PS3 hard drive replacment advice

fatboy1971

fatboy1971

fatboy1971

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I have the 60GB fat PS3.The hard drive in it is very nearly full and I am looking at increasing the hard drive capacity in it.

I have been looking on the Overclockers website and I have seen these two which are of interest, but I noticed that they are only 5400 rpm. Is it better or does it not make much difference if you fit a 7200 rpm hard drive in the PS3.

The reviews for the 500GB version of the hard drives I have shown below mention that they work fine in the PS3, however the 640GB version has no reviews on it. I wondered if anyone has managed to fit the 640GB version of the below hard drive into the PS3 and did it work fine or is 500GB the maximum you can fit in the PS3.

500GB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-248-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=896

640GB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-350-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=896

Also. Can anyone recommend a really good 7200 rpm hard drive (if these are better in the PS3) that are known to work OK in the PS3.

The 60 GB hard drive I would be removing from the PS3, I would be wanting to use this as a external hard drive on my computer. Is it possible with the 60 GB PS3 hard drive to fit it into a caddie and basically use it as an external hard drive on my computer?

To anyone who has upgraded their PS3 hard drive.
Do you have any advice, warnings, websites that helped you out whilst upgrading your drive that you would care to share.

Thanks in advance :)
 
No 5400rpm is all the need. 7200rpm wont run any better so dont waste your money.

500gig will be fine. 640gig would also be fine if you want that much room but I would have thought 500gig would be plenty. I have read that someone put in 1TB but that sounds overkill in my eyes.

I am just about to put in a 320gig upgrading my 120gig as I like to put on movies for my daughter and son so they dont need to ruin the disks or drive. I upgraded my brother in laws machine and only took about 40 minutes which also included the time to back up.

It is very simple to do. Just make sure you back up your data and dont make the mistake of backing it up on the new drive you are putting into the machine ;)

Also keep hold of the old drive in case you want to send it back for repair or sell it on.

You shouldn't have any issues.
 
I'd recommend going with the Samsung 640GB. I've recently put this into two friends PS3's and its been great, also £10 cheaper than the one you linked. (If you look around you'll find it even cheaper at a place where its advertised advertised as PS3 compatible)

The only thing to watch out for really is be very careful with the screws in the caddy - use the correct size screw driver and don't apply to much force as their very brittle and you'll end up destroying the head.
You'll also need to download a copy of the firmware and put it on a USB device as it will need to be re-written after you've put the new hard disc in. You can download it here
 
I would say you DO need to put some force into the screws when getting the hdd out the caddy. By this I mean pushing the screwdriver as tight as possible into the screw head before turning. You are more likely to damage the screw head if you havn't applied enough pressure before turning.

As for backing up, it depends what you have on there. I only really use it for games, so just put my save data on USB stick, then switched, and re-downloaded any content I'd purchased.
 
andshrew said:
I'd recommend going with the Samsung 640GB. I've recently put this into two friends PS3's and its been great, also £10 cheaper than the one you linked. (If you look around you'll find it even cheaper at a place where its advertised advertised as PS3 compatible)

The only thing to watch out for really is be very careful with the screws in the caddy - use the correct size screw driver and don't apply to much force as their very brittle and you'll end up destroying the head.
You'll also need to download a copy of the firmware and put it on a USB device as it will need to be re-written after you've put the new hard disc in. You can download it here
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help its much appreciated.

I have a Samsung hard drive in my desktop PC and I find it really good. I think I have found the site where it mentions about it been PS3 compatible (its the name of a rain forest ;) if I'm correct).

I found it on there for £45 (that's including the standard free delivery), so I think I might go for that one, rather than a 500GB Western Digital for the same price :)

I have a 2.5 inch 120 GB external hard drive that I would be wanting to use to backup the information on the presently installed 60 GB hard drive that's in the PS3 now. Would it be possible to use this?

I have downloaded the firmware from your link (thanks for the link :) ). How do I install this firmware onto the new hard drive that I would installing in the PS3, is it possible to put the firmware on to the 120 GB external hard drive that I mentioned earlier or has the firmware got to be put on to a USB memory stick?

Regarding the 2.5 inch 120 GB external hard drive that I would be wanting to use to backup the presently installed hard drive in the PS3 now. What format type do I choose for it, when I format it in Windows Vista?


Thanks again for the help its much appreciated :)
 
Clarkson said:
I would say you DO need to put some force into the screws when getting the hdd out the caddy. By this I mean pushing the screwdriver as tight as possible into the screw head before turning. You are more likely to damage the screw head if you havn't applied enough pressure before turning.

As for backing up, it depends what you have on there. I only really use it for games, so just put my save data on USB stick, then switched, and re-downloaded any content I'd purchased.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip regarding the screws.

I have saved games and a few videos.

I have a 2.5 inch 120 GB external hard drive that I would be wanting to use to backup the information on the presently installed 60 GB hard drive that's in the PS3 now. Would it be possible to use this?
 
As long as its all formatted correctly then yes there should be no issues. If you've already used the external with your PC then it should be sorted. Just go into the PS3's settings somewhere and find system backup (I believe its called. Something like that anyway). And when the new HDD is installed, just do system restore.

When you have downloaded the latest firmware to USB, you should make sure it is recognisable by the PS3. You need to have a folder on the USB stick named 'PS3', and inside this a folder called 'UPDATE', and inside this the latest firmware.

So on the USB stick: PS3 > UPDATE > firmware in here.

Use all capitals when making the folders, and obviously no qoutation marks. :cool:

If you ever want to copy any save data onto USB stick in future then you need a folder called SAVEDATA. (well if you want the PS3 to recognise it anyway :p)
 
Clarkson said:
As long as its all formatted correctly then yes there should be no issues. If you've already used the external with your PC then it should be sorted. Just go into the PS3's settings somewhere and find system backup (I believe its called. Something like that anyway). And when the new HDD is installed, just do system restore.

When you have downloaded the latest firmware to USB, you should make sure it is recognisable by the PS3. You need to have a folder on the USB stick named 'PS3', and inside this a folder called 'UPDATE', and inside this the latest firmware.

So on the USB stick: PS3 > UPDATE > firmware in here.

Use all capitals when making the folders, and obviously no qoutation marks. :cool:

If you ever want to copy any save data onto USB stick in future then you need a folder called SAVEDATA. (well if you want the PS3 to recognise it anyway :p)
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the help it much appreciated. I'm going to place the order now for the 640 GB Samsung that was mentioned earlier.

I'll update this post when I have got it installed :)

Thanks again everyone :)
 
Clarkson said:
As long as its all formatted correctly then yes there should be no issues. If you've already used the external with your PC then it should be sorted. Just go into the PS3's settings somewhere and find system backup (I believe its called. Something like that anyway). And when the new HDD is installed, just do system restore.

When you have downloaded the latest firmware to USB, you should make sure it is recognisable by the PS3. You need to have a folder on the USB stick named 'PS3', and inside this a folder called 'UPDATE', and inside this the latest firmware.

So on the USB stick: PS3 > UPDATE > firmware in here.

Use all capitals when making the folders, and obviously no qoutation marks. :cool:

If you ever want to copy any save data onto USB stick in future then you need a folder called SAVEDATA. (well if you want the PS3 to recognise it anyway :p)
Click to expand...

I have been using the external hard drive with my PC, but the drive is in the NTFS format, which I believe will mean that the external hard drive will not be seen by the PS3 when I connect it to the USB port on the front of the PS3?
 
Make a 32GB FAT partition on the drive and it will recognize that + when I changed the drive in my PS3 I didn't have to reaply the firmware. All I had to do was format the drive.
 
Bevysters said:
Howcome you need the partition? When i put the 320 in mine i just formatted it and off i went.
Click to expand...

You can make a backup drive by making a FAT Partition on a portable Drive. Then hooking it up to the ps3 and backing up the internal drive before you change out the internal PS3 drive. I didn't bother I just swaped them over and formated the old drive and banged it in a Esata cady took all of 5 minutes lol.
 
5punk3monk3y said:
You can make a backup drive by making a FAT Partition on a portable Drive. Then hooking it up to the ps3 and backing up the internal drive before you change out the internal PS3 drive. I didn't bother I just swaped them over and formated the old drive and banged it in a Esata cady took all of 5 minutes lol.
Click to expand...

I wondered lol. Never used a portable drive with it i just stuck in the replacement drive. Only bit of bother was that sodding blue screw which i nearly destroyed trying to get out.
 
5punk3monk3y said:
Make a 32GB FAT partition on the drive and it will recognize that + when I changed the drive in my PS3 I didn't have to reaply the firmware. All I had to do was format the drive.
Click to expand...

If I make a 32 GB partition on the external hard drive, this will not be enough to fit all of the stuff I am wanting to backup, has the PS3 hard drive is 60 GB.

When I try to format the external hard drive in Windows Vista, I only have two choices. One is NTFS the other is ex fat, I do not see FAT 32.
 
Last edited:
5punk3monk3y said:
Make a 32GB FAT partition on the drive and it will recognize that + when I changed the drive in my PS3 I didn't have to reaply the firmware. All I had to do was format the drive.
Click to expand...

It depends on what firmware version your console was running - if its any one of the newer ones then you need the firmware update as part of it is now stored in the hard disc.

fatboy1971 said:
I have been using the external hard drive with my PC, but the drive is in the NTFS format, which I believe will mean that the external hard drive will not be seen by the PS3 when I connect it to the USB port on the front of the PS3?
Click to expand...

Thats right it won't work with NTFS, you will need to create a FAT32 partition on it for it to work. The Windows tool is only able to create partitions up to 32GB so you will need to use a third party partition editor to make one which is larger. See here
 
andshrew said:
It depends on what firmware version your console was running - if its any one of the newer ones then you need the firmware update as part of it is now stored in the hard disc.
Click to expand...

Strange I'm running 3.41 and I still didn't need to FW update when I put my 320GB back in to the PS3. Everyting is running fine on it also. So I'm not sure on this.

Oh and this program to get over the 32GB FAT32 limit is even easier to use http://www.mediafire.com/?ebcldjye10m
 
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5punk3monk3y said:
Strange I'm running 3.41 and I still didn't need to FW update when I put my 320GB back in to the PS3. Everyting is running fine on it also. So I'm not sure on this.
Click to expand...

Are you running a slim or a fat PS3? I've only upgraded the hard disk on 'fat' PS3's and they've always needed the firmware update after putting a new disk in.
 
andshrew said:
It depends on what firmware version your console was running - if its any one of the newer ones then you need the firmware update as part of it is now stored in the hard disc.
Click to expand...
I think that only applies to the Slim as it has less Flash memory so it stores the update on the harddrive.
 
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