Who here has upgraded their PS3 HDDs?

[diablopath]

So, I have my original fat PS3. The MGS4 80GB bundle one, which I believe was the last backwards compatibility PS3 released.

I've hit an unexpected roadblock. I'm entirely out of room on it.

So, who else has done this? Is there anything special I should know about replacing it, or will any standard 2.5" HDD work?

I'm looking at this one, but I'm not sure if I should go a bit bigger. 80GB has lasted me the past four years, though, so I'm not sure I should worry too much about going 300GB - 500GB.

[Vanthar]

As you said any 2.5" works to my knowledge. You might want to consider a 7200 rpm (or even an SSD) notebook drive as most people have noted better load speeds/install times.

Just backup your drive to USB and make sure the new drive is formatted to FAT32.

[fitbabits]

Me, and it wasn't without issue. Don't forget to back up your current hard drive as well...

The main issue I had was getting the PS3 to recognize the drive. I had to press Start and Select together at the error message (really just informational) and after that it was a breeze. Took me AGES to figure it out, though.

[fitbabits]

Also, if possible, go with a larger capacity drive - they fill up real fast!

[fitbabits]

Finally, go with a 7200 rpm drive.

[Handmade.Mercury]

Yeah, just pop it in, and boot into maintenance mode or whatever it's called. There should be an option to format drive for use by PS3.

[fitbabits]

Last thing - make sure your firmware is up to date!

[diablopath]

Okay, I found a 7200 RPM one, and I think I'll go ahead and order it.

One more question before I do: Like I said, my PS3 is getting up there in age. Other people who have the same model have had typical PS3 issues, and since its far out of warranty, I'd be up shit's creek. My friend suggested that I just go ahead and buy a new slim PS3, as I'd get more peace of mind as well as larger HDD capacity. That strikes me as wasteful when my current PS3 is running smoothly. However, if it were to die, would I have any issues in just simply swapping HDDs? There isn't some bullshit that locks the account on my HDD to my particular system, is there?

[rein]

Originally Posted by diablopath

Okay, I found a 7200 RPM one, and I think I'll go ahead and order it.

One more question before I do: Like I said, my PS3 is getting up there in age. Other people who have the same model have had typical PS3 issues, and since its far out of warranty, I'd be up shit's creek. My friend suggested that I just go ahead and buy a new slim PS3, as I'd get more peace of mind as well as larger HDD capacity. That strikes me as wasteful when my current PS3 is running smoothly. However, if it were to die, would I have any issues in just simply swapping HDDs? There isn't some bullshit that locks the account on my HDD to my particular system, is there?

Nothing locks the HDD to a system. You can even pull it out and re-use it in a PC. I threw my old Sony 40 GB HDD in an enclosure and use it for a 360 external since the 360 limits the size for that anyway.

[diablopath]

Hot. And I found it for $20 cheaper on Amazon. Thanks, guys.

[nabokovfan87]

I swapped mine out. The main thing is you need a sata drive, getting a Sata6G would be a waste.

I have no idea if this is STILL the case, but when I was swapping mine on my 60 gb original PS3 it was required that you had it switched with a Sata150/SataI/Sata1.5gb/s drive.

For the latest slim models I am sure it is any sata drive, but like I said, avoid the whole 6G ones, just a waste for the ps3. I would recommend a WD blue/black or a Seagate.

EDIT: As far as backing your stuff up, you will need to use an external drive connected via usb and use the backup utility. there is no way to do it manually with the drive, on the PS3, once you insert a HDD you MUST format it, "security feature", so doing a bit for bit transfer won't work.

Lastly, and this is very very critical. Be extremely easy on the screws for the drive cage. They are REDICULOUSLY shit, and the heads of the screw will strip without hardly any pressure. When tightening them, it is best to do it by hand not with a tool, that way for later use it is easy to remove them.

Good luck!

[diablopath]

Jesus fucking Christ did anybody else have problems removing those goddamn screw? I got the blue one out but I can't remove the piece of shit from its tray.

[fitbabits]

Originally Posted by diablopath

Jesus fucking Christ did anybody else have problems removing those goddamn screw? I got the blue one out but I can't remove the piece of shit from its tray.

Mine was easy as pie.

[diablopath]

After plenty of rage, I got 3 of them out.

That other one just won't fucking budge though. I don't know what the fuck to do.

[Mike Kelehan]

I upgraded the hard drives for my PS3 and someone else's at launch, replacing a 20GB and a 60GB with 120GB drives. The screws, I seem to remember, were a pain, but everything else went very smoothly. Of course, I did this at launch, purposefully so I wouldn't have to transfer any data.

To get the tough screws out, I used pliers and grabbed them.

[Tayaya]

One thing to keep in mind if you go to a PS3 that is not backwards compatible - your PS2 game saves will be automatically deleted on the new PS3 when you restore from your backup.

[jeffbax]

Get a Seagate Momentus XT, which will cache frequently used parts of the OS on the SSD portion while still giving you a ton of space for games.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Tayaya

One thing to keep in mind if you go to a PS3 that is not backwards compatible - your PS2 game saves will be automatically deleted on the new PS3 when you restore from your backup.

Wow, they are NOT fucking around with this whole no-BC thing.

[Tayaya]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelehan

Wow, they are NOT fucking around with this whole no-BC thing.

Yeah.... it was nice losing all of my fully-unlocked Pop'n Music and IIDX saves with no warning!

I only have 2 PS2 memory cards, so I was using my PS3 as a repository for game saves to free up those cards for use with some other PS2 games I was working on around the time the MGS4 gunmetal gray console came out. Leaving my launch day system behind for that limited edition turd was the worst mistake I made this console generation.

[diablopath]

Originally Posted by Tayaya

One thing to keep in mind if you go to a PS3 that is not backwards compatible - your PS2 game saves will be automatically deleted on the new PS3 when you restore from your backup.

I didn't even bother backing up. I went and individually carried over the few saves I care about (Mass Effect 2/3, the Uncharted games, Dead Space). I started to do a standard backup and restore, but it was taking so fucking long.

I finally got all the screws out. One of them had to be needle nose pliered out, and I just didn't even put that one back in the hdd cage when I slid it back into the PS3. Fuck that screw.