In 2008 I bought a 60gb PS3, and Good Times™ were had by all. This was until early 2010, where it crapped out and my local repair place told me it was dead, so I hunted around and found another 60gb Model, but with a 250gb hard drive installed. Hurray!
Around Christmas Time this console also crapped out, and the repair place I previously asked having closed, I asked another guy, who explained about how the thermal paste had cracked leading to Sad Times™. Out of curiosity I also showed him my original console, and having heard of the previous guys, he explained they had a crappy reputation before they shut and the original console could also be fixed. So now I have two consoles! Happy Times™?
Well no. Recently the 250gb Fan is getting louder and louder, to the point where it goes from Silent to Full blast within thirty seconds. It is not yet crashing but I can pick up on an early warning sign, so I took it to the new guy to see if he could do anything. He says it's a stock fault with the 60gb Backwards Compatible model and repairing it is not cost effective (Something like $200). Eventually the Motherboard will overheat and crap out.
Which leads me to my current situation. I've decided to attempt to salvage the larger hard drive and install it in my original console. I'm backing up the data as I speak. But I'm wondering what's the best way to proceed with removing and replacing hard drives. Can anyone help?
Alt!Question: Is there a list of PS2 games that can be played on a newer PS3? If push comes to shove I'm willing to splash out on that front, but I'd like to keep easy access to my PS2 games without cluttering my desk with two consoles.
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I'd also suggest looking into local issues for why your consoles are shitting the bed. Do you have them in dusty/hot/little ventilation areas? Do you smoke near them?
They had previously been in a VCR Style Cabinet horizontally. However I got a new monitor for my birthday and have since put it vertically in a clear space on my computer desk.
The link you showed me seems to be about the Fat PS3 consoles. I was thinking about the more modern 320GB Slim models and such.
Slims aren't backwards compatible with PS2 games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_backward_compatible_PlayStation_2_and_PlayStation_games
And yeah, VCR cabinets are awful for that sort of thing.
So it appears if I don't want to abandon my fourth playthrough of GTA San Andreas my options are limited, an unannounced HD Rerelease notwithstanding.
So I guess we can return to the original question, about how safe and viable it is to transplant one hard drive into another console.
GameSpots's article covers it well. The process for the Slims is the same, except I think the cover is even easier to remove.
Just be careful with the HDD screws - they're easy to strip.