PS3 Formatting - WTF

buchtis · 19 Sep 2012 at 13:51

Since i'm getting rid of my PS3 i've decided to do a full format to hopefully erase everything properly. I've literally just got onto the screen and it's telling me a full format is going to take 14 hours and 27 minutes, what the hell?

This is the 250GB Slim model, is it faulty/broken or is this how long it takes to format a PS3?

rhysduck · 19 Sep 2012 at 13:57

That's how long it takes

kdd · 19 Sep 2012 at 14:02

Everything disc related on PS3 takes an age to complete. Woohoo it's downloaded, oh no I've got to install it!

ic1male · 19 Sep 2012 at 15:14

Have you got a laptop you can swap the HDD into to format?

buchtis · 19 Sep 2012 at 16:25

I do yes but won't it be incompatible or anything? I've not looked into using a lappy to format it so will I have to do download some 3rd party software?

I'm just thinking about leaving it on overnight to be honest to do.

ic1male · 19 Sep 2012 at 16:28

No, just shove the HDD in the laptop. Boot from Windows or Linux DVD and erase the partition table or format it to NTFS/FAT32/whatever.

Then when you reinsert the HDD into the PS3, it will say it needs formatting and the firmware re-loading. Only takes a couple of minutes. (You need to get the firmware from the website and put it on a USB stick.)

Firmware = http://uk.playstation.com/ps3/support/system-software/detail/item527739/Update-features-(ver-4-25)/

buchtis · 19 Sep 2012 at 16:30

Just had a quick Google for PS3 Firmware and it's bringing up a load of dodgy 'hax' sites so i'll just do it overnight I think.

Thanks for the help anyway ic1.

MOOGLEYS · 19 Sep 2012 at 19:34

PS3 latest Firmware SONY

Edit - As above

TheVoice · 19 Sep 2012 at 19:38

Resetting it back to factory settings would achieve the same thing anyway. There's no real need to format the disc entirely, nobody is going to be pulling any useful data off the drive.

gothic_hobbit · 19 Sep 2012 at 19:57

Quick format is your friend.