PS3 supported HDD's

-Loki-

Okay, i'm pretty close to buying a new HDD for my PS3. I know it'll take a 2.5" SATA HDD, but are there any unsupported models? I'm not really a hardware person (not on the specifics side anyway. Installing isn't a problem) so I'd like to know if there's any HDD types to avoid.

Descendant X

As far as I know, as long as it's a 2.5 inch SATA, you're good to go. I never looked at a compatibility list and had no problem just picking up a random HDD from my local computer shop.

Moioink

I can vouch for this one. Pretty much all 2.5" drives will fit just fine, the PS3 HDD tray is pretty bog standard.

-Loki-

Sort of related question - I don't particularly want to redownload all of the PSN games I've downloaded, or the guitar hero songs. Can I back them up onto a USB drive (or my PSP) along with save games, and put them back on the new hard drive and still have them work?

dav3yb

i think there is a backup option to back things up to an external drive of some sort... im not sure about any compression it does... so, you might need X gigs of space, where X is how many gigs used.

Moioink

-Loki- wrote: »

Sort of related question - I don't particularly want to redownload all of the PSN games I've downloaded, or the guitar hero songs. Can I back them up onto a USB drive (or my PSP) along with save games, and put them back on the new hard drive and still have them work?

Yes, use the backup utility (under system settings). Any external HDD or iPod should work just fine for this and you will need the latest firmware on a USB memory stick (using the file path PS3/UPDATE) when performing the restore. Be warned, I had 80GBs filled up and doing the backup took 2 hours and about the same for the restore. Delete some old game installs or budget your time accordingly.

Once all that is done and your new PS3 HDD is whirring away you will find that you get auth errors on your PSN games and some like Eden will be turned to demos. Just go to account management > system activation and then deactivate then activate your system to fix that.

Do PM me if you need any more help.

Insanity

I'm pondering upgrading my HDD, anyone know more specifically what I'll lose in the transfer? I know a few games won't let you copy saves, etc, and I'd rather not lose progress on some of them.

-Loki-

Grabbed a 320gb Seagate HDD, screws came out easily, HDD formatted properly. Done. Forgot to backup. FUCK. Needed 18gb free on my PSP to backup. DOUBLE FUCK. Manually transferred saves, I'll redownload my shit.

Very painless process though. HDD came out and went back in easily, no stripped screws.

mrbernz

Insanity wrote: »

I'm pondering upgrading my HDD, anyone know more specifically what I'll lose in the transfer? I know a few games won't let you copy saves, etc, and I'd rather not lose progress on some of them.

As far as I know you don't lose anything when you use the backup utility. I didn't when I upgraded mine.

-Loki-

Some games won't backup saves at all. I know Demons Souls is one of these.

Deusfaux

2.5" SATA, but with what height?

-Loki-

They have different heights? I just bought one, specified a 2.5" SATA Notebook hard drive.

wunderbar

There are *some* drives that are a bit different height, but those are quite rare. Just go and buy a 2.5" drive. 99.99999999% chance that it'll work.

Lilac Citizen

Is it possible to back up only your game saves, and just reinstall games later as necessary?

How can you go about doing that?

I'm asking because the largest portable storage medium I have is only 4 gigs, and don't really want to have to buy an extra external hard drive just to switch my hard drive

-Loki-

Lilac Citizen wrote: »

Is it possible to back up only your game saves, and just reinstall games later as necessary?

How can you go about doing that?

I'm asking because the largest portable storage medium I have is only 4 gigs, and don't really want to have to buy an extra external hard drive just to switch my hard drive

Put a USB storage device in (I used my PSP), go to your save game data area on the PS3 - the device will be listed in there with no saves, hit triangle on a save, and Copy. It will ask you want to copy to, select the device you want to copy to, and bingo, done. Now do it for your other 50 saves, 1 at a time (Copy Multiple didn't appear in Save Data for me). Some saves won't transfer (Like Rock Band, GHWT, Demons Souls, and a few more).

To copy them back, plug it in after changing HDD's, go to save data, and the device will appear again, go into it, and your saves are there. Triangle on each save, copy, and it'll automatically go to the PS3 (you don't need to select a device copying back).