Fix PS4 Won't Read USB Hard Drive and Recover Data

"Today I try to open some files on PS4 USB stick but failed. Why did PS4 suddenly not recognize those files? So I took out the USB and connected it to my computer. The same thing happened, and Windows asks me to format it before I can use it. What's the problem?"

Directly jump to the part you're most interested to fix PS won't read a USB hard drive without losing data:

Overview of PS4 Won't Read USB

It's a great idea to have an external USB memory stick on PS4 to expand the storage space. However, sometimes PS4 started to stop reading USB files. No matter which way you try to open them, PS4 just not responding. At this moment, you must know that something went wrong with the flash drive itself, the type of the file system is raw. Another possible scenario is the USB drive came with an NTFS file system, which is not supported by the PS4 game console. In this case, you need to format NTFS to FAT32/exFAT.

To fix the problem, two crucial procedures are included. Since formatting the USB would erase all the data on it, you should first recover the data on your USB flash drive and then, format the USB to exFAT or FAT32. Now follow the detailed steps below to fix PS4 won't read USB problem.

Part 1. Recover Data from PS4 USB Flash Drive

Files are inaccessible on a raw USB flash drive. So, for the first step, you must perform instant data recovery. To recover data from raw USB hard drives, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a good choice. 

Why choose EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard:

• Supports users to recover lost files, pictures, documents, videos, etc.
• Recover after deleting, formatting, partition loss, OS crash, virus attack, etc.
• Provides two scan modes: Quick Scan and Advance Scan.
• Works well on both Windows and Mac computers.

Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard now and start to recover your USB data. Only 3 steps are required.

Step 1. Choose the flash drive to scan

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose your flash drive where you lost important files. Click "Scan" to start.

Step 2. Check and preview flash drive data

After the scanning is finished, you can quickly locate a specific type of file by using the Filter feature as well as the Search.

• Filter: A quick way to your wanted files (Click "Filter" > Choose "Type/Time/Size" > Click Tree View on the left side).
• Search: e.g. File name/file extension.

Step 3. Restore flash drive data

After checking and finding lost flash drive files, select them and click "Recover" to restore. You shall save the found files to a safe location on your PC rather than to your flash drive.

Part 2. Format PS4 USB Hard Drive to exFAT or FAT32

No matter your USB has a RAW file system or an NTFS file system, the solutions are the same. You have to convert raw to FAT32/exFAT or format NTFS to FAT32/exFAT. You can easily get the job done with Windows built-in tool - Disk Management. Check the detailed guide.

Step 1. Right-click My Computer(in Windows 7) or This PC (Windows 10), and select "Manage".

Step 2. Under Storage, click "Disk Management".

Step 3. Right-click on the USB partition and choose "Delete Volume...". Now, your USB hard drive is empty, showing as Unallocated.

Step 4. Right-click on the Unallocated disk and choose "New Simple Volume..."

Step 5. Follow the wizard to proceed. On the last step, choose "Format this volume with...". There you can choose the file system to be exFAT.

Or, you can simply format the NTFS drive to FAT32 from Windows File Explorer.

The Bottom Line

On this page, we offered solutions in two parts to help you fix PS4 won't read hard drive error. 

If you have important screenshots and videos, recover the data first with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Then you can follow fixes in Part 2 to fully resolve this issue on your own.

Now, it's your turn. Go and try to fix your PS4 not reading hard drive or USB issue.