Putting a 250GB HDD(Dell) in my PS3, Help please!

pjjk

Hi, I bought a new laptop just there from Dell, its a 500GB(2x250GB). I want to put one of the HardDrives in my PS3 as I'm constantly being told I "you have less than 500MB free". I have a few questions though,
1) Will I have to install anything on the HardDrive to make it work in the PS3?
2) Will it be safe to put the 250GB Dell harddrive in it?
3) I have no idea of the speed of the HardDrive, any way I can check it out?
Also if theres anything I need to know, if someone would tell me it would be great.
Thanks
Paddy

guil

if its a new laptop it will void ur warranty and ur ps3 warranty will be void aswell
1 make sure its not the drive with the os on it or anything else important and it has to be formatted to fat32
2 yeah it will be safe
3 i think ya can check the speed from device manager, it should be wrote on the hd aswell

pjjk

Thanks, I know which one is empty, but I'm not sure is the Recovery partition on the 2nd HDD. Also would it be hard putting the 60gig back in the laptop?
Thanks for your fast reply!
Thanks

guil

no it would be the same as takin it out

GothPunk

guil07 wrote: »

if its a new laptop it will void ur warranty and ur ps3 warranty will be void aswell

Just to let you know that changing the hard drive in the PS3 does not void your warranty.

I'm pretty sure you'll need to put a firmware update onto the HDD before you put it into the PS3.

pjjk

Ok, I don't know if I post this here, but how would I find out if the "Recovery" partition is on the 2nd harddrive?

Helix

http://www.game.ie/ps3/Latest/60/Feature.aspx

guil

GothPunk wrote: »

Just to let you know that changing the hard drive in the PS3 does not void your warranty.

I'm pretty sure you'll need to put a firmware update onto the HDD before you put it into the PS3.

oh right i thought it did and so did a lot of others here and some hd,s need the firmware loaded on it first mine worked grand just put it in with nothin on it

RangeR

• It won't void your PS3 warrenty.
• Firmware gets saved to Flash memory on the PS3 NOT the hard drive.
• Just put the hard drive in and do a FULL FORMAT from the PS3 XMB. It will take a LONG time. Mine took 24 hours to fully format a 320GB HDD.

Helix

24 HOURS??!!!!

mine took 25 minutes for a 350gb drive

guil

IrishTLR wrote: »

• It won't void your PS3 warrenty.
• Firmware gets saved to Flash memory on the PS3 NOT the hard drive.
• Just put the hard drive in and do a FULL FORMAT from the PS3 XMB. It will take a LONG time. Mine took 24 hours to fully format a 320GB HDD.

i didnt say it gets saved on the hd but the ps3 wont start with some hd's until firmware update is put on to it look here

mathias

Most hard drives come pre-formatted to FAT32 , as that is the most universal format , NTFS is windows only.

So , if your drive is new , and pre-formatted fat 32 , then a quick format is all thats done by the ps3 and its fairly short.

If is NTFS , and it might be if it was a laptop spare , then it will take absolutely ages for the PS3 to format it.

RangeR

guil07 wrote: »

i didnt say it gets saved on the hd but the ps3 wont start with some hd's until firmware update is put on to it look here

You didn't but Goth did

@Mathius - I don't think the PS3 formats the INTERNAL HDD as FAT32. I am almost sure it uses some sort of proprietary format with encryption.

@Helix - Are you sure that you did a FULL format and not a QUICK one? A PC normally formatting [full not quick] NTFS won't do a 320GB drive in that time.

guil

the ps3 does format the drive to fat 32

GothPunk

IrishTLR wrote: »

You didn't but Goth did

I didn't mean that the firmware is stored on the HDD, just that you'll need to reload the firmware from the HDD. I guess you could also use a USB key but I figured the HDD would be easiest. Forgot about the reformat though! :pac: Just in case you do need to reload the firmware from an external HDD/USB key, the folder structure you have to use is "PS3\UPDATE\PS3UPDAT.PUP".

Does anyone know why you have to reload the firmware after a HDD upgrade? Security measure?

RangeR

GothPunk wrote: »

Does anyone know why you have to reload the firmware after a HDD upgrade? Security measure?

Well, I didn't have to. Maybe you have to upgrade to a certain firmware to use bigger HDD's. I'm not sure.

RangeR

guil07 wrote: »

the ps3 does format the drive to fat 32

If that was the case, in theory, you should be able to plug your PS3 HDD into your PC and read it's contents. However, we all know that this is not the case. It's not just the files that are encrypted, it's the whole file stystem.

It may have a disk format based on FAT32, but it isn't FAT32.

guil

yeah i dont thin it is fat32 cos when i got a bigger hd there was an offer in peats for an ex one for 60 so bought that and just took out the hd and put the old one in the case, havent touched it since but last night i connected it to my pc and partition magic said it was unallocated

Dont be at yourself

The PS3 harddrive can also handle files bigger than 4gb, suggesting it's not FAT32.

byte

OP: Are you sure your Dell hard drives aren't in a RAID setup? I know my Dell had the 2 HDD's in this way, which was a nightmare.

guil

i was gonna ask that in the first place but if it was in raid wouldnt it only give for eg if ya have 2*300gb hd's wouldnt it just say ya have 300gb as a hard drive then

Helix

IrishTLR wrote: »

@Helix - Are you sure that you did a FULL format and not a QUICK one? A PC normally formatting [full not quick] NTFS won't do a 320GB drive in that time.

full yup

it was a brand new out of box drive, and it may have had the correct file system intact which might explain it

pjjk

RAID? I'm lost now! So what all do I have to do? The drive is empty(unsure if the recovery partition is off this drive tho), PS3 is all backed up on an external drive. So can I just take the HardDrive, swap the 2, format them, then copy the stuff back on them?

guil

one type of raid is 2 drives the same size and one is a mirror of the other i dunno how to check if they are or if everythin would be on the second drive, the best thin to do is take the drive out of the laptop and turn it on and see does it work properly, if it does it will be grand swap them over

pjjk

Just on to a friend there, he said it isn't raid, as the 2 HDDs show up seperatly. SO can I just take out the empty HDD now and format it?

guil

take it out and see does the laptop still turn on before ya format it

RangeR

guil07 wrote: »

take it out and see does the laptop still turn on before ya format it

Yeah, it will also tell you if you are taking out the CORRECT hard drive It would be a bitch if you took out your boot HDD [the one with Windows installed] and only realise it after you format it in the PS3

guil

ha talk about a kick in the sack
could ya imagine ya would never stop kickin urself

pjjk

I'd obviously check that my laptop works before formatting the second hard-drive

mathias

@Mathius - I don't think the PS3 formats the INTERNAL HDD as FAT32. I am almost sure it uses some sort of proprietary format with encryption.

It may not be FAT32 , or at the very least its a locked version because it cant be cloned ( at least not on Acronix or Clonezilla ) , but it can read FAT32 thus enabling a quick format on a new drive.

It cannot recognise NTFS however , forcing a low level format that takes considerably longer than if you install a FAT32 formatted drive.

pjjk

Went to swap the HDDs the other day, and the harddrive in the laptop is different to the one in the PS3. There the same size, both SATA, but the connectors on the top are different.
So seeing that won't work, could anyone advise me a good(cheap) shop on eBay where I could pick up a 250GB that would work in my PS3.
Thanks again