PS3 and FAT32 ?

photoshop · 24 Apr 2008 at 23:28

Is it true that if you want to connect an external USB Hard drives to the PS3 it needs to be FAT32 and no file can exceed 4GB?

Or has that been addressed (with a firmware update) so that an external USB HDD formatted in NTFS can now be used?

I've just purchased a 500gb WD external HDD for the PS3 and the idea of having several 32GB FAT32 partitions isnt appealing (because of the FAT32 partition limits)......

Stellios · 24 Apr 2008 at 23:36

True

The PS3 can only read FAT32, and FAT32 can only handle a maximum file size of 4.1GB or something.

IIRC you can make FAT32 as big as you want on your partition, mines on a 250GB FAT32 partition and has been for some time now.

photoshop · 24 Apr 2008 at 23:40

Thanks.

Do i also need to create a folder; "PS3" and in that folder create sub-folders with the following headings; "Photos/Games/Music/Movies" ?

I'll probably just have 2 folders. One for Music and one for Movies....

ic1male · 24 Apr 2008 at 23:41

Seek out fat32format.exe

It will allow you to format your whole drive as one.

photoshop · 24 Apr 2008 at 23:52

can partition magic format it as 1 big fat32 drive?

Stellios · 25 Apr 2008 at 00:12

I used one called swissknife to do mine.

No, you dont need to name folders etc to accomodate what the PS3s menus are called. Simply dump your things on the drive. The PS3 will search the drive for movies etc in the background when you go into the drive and list them (usually quite slow though), or you can literally hover over the drive, press triangle and then choose the "Show All" option and it will let you access the filing system on the drive as if your in windows, which is what I do.

Mr Latte · 25 Apr 2008 at 01:06

Yeah swissknife dead simple

ic1male · 25 Apr 2008 at 08:50

Stellios said:
I used one called swissknife to do mine.

No, you dont need to name folders etc to accomodate what the PS3s menus are called. Simply dump your things on the drive. The PS3 will search the drive for movies etc in the background when you go into the drive and list them (usually quite slow though), or you can literally hover over the drive, press triangle and then choose the "Show All" option and it will let you access the filing system on the drive as if your in windows, which is what I do.

Not sure about that. You need to have MUSIC, PHOTO and VIDEO folders for the PS3 to display your media without you having to use the Triangle > Show All option.

Pug · 25 Apr 2008 at 10:42

ic1male said:
Not sure about that. You need to have MUSIC, PHOTO and VIDEO folders for the PS3 to display your media without you having to use the Triangle > Show All option.

probably so, but the traingle button is quicker/easier on the whole...

Metallifux · 25 Apr 2008 at 11:19

Will the PS3 not read HFS+ like the 360 does?

ic1male · 25 Apr 2008 at 13:32

Nope.