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PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade - Anyone done it yet?

61K views 92 replies 44 participants last post by  digin 
#1 ·
I was just reading this PS3 Hard Drive Upsize article and was wondering if anyone had done it?

I have a 20GB PS3 and was thinking of performing an upgrade this year
 
#30 ·
How big a drive do you need to copy the backup info to? I understand the backup info is put into one large file. I assume you can copy this one file around to whatever drive you need. Does it have to be copied to a FAT drive? How big might this file be? I'm going to wait another week or so to do it, so just want to prepare. I borrowed another external drive from the office. I'd rather I didn't have to format it or anything.
 
#31 ·
If you don't have anything on your PS3 40GB right now that you want to save then you don't have to backup anything. When you load the new hard drive it will format it and load anything it needs to on there.

If it's only saved game data, save it to a USB Flash drive.
 
#32 ·
THought I would resurrect this thread. With the new 160GB PS3 announced, I am sure folks will be talking about how to upgrade their existing units
 
#33 ·
Something I'm not clear on:

Suppose I get an external USB drive, one that has a 2.5" SATA drive compatible with the PS3. I take the drive out of the case and put it in the PS3. I put the original drive from the PS3 into the USB/external case.

Can I copy data from the old drive via USB to the new PS3 drive? I guess the underlying question here is do the portable USB drives use some special formatting, or is it "normal" and all the good stuff is done by the USB->HDD interface.

Of course, besides re-using the old drive for something half useful (small portable backup), I'm trying to eliminate the necessity of a third drive for a proper PS3 backup.
 
#35 ·
If you visit the PSN Store right now, you'll notice a check mark on the icons of games you have purchased. Those games can be downloaded back onto your PS3 even if you decided to temporarily delete them to make room (in the cas of a game you did not want to play much these days, as an example).

I do, however, seem to recall that all the downloadable content was backed up before I upgraded my hard drive because I don't remember having to install it back after the HD swap.
 
#36 ·
Just finished my upgrade to 320 last week. Yes the formatted size is 298, but the usable is 263. At least this is what I had before I did the Restore, so nothing was on the HDD yet. In the system information screen it showed as 263/298. Doesn't seem like anything went wrong during the upgrade. I've read about a percentage being reserved, but close to 40 GB doesn't seem right. Either way it's more than 4 times what I had with the original 60 GB I had in there.

And as for the screws . . . yes they were a !@#$% to get off. Seriously, they are screwed in there like no tomorrow. I had the proper screwdriver size but stripped 3 of them in the first 2 minutes. I stopped short of completely ruining them and even tried rubber dishwashing gloves to give me some extra grip. After realizing that the screws weren't coming out with a screwdriver . . . I kid you not, I went for the needle nose pliers. I was able to grip the sides of the screws just enough and with a lot of torque, able to loosen them enough to use the screwdriver to get them the rest of the way off.

For the Backup/Restore process . . . it's a pain having to watch it take a hour to back up my data and then another hour to restore. My hard drive was pretty much full, so you might not have to wait as long if you haven't used up all your HDD space yet. I would even go as far as saying it might be worth it to just delete all your content except your games saves and back up that way. A few MB would go a lot faster than 50 GB.

Anyhow, after all that I'm now a proud owner of a PS3 with much, much, much more HDD space.
 
#78 ·
Just finished my upgrade to 320 last week. Yes the formatted size is 298, but the usable is 263. At least this is what I had before I did the Restore, so nothing was on the HDD yet.
Sigh...wish I had read this thread before I did the upgrade. I was baffled as to how a 320GB drive could end up with only 263GB free (that's a reserved space bigger than the entire original drive!). Anyhow, I thought a "full format" might yield a better result. Now I get to wait 18 hours just to get the same 263 GB :(

Also, the backup to an external USB drive would not work (apparently a common problem) so I also lost all my save data in the process :( :(
 
#37 ·
Something I'm not clear on:

Suppose I get an external USB drive, one that has a 2.5" SATA drive compatible with the PS3. I take the drive out of the case and put it in the PS3. I put the original drive from the PS3 into the USB/external case.

Can I copy data from the old drive via USB to the new PS3 drive? I guess the underlying question here is do the portable USB drives use some special formatting, or is it "normal" and all the good stuff is done by the USB->HDD interface.

Of course, besides re-using the old drive for something half useful (small portable backup), I'm trying to eliminate the necessity of a third drive for a proper PS3 backup.
No, you will not be able to transfer data from your removed PS3 HDD to a newly installed HDD. You will need to do a Backup/Restore to another Fat32 formatted USB memory stick or HDD.
 
#38 ·
I had posted earlier (2 posts up) that with the newly installed 320 HDD, I only had 263 of 298 GB available. This was with nothing restored yet. I was thinking that maybe the multiple accounts (5) I have set up on the PS3 are using up some of that lost free space. The accounts are only set up to view other countries PlayStation Stores. I'll try deleting an account to see if any HDD space is gained.
 
#40 ·
The accounts aren't actually stored on the HD - you can access them with just the brand new (nothing on it yet) drive, so they wouldn't be taking up the space.
That is true, the accounts were all there with the newly installed hard drive (before formatting). I was just wondering if the system (recognizing that I had five accounts) formats the new drive reserving some hard drive space for those accounts for what ever reason.

Anyhow, I deleted an account and the available space didn't change. So the 263 GB of 298 still stands as the space available with a 320 GB drive. Unless someone else has installed a 320 GB drive that has different numbers. I'd also be interested in knowing what space is available for 120, 250 and even 500 GB drives for those that have also swapped drives.
 
#42 ·
In another thread, when I had the same questions about HDD space with my new 320GB, I found this thread on a different forum:

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...cending&page=1

It indicates that its your formatted space minus 12%, which works out to 263GB for a 298GB drive, which is exactly what your are seeing.
 
#44 ·
Forgot my password for my ps3 & going to swap HDD

Question for someone who may know. Actually several

Currently: 60gb HDD in PS3. Going to 320
I forgot my xmb password (Any account deletions etc I cannot do or anything else that requires this 4 digit password cause I forgot it) This is a real pain in my butt, so I figured I may as well nip this issue while I'm upgrading HDD. This is NOT the PS Network id's password.
I have Rockband with a lot of progress made.

Plan to: Format and reload (I guess that's what I'll call it) firmware on new HDD so this will wipe the password and account settings, since I know of no way to erase current unknown pass.
Also I will backup saved games and other data to an external usb 2.0 HDD, so I can restore afterwards.

Questions I have are:
1 - Will I be able to restore all saved game progress in Rockband to the new HDD after the new firmware load? I heard a lot of conflicting information around rockband saves and the ability or lack thereof for porting the saved games etc.
2 - Is it as simple as formatting a FAT32 new hdd and putting it in and then choosing to import the saved data (from external usb 2.0 drive, won't be original ps3 60gb of course)? (After firmware upgrade I'll do this)
3 - Any other considerations/potential issues anyone think I should be aware of? I think what makes my upgrade a bit different is the fact I have to wipe and start from default firmware. Now I imagine this will already be done, so I just won't backup any user settings, so not to import them to newly installed drive and firmware)

Any feedback very welcome, and thank you guys/gals

Rod
 
#46 ·
1 - Will I be able to restore all saved game progress in Rockband to the new HDD after the new firmware load? I heard a lot of conflicting information around rockband saves and the ability or lack thereof for porting the saved games etc.
If you do a backup then restore to the new HDD in the PS3 everything (pictures, movies, music, games saves, game data) will all be there.
2 - Is it as simple as formatting a FAT32 new hdd and putting it in and then choosing to import the saved data (from external usb 2.0 drive, won't be original ps3 60gb of course)? (After firmware upgrade I'll do this)
You don't have to do pre-formatting of the drive you're going to put into the PS3. When you put in a new drive in the PS3 and start it up it will ask you to format. Then all you have to do it is go to system preferences and under Backup there is a Restore option. Select the USB drive you backuped to and wait.
3 - Any other considerations/potential issues anyone think I should be aware of? I think what makes my upgrade a bit different is the fact I have to wipe and start from default firmware. Now I imagine this will already be done, so I just won't backup any user settings, so not to import them to newly installed drive and firmware)
The firmware is stored in the flash memory. If you have 2.42 on your PS3 now you will have it when you boot up with the new HDD.
 
#48 ·
Just wondering if anyone here is using a 7200 RPM drive in their PS3?
I'm looking at either the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 or the WD Scopio Black, both in 320GB size. Would the 7200RPM drives be generating a lot of heat vs their 5400 RPM counterparts? Enough to cause issues or noise levels to increase vastly? Thanks for any opinions you guys can provide.
 
#49 ·
By all accounts, the 7200rpm drives don't provide any speed increases. Yet, they definitely run relatively hotter (means nothing if your PS3 is ventilated like it should be). Seems there's no point. Save your money. Get a 5400 drive and spend the extra coin on some other gadget.
 
#53 ·
I am going to change my HDD as my 60 Gb unit had to go into Sony for repair. I figure now is as good a time to upgrade. I wasn't able to do an update before I had to send it in as is was freezing so I will likley be starting from scratch anyway.
A friend of mine who is a computer tech guy says that they make the 7200much better than they used to that heat isn't an issue. Just make sure your PS3 vents get vacuumed out as they will all gobble up a bit of dust.

Not sure if that is the case or not, just another perspective.
 
#54 ·
I already upgraded to a 320GB 5400RPM drive, and it's fine to me I guess, it could just be a placebo, but I find the new drive is quieter and produces less heat than the segate that the PS3 came from as my PS3 fans don't kick into high gear as easily as they used to. I'd say go with the 7200 RPM drive anyway since really you're not going to be paying that much more for it.
 
#55 ·
I upgraded tonight to a seagate 320 Gig, 7200 Rpm drive. Seems to be running quiet and cool. I couldn't believe how easy it was. About 5 minutes tops. And that was with me unhooking all the cables so i could do it on the kitchen table. Doing the backup was what took the time.

seriously consider this as an option if you are interested. It isn't hard. really.
 
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