How to back up ps4 data and external drive data to a second external drive

I think my ps4 slim is on its last legs, i want to back up all my data but when i use my WD gaming drive it says the drive can't as its being used as extended storage. When i stop using the drive as extended storage the console says that the extended storage device is not connected. I have a lot of games on this extended storage drive and i want to keep them, i heard you can reformat a drive to work as a backup drive but that it also deletes the data on the drive. I can't transfer all the games to the ps4 system storage as there is no space. Can i buy a new extended storage device and backup all ps4 system data and the extended storage that has my games on it, or do i have to make sacrifices and just reformat my old one. Ask for clarification if needed.


Solution 1:

If your PS4 is dying, "backup" isn't what you want to do. Backup images are tied to a console, you can't use the backup utility to restore to a different PS4. What you would want to do is copy your save data regularly somewhere safe. If you have PlayStation Plus, then all you need to do is turn on automatic upload of save data to your PS+ cloud save storage. If you don't have PS+, you can copy save data to another USB drive. The PS4 slim does have two USB ports on it (which you could use for backup as well).

Note that you only need to copy the save data somewhere, there's generally no need to copy the game data unless your internet speeds are poor. Digital downloads from the PS Store can always be re-downloaded from your Library.