A Tale of Two HDDs
I’ve had my PS3 for a while now. It’s a launch model which came with a 60Gb hard drive and so inevitably I was beginning to run out of space. Mandatory game installs, PSN titles, TV programmes…it wasn’t long before I was down to my last 1.5Gb. Time to upgrade methinks. Here is how I got on…The price of HDDs has fallen dramatically over the last year. I imagine the less than rosy state of the global economy has something to do with that. Anyway, I settled on a Western Digital WD3200 BEVT 320Gb. I go this off play.com for £49.99 which is almost half the price it was last time I checked. For those in the US I’m sure NewEgg or other sites will have similar deals. So, bargain in hand I went to work. Having watched and read numerous tutorials online I felt I knew the process backwards.
The backup process went nice and smoothly after getting over the FAT32 partition size limit issue. It helped that I spring cleaned my PS3 last week, clearing out 30Gb worth of waste. This backup took about 20 mins in total. Having read the warning signs online I made sure to sync my trophies to the server. In fact I think I did it three times – you can never be too careful with your trophy stash!
Now then, on to the HDD swap. I used the IGN guide for reference but there are dozens on Youtube if you care to look. All was going swimmingly until the undoing of the screws. You may have read before about the softness of the blue screw holding the drive tray in place. I’d like to say for the record that this screw is in fact made of butter. Despite using the appropriate tools and being extra carefull the head almost disintegrated on me. After some rather colourful language I found sanctuary in the arms of the Internet, where I found that similar experiences had been resolved with careful application of pliers. This approach worked and allowed me to get all five screws out with only minimal further damage to the threads.
My confidence reinstated by the successful screwing, as it were, I quickly swapped the HDDs round and put my prized possession back together. Upon boot up you have to format the drive which is really rather speedy. Then I looked round to check everything was in its rightful place. Plugging in the backup drive I then restored all my game saves, PSN downloads etc. All this took about half an hour.
Lastly, I went back to re-sync my trophies. 50% of the way through: disaster. The sync crashes, and with it half of my trophies disappear. Like the rest of you, I worked damn hard to get my trophies so the thought of losing half is not an option. Thankfully, employing the “just try it again” technique the second sync worked fine and I’m now back when I belong trophy-wise.
Final thoughts… All in all the upgrade leaves me with 250Gb of free space out of a possible 298Gb. It’s slightly disappointing that the system hogs so much space, but I suppose that’s a minor complaint given the large amount of capacity I’ve now got. The screw stage was slightly panick-inducing but is easily resolved if you’re careful. With all the great content coming our way this year and in those that follow I think an upgrade is definitely the way to go. If you can spare the cash and have about 1 hour 30 mins to spare, give it a shot.
And anyway, if I can do it I’m sure all of you can…
Filed under: Tricks
I did this on Christmas day and had no hitches at all.
I didn’t backup the PS3, I just copied my save files to a flash drive. Unfortunately, I started playing Mirror’s Edge AFTER I did the copying, got to chapter 6, then replaced the hardrive, resulting in me losing that saved game, but it was my fault.
The screws posed no problem at all for me, them came out very easily, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I particularly like that all my usernames and passwords and such stayed on the PS3, made things much smoother.
All in all, an easy and cheap upgrade.
I actually think I used the same hardrive for the same price from the same place as you did.
hey guys,what are the advantages/disadvantages of using an external hdd instead of replacing the one in the ps3? thanx!
@ Marilyn
As far as I’m aware you can use the external drive in just the same way as an internal one. It is simpler i.e. you just plug in the USB cable. It is probably also cheaper as well with the £ or $ / Gb ratio compared to an internal.
Things to bear in mind though:
- Possible slow down if you put game information on their as it will have to go through the USB. I’d just use the external for media such as music / movies etc…
- It will use up a USB port on your console
- It’s not as neat a solution to getting more space as the internal option
- The HDD needs to be FAT32. Windows cannot format FAT32 partitions larger than 32Gb. You’ll need third party software to do that. Or just make sure your backup is not larger than 30Gb or so…
I’d like to point out that you can NOT install games onto an external hardrive. External hardrives are also more expensive, too, as well as using a USB port up.
great tips guys!
hey just a thought do you think the x box sales are higher because of its reliability issues?? i have several friends who own an xbox 360 and all of them at one point had to bring it back or buy another one because thy’re console stopped working. i bought a ps3 a year ago but i opted for the extended 3 year warranty just incase… it just makes me think how accurate are actual new xbox sales, and how many are re-purchases or replacements?
thanks for the help guys!!!!!! got a 60 gig model so usb ports aint a problem but i use my console for gaming, not for media so a replacement hardrive would be best xxx
Recently my ps3 died,while this is bad the AV ports blew on the ps3,It also blew up my 56 inch HD TV and i had to get my TV repaired —anyone else heard of this happening?I also want to get me a new PS3 but i kind of worried it will happen again.
thanks
I’ve never heard of that happening before so it really can’t be anywhere near common.
I was using it with a HDMI cable and it had played fine ,but one night as i was playing Haze the ps3 made a pop and my TV popped as well — might purchase another ps3 but ..i don’t know ..i liked it pretty well but i still have my 360..
I suspect it was Haze that broke your TV and PS3 – existing electrical systems are ill-equipped to handle that much EPIC FAIL in one game.
Great guide Ed, small electrical screws can be a nightmare – perhaps it’s donw to the batches if Gamoc didn’t have teh same problem – we both have the old school 60gig backwards compatible ones, so I’ll be wary when I update mine.
As far as the AV ports are concerned – I’ve noticed my HDMI socket looks a little rough, and I’ve always been pretty precious with the machine, so maybe its a slight flaw – can’t complain about a 2% failure rate – it’s better than 35%!
PLEASE NOTE: this isn’t a cue to start a 360 PS3 battle – I love both equally, and my Wii a close second.
Captain gets the comment of the year award – “I suspect it was Haze that broke your TV and PS3 – existing electrical systems are ill-equipped to handle that much EPIC FAIL in one game.” Sad thing is I was really looking forward to Haze and then, well, I played it and there was immense nausea immediately thereafter…guess my stomach wasn’t equipped to handle that much reekage =)