How to use external storage on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X / S
By David Nield
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As your console game collection grows, you’re going to need more space to store it — and the internal storage inside your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X / S isn’t going to last forever. That may leave you in a situation where you’re regularly uninstalling and reinstalling games, juggling them around to fit the available space.
You have options. The PlayStation 5 has an internal slot for expanding the onboard storage that’s pretty easy to access by popping off a couple of panels and turning a single screw. On the Xbox side, you can buy storage expansion cards that plug into a designated slot on the back of the console for a quick and easy (if often expensive) upgrade.
Adding external storage drives can help ease the pressure, too, giving you plug-and-play access to gigabytes or even terabytes of additional storage. And because you’re simply attaching an external drive, this isn’t a complicated or time-consuming operation — though there are a few technical points of order that you need to be aware of.
Once system files are taken into account, there’s only about 667GB of internal storage space on a PlayStation 5. Considering that a game such as Horizon Forbidden West can take up almost 90GB on its own, it’s clear that serious gamers are going to come to a point where that space runs out.
As noted earlier, the PS5 comes with a slot for expanding the internal storage via an M.2 SSD, and you can find out how to perform the upgrade here. The console will treat the SSD almost like internal storage, and you can run games straight from it.
Plugging an external drive into a spare USB port on the PS5 is quicker and
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