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Oct 17 2009

Sony PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade

Posted by Don Hass in entertainment, gaming, hardware, software, sony

So when is 120G not enough?  When it can be 500G.

Since Sony is nice enough to allow PS3 owners upgrade their systems with newer and more importantly, larger drives we ventured down the path.  A Western Digital WD500BEVT showed up at our door step.  From all the Sony docs and blog entries, the process should be a piece of cake.

Well….

All we had to do was (oh ya, this is going to be a wild ride Mr Toad!):

  1. Got a external USB drive that could hold our 40G+ of current data.  No problem had a 320G laying around.
  2. Clean off external 320G since it was formatted NTFS and PS3 not playing that game.  No problem dropped stuff on one of our 1T drives.
  3. Wait, no NTFS, need FAT32.  Wait, Windows 7, Vista and XP don’t format FAT32 above 32G.  Never would of thought I would run into that issue.
  4. In comes FAT32 Formatter (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm) command-line if you like that or Windows GUI version (http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.htm).
  5. Formatted 320G to FAT32.  All good to go.
  6. In PS3 XMB, went to Settings -> System Settings -> Backup Utility -> Back Up.
  7. Selected our external drive, away it started chugging.  An hour an half later it was done.  Everything looked fine.
  8. Drive Swap!  Sony describes this along with about a million other sites.  Slim is VERY easy to do and no problem with a torqued to heck screw for us.  This definitely sounded like more of an issue on the PHAT model.
  9. Slid in new WD500G.  Closed up the drive cover.  Ready to restore.
  10. Forgot to put firmware update on external drive in a PS3/UPDATE folder like it said to… fail.
  11. Get firmware file, put in proper directory, do over.
  12. PS3 found firmware on external drive this time.
  13. Installed new firmware with the brand new bare drive.
  14. Formatted new drive, all is good.  Can taste 500G just over the hill now.
  15. Got blank slate and now back to Settings -> System Settings -> Backup Utility -> Back Up, select Restore.
  16. Select external drive, yep!
  17. Select only backup we had on drive, yes sir!
  18. Restore, restoring, restoring, sleep, restoring.  1 hour 40 minutes later, 98%, 99%, FAIL!!!!!!!!
  19. What, how, where, why oh why? Truly epic fail.
  20. Go back to 6 and start over thinking something was bad with original backup.  Has to be right!? right?  What else could it be.  Following Sony’s rules.  It’s not like this is that other company that make RedRing machines?
  21. FAIL! Again. Oh woe is me.
  22. Maybe something to do with files its backing up… maybe a little house cleaning of original drive will make it all right Will Robinson.  Dump vids, photos, demos, that should be better, heck that is less to backup.
  23. Go back to 6 and do this AGAIN. Another hour and 20 minutes or so fly by, not really.  But hey that is 15 less than last time.
  24. FAIL! AGAIN.   NO NO NO NOOOOOOOoooooo ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh
  25. So we finally realize a good old error code right in front of our face 80010029.  Corrupt data file basically.  Come to find out this has been around for years, thank you very much Sony!
  26. Finally figured it out after reading way too many sob stories about people losing saved game data and starting their games over, yada yada yada.  Living with bare really big drives, it wasn’t going to happen to me!
  27. One thing to know about FAT32 is that it has a max file size limit of 4G – 1 byte.  It led me to wondering in the now slimmed down 32G worth of data I am backing up if there was a file size limit of some of the files still left.
  28. So slap back in the original Toshiba 120 in our Slim.
  29. Here goes the last area to clean on the original drive before doing my final backup AGAIN (and final time).  It was the Game Data section, you know all the Installed Games (Devil May Cry 4, MGS4 as a couple examples) and patches.  Well there was some in there passing 4G in size.  Hmmmm wonder if that just happens to be by chance or we are something.  Who cares at this point.
  30. Well we PURGE every Game Data (FIOS will get them for me again <G>), backup last time around.
  31. One positive note, it only took 10 minutes to backup this time around since we purged 31G+ worth of Game data and patches.  Scary!
  32. Swap in the new drive (last time please), button the slim back up and hook it all back and lets do some restoring!
  33. Start restore, 12 minutes later….. Success
  34. Yep it was either size of those Game Data files (one or more) or a corrupt one (which I doubt otherwise the game would not of worked).  Needless to say, Slim is sportin a new 500G!  Actually 416G clean.

Never think something that is suppose to be easy, is going to be easy.  However, working through the problem all things are possible, even with bad software! :)   I should know, I have written some and definitely seen plenty from the other side.

Thanks Sony, love you too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under entertainment, gaming, hardware, software, sony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Sony PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade”
  1. Sanjuanita Steketee says:
    March 7, 2011 at 8:12 am

    There are so many big releases coming to the gaming earth in the upcoming couple a long time that several players are getting to be confused and beginning to ponder if they are going to be in a position to buy a console gaming technique in the foreseeable future that has a remote control at all. The quick reply to this is sure, the actual query is what that remote will appear like and how it will interact with the gaming console. Hardcore games will never give up the remote management completely because it delivers way to considerably precision and management that cannot be in contrast to any motion based program controls at this position in time.

  2. Lana Blinn says:
    March 10, 2011 at 9:31 am

    Taking the console back to Sony can be a fantastic thought. Nonetheless, you will require to wait for a extended time in advance of obtaining the PS3 back. And you may possibly also need to have to devote a great deal of cash. To this end, you might want to resolve it your self. It is in reality not challenging for you to do so. Generally, you can repair the difficulty securely and effortlessly. You do not will need to wait for a few weeks. Of course you do not need to have to shell out dollars if you are going to repair the challenge yourself. And you can retain all the information in the challenging drive in this circumstance. 1 issue you require to recognize is the Sony might will need to apparent all the information of the difficult drive when they are correcting the issue. As a outcome, it is always a good thought for you to go for this choice.
    Learn more PlayStation 3 suggestions

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