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[jamsy]

So after many years I've finally decided to upgrade the hard drive on my phat 60GB PS3. I read how easy it is, so I looked up the relevant info, bought a hard drive off Amazon, and tried to upgrade. Except so far, it's turned out far less easy than I thought.

I ran the backup utility, which took a good hour and a half. Then I took the original hard drive slot out of the system, and the 4 little screws were an absolute bitch to take out. I ended up having to use pliers to get those suckers off. So after finally getting the old hard drive out, sticking the new one in, I boot up the system....only to get greeted by the following message: "Cannot Start. The appropriate system storage was not found"

So after restarting multiple times, it became clear that the PS3 is not recognizing the new hard drive. Which is weird because it should. When it's booting up, I can hear several clicking noises coming from the hard drive area. This is the hard drive I purchased - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAKF8KM/?tag=neogaf0e-20

It even mentions PS3 in the product description. This is a picture of the hard drive in question - http://imgur.com/c4RissG

It does say 7200RPM, despite the Amazon description mentioning 5400RPM, but as far as I can tell, that shouldn't make a difference. So I'm not sure what exactly the problem is. Faulty hard drive maybe? Anyone have any ideas as to where it's going wrong?

 

[Matty77]

Sounds right. You need a disc or usb drive with the ps3 OS on it that needs to be there when you turn it on so it can be installed and formatted. Until you do that you have a brick

 

[NewDust]

Sounds right. You need a disc or usb drive with the ps3 OS on it that needs to be there when you turn it on so it can be installed and formatted. Until you do that you have a brick

This is not true. PS3 can always update the os from the system, no need for an usb key. Also as far as I am aware the OS isn't stored on the hdd.

OP, yeah seems to be a faulty drive. PS3 should atleast see it and ask you to format. Can you check the drive on a PC?
Only other thing I can think of... How damaged is your hdd bracket? Might it prevent the hdd from slotting properly?

 

[ubercheez]

I definitely had trouble getting those screws out (especially the blue one, holy crap), but once I got past that everything was a breeze for me. Sounds like your new drive is faulty.

 

[jamsy]

This is not true. PS3 can always update the os from the system, no need for an usb key. Also as far as I am aware the OS isn't stored on the hdd.

OP, yeah seems to be a faulty drive. PS3 should atleast see it and ask you to format. Can you check the drive on a PC?
Only other thing I can think of... How damaged is your hdd bracket? Might it prevent the hdd from slotting properly?

Don't really have an enclosure I can test the hard drive out with my laptop...but the bracket is fine I think. I just put the original 60GB hard drive in there and booted up the PS3 and it worked fine...

So I guess signs point to a faulty drive then?

 

[NewDust]

So I guess signs point to a faulty drive then?

In that case, most likely.

 

[family_guy]

Try formatting the hard drive to FAT32 before you put it in the ps3. If that doesn't work download the PS3 firmware to USB, stick it in the system with power off and then have the PS3 go into safe mode(hold down power until you hear 2 beeps). Should be an option to format in there and install software update.

 

[shotgunshine]

Sounds like a faulty hard drive. I actually ordered one of those hard drives(the 750gb) for my PS3 and it works perfectly fine.

 

[Matty77]

This is not true. PS3 can always update the os from the system, no need for an usb key. Also as far as I am aware the OS isn't stored on the hdd.

OP, yeah seems to be a faulty drive. PS3 should atleast see it and ask you to format. Can you check the drive on a PC?
Only other thing I can think of... How damaged is your hdd bracket? Might it prevent the hdd from slotting properly?

Looking into it his message does point to a faulty Hard Drive, and I was wrong it's not OS, it's firmware but you do have to use it or the new hard drive gets stuck in a loop. I had to do it from a USB stick downloaded from Sony while following Sonys directions on how to do this.

 

[MichaelFassbender]

Set the entire console on fire! Show it who's the boss, and it'll respect you afterwards.

 

[jamsy]

Guess I'll get a replacement and try it again. Was really hoping the process would be as quick and painless as I heard =/

 

[Qwark]

The backup assistant is just horrible. I have a 1TB drive that I was trying to upgrade to a 2TB (I know, I should just delete stuff), so I ran the backup and it was taking like 18 hours and still not even close to being done. I just gave up, I'll juggle downloads on the 1TB until I get internet fast enough to start from scratch on the 2TB.

Sorry, not related to your problem, just wanted to vent.

 

[t_wilson01]

I'm late to post but it seems to me that OP made a backup on the new hard drive and is trying to boot the PS3 from it. This is not how it works.

The backup should be performed on an external drive other than the one you will use to replace the internal HDD in the PS3. You will need to have the PS3 firmware on a USB drive or even on the drive where the backup was created. The PS3 will format the new hard drive once it's installed. If it doesn't prompt you for the firmware on boot up, just access "Safe Mode" to do it (there are countless videos on YouTube on how to access it). Once the firmware is installed just restore your backed up data, which will take a while.

edit: now I'm not so sure about my first assumption. In any case, what's posted afterwards should work.