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[dallow_bg]

Yep, way too soft and way too tight. Evil combination.
That drive is 5400RPM and only has an 8MB cache. That'll probably account for the price difference. The one I got is 7200 RPM and has a 16MB cache.
I was actually laughing when I pulled out the old 60GB drive, since I noticed that it was a Seagate Momentus 5400.2 drive. My new one is a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 drive.

Ah, how did I miss that.

Yeah, your drive seems the better value. Thanks!

 

[Mejilan]

No problem! FUCKING SCREWS! Sorry...

 

[GamePnoy74]

Nexstar enclosures are awesome and works great. Have two of em for 3.5" HDD.

Yeah, they look like quality stuff compared to all the other stuff out there...I also bought their CX enclosure for my spare 3.5 drive too. I would want to get their 3-series enclosures for all my spare drives, but they're a little TOO pricey for my needs though.

 

[Mejilan]

Restore's complete, seemingly successfully. Trophy data is gone, and I have to pop my games in one by one in order to get the trophies to re-appear. Bizarre.

But beyond that, everything's going pretty damn great. Now I'm restoring my backup and reformatting my PC's "new" 60GB external HDD.

Once again, thanks to all that helped.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Bloody fucking hell. 3 screws stripped beyond all repair. I spent $20 on this damn 10-piece bit-changing screwdriver. For nothing. Pliers were the ONLY way to go. Couldn't even find my thinner needle-nose pliers, so I had to make do with a set of giant, groove-joint pliers.

Bah. Long story short, I had to use the pliers on the 3 remaining screws, and since my motherfucker was so large, it was deucedly difficult to "grip" the 1mm edges of the screws, particularly on the "weaker" side of the HDD tray. I wound up badly distorting this weaker side, almost tearing one of those thin metallic "ribbons" holding the screw in place.

But, once the 3 mangled screws, 1 solid screw were extracted, swapping out the HDD was easy. I my fingers to set the 4 screws back in place, then the ginormous pliers to tighten them (only somewhat!), set my PS3 back up, and I'm good to go. FYI, I did decide to add a jumper shunt to the new HDD to limit the drive to SATA 1.5.

Just under 300 GBs of goodness. I decided to alot 10GB to a potential Linux partition I'll probably never, ever set up. Now the shit's restoring from my iPod (and taking almost 2x as long as the backup did), and I'm dirty, hungry, and annoyed. And somehow, I'm bleeding under a fingernail. Just waiting for this to finish so I can plop the old PS3 HDD into my new 2.5" enclosure and effectively had 60GB more to my PC.

*shakes head*

Were it not for those 4 fucking screws on that fucking HDD tray, the hardware end of the process would have taken no more than 10 or 15 minutes. Not the 1+ hour this took.

I probably missed it the first time but why is this important?

 

[Mejilan]

PS3 can have a hard time working with native SATA 3.0 drives. Randomly, at boot, it just won't find the HDD, forcing a reboot to see all your goodies. Forcing the SATA drive to function in 1.5 mode eliminates this occasional issue.

 

[firehawk12]

No problem! FUCKING SCREWS! Sorry...

Hah, at least it wasn't just me.

 

[Mejilan]

A quick Google search suggest that the issue is rather widespread. They're just really weak and shitty screws. To drive the point home, I even tried out one of those tiny little mini-screwdrivers used to tighten the screws on glasses. The damn screws were giving way before that little blade! Amazing!

 

[Kinan]

WD on my machine. It replaced a 250GB WD.

My nephews' machine got a Seagate. Can't tell you which is better, they are both nice, IMO.

Doing my nephews' machine was interesting, as I did it right out of the box, on a PS3 that had never been plugged in. (First time I did that.) Apparently, there's no firmware on the PS3 at first, because I couldn't access the tool to format the drive in the XMB. I had to download the new firmware on Sony's website, install it from a USM stick, ect, before I could get the HDD formatted by the PS3. I thought the PS3s came from the factory with at least basic firmware installed into the onboard memory, but I guess this isn't the case.

Newer PS3s do not have 256MB flash anymore, only 16MB for loader. Rest of firmware is stored on the HDD.

 

[The Faceless Master]

buying seperate enclosures... bah...

i bought WD Passport drives and did some minor surgery...

 

[Chris_C]

Sweet! I'm now a member of the 320Gb club!

 

[reakt]

Ah those screws! It doesn't matter if you have the correct size screwdriver, they're soft, and too tight.

I found that with my 60GB launch unit PS3. I ruined a couple of the screws and had to take a small hacksaw to them!

Before Christmas I sold my PS3 and then bought a brand new 80GB version, here in the UK. First thing I did, before connecting it up was to swap out the disk. I noticed a cheap-ass Fujitsu in there (I seem to remember). It wasn't a nice Seagate like I had in my 60GB PS3. The other thing is that they've completely redesigned the hard disk bay! It's looks the same until you pull that plastic cover off. The blue screw is still there but the disk caddy has a metal lever on it which flips out and then the caddy can be slid out by pulling the lever. It slides out with the short end first, not the long side first as in the old configuration. Once you pull the caddy out you notice that the 4 screws holding the disk in place are much bigger and tougher than the ones in the old configuration! I had no problem undoing these suckers and none of the were stripped by the time I had finished.

I guess Sony got bored of having to replace caddy screws after taking calls from PS3 owners and just redesigned this part.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152114

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M6 HM500LI 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

works great, been using this drive for a few months now

 

[Buckethead]

I know this is pretty off topic but I'm finally buying a PS3 for good after buying/selling a system and borrowing my friend's to get my MGS4 on.

-What are the differences between the models?
(Heard there's emulated blu-ray on some models?)

-How do you play MKV, I heard you can do that now.

-Any other tips or recommendations?

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

PS3 can have a hard time working with native SATA 3.0 drives. Randomly, at boot, it just won't find the HDD, forcing a reboot to see all your goodies. Forcing the SATA drive to function in 1.5 mode eliminates this occasional issue.

nice, thanks.

I have a launch 60 so I think I'll just skip the hassle with the screws and use needle-nose pliers to take them out. I have a little baggy full of HDD screws so I'll replace the bad ones with those once done.

 

[west]

If you have screw problems, make sure you let the disk cool down before trying to remove the screw. Heat expansion can be a real issue. I had huge problems opening mine. I let it cool down and then I succeeded first try. I had just backed up everything so it had been running really hot before I took it out.

 

[Tranced Shadow]

Hmm. I don't currently have an external drive to back-up on, so will doing this work?

- Stick new HDD into enclosure
- Backup data from PS3 onto new HDD over USB
- Swap the drives
- Done?

 

[Rollo Lawson]

THIS LINK should help

i've seen this before but i didnt realize it leaves you on the actual search results lol...dope

 

[sajj316]

Just ordered the same drive Mejilan ... soon to be 320 club member. The 16 MB cache has me intrigued! I have a 60 GB PS3 now so going from 4 MB to 16 MB of cache should be an improvement!

 

[LiK]

thanks guys, for the enclosure recommendations. i'll check those out.

Mejilan, that sucks to hear. i hope i have better luck with my screws. some guys had no problem while others did. i swear Sony probably used a different batch of screws which is why some of them are more easily stripped. just my theory.

 

[NameGenerated]

I'm all ready to upgrade my HDD from 60 to 320 but I don't have an external hard drive. I don't feel like spending any money on something I will only use once, are there any other methods?

 

[sajj316]

PS3 can have a hard time working with native SATA 3.0 drives. Randomly, at boot, it just won't find the HDD, forcing a reboot to see all your goodies. Forcing the SATA drive to function in 1.5 mode eliminates this occasional issue.

So with your install, you set it to 1.5 mode? Did the jumpers come with the drive you bought (same drive I just ordered today) or did you have to buy it separately?

 

[gcubed]

i've had a native sata3 in my ps3 for a while now without issue, i never even thought to force it to 1.5 mode.

As far as steps, for some reason, some upgrades dont go as "smoothly", when i did my first upgrade, i swapped it, plugged it in, it said it will format it and it was done. This new PS3 upgrade i swapped and it told me it couldnt find the firmware anymore, i needed to download 2.53 and put it on a flash into the ps3 and follow the on screen instructions to reflash the firmware.

 

[LiK]

i've had a native sata3 in my ps3 for a while now without issue, i never even thought to force it to 1.5 mode.

yea, i dont hear about this issue that often. is it a problem with certain brands?

 

[Mejilan]

As far as steps, for some reason, some upgrades dont go as "smoothly", when i did my first upgrade, i swapped it, plugged it in, it said it will format it and it was done. This new PS3 upgrade i swapped and it told me it couldnt find the firmware anymore, i needed to download 2.53 and put it on a flash into the ps3 and follow the on screen instructions to reflash the firmware.

IIRC, older PS3s have an internal flash dedicated to storing firmware, whereas newer PS3s install the firmware directly to the HDD. I did NOT have to reinstall my firmware after swapping HDDs.

Hmm. I don't currently have an external drive to back-up on, so will doing this work?

- Stick new HDD into enclosure
- Backup data from PS3 onto new HDD over USB
- Swap the drives
- Done?

You mean back up your current HDD to the new one, then install it directly? I don't think that'll work. The PS3 requires external HDDs to be in the FAT32 format. But that is NOT what's used for installed HDDs. I'm pretty sure that if you dropped a new HDD PS3 formatted as FAT32 and containing a backup of your old HDD, you'll get a prompt to reformat the HDD the second you boot the system up. You'll need to keep your backup destination and new HDD separate and distinct. Don't you have an iPod handy? Those are natively FAT32. It's what I used.

Just ordered the same drive Mejilan ... soon to be 320 club member. The 16 MB cache has me intrigued! I have a 60 GB PS3 now so going from 4 MB to 16 MB of cache should be an improvement!

Whoa, or 60GB only had a 4MB cache? I thought PS3s came with 8MB cached HDDs. I guess that's just the newer model. Nice!

Mejilan, that sucks to hear. i hope i have better luck with my screws. some guys had no problem while others did. i swear Sony probably used a different batch of screws which is why some of them are more easily stripped. just my theory.

Yeah, I suspect that the introduced a better HDD tray/screws setup at some point, what with all of the different hardware revisions out there.

I'm all ready to upgrade my HDD from 60 to 320 but I don't have an external hard drive. I don't feel like spending any money on something I will only use once, are there any other methods?

Depends on how much you need to back up. If you have an iPod handy, then you're all set. What about a higher capacity flashdrive? Or a PSP with a beefy memory stick? You don't HAVE to do the full backup in one shot. You can tackle your saves/media/etc. separately using the XMB, in batches. DLC and game installs will be lost, though, and re-downloaded/re-installed, IIRC.

So with your install, you set it to 1.5 mode? Did the jumpers come with the drive you bought (same drive I just ordered today) or did you have to buy it separately?

The drive I ordered from Newegg was an OEM, so no box, documentation, or jumpers. I purchased a baggy from eBay containing 20 different jumper shunts/caps of varying sizes (for 2.5" SATA drives, typical 3.5" IDE drives, etc.) for about $3.95 shipped, IIRC. By a happy coincidence, that arrived the same day as my HDD and enclosure.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Just ordered the same drive Mejilan ... soon to be 320 club member. The 16 MB cache has me intrigued! I have a 60 GB PS3 now so going from 4 MB to 16 MB of cache should be an improvement!

I'm pretty sure all the 60GB PS3 HDDs originally had an 8MB Cache.

 

[NameGenerated]

Depends on how much you need to back up. If you have an iPod handy, then you're all set. What about a higher capacity flashdrive? Or a PSP with a beefy memory stick? You don't HAVE to do the full backup in one shot. You can tackle your saves/media/etc. separately using the XMB, in batches. DLC and game installs will be lost, though, and re-downloaded/re-installed, IIRC.

My iPod is 30gigs so I'm not sure that is enough. And does the ipod work like an external hard drive already or do I have to do something special to it. I don't want to fuck this process up. :lol

 

[Mejilan]

^^
How full is your HDD? I was showing 12GBs free of a total of 55GBs, and the backup took up 35 GBs on my iPod (which only had about 13.5GBs of ~160GB free). I basically wiped my iPod (factory restore via iTunes), did the backup, swapped HDDs, restored from the iPod, then did another factory restore of the iPod via iTunes before initiating a total re-sync. Left that syncing overnight, and all of my music, playlists, videos, games, etc. were waiting for my morning commute when I woke up!

You could always delete a couple of HDD in-game installs to lessen your total backup size, if that's an issue.

I'm pretty sure all the 60GB PS3 HDDs originally had an 8MB Cache.

Yep, just confirmed it via a quick Google search.
Mine came with a Seagate Momentus 5400.2 60GB HDD with an 8MB cache.

 

[gcubed]

i believe the OS always steals 10% of your hard drive. So if you have a 60gb, 6gb will show as used but wont be backed up. Have to double check the number, but i think its 10%

 

[mintylurb]

^^Yep, just confirmed it via a quick Google search.

Good job, polyh3dron!

 

[Mejilan]

Hey, some things do merit a Google search. There was too much variance in the results and advice regarding PS3 HDD upgrades, and I trust GAF before random Google links when it comes to something serious like console upgrades. ;p

Edit - Oh, and on that note, I can further back up Durante's assertion that the 5 screws (blue + 4 strippers on the HDD tray) are all Phillips, not Pozidrivs, unlike SOME Google results would have you believe...

i believe the OS always steals 10% of your hard drive. So if you have a 60gb, 6gb will show as used but wont be backed up. Have to double check the number, but i think its 10%

Sounds about right. The PS3 recognized my HDD as having about 298GB (that whole 1000 vs 1024 thing) and of that, ~268GB (or about 90% of the 298GB) were free and available immediately after the installation and resulting format, but before I created a 10GB Linux partition and restored my backed up contents.

 

[mintylurb]

Hey, some things do merit a Google search. There was too much variance in the results and advice regarding PS3 HDD upgrades, and I trust GAF before random Google links when it comes to something serious like console upgrades.

Yup, that's why your hdd upgrade went smoothly..oh, wait..

I'm just busting your chops.

Oh, I still think it wasn't a very good move on sony's part to have newer ps3's store firmwares to directly hdds. Bad sony!

 

[Mejilan]

They got cheap, trying to mitigate their losses. I don't really blame them, though I'm not happy that current PS3s are such downgrades compared to what I (over-)paid for a few years ago. Worried about (another) PS3 breakdown.

 

[LRB1983]

anyone using a 500GB HDD? any problems?

I'm using WD 500GB

Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
10/10

 

[Bogie 19th]

I'm using WD 500GB

Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136314
10/10

Sweet. I want to upgrade soon, but I want it to be the last time I do. I have the 40gb now, but would like to jump straight to the 1 terabyte.

 

[mintylurb]

They got cheap, trying to mitigate their losses. I don't really blame them, though I'm not happy that current PS3s are such downgrades compared to what I (over-)paid for a few years ago. Worried about (another) PS3 breakdown.

Yeah. Anyway, I just hope my launch unit lasts until sony releases a slimmer version.

 

[LiK]

I'm using WD 500GB
[10/10

thank you, more confirmation. now all i need left is an enclosure and i'm set. i will check out those you guys recommended. thanks guys.

 

[LRB1983]

thank you, more confirmation. now all i need left is an enclosure and i'm set. i will check out those you guys recommended. thanks guys.

I don't know if there're differences between models in compatibility terms (rpm, cache) but for more information: my PS3 model is 60 GB (with backward compatibility).

 

[LiK]

I don't know if there're differences between models in compatibility terms (rpm, cache) but for more information: my PS3 model is 60 GB (with backward compatibility).

perfect, 60GB PS3 here as well.

 

[sajj316]

I'm pretty sure all the 60GB PS3 HDDs originally had an 8MB Cache.

I stand corrected Thanks! Hopefully the 16 MB of cache is used, if not now then with a firmware upgrade.

I see some GAFers use the jumpers and some don't. I'll order it anyway just in case I see this inconsistency

 

[xBerserker]

Thanks for the thread. Right now I have 160GB's in my PS3. I'd like to upgrade to 320Gb or 500 GB this year at some point, and put linux back on too.

 

[Tranced Shadow]

You mean back up your current HDD to the new one, then install it directly? I don't think that'll work. The PS3 requires external HDDs to be in the FAT32 format. But that is NOT what's used for installed HDDs. I'm pretty sure that if you dropped a new HDD PS3 formatted as FAT32 and containing a backup of your old HDD, you'll get a prompt to reformat the HDD the second you boot the system up. You'll need to keep your backup destination and new HDD separate and distinct. Don't you have an iPod handy? Those are natively FAT32. It's what I used.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I only have an iPod Touch

I'm thinking of getting a new HDD for my MacBook, sticking the 160GB from that into my PS3, and using the 60GB from that in an enclosure...

 

[Kccitystar]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I only have an iPod Touch

I'm thinking of getting a new HDD for my MacBook, sticking the 160GB from that into my PS3, and using the 60GB from that in an enclosure...

Do you sync your IPod Touch with your MacBook? If so, it will format the Touch into a partition only Apple products can read. iPods where you sync into Windows work as FAT32

 

[Tranced Shadow]

Do you sync your IPod Touch with your MacBook? If so, it will format the Touch into a partition only Apple products can read. iPods where you sync into Windows work as FAT32

My Touch only syncs Applications, and it does so with my Windows desktop. Even if the PS3 doesn't like it, I've got USB sticks that will also do the job

 

[Thrakier]

I made a complete backup from my HDD, bought a new PS3, installed the backup and - all my savegames are gone!!!!!!!!! Why!?? I backed some of them up seperatly, but for example LBP tells me, that my data is from "another user" and that I can not get any trophys with it. All my levels I build are in this data! WTF!??? This is a nightmare!

 

[Mejilan]

Because backups are tied to the consoles they're generated from.

 

[Thrakier]

That's a joke. My PS3 broke! So I loose all my stuff!? All my LBP-trophies, my levels, hours and hours of gameplay, leveling in R2 etc.! Seriously? If this is real I'm thinking about selling the console and that's it for me.

 

[kuYuri]

Does anyone know if the Backup utility feature also backs up PS2/PS1 memory card saves?

 

[Mejilan]

I think it should do PSOne/PS2 saves, but I heard that it doesn't, for whatever reason. I'd back those up manually using a thumb drive or some such.

That's a joke. My PS3 broke! So I loose all my stuff!? All my LBP-trophies, my levels, hours and hours of gameplay, leveling in R2 etc.! Seriously? If this is real I'm thinking about selling the console and that's it for me.

Perhaps manual back-ups would work, but I doubt it. It's to prevent people from sharing saves, I believe. I'd just call Sony and ask them what's what.

 

[kuYuri]

I think it should do PSOne/PS2 saves, but I heard that it doesn't, for whatever reason. I'd back those up manually using a thumb drive or some such.

Figured as much. I'm actually doing a back up right now to an external HDD to test it. I also have a USB flash drive with my backed up saves, just in case. If my 60GB PS3 craps out on me, I've got some insurance.