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Why does the PS3 "Backup Utility" Function take 20+ hours?

T.M. MacReady

NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
I was trying to back up my ps3 to an external HDD, and it said the process would take 24 hours, i left it alone for a while to see if the time would reduce, but it didn't. After 3 hours, it said it would need 23+ hours to finish and was only at 2%.


Is this normal? I have a 320 GB HDD in the ps3. its a little more than half full.
 

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Like the other PS3 progress bars, it's probably lying to you and will be done a lot sooner than that.
 

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Don't know why but for me I've seen a backup take 24hrs with USB powered 2.5" hdd versus 3 hours with mains powered 3.5" hdd.
 
When I first backed up mine, it took about 4 hours, and that was with a nearly full 120 GB hard drive. But the progress bar originally said that it would take 8 or so hours when it started.
 

AndyD

aka andydumi
MIne took about 2 hours and estimated 10 or so. It was like installs, slow slow then jumped like 40% in two seconds and finished.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
It's uploading the backup to Sony's server first and then downloading it back to your external HDD
 
Mine has never taken longer than an hour, personally. (But it depends on how much you are backing up, I never back games/installs up because I can just redownload/install them again if I want.)

40gb Phat, and 160gb slim.
 

SS4Rob

Member
Make sure your hard drive isn't USB 1.1, nor are you using a USB 1.1 hub. I was bit by this once - didn't know my powered hub wasn't USB 2.0 speed and it was hours rather than minutes.
 

smr00

Banned
Like the other PS3 progress bars, it's probably lying to you and will done a lot sooner than that.
This.

Said it needed like 26 hours but really took around 3 and a half hours to backup my 500gb drive to my external and i backed up about 300gb worth of shit. It's not a huge hassle, although it does get annoying when you are paranoid about your systems crashing so you do a full backup once a week.
 

clav

Member
Progress bars are rarely programmed to be accurate as there isn't really an algorithm to calculate when the functions + tasks will be finished.

They are supposed to soothe the non-technical user that the system is running.
 

T.M. MacReady

NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
Make sure your hard drive isn't USB 1.1, nor are you using a USB 1.1 hub. I was bit by this once - didn't know my powered hub wasn't USB 2.0 speed and it was hours rather than minutes.

Its a western digital 750 GB passport. brand new, newest model. I would think it shouldnt take this long.

So i left it going for 8 hours of the apparent 24 it was gonna take, and it did not ever jump forward in progress. Since I don't have cable at my apartment, I kinda rely on my PS3 and aborted the process, I'll have to do it on a day where im not home at all I guess.

I don't know why mine seems to take so much longer than most. Maybe its the encryption. Was hoping I wasnt the only one. Bummer.
 

BlazinAm

Junior Member
I don't know much about this process but if it is happening over usb 2.0, you are going to get shitty transfer speeds.
 

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Since I don't have cable at my apartment, I kinda rely on my PS3 and aborted the process, I'll have to do it on a day where im not home at all I guess.

Or find another way to entertain yourself. I've heard good things about books! Haven't tried them myself, but hey
 

T.M. MacReady

NO ONE DENIES MEMBER
Or find another way to entertain yourself. I've heard good things about books! Haven't tried them myself, but hey

dont be like that. I read plenty.

I dont like the idea of running my PS3 for 24 hours straight. Just seems weird that its gonna take a whole day to backup. I have PS+, maybe i'll just copy over the videos stored on the PS3 and put the saves i want to keep in the cloud.
 

Persona7

Banned
Does the system backup still not back everything up?


I did a system transfer awhile back and it took 7 hours to copy over just over 200GB.
 

DonMigs85

Member
It took me over 80 straight hours to transfer around 200GB of data. I'm guessing stuff needs to be decrypted and reencrypted, it's not just a straight copy.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
I'm trying to remember what my system transfer (from an 80GB to 320GB unit) took...

I think about ten hours? The progress bar kept lying to me and saying it would only take another hour almost the entire way through. What a painful process.
 

Wildesy

Member
When you guys say 'backing up data', do you mean your purchases from the PS store? I've never backed up my data, only ever done my saved games. Then again, I don't purchase much from the store so I've never really seen the need.

If you lose something you'd purchased, can you just download it again or aren't purchases tied to your PS account?
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
When you guys say 'backing up data', do you mean your purchases from the PS store? I've never backed up my data, only ever done my saved games. Then again, I don't purchase much from the store so I've never really seen the need.

If you lose something you'd purchased, can you just download it again or aren't purchases tied to your PS account?

Backup means backing up the HDD. Music, videos, games, everything
 

satriales

Member
Best bet is to copy any music/videos seperately onto a different HDD. Then delete everything off your PS3 except games saves and other stuff you really want to keep. Backup will be much quicker.
 

DonMigs85

Member
I'm gonna be upgrading to a 1TB drive soon but first need to backup about 300GB worth of data.
I've got a 320GB 2.5 inch portable HDD, but does it really make a difference in speed if I use a powered drive? And does restoring take longer than backing up?
 
Apologies for resurrecting such an old thread, but I'm using the PS3 Backup Utility for the first time and good lord it is slow AF. Backing up a 500Gb HD to upgrade to a 1Tb HD says its going to take "34 hours and 2 minutes" to do the backup? Lol Are you shitting me, Sony? How long to do the restore? Sheesh.
 
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