Upgrade your PS3 harddrive

[endorf]

Upsize your PS3 hard drive

It doesn't matter if you have the 20GB, 60GB, or the new 80GB PS3 - you can always use more storage space for downloading games, demos, and HD videos. Sony has designed the PS3 to allow for your own hard drive upgrades. You can go out and select your own hard drive instead of being forced to buy an official harddisk. Good move Sony.


The PS3 is compatible with just about any 2.5-inch SATA notebook harddisk. The physical size of the harddisk is important because it has to fit the PS3's 2.5-inch drive tray. As far as storage capacity goes, it doesn't make sense to go through the trouble of upgrading unless you go big: We're talking 120GB, 160GB, or even 250GB. I recommend 5400 RPM or even 7200 RPM but that will run a little hotter so make sure you have ventilated space for your PS3.


Once you have your upgrade drive, the next step is to backup the data on your current PS3 hard drive to an external storage unit. You can skip this step if you don't want to backup your music, videos, and game saves. The PS3 has a built-in software backup utility that can copy the PS3's hard drive contents to an external storage device, such as a USB thumb drive or a Memory Stick. The removable storage device must use the FAT32 file system. If you have an external hard drive that's formatted in NTFS, you can use the Disk Management utility in Windows to reformat the drive, but you'll need to create partitions on large external hard drives because Windows can do only FAT32 on drives 32GB or smaller.

Save your data using the PS3's backup utility.

If your storage device isn't large enough to handle a full system backup, you can selectively copy data over through the various music, photo, and game menus in the XMB. Your PlayStation Network login and system settings will remain safe on the system during the entire process. After you have your data safely backed up, you can move on to the actual hard drive swap.


You will need a Phillips-head screwdriver to complete this part of the installation process. The PS3 owner's manual also includes step-by-step details on how to replace the hard drive, in case you need more instructions.

Turn off and unplug the system. Remove the plastic HD side panel, and remove the blue screw.

Open the metal latch, move the drive tray to the right, and slide out the drive.

Remove the four screws that hold the hard drive to the tray. Use a screwdriver that fits snugly because the screws are extremely tight and easy to strip.

Swap in the new drive, and replace the screws.

Put the drive tray back into the system and slide it into place. Then replace the blue screw and snap the side panel back onto the system.

Turn on the console and let the system format the new drive. Then load up the PS3 backup utility to restore data from your external storage device back onto the PS3 hard drive.

At this point you have a newly upgraded PS3. Rock on.

[NLblader]

Does it works with the 40 gb pal ps3?

[haxen]

yes, of course it works with 40 gb, works with any version of ps3.

As far as specs of a hard drive go, you're always better off going with the bigger cache than the higher spin speed, and seek time can cancel both of those out (but is usually an aggregate of the two). Here you go, a 10k rpm 2.5" SATA with 16mb of cache and 3.9ms seek time.

[Please register to see this link. ]

Seagate Savvio 10K.2 73GB 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive - SAS, 10K, 16MB, OEM

[osuroller]

that drive is SAS not SATA... it wont work. and it costs $224 i can pass on that

[xzces]

Please take note: the height of the drive is very important. The official 2,5" height is 9,5mm but there are drives out there measuring 12,5 mm. THESE WON'T FIT!!!
These drives have an extra platter, so they have a better GB/$ ratio or larger capacity. I believe the largest 9,5mm 2,5" drive is a 320gb from samsung. I could be wrong though.

[uncholowapo]

Note to the right side of the link when you open it:"THIS ITEM IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE"

Plus, don't drives that have a higher rpm produce way more heat? I was reading a guy had to set up a special cooling module to cool down his raptor drive when he modded his ps3 to accept it.

[Trinitron514]

Does the PS3 support external drives?

[uncholowapo]

yes it does.

[xzces]

I believe the raptor drive is a 3.5" drive wich won't fit in the ps3. Maybe he had an external enclosure with cooling? anywayz, higher rpm drives or drives with more platters produce more heat. So a high rpm drive with 2 platters can still be pretty cool and quiet. Overall I don't think a 2.5 inch drive will cause that much heat to trouble the ps3.

[uncholowapo]

But at 10K? That's like having kids go on a merry go round and spinning them twice as fast until they barf. And yes he did have an external enclosure it was wierd. I have a picture of it somewhere.

EDIT: here it is sorry if it is a little bulky