Topic: Upgrading the PS3 hard drive - slightly more annoying than expected

[K-man]

Well I've arrived at that point.  2 gigs left and there's nothing I want to part with.  I'm about to go and purchase a WD 320 gig to replace the original 60.  The actual process appears seamless.  I clear off a significant portion of my backup drive and hook it to the ps3 to do the backup.

It doesn't detect.  Wtf?

Oh wait, it's formatted in NTFS and the PS3 doesn't recognize it.  No problem I'll just copy over the remaining stuff and format it in fat32.

Oh, you mean there's no apparent way to format in Fat32 using Vista 64?  WTF?

So I figure out that it still can be done using the dos prompt.  Unfortunately it's taking FOREVER.  Been going for about an hour and I'm sitting at 64% completion on a 90 gig drive. 

But man all that space is going to be worth it.

[K-man]

So Windows waits until the end of the format attempt to tell me that the volume is too large.

Thankfully this little program takes care of the issue quickly

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Backing up now...

[Quemaqua]

Having gone through any number of similar frustrations in the last while, I feel your pain.  Glad you got it sorted, though.  My PS3 has been out of space for some time now.  Downloadable games are too big, I can't really keep hardly anything around anymore.

[Pugnate]

I am interested in upgrading mine too.

[K-man]

I went with a 320 gig drive.  on sale at Best Buy for 45 bucks.  I figure reasonably speaking I'll never hit that limit.

[K-man]

Well hey that was a pain in the ass.  Here are some protips regarding the old fat ps3:

Use an external drive for the backup.  If you use the program above to format it in Fat 32 you don't have to abide by Microsoft's self-imposed limit of 32 gigs on the partition.  I got one 93 gig partition on my external just fine.

Take the time to use compressed air and clean out the vents and stuff on the PS3.  I take very good care of my electronics but found that a lot had built up over time.

Use a small flat screwdriver to pry up the edge of the cover on the side of the PS3.  You must remove the blue screw in the center of the caddy first.  After that, slide the caddy to the left, remove using the clip/handle.

There are four screws holding the drive in the caddy.  This is important.  If you remember nothing else REMEMBER THIS:  The screws are very soft, very shitty, and unfortunately are screwed in very tightly.  You must have a bit with a pretty exact fit to get these out without trouble.  You will need to press the screwdriver in firmly to get them out.  I had all but one come out.  The last one rounded out and I eventually had to snag the edges with vice grips to unscrew it.  It is a pain in the ass and is hands down the worst part of the process.

I'm restoring my backup now.

[gpw11]

I didn't realize it was that much of a headache.  My slim has 160GB, and I haven't downloaded anything but demos to date, but I'm not looking forward to dealing with this if the time comes.

[K-man]

Hopefully they have addressed the issues with the slim.  Although I'm pretty sure you'll still need a storage medium formatted in Fat32 to do the backup.

[Pugnate]

Yea I have a slim. I could do some research or just not do it.

I just won't do it.