Kreuger Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I just got my income tax return and so now that I've got a bit of cash I want to upgrade my HDD. My question is, if I buy an external 2.5" usb hard drive, can I remove that drive and put it in the PS3, put the current PS3 hard drive into the enclosure and copy my data to the new drive that way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. S. Veteran Posted March 31, 2010 Veteran Share Posted March 31, 2010 To copy data to the same PS3, you must use the PS3 backup utility in order to preserve your saves and profiles. I currently run a 500GB PS3 (originaly 80GB PAL model). First, get an external HDD, format it to FAT32 and backup your data using the utility. After that is done, you can replace the internal PS3 HDD with another 2,5' drive (maximum I've ever seen is 1TB) or use an external HDD as a PS3 HDD which let's you use any kind of external HDD (2,5' or 3,5'). The 2nd way is a bit more complicated, I've opted for the first one. Mine runs a 500GB Western Digital Blu Scorpio and it's great. And dirt cheap. Just stick with 5400rpm. 7200rpm doesn't bring any significative advantages, neither does SDD because the PS3 Blu-ray drive is the bottleneck. After you change the drive, boot the PS3 and use the backup utility to restore the backup that you made, keeping all your profiles and saves associated with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 So is it easier to just back the data up to the new drive, pop it into the PS3 and restore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. S. Veteran Posted March 31, 2010 Veteran Share Posted March 31, 2010 So is it easier to just back the data up to the new drive, pop it into the PS3 and restore? Pretty much. It keeps your profiles, PSN games and savegames so there is no need to reconfigure everything and you don't get locked out of any of your content. And the HDD replacement is easy to do and doesn't invalidate your warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo2008jedi Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 To copy data to the same PS3, you must use the PS3 backup utility in order to preserve your saves and profiles. I currently run a 500GB PS3 (originaly 80GB PAL model). First, get an external HDD, format it to FAT32 and backup your data using the utility. After that is done, you can replace the internal PS3 HDD with another 2,5' drive (maximum I've ever seen is 1TB) or use an external HDD as a PS3 HDD which let's you use any kind of external HDD (2,5' or 3,5'). The 2nd way is a bit more complicated, I've opted for the first one. Mine runs a 500GB Western Digital Blu Scorpio and it's great. And dirt cheap. Just stick with 5400rpm. 7200rpm doesn't bring any significative advantages, neither does SDD because the PS3 Blu-ray drive is the bottleneck. After you change the drive, boot the PS3 and use the backup utility to restore the backup that you made, keeping all your profiles and saves associated with them. How the hell do you fit a 3.5" drive into that small a space?? :unsure: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzyyfool Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 How the hell do you fit a 3.5" drive into that small a space?? :unsure: Notice the special word there? External. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo2008jedi Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Ah so you connect it to the internal connection but leave the drive outside? :blush: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Payne_UK Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I didn't think you could attach anything to the internal connection as the drive sits in an enclosure that 'clicks' into place. I think he means use an external drive powered by USB but I could be very, very wrong! :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbandonedTrolley Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 After that is done, you can replace the internal PS3 HDD with another 2,5' drive (maximum I've ever seen is 1TB) I believe that the 1TB drives are 13mm which is too high for the caddy size of 9.5mm Ah so you connect it to the internal connection but leave the drive outside? :blush: There was This that was spotted a while back that will supposedly work to give an external SATA solution :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo2008jedi Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 There was This that was spotted a while back that will supposedly work to give an external SATA solution :) Yeah thats the kind of thing I thought, meh my 40Gb is still OK :p mind you I would love for the PS3 to support NTFS for external drives (even if only read only ;)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbandonedTrolley Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Yeah thats the kind of thing I thought, meh my 40Gb is still OK :p mind you I would love for the PS3 to support NTFS for external drives (even if only read only ;)) I currently have 320Gb but would prefer more as I also have PlayTV so it soon gets filled up quickly when I go away on holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Payne_UK Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I currently have 320Gb but would prefer more as I also have PlayTV so it soon gets filled up quickly when I go away on holiday. I bought PlayTV and was amazed how much space it takes up! Is there anyway you can reduce the size/quaity of your recordings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbandonedTrolley Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 I bought PlayTV and was amazed how much space it takes up! Is there anyway you can reduce the size/quaity of your recordings? Not that I'm aware of, if it's getting full with things that i've not watched I tend to shift them to the XMB then move to my external drive. Other than that there is no real solution to filling up the internal storage quickly :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 and doesn't invalidate your warranty. My warranty ran out anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 Well I've ordered a 320gb WD Blue Scorpion from NCIX. Read a couple reviews about it having clicking sounds but mostly all good so Im going for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbandonedTrolley Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 Well I've ordered a 320gb WD Blue Scorpion from NCIX. Read a couple reviews about it having clicking sounds but mostly all good so Im going for it. That's what I have. It's pretty good, I do notice from time to time that when recording and watching something on PlayTV the live program sometimes stutters, nothing much but that might also be a defragmented drive i'm guessing, would be interesting if Sony were to put some kind of utility on there to run to sort things like that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted April 1, 2010 Author Share Posted April 1, 2010 Well mine is pretty much just gaming and dvds so hopefully it wont be a problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted April 2, 2010 Author Share Posted April 2, 2010 I just realized I dont have an enclosure for it. I guess Im gonna need one to do the backup first right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. S. Veteran Posted April 2, 2010 Veteran Share Posted April 2, 2010 I just realized I dont have an enclosure for it. I guess Im gonna need one to do the backup first right? You need a different HDD than the one you're putting in the PS3 in order to run the backup utility. You're going to restore from it to the PS3. It must be FAT32 formatted also. I have a WD Scorpio Blue too. Never noticed any clicking noises. I wonder if SONY would consider updating the PS3 to SATA II interface or even SATA III in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted April 2, 2010 Author Share Posted April 2, 2010 Well the USB one I have right now seems to be failing badly but I can give it a try. I figured if I got an enclosure, did the backup then put it in the PS3 it would work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. S. Veteran Posted April 2, 2010 Veteran Share Posted April 2, 2010 Well the USB one I have right now seems to be failing badly but I can give it a try. I figured if I got an enclosure, did the backup then put it in the PS3 it would work No. The backup is a file created by the Backup Utility and can only be restored by it as far as I know. You can try reducing the amount to back up by deleting the game data files and reinstalling them after you've replaced the HDD. Don't delete the saves, just the data files. If your HDD is dodgy, don't risk it unless you don't mind losing all of your savegames. Better to play it safe. Get a cheap one. You probably won't need more than 80GB for the full backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted April 2, 2010 Author Share Posted April 2, 2010 The backup is a file created by the Backup Utility and can only be restored by it as far as I know Right. I use the backup utility to back the content onto the USB drive. Put the drive into the PS3 and use the backup utility to restore it. That wont work?It's only a 40gb but I prefer to keep everything I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. S. Veteran Posted April 2, 2010 Veteran Share Posted April 2, 2010 Right. I use the backup utility to back the content onto the USB drive. Put the drive into the PS3 and use the backup utility to restore it. That wont work? It's only a 40gb but I prefer to keep everything I have. If I'm reading this correctly, you want to use 1 drive. Put it in an enclosure, backup to the drive, put it in the PS3 and run Restore Backup from it? All using the same drive, correct? That won't work because the Backup Utility formats the drive inside the PS3 before restoring. It would erase the backup file you were trying to restore. You need 2 different drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzyyfool Posted April 2, 2010 Share Posted April 2, 2010 Yup. You can't use one drive to backup and restore. You need two separate drives. One USB external drive formatted in FAT32 for the actual backup. Then you need an internal drive to replace the current PS3 drive and use the backup on the external USB drive to restore from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhav Posted April 2, 2010 Share Posted April 2, 2010 You probably won't need more than 80GB for the full backup. Isn't there a limit to how big a FAT32 partition can be? I ask because I need to upgrade my hard drive as well but just want to be sure the backup will work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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