Can't you buy a USB-C drive? Something like this. A USB stick can handle it fine. It just needs to be minimum 128GB storage. You really don't need 1TB. The advantage of USB sticks is they are small and flash memory rather than spinning HD, like the 5400 you suggested.
Thank you for your suggestion!
Tbh I didn't think a USB-C Drive could handle the Sims 4. Have you tried it out before? Have you had any troubles with game lag?
Fair point! I guess I just figured because of the size of the game, the software would be too much to run on a USB stick. However, since it's USB-C, it runs faster so that's good to know! I appreciate your help and am going to go pick up the USB tonight. How did you transfer all of your Sims files onto the disk? I've read some posts where they recommend uninstalling and re-installing the game and origin onto the disk. Is this what you did?
Make sure Origin is closed then move the base game and Sims 4 Packs folder onto the external drive. You’ll then need to do this to change the file path in Origin and give it permission to access the external https://bluebellflora.com/2020/11/26/external-drive-not-showing-in-origin/
You can unplug the drive when you’re not playing but ALWAYS make sure Origin is closed first. When you plug it back in and load Origin it will always verify the game installation which may take a little while depending on how much DLC you have.
Thank you so much for your help!
