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What do you need the upgrade the PS3 hard drive?


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Old 11-12-2016, 16:35
Bill Clinton
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I've got what I think is the right physical size hard drive that is 500 GB already and a PS3 where I haven't installed anything compared to another one which has many games and settings etc.

If upgrading on a fresh PS3 do you still need to back anything up first?
Does it require a special screwdriver?

Got 20 games or so on PSN, nearly none of which will play on PS4 so would be good to upgrade the PS3. It's a 60 GB PS2 disc reading model, hoping to put in a 500 GB hard drive.
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Old 12-12-2016, 16:04
Lumstorm
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If its a fresh PS3 there's nothing to backup plug the drive and turn it on and the PS3 will show a recovery menu to format the drive.

It's a standard phillips screwdriver just make sure you have the right size as the blue screw is a soft metal and will strip easily if you use the wrong size.
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Old 12-12-2016, 16:16
mojobrew
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I've got what I think is the right physical size hard drive that is 500 GB already and a PS3 where I haven't installed anything compared to another one which has many games and settings etc.

If upgrading on a fresh PS3 do you still need to back anything up first?
Does it require a special screwdriver?

Got 20 games or so on PSN, nearly none of which will play on PS4 so would be good to upgrade the PS3. It's a 60 GB PS2 disc reading model, hoping to put in a 500 GB hard drive.
Bit confused if the 60GB is the new or old, can't imagine anyone would describe a launch 60GB as "fresh"?!

If your new one is a super slim 12GB you need to buy an HDD caddy as it only has flash memory in it (someone correct me if I'm wrong)...

This should do it https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-PlaySt.../dp/B009CV1OVC

You don't need a special screwdriver though as the only ones you need to remove are Phillips head. Anything with a torx screw you don't need to touch.
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Old 12-12-2016, 17:18
Bill Clinton
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Bit confused if the 60GB is the new or old, can't imagine anyone would describe a launch 60GB as "fresh"?!

If your new one is a super slim 12GB you need to buy an HDD caddy as it only has flash memory in it (someone correct me if I'm wrong)...

This should do it https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-PlaySt.../dp/B009CV1OVC

You don't need a special screwdriver though as the only ones you need to remove are Phillips head. Anything with a torx screw you don't need to touch.
It was a purchase of a second hand 60 GB model off Ebay which I tried one to see if it powered up, it did! There's nothing on it so is just waiting to have an upgraded hard drive.
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Old 14-12-2016, 05:44
steveOooo
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This article has a guide to it except the PS3 will only take 1tb - do not bother with a 2tb (1.5tb might work so buy from amazon just in case so you can return easily)

Best way to install hdd in PS3 - http://www.unboxfresh.com/gaming/rep...ybrid-ssd-hdd/
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Old 20-12-2016, 14:54
Bill Clinton
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It worked in the end! First tried a 500 GB I had with an upgrade kit from Ebay, no end of problems with that, went to a safe mode menu, tried to install from the update on a USB drive, that failed, it awkwardly installed in the end, but the Blu-Ray drive was missing and then went to a blank screen when rebooting, must have been a dodgy drive. Put original back in and that worked, and then put in a spare solid state drive of 240 GB, that worked perfectly. However it wasn't for that purpose so I ordered a 1 TB 2.5" and that has worked perfectly so far.

When putting that in, it just formatted it and booted straight into the PS3 OS, didn't even go through the first time setup, which it did with the other drives, wonder why that was.

Well worth it as started with 828 GB usable space, and not even down to 600 GB with all games off store installed so far. The PS3 always reserves 10% of the HD space, so with a 1 TB formatted in FAT32 which is already 931 GB thanks to that it then drops to 828 GB usable on the PS3. The 500 one was 461 GB then reduced to 414 GB usable. The 240 GB solid state drive was 221 formatted and 200 GB usable.

Didn't notice any massive performance increase when I had the solid state drive in the PS3 for a few days, although the XMB seemed lightning quick, games and loading screens were about the same!

The PS3 is apparently upgradeable to a maximum 1 TB, and the PS4 to 4 TB.
Now got a PS4 also but hardly anything on it yet, except Final Fantasy VII & Journey.

Thanks for the advice,.

Briefly all you do is take the small cover at the side of the PS3 with your fingers, then you need the small Philips screwdriver to take off the blue screw, the HDD is in a metal caddy which comes out fairly easily, the contacts are in the left, so it needs to be pushed in and then pushed left to connect. I put it in upside down once and got the "No storage device found" message.

I wonder how the PS3 OS managed to install itself from internal memory.
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Old 21-12-2016, 03:46
Conroy
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I wonder how the PS3 OS managed to install itself from internal memory.
The launch PS3 has internal NAND flash which stores the latest firmware. The NAND flash was removed in later versions of the PS3 which is why when changing the HDD, you have to reinstall the full firmware from a USB device.
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Old 22-12-2016, 10:50
Bill Clinton
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The launch PS3 has internal NAND flash which stores the latest firmware. The NAND flash was removed in later versions of the PS3 which is why when changing the HDD, you have to reinstall the full firmware from a USB device.
Interesting that, that's what seemed to happen when installing the 1 TB, but with the 500 GB drive attempt using a drive that had been in a drawer for over a year which didn't seem to work, the 60 GB PS3 did not boot up the PS3 OS, it asked to format but then could only be accessed in safe mode, maybe just because the OS didn't go on properly on to the 500 GB.
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