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The PS3 HDD Upgrade Thread (2009 Edition)

C

CharpyImpact

Member
Seriously, upgrading the harddrive was the best thing i have done in a long time. Deleting game installs and reinstalling was a pain. Now I just download demos crazily and even if I don't have a game, I get the downloads for it (if free), just in case I do get it :p
 
S

sajj316

Member
Beardz said:
Same thing happened to me, use needle pliers

I took out the little screws with the same pliers too.
Click to expand...


Screws indeed SUCK! I almost stripped the blue screw but def stripped the smaller screws that en-close the HDD. Pliers are your best friend. I'm sure you can replace those smaller screws but I'm not sure about the blue screw.
 
T

Thrakier

Member
gcubed said:
have you tried formatting your new hard drive again, restoring to default, going back to your old ps3, manually copying the saves off of it and copying them onto the new ps3?

This assumes you have access to your old one
Click to expand...

Yes, I tried everything at this point. It just doesn't work. This whole "let us lock stuff to a hardware" is BEYONED stupidity.
 
M

mintylurb

Member
PuMa said:
Sooo I just tried installing my new 320 gb hard drive.... and of course nothing is ever as simple as it should be for me. I guess that's just my luck. Anywho, I did a backup to an external hd (formatted to fat32), and everything was going fine. Next, I swapped my hard drives and tried to perform the restore from my backup data and I keep getting a message saying that there is no backup data. This message comes up after selecting my external hard drive and the supposed backup file from the ps3 menu. After several tries, I swapped the ps3 hard drives and tried the backup utility again. Did the swap and ran the restore....same message. What gives???! Any have this happen before? I was really hoping this was going to be an easy process, but of course there are always problems. :-(
Click to expand...
It's your external hdd for sure. Happened to me as well. What you should do is when the ps3 reboots after formating your newly installed internal hdd, don't press anything. Just reboot your external hdd. After that, press your controllers PS button and your ps3 should see your backup file.

This happens because your ext hdd goes into idle mode when the ps3 reboots.
 
P

PuMa

Member
mintylurb said:
It's your external hdd for sure. Happened to me as well. What you should do is when the ps3 reboots after formating your newly installed internal hdd, don't press anything. Just reboot your external hdd. After that, press your controllers PS button and your ps3 should see your backup file.

This happens because your ext hdd goes into idle mode when the ps3 reboots.
Click to expand...

Ahh, good idea. Ill try that thanks!
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
sajj316 said:
Thanks for creating the thread! It was the catalyst in me ordering and running with the installation of the new HDD.
Click to expand...

Same reason I made the thread. All the tutorials and shit I was Googling up were primarily from 2007. Prices and technology have evolved since then, and I knew GAF would be good with the anecdotal evidence... so here we are!
 
W

WTFing

Banned
Kccitystar said:
I know its' a long shot but

sync trophy data
backup data
deactivate the old PS3 from your account
activate new PS3 on your account
restore data on new ps3

see if that works
Click to expand...

Sorry if I'm too lazy to search but how can I deactivate my 20go PS3 before selling it? I'm planning to buy an Euro PS3 soon after selling the US model.
Let's say I shared my main PSN account with 3 people plus my console, so if you add my account that makes four. If I deactivate my main PSN account on MY PS3, that means I will still have 2 PS3s to use with my account?
I hope this post is clear enough. Thanks.
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
Just checked my Newegg order, it's currently in West Sacramento and will be delivered on Monday...which is a holiday for me. Luckily, both UPS and my work's mail center will be open when it arrives so on Tuesday, I'll hopefully be greeted with a UPS package on my chair.

I'll be picking up some needle-nose pliers and both a #1 & #2 Phillips screwdriver (just in case) over the weekend.
 
Beardz

Beardz

Member
Bugnology said:
Sorry if I'm too lazy to search but how can I deactivate my 20go PS3 before selling it? I'm planning to buy an Euro PS3 soon after selling the US model.
Let's say I shared my main PSN account with 3 people plus my console, so if you add my account that makes four. If I deactivate my main PSN account on MY PS3, that means I will still have 2 PS3s to use with my account?
I hope this post is clear enough. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Go to account management, there you will find "activate system" or something like that, there you can activate and deactivate your account.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
I figured I'd go to the source and see if there was anything and lo and behold:
Surprisingly yes. I originally went under the assumption that none of the RB data would be transferred since you can't actually copy the savedata over from account to account on the same PS3 but lo-and-behold, everything was in tact.

All DLC's, all exports, all trophies (resync from website), all accounts, all demos, all savedata, all etc else.
Click to expand...
I was worried about the save data since you can't back it up to a thumb drive but there it is that the save data makes the move as well. Awesome.
 
W

WTFing

Banned
Beardz said:
Go to account management, there you will find "activate system" or something like that, there you can activate and deactivate your account.
Click to expand...
Then what?
It will count as (-1) activated console or not?
Thnaks for your answer.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
alright, I'm feeling stupid. How do I make my ipod so it will be my backup drive? I have an 80GB classic and the PS3 isn't recognizing it. I did the whole restore thing that was mentioned a few pages ago and that didn't change things. I know it has to be FAT32 but my format options are exFAT and NTFS.
 
P

PuMa

Member
bune duggy said:
alright, I'm feeling stupid. How do I make my ipod so it will be my backup drive? I have an 80GB classic and the PS3 isn't recognizing it. I did the whole restore thing that was mentioned a few pages ago and that didn't change things. I know it has to be FAT32 but my format options are exFAT and NTFS.
Click to expand...

Try using this program http://www.compuapps.com/download/Swissknife/swissknife.htm

Thats what I used to format my external to fat32. Plus it can create fat32 partitions larger than 32 gb.
 
L

Luigison

Member
I used weaKnees a few years ago to get an upgrade HDD and installation kit for my TiVo and was very happy with the service and hardware.

Has anyone upgraded a PS3 with weaKnees or know anyone who has?

http://weaknees.com/ps3-upgrade.php

If so please post about the experience and if possible, what speed and cache size they used.
 
G

gcubed

Member
Luigison said:
I used weaKnees a few years ago to get an upgrade HDD and installation kit for my TiVo and was very happy with the service and hardware.

Has anyone upgraded a PS3 with weaKnees or know anyone who has?

http://weaknees.com/ps3-upgrade.php

If so please post about the experience and if possible, what speed and cache size they used.
Click to expand...

it is so amazingly easy to do yourself you can save yourself about 75 dollars vs using weakness
 
P

painful fart

Member
Mejilan said:
*high five*
Click to expand...
I just completed an install of the same type of 320 GB 7200 rpm Seagate HD. Funny thing was that I ordered it before I read your thread. Guess we´ve done a similar market analysis. However, after I noticed that the 7200 rpm hardly improved the startup time of games installed on the hard drive (I benchmarked Burnout Paradise, GT Prologue and SDHD) I kind of regret I didn´t go for the 500 GB Samsung drive which has really good transfer speed but lacks in seek times, it wasn´t that more expensive. Anyways the 7200 rpm drive will probably save me a few seconds here and there during game play, believe. :D
I´ll get a 750 GB drive when they hit the market to make up for it. Sony will probably update the firmware to support them once they are available.

About stripping screws, I noticed it can be easily done if you don´t put maximum pressure on the screw driver when you losen the screw. I didn´t strip anyone, but I can see that some may have done that because they were pretty tight.

About hard strapping the drive to 1.5 SATA, I didn´t do it and haven´t encountered any problems. My guess is it was a problem on early 3.0 SATA 2.5" hard drives.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I expect a future firmware update to more properly make use of faster drives. Also, I believe currently, the increased cache has a more tangible effect than the higher RPM value. I too hesitated over getting a 500GB drive (as I did for my PS2), but frankly, I'll never use the 320. Until the PS3 gets 360-like full installs, 320 is more than enough, and any additional speed gains (however minor right now) are a nice bonus. As was the cheaper price.
 
R

rkenshin

Member
man, I hear Seagate HDDs are dying left and right these days.. I hope my Seagate 320gb hdd won't die in my ps3 in less than 3 months
 
P

painful fart

Member
Mejilan said:
Seagate drives are typically fantastic. Also, 5 year warranties.
Click to expand...
Thanks for reminding, I think that was another thing that I factored in. It was also speced for ambient 65 degree Celsius, which is pretty good.

But I noticed Seagate just offered 3 years warranty for a new model 500 Gb 2.5"HD, so don´t take a 5 year warranty for granted for all Seagate HDs.
 
F

fulsome

Member
Okay.... so I got my HDD, got the blue screw out somehow, but the small ones are REALLY tough. I do not get how all of you did it. I have the 60GB version, and these just won't budge. I think I need new pliers or something because even with them, they won't move... counter-clockwise right? :lol
 
F

fulsome

Member
Mejilan said:
Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. Pliers are definitely the way to go.
Click to expand...
Gaaah... my grip sucks or something, they won't move. Seems like i am stripping the outside of the screw with the pliers now..... :(
 
F

fulsome

Member
Beardz said:
With some pliers you can use THIS PART to unscrew them, for me, it was easier this way.
Click to expand...
Okay.. well, this picture shows that I don't know how to use pliers... got two of them to move (the semi-stripped ones) two more to go! Thanks!
 
Schrade

Schrade

Member
rkenshin said:
man, I hear Seagate HDDs are dying left and right these days.. I hope my Seagate 320gb hdd won't die in my ps3 in less than 3 months
Click to expand...
I never buy anything else. Seagates are the most reliable drives in my experience and I've dealt with a LOT of drives.

Western Digital and Maxtor drives have been the most unreliable ones in my experience. Also IBM.

Aha, I think I found something that might be related to your comment. As you can see, it only involves the 1TB and 1.5TB drives. It's a firmware issue and won't affect any laptop drives that a PS3 will use:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/seagate-7200-11-failing,6844.html
In the wake of freezing issues with Seagate's 1.5TB drives comes yet another problem with the Barracuda 7200.11 series. Failure rates of the 1TB drives in particular are abnormally high, but Seagate has not acknowledged the problem.

Now 11 pages long, the "official" problem discussion thread on the Seagate support forums is full of users reporting problems with the ST31000340AS, the 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drive.

One user built a 6TB RAID array three months ago. In two months, one of the drives failed. A second drive failed about a month later, and a third eight days after that. Another user had four out of five of their drives fail within 12 days of purchase. Reports of failures can also be found on other forums as well. Some data recovery and RMA centers have reported failure rates of approximately 30 to 40 percent, but Seagate has not released any official information.

The issue lies with faulty microcode in firmware version SD15, found on drives manufactured in Thailand. Generally, the drive will operate normally until the time of failure and at some point will lock up and prevent detection by the BIOS, rendering it completely unusable.

While Seagate has not publicly acknowledged the problem as of yet, they have reportedly updated the firmware on all newly manufactured drives, however the firmware cannot be update on drives that have already failed because the BIOS does not even detect them. This means that owners of affected drives require data recovery services to save their critical data.

No recall on unsold drives with the affected firmware has been issued.

Update: Seagate has acknowledged the problem and is providing firmware updates through customer support. Additionally, if your hard drive has already failed, Seagate will provide free data recovery services, since the data is not actually affected.
Click to expand...
 
C

cann3dheat

Member
So, question: If my girlfriend has a PS2-BC PS3, and I have one of the new 80GB models, if I swap the hard drives and take her PS3, will I now have PS2-BC?
 
Schrade

Schrade

Member
cann3dheat said:
So, question: If my girlfriend has a PS2-BC PS3, and I have one of the new 80GB models, if I swap the hard drives and take her PS3, will I now have PS2-BC?
Click to expand...
Yeah. The backwards compatibility stays with the system, not the HD.

And by the way.. how in the hell did you let your girlfriend get a PS3 before you?
 
C

cann3dheat

Member
Schrade said:
Yeah. The backwards compatibility stays with the system, not the HD.

And by the way.. how in the hell did you let your girlfriend get a PS3 before you?
Click to expand...
Awesome, once she gets hers back from Sony I'll swap it out.

And we just started dating a few months ago. I'm lucky that she doesn't really care about the swap. She never had any PS2 games. :D
 
L

Luigison

Member
aakaiaabg.jpg

Awesome! Now I just need to be able to play Jazz Jackrabbit on my PS3.
 
P

painful fart

Member
Mejilan said:
I expect a future firmware update to more properly make use of faster drives. Also, I believe currently, the increased cache has a more tangible effect than the higher RPM value. I too hesitated over getting a 500GB drive (as I did for my PS2), but frankly, I'll never use the 320. Until the PS3 gets 360-like full installs, 320 is more than enough, and any additional speed gains (however minor right now) are a nice bonus. As was the cheaper price.
Click to expand...
I always use what space that is available. It´s really neat to keep videos, pictures for slide shows as well as my music library right on the disk and avoid the hassle of dlna and USB disks. Nice to have it available everytime I turn on the PS3. (Well, from now I will have my music library there).

It has happened more than once that friends commented about the nice "preview icon" of video clips stored on the PS3, and the remote works really well.
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I keep all of my music on my PC and iPod. I don't really see any point it having any of it on my 360 or PS3. Then again, I do have my PC and consoles within easy reach of the same chair! :)
 
L

Luigison

Member
The person I contacted with weaKnees.com said they are currently using all WD drives, and "they're far fast enough for the PS3" with a "speed is 5200RPM and an 8 MB cache," and claims that "it's well above PS3 spec, and the PS3 processor is the bottleneck." Anyone know what the specs for a stock 80G CECHExx model PS3 are? Are there any benchmark tests for different speeds and cache size on a PS3?
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
My 60GB hdd that came with my near launch US PS3 was a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 drive. It featured 5400 RPMs and an 8MB cache.
I think that weaKnees service is a total rip-off.
 
L

Luigison

Member
X

XxSlasherMcGirkxX

Member
MrTroubleMaker said:
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
Click to expand...

I just bought this on newegg.com. Based on your recommendation and two feedbacks from that link saying it was a simple PS3 installion. I'm really nervous about this, dont know why just am. Working in unfamiar territory, total noob when it comes to this stuff.

Seems easy tho. The only thing i dont really understand is this SATA thing. The OP says PS3 is designed for 2.5 right? But all of the links in this topic are 3.0. For a small% some this could be a problem fixed with a jumper thing. I hope mine doesnt, but judging by the reviews i think ill be okay.
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
"the system will restore during the restore process. do not turn the system off." well no shit.

I forgot to sync my trophies before I replaced the HDD. Then again, I haven't played a trophy-enabled game in about a month.

Also: I did not expect the HDD to be so small. I got both a 1TB drive for my computer and a 320GB drive for the PS3 so going from the TB drive to the 320 was like "is this box empty?"
 
M

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Yep, I got my new PS3 drive and a 2.5" enclosure (so as to recycle the stock 60GB drive) together, and was flat-out amazed at how tiny they were. I got a 3.5" enclosure in that same package, so the contrast was particularly jarring.
 
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