Apologies if this is elsewhere, I looked around a bit but maybe I missed it. Anyway, has anyone upgraded their PS3 drive? I got the general sequence (backup, pull current drive, mount new drive, restore) and info (must be SATA notebook drive) down, but I have a couple of questions. What's the max size drive the PS3 will recognize? Some places seem to indicate 250G[1] but I can't find anywhere that's written in stone. How about the drive speed, I believe the current drive is 5400 right? Will it accept something else, and does it really matter? Any other snags I should know about? It looks like the "OS" and settings aren't actually stored on the drive so it's just a matter of backing up the saved game files right?

BTW in case it matters I have the original 60G version.


[1] Which if it is I'm thinking about this drive http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita.../dp/B000SIG5QW which seems to be a pretty good deal for a 250G. If it'll take something large there is this http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita.../dp/B0011U65F2 (320G for about $140).

EDIT: The amazon price on the 320G drive went up $20 today... of course w/ how the prices fluctuate I'm sure it'll be back down before too long... hopefully.

Most of the customer reviews for that 320GB drive rave about how well it works in the PS3.

Hm, now I'm thinking about upgrading.

DOH! Didn't even think about reading the reviews looking for PS3 info

Now I'm thinking about doing this...

To backup your files do you just move your saves to a thumb-drive? Also, do you need to format the drive before you install it?

This little blip from CNet this morning is what got me started on this http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-29032.html From what else I've been reading/googling you can use a thumb drive or ext. hard drive (it all depends upon how much data you have) in a FAT32 format. Use the built-in backup utility and then swap the drives. When you first put the new drive in it will automatically format it for you. Since the "OS" isn't on the drive all the settings/functionality are still on the machine so just have to restore the data from the backup drive to get back up and running. Really an easy procedure from the look of it, which is why I'm curious if anyone here has done it and if it really is that easy

And all of your PSN purchases can be re-downloaded, right?

Yes on the re-download.

I really want to do this as well. I'm just a little worried about losing some of the stuff thats on there. Is the external hard drive the only way to back up the larger installs (demos, trailers,...) or is there a way to hook up the PS3 to a labtop or desktop computer?

If the backup drive is really just a FAT32 you should be able to put it on a computer once the data has been copied and verify something is there (whether or not you can do anything w/ it is another story). Not to mention if you do install the new drive and something goes wrong you should always just be able to put the old drive back in and everything should be back to normal.

I want to get a 250GB hard drive. It's 100 bucks at Future Shop. Make sure it's 5400rpm or your PS3 will run hotter and you don't want that.

I went ahead and ordered the 250 GB hard drive you linked to. Thanks for the motivation, nemein

I did the upgrade almost as soon as I got my PS3.

I upgraded to a 320 GB HDD. But since at that time I only had one game, FIFA, and didn't care about losing that save, and the rest were demos, I didn't back up my data. So I just changed the HDD, it was a 40 GB disc, and everything has been working fine since then.
I put the 40 GB drive in the enclosure for the 320 GB external drive I bought and use it to move big files or folders.

I'm currently using an external 320GB HDD to save all my video stuff to and that has worked so far. I still have 26GB open on my 60GB PS3. I also use a 4GB CF card for quick divx watching. I may upgrade the HDD at some point, but I'm hoping the price of the 320GB drives falls some more.

BTW, I always keep my saves backed up to the CF card. You never know when a console could die on you and I'm not redoing that 40X stunt run on Burnout Paradise.

I backed up my hard drive before replacing it and it copied everything including my online purchases. I didn't have to redownload anything after the reinstall. I can't promise you that this will be the case for you but I had a few games I had purchased as well as about 80 Rock Band songs and quite a few Singstar songs. I purchased an internal Samsung 320 gb hard drive from a website for 99.99 with no tax or shipping. It works well. I have about 350 of my cds now on my hard drive as well as tons of other stuff and I'm still sitting on over 200 gb free. The one crappy thing is that after you format the disc you are really only gettting 298 gb and then the PS3 for some reason reserves like another 30 gb or so. After I reinstalled my original hard drive material I was down to about 230 or so. Now after adding all of my music and such I think I have 208 gbs which is more than enough to get me through the next millenium.

Yes, but only 5 times each. It's not unlimited like with the 360.

I think certain titles are limited to 5 different consoles but unlimited downloads. Certain titles and content can only be downloaded to one console per purchase. I don't believe there is a limit to the number of times I could download let's say bowling to the same PS3 console.

That's really what I was wondering. I knew about the 5 "shares", but I was expecting re-downloads for your own should be unlimited.

I've been considering doing this for the last couple of weeks, since I only have a 60gb harddrive in my PS3. I rarely use it, as my 360 gets the brunt of my gaming time, but I'm worried that I'll eventually run out of space with all of those damned mandatory installs, as well as downloaded games like Ratchet and Clank.

I've looked on Future Shop's site, but I didn't see the $100 one that was mentioned earlier in this thread - can someone link me to that, if possible? It'd be greatly appreciated.

As for backing the data up - I don't have any additional harddrives to use and my flash drive only holds 4gb. I guess I'd have to buy two drives to properly do this, then? The installs wouldn't have to be saved, right? Re-installing on a different drive wouldn't get rid of my saves?

One other idea occurred to me and maybe someone will know/have had seen this around somewhere. What form does the "backup" take wrt the original data? What I mean is would it be possible to buy a 2.5" drive w/ enclosure, do the backup to that and then swap that drive out w/ the one in the PS3 and be good to go from there (so one transfer of data instead of two and no need for a "backup only" HD/device)?

I considered that option myself, but the CNET video I saw on Youtube showed that you need to format the new drive once it's installed in the PS3 console. So, that would restore it to factory defaults while formatting it to the PS3's settings, thus deleting all of the stuff that was on it...right?

Probably right, hadn't thought about/remembered that... unless there is a format step/option on the backup drive first. I've never actually backed up my PS3 so I'm not sure what's involved there.

It'd be too easy if that was an option. I hope there is some way around it though.

EDIT: I guess the best option would be to borrow my friend's external harddrive. That'd save a bunch of money. Now, I just need to decide if I'm really going to need all that space...I rarely use the thing.

I pulled the trigger on the 320Gb drive and should have it by tmrw. Thanks for the link neimen. I hadn't actually thought about this before this discussion. I bought the 40Gb ps3 at a sony outlet and (didn't have any 60 or 80 models) and have purchased several games for DL and was wondring how this would all work as I was sure to run out of space on the 40.

Yeah, you need to 2 drives. 1 to store the backup and the new one to replace the PS3 drive.

I got the new drive today but when I restarted the system, I got an error message saying that the drive had to be re-formatted to work with the PS3. Any ideas how I can do this? I literally took out the old and just put the new one in. I must have missed a step or two somewhere.