320 gig ps3!

[lanion]

I just upgraded the hard drive on my PS3 to a seagate 320gig drive. Was actually extremely easy to do. The only tough part was unscrewing the old hard drive from its cradle. But, I got it in, it formatted the HD very quickly, and now I've got tons of room for only $120.

[bdaley6509]

that's a great price for that size drive. I'm going to upgrade both my PS3's sometime in the near future. Also, I just picked up a Dual Shock gamepad and loving it. The extra weight and feedback response really add tons to the gaming experience.

[Fongolio]

Another way is to connect an external via usb. Mine's a 500 gig. Just be sure to format fat32 and it's good to go.

[Imperitor]

is there a way to back up all your data and save files before changing the HD or do you need to transfer it all to a usb stick and re-install all of your games?

[cheddar]

There is a backup utility you can use from the built in tools.

[cheddar]

Another way is to connect an external via usb. Mine's a 500 gig. Just be sure to format fat32 and it's good to go.

Although I've had a 200GB drive in mine for over a year now, I actually like the fat32 usb route even more. It's portable, allows you to interface easily with a PC, and you can have all your media files conveniently in one place.

[lanion]

The system restore didn't work for me, but luckily I had transferred all my save files to my external drive. I just have to re-download all my PSN games again, which isn't that big a deal.

A large internal drive (that is faster than the original one) is nice for speeding up game loads, having room for more and more games that do installs (right now I have DMC4, MGS4, GTAIV all taking up big chunks. Those PSN games get pretty big as well. Also, when Sony starts offering a download movie service it will be nice, and I assume they will in the next year or so.

www.newegg.com has cheap 320gig 2.5" drives.

[cheddar]

Why not use both? Even my 200GB filled up pretty fast when I started putting videos on it. Use a large internal for all the stuff that need it such as PSN stuff and games. And use a large external for a media library. When you copy movies over from the external drive, they even include a thumbnail preview. Something that didn't happen when I used a file server tool to move files. And the copy speed is much better. I even read on a forum where a guy plugged his NAS drive into the ps3's usb port. So he could access it with the ps3 via usb and with his PCs via a normal network at the same time. Sort of makes streaming solutions obsolete.

One thing about fat32 is you'll need a 3rd party tool such as this:

http://www.download.com/CompuApps-SwissKnife-V3/3000-2248_4-10070864.html?cdlPid=10485574

to get around the arbitrary 32GB partition limit in windows. Windows reads partitions larger than 32GB but it won't format them...

[lanion]

My 500gig external drive has no issues with the PS3. I just don't like the extra clutter it adds. It is what I use to hold all my videos though. HD Battlestar Episodes look great!

[avelanchefan]

Why not just stream your videos via WM11? I find that easier.

[cheddar]

That's also a great option. I think the advantage of having so many easily configurable storage choices is that everyone can choose what works best for them. Rely completely on the network, have large amounts of portable storage, and/or have fast local access for applications that need it.

[bykes]

Question about the Fat 32. I have an external drive that I use on my pc. Its formatted NTFS. I was planning on using it to back up my ps3 hard drive when I install a new one. Will I run into problems when I go to back up my ps3s hard drive?

[lanion]

You certainly might -- but you might be able to create a partition that is FAT32 without wiping your current drive. The backup does not need that much space -- mine took up 30gigs). I never partition my drives, so I'm not the best person to ask. Mine was already formatted FAT32 because I wanted to use it with both Macs and PCs.

[cheddar]

Question about the Fat 32. I have an external drive that I use on my pc. Its formatted NTFS. I was planning on using it to back up my ps3 hard drive when I install a new one. Will I run into problems when I go to back up my ps3s hard drive?

You will definitely need at least a fat32 partition as lanion said. You can have a fat32 and an NTFS partition on the same drive. Do you know anyone that has an old computer they are trashing? I'm always finding hard drives in old equipment like dead laptops etc. Just put it in a cheap external USB enclosure and format it to fat32 if you need to and you'll have a dedicated drive for your ps3. Once you change out the hard drive in your ps3, you can pop the old one in an external case as well.

[bykes]

OK, so my next question:

Where could I find software to partition a 40gig chunk of my external drive?

[cheddar]

You can use xp to make up to 32GB partitions or use the tool I posted a link to in post #8 above to make much larger partitions.

[bykes]

Can I use the utility you posted above to format without losing the 100gig or so of stuff I have on my drive?

[cheddar]

I haven't tried reformatting a disk with information I want to save. I would definitely backup the information before starting to mess around with partitions. You might have to delete the original partition, then create two new ones.

If you don't have a computer with the extra space, although awkward, you might want to put the new ps3 drive in an external case, backup the 100GB to that drive. Reformat the "backup" drive with the NTFS and fat32 partitions. Transfer the files back to the "backup" drive. Backup the ps3. Then install the new drive in the ps3 and use the old drive in the external case as a new external drive.

[bykes]

I just remembered I have an 80gig IDE drive in my pc that I don't use anymore. I format that fat32 and slap it in a external usb enclosure. I use that for my ps3 back up and call it a day.

[JohnLocke88]

Externals are great and all, but there's nothing funnier than a friend looking at your ps3 and asking how big your PS3 is and you say "320."