T 2 TB 9.5 mm SATA 2.5 inch PS4 Compatible Internal Hard Drive. Currently on Amazon for £82.

Does anyone know if this is good or can recommend another one? I'm all ears? :D