Replacing PS3 Hardrive need clarification on backing up.

bigbilly50

bigbilly50

bigbilly50

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Ok, read the sticky but still not 100 % on sommething.

My 40GB is full to the brim and need to replace with something bigger - sounds easy enough.

Now I have some PSN games shared on friends accounts that I would prefer not to download again IE back up their accounts / and PSN games and restore them to my hard drive without re-downloading them.

Question is this - is a USB hard drive absolutley essential for this process or would largish USB stick / PSP do the job ?

I have a 16GB Flash Drive and my idea would be to delete everything off the PS3 that I can download again from my own account (so total on PS3 is under 16BG) then do the back up process.

Is this possible or for I need to get hold of an external USB hard drive ?

Cheers !
 
You can do that. I took a backup of my PS3 when the hard drive was at about 70gb usage, backup output size was just over 50gb. One thing I notice was after restoring the data some of the DLC was dactivated. You can fix that by starting the download again and stopping it once the activation process completes and the data begins downloading.
 
If you go to Account settings you can deactivate/activate the PS3.

I assume this would also fix the problem you were experiencing with the DLC :)
 
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Thanks for the replies chaps , I'd just heard some conflicting information that you would only have the option of backing up PSN games with an external USB hard drive - not a USB pen drive.
 
Thinking of getting a new drive for mine this week also. Do you have to deactivate your PS3 before you swap the drive, then reactivate it again on the new one? IE is it based on the drive or the PS3 itself? Don't think I've got any slots left!
 
You can do it on a USB stick. I just did mine on a 16GB stick.

Make sure you delete "Game utility data", all apps like Vidzone, PS Life, PS Home, and any other random media that you can put back on e.g. movies or pictures. I pretty much nuked the drive, leaving only my save data. Total backup took a few hundred MB.

Obviously I'll have to download the DLC and purchased content again but that's nothing.

dbmzk1 said:
Thinking of getting a new drive for mine this week also. Do you have to deactivate your PS3 before you swap the drive, then reactivate it again on the new one? IE is it based on the drive or the PS3 itself? Don't think I've got any slots left!
Click to expand...

No, however it may re-authenticate the DLC without the hassle mentioned earlier in the thread.
 
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Also, you might want to download the latest firmware from the PS website first.
When I upgraded my 80GB to a 320GB the console wouldn't do anything until I'd given it the latest firmware on a memory stick (although i'd imagine a CD/DVD would be acceptable too).
It's something that only comes up sometimes though, I know of other people it's happened to, but also a lot of people who it DIDN'T happen to.

Worth the download anyway, just in case.
 
Does anyone know if buying a 'SATA TO USB ADAPTER' (about a fiver) and use one of the Sata drives in my PC to back up the PS3 would work (using the PC to power the drive of course) ?

Cheers
 
bigbilly50 said:
Thanks for the replies chaps , I'd just heard some conflicting information that you would only have the option of backing up PSN games with an external USB hard drive - not a USB pen drive.
Click to expand...

The PS3 sees any USB storage (flash drive or hard-drive) as exactly the same so it won't make any difference. As long as you have enough space, there won't be an issue.
 
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