How to format a USB drive for your PS5 on a PC

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to format an external hard drive or USB flash drive for your PlayStation 5 on a PC with Windows 10 or 11.

The PlayStation 5 video game console supports the exFAT or FAT32 file system for external hard drives and USB flash drives. I recommend using the exFAT file system for external USB drives because the exFAT file system can support single files larger than 4 GB.

Format USB drive for the PS5

  1. Insert the USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
  2. Open File Explorer.
    Windows 11 File Explorer
  3. Go to This PC.
    This PC in File Explorer
  4. Right-click on the external hard drive or USB flash drive.
  5. Click on Format.
    Format a USB drive in Windows 11
  6. Select exFAT at File system.
    Select exFAT file system
  7. Click Start at the bottom of the 'Format' window.
    Start formatting USB drive
  8. Now you will get a warning saying formatting will erase all data on the drive. Click OK to continue formatting the USB drive.
    Format warning
  9. When the process is complete, you click OK.
    Click OK
  10. Click Close at the bottom of the window to close the 'Format' window.
    Close Format window

Your USB flash drive or external hard drive is now ready for your PlayStation 5.

PlayStation 5

Related:

How to play MP4 and MKV files with SRT subtitles on your PS5

References:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/play-video-music-discs-usb-drives/

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-format-a-usb-drive-on-windows-11

https://www.wikihow.com/Format-a-Flash-Drive