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Help Me With My PS3 HDD Woes


On 07/03/2013 at 12:20 PM by Julian Titus

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So, my PS3 is an odd duck. I own the Metal Gear Solid 4 limited edition console. It was the first PS3 to come bundled with the Dual Shock 3, and it's gunmetal gray and of course it came with MGS 4 limited edition (which has since been signed by one of the major MGS composers, Norihiko Hibino).

However, it only has a 40GB hard drive.

That hasn't been a problem, because I don't play my PS3 too much, and I delete system data after I finish a game. However, the beta version of Final Fantasy XIV is taking up a whopping 27 gigs of my drive, and I have a digital game to review that takes up 13 gigs. Even after deleting anything I could spare, I'm still short, as there is obviously some PS3 system data that can't be deleted, and even if it could, there wouldn't be room for the review game's save files.

It's time to upgrade. I don't want to delete FF XIV since Phase 4 of the beta is coming up, and besides, eventually I'm going to have that game on my system permanently. I need to get a new HDD for the system, but I'd like some feedback on the best way to go.

My gut reaction is to go with an external drive, but it seems like there are quite a few hoops to hop through to get that to work. I don't love the idea of opening up my console (call it the madness of a guy that keeps the plastic baggies and twisty ties for every console he owns), but I know I can do it if I have to. I'm not the most tech-savvy fellow, but I've added RAM and a graphics card into my desktop PC before, and I doubt this is much more difficult than that.

So, pointers? Tips? What do you fine people recommend? I'd love to grab a solution after work so that I can get cracking on this game tonight. But I'd probably have to re-download FF XIV either way, so this may be a moot point...


 

Comments

mothman

07/03/2013 at 12:34 PM

You cannot store games on an external HDD without doing some sort of illegal modification.

Installing a new HDD is quite simple and there are even instructions in the PS3 manual on doing it. Sony deliberately built it that way.  It's the backup and restore that are a pain in the ass but you only have a 40 GB drive so it shouldn't be bad.

I blogged about doing it a while back but I was going from a 320 GB to a 750.

The machine will accept pretty much any 2.5" SATA Laptop drive and you should be able to find a  one terabyte unit for under $100 these days. Here are the three blogs I wrote on the process. If you don't care about keeping the games and saves on your old drive it will be really quick. 

http://www.pixlbit.com/blog/956/replacing_my_ps3_drive_step_1

http://www.pixlbit.com/blog/983/replacing_my_ps3_drive_steps_2_and_3

http://www.pixlbit.com/blog/1034/replacing_my_ps3_hard_drive_fin

I'll 

Julian Titus Senior Editor

07/03/2013 at 12:46 PM

This is a huge help. Thanks, Mothman!

mothman

07/03/2013 at 12:47 PM

Here's a youtube vid on replacing the drive. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNSytaL9hnI

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/03/2013 at 02:35 PM

man, I wish I had the courage to do this. 

Coolsetzer

07/03/2013 at 06:11 PM

Yeah, what Mothman said! I haven't done it yet, but I have his blogs saved for future reference. lol

transmet2033

07/03/2013 at 07:57 PM

I was happily surprised when I found out that you could upgrade the drive, and even happier when I learned how easy it is.  I think that the hardest part was messing around with the external drive that you use to transfer the data over.

F1r3inth3H0L3

07/04/2013 at 09:55 AM

Replacing the hard drive per Mothman's recommendation is really easy to do. I upgraded my 40GB PS3 to a 250GB HDD in that way. All it really entails (atleast of the Fatty PS3) is popping off the outside panel and removing/replacing 3 screws!!! If I can do it, I guarantee anyone on here can, I mean I am not familiar with working on computers at all!

I recommend it to everyone who has harddrive space issues. It's an easy fix.

NSonic79

07/06/2013 at 12:14 PM

Thanks for the reminder to. I think it's high time I upgraded my PS3 and mothman explained things alot better than I did with my 1up.com blog long ago on the issue.

This is my last time I want to do this, those screws are almost stripped from my last try, plus I hope I don't need to have the most recent firmware update save on a zip drive to finalize the result.

Now I just need to find a good price on a 1TB 5200 RPG 2.5 hard drive.

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