PS3 HDD

[Mire Mare]

Does anyone have a PS3 HDD that you no longer use or need? If so I'm interested in taking it off your hands. Not too worried about size, 40gb, 60gb or whatever. It's to go into a PS3 that only has a 4gb storage that is full to capacity.

I take it it's just a straight swap out?

Also, is it possible to backup the game saves from the 4gb and then save them to the larger drive?

Needless to say, it's not my console. It's for a friends son who's only 10 and is trying his best to save up for a bigger HDD!

Drop a pm if you can help out.

Cheers

[ToxieDogg]

Does anyone have a PS3 HDD that you no longer use or need? If so I'm interested in taking it off your hands. Not too worried about size, 40gb, 60gb or whatever. It's to go into a PS3 that only has a 4gb storage that is full to capacity.

I take it it's just a straight swap out?

Also, is it possible to backup the game saves from the 4gb and then save them to the larger drive?

Needless to say, it's not my console. It's for a friends son who's only 10 and is trying his best to save up for a bigger HDD!

Drop a pm if you can help out.

Cheers

You don't need a 'specific' PS3 HDD, most (I think any?) standard laptop harddrive will do the trick....my mate recently bought a 250 gig one from Amazon and I installed it into his old 60 gig model PS3 for him.

It's simplicity itself to take the old one out and put the new one in, straight swap like you say...open a flap at the side, undo a couple of screws, take the old one out, slot the new one in, screw it back up and Bob's your uncle. Then once you turn on the PS3, it'll format the HDD itself and you'll be good to go from there.

Before you do all that though, if you've got an external HDD, plug that into one of the USB ports and do a full system back up, you can then restore all the data once you've put the new HDD in.

Only problem you might have is with a certain (blue) screw that seems to be difficult to undo at first...make sure you've got a good crosshead screwdriver for it.

EDIT: This video's a great guide to go by if you're unsure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As55u2cBM0Y

[thevulture]

The PS3 is compatible with just about any 2.5-inch SATA notebook hard disk. Both 5400- and 7200-RPM drives should work fine. The physical size of the hard disk is important because it has to fit the PS3's 2.5-inch drive tray.

Some folks started to instal SSD drives and say performance of Brink, Rage etc better.Anywho, yeah those damn screws strip real easy, i had PC shop change my drives, as they had correct tools, but it's really straight forward.(Something Sony got very right with PS3).

Some gave saves won't copy over though i found, each time i backed up data from my existing PS3 drives.Also, be careful of drives with bad sectors, had few games crash because of this issue.

[Mire Mare]

I didn't know an of that so all that's really useful. Thanks guys appreciate the info.

[Mire Mare]

I have found a cheap 40gb 2.5 sata hdd. Will that be adequate? It's a significant increase on 4gb but I'm wondering if this will reach capacity pretty quickly. Game saves alone would surely take a while to fill 40gb, but can games be installed to the hdd on a PS3 as they can on the 360?

[speedlolita]

40GB 2.5" SATA drive would work.

Sony recommend 5400RPM drives.

[witchfinder]

Can't believe nobody has asked this yet but how on earth did he end up with a PS3 with only a 4Gb hard drive?!

[simes]

My 60Gb drive in my original PS3 didn't last me too long in terms of space so I upgraded it to the 500Gb that's sitting in it right now and I've used up about 2/3 of that... and that's just with stuff I've downloaded from the store and game data!

[thevulture]

My 60Gb drive in my original PS3 didn't last me too long in terms of space so I upgraded it to the 500Gb that's sitting in it right now and I've used up about 2/3 of that... and that's just with stuff I've downloaded from the store and game data!

I never thought i'd be upgrading the HDD in my 40 G model PS3 when i bought it, but that soon changed and in went a 250G HDD.Soon as i started buying games off PSN, PS3 games on disc that required instals etc, that 40G soon started to be eaten away.

[simes]

40GB 2.5" SATA drive would work.

Sony recommend 5400RPM drives.

That's a pretty good point - there's no point going for a 7200RPM drive as the extra speed won't make any difference when used with the PS3.

[Mire Mare]

Thanks again guys.


I think the 4gb PS3 was free with a mobile phone contract. I guess they get the cheapest PS3 possible for such offers.

Simes & thevulture if you still have the old drive around do you fancy selling one?

[DanWelsh86]

I have my 40gig drive I can sell you? Replaced mine with a 320 gig one few years back.

[speedlolita]

Thanks again guys.


I think the 4gb PS3 was free with a mobile phone contract. I guess they get the cheapest PS3 possible for such offers.

Simes & thevulture if you still have the old drive around do you fancy selling one?

Btw, no such thing as a 4GB PS3. You're getting it mixed up with a 4GB Xbox 360. The memory capacity at least.

[simes]

I should have a spare 120Gb drive lying around as I had to buy a new PS3 at Christmas and took the hard drive out the day I bought it so it's basically a brand new drive that was only used by Sony to pre-install the OS! Obviously it will need to be reformatted for your PS3 once you install it, but apart from that it's virtually new.

[witchfinder]

Btw, no such thing as a 4GB PS3.

Exactly - the lowest HDD size that it was shipped with is 40Gb so you should definitely check it's not 40Gb before you go buying another 40Gb one thinking that will be an adequate replacement.

If it truly is only 4Gb then somebody has been very naughty prior to selling it to your friend!