Unofficial PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade Thread

[CaptZonk]

Here Is a detailed guide on how to Remove and reattach your Hard Drive on the PS3, Fat32 Conversion guide can be found after this one.

WARNING: Sony and I will not be held liable for any damage or loss of data when changing your HDD

Welcome to the Unofficial PS3 Hard Drive Upgrade Thread

I am putting this thread together because it would seem that there seems to be a lot of questions about replacing internal hard drives and trying to use external hard drives to back things up. This thread will continuously change when more information surfaces. This thread is a combination of information gathered from all over the web in one place.

Important Questions

Q: Does replacing your PS3 void your warranty?
A: Simple answer is NO. But if you try to modify or take it apart it then this could void your warranty

Q: Will I need to keep the old 60GB internal Hard Drive?
A: Yes you will need to keep the old one in case you have to send in your PS3 for Service and you will need to put the 60GB back into the PS3

Q: Do I need to be careful with the screws?
A: This is probably the hardest bit of the whole process - trying not to strip the screws. From what I have read and watched it would seem if you get the correct size screwdrvier and apply some pressure when you are unscrewing them then it should come out fine with out stripping them

HINTS

Before we start anything I must stress that you have your DATA backup, espically your game data so that you can transfer it. The Device has to be formated in FAT32

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

1 NOTEBOOK 2.5 INCH HDD SATA ANY SIZE (We recommend staying with the same RPM as the PS3’s original HDD, 5400RPM. You can upgrade to 7200RPM, of course, but we cannot promise that it will not have ill-effects on your machine.)
1 MINI PHILLIPS HEAD SCREWDRIVER
1 MINI FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER
1 SOLID PLACE TO WORK
1 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE or USB (FORMATED TO FAT32)

GOOD VIDEO RESOURCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMSoP1sHPk

FIRST STEP- BACK UP

1. There are 2 ways to back up your data. Simple or Comprehensive

Simple

- GO to saved data utility under GAMES and press triangle and then select copy from the opitions and then select the destination
- Use the same for Music and Photos,etc
- However as Far as I know you can not save the actual game down this way eg PSN downloads

Comprehensive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJDYgQtkk5A

- Go to settings
- Select system settings
- Back up utility
- Back up

and then select the Destination. The device has to be formated in FAT32 to be recognised by the PS3. This way everything gets backed up including the PSN downloads ( I am not sure of things that are protected though eg WarHawk).

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en...kuputility.html
STEP 2 - Removing the hard disk

Before I start this section and section 3 I would like to say that this is the work of ifmracin of the US playstation forums. He has been helping people on the USA forum out with many questions. My thanks goes out to him for creating the thread on the US playstation forums.

Anyways

1. Touch the power button on the system front for at least two seconds.The power indicator will turn solid red and the system will enter standby mode.

2. Turn off the system using the main power switch on the system rear.

3. Unplug the AC power cord and detach the other cables from
the system.

4. Remove the HDD bay cover on the system's left side. Use the space at the right edge of the HDD bay cover to pull it out from the system.If the cover is difficult to remove, gently insert asmall screwdriver in the space and pry the cover off. Be careful not to damage the system or the cover when using a screwdriver.


5. Free the hard disk from the system. This had 4 steps

i) Remove the blue screw with a crosshead screwdriver.



ii) Raise the metal handle

iii) Slide the hard disk to the right



iv) Use the metal handle to pull the hard disk out from the system.


STEP 3 - Replacing the Hard Disk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5oyKgbEy0

1. Use a crosshead screwdriver to remove the screws (4 places).

IMPORTANT: These screws are very tight, be sure to find a screwdriver that fits very well, and take your time.



2. Remove the hard disk from the metal frame. Lift one end and slide the hard disk out to remove



3. Place the replacement hard disk on the PS3™ system hard disk's metal frame, and then attach using the screws (4 places).

IMPORTANT : Do not overtighten the screws.

4. Install the hard disk in the system. Fully insert the hard disk in the HDD bay, and then slide it to the left.



Attach the blue screw to lock the hard disk in place. Refer to the instructions for
"Removing the hard disk" in reverse order when installing.

5. Reattach the HDD bay cover.

6. Turn on the PS3™ system. Follow the on-screen instructions to perform initial setup.

STEP 4 - Restoring the back up DATA

Simple Restore ( if you did simple backup)

Just copy all the information back to where you copied it from

Comprehensive Restore (if you did Comprehensive Backup)

1. Once the PS3 has formatted your new HDD go to settings
2. Select System settings
3. Backup utility
4. Restore
Replacement hard disks

You can use hard disks of the following types with the PS3™ system:

Size 2.5 inch (internal type)*1 Interface format Serial ATA*2

*1 Proper operation is not guaranteed for all models.
*2 Parallel ATA is not supported.

2.5" form (generally refered to as a notebook drive)
Serial ATA interface, also shown as SATA
9.5mm Height

IMPORTANT: It is not recommended to sell or get rid of your factory hard drive. If you ever need to send it to Sony for repair, you are going to want to put the origional drive back in prior to sending it in.A good use for it is to get an external USB enclosure and convert it into a portable USB hard drive.

VIDEO RESOURCES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkM9wiZePfs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJDYgQtkk5A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-1HKZSnvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEdsqS8g5f0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMSoP1sHPk (GOOD Resource)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAM0DN4k7L4 (ALSO good)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4aRi8szadk
RESOURCES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEdsqS8g5f0

http://www.cnet.com.au/games/ps3/0,2390357...39282375,00.htm

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstatio...thread.id=32840

http://au.gamespot.com/features/6176090/index.html

Drives that Work

IMPORTANT
160GB HDD - Will give you appromatiley 130 GB out of 149 GBof space left
250 GB HDD - Will give you 205 GB of place to use out of 232GB available

http://www.bigbruin.com/2007/wdscorpio250_6

80GB 5400RPM

Fujitsu MHV2080BH 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Fujitsu MHW2080BH 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - Retail
Western Digital Scorpio WD800BEVS 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
HITACHI Travelstar 5K100 HTS541080G9SA00 (0A26924) 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
SAMSUNG FlashON HM08HHI 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM080JI 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
HITACHI Travelstar 5K120 HTS541280H9SA00 (0A50158) 80GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


80GB 7200RPM

HITACHI Travelstar 7K100 HTS721080G9SA00 (0A25026) 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST980825AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


100GB 5400RPM

Fujitsu MHW2100BH 100GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9100824AS 100GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


100GB 7200RPM

Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST910021AS 100GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


120GB 5400RPM

TOSHIBA MK1234GSX 120GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Western Digital Scorpio WD1200BEVS 120GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9120821AS 120GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9120822AS 120GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM120JI 120GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


160GB 5400RPM

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM160JI 160GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Western Digital Scorpio WD1600BEVS 160GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
HITACHI Travelstar 5K160 HTS541616J9SA00 (0A28844) 160GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST9160821AS 160GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Fujitsu MHW2160BH 160GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - Retail


200GB 4200RPM

TOSHIBA MK2035GSS 200GB 4200 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
HITACHI Travelstar 7K200 HTS722020K9SA00 (0A50940) 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM


250GB 5400RPM

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M Series HM250JI 250GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS 250GB 5400 RPM Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate ST9250827AS Momentus 5400.4 250GB/8mb/5400rpm

5400 Vs 7200 rpm drives

These temps were the highest temps noted w/ room temp of 78.

5400rpm - 111 degrees
7200rpm - 116 degrees

GT-HD
5400rpm - 1:42.636
7200rpm - 1:32.993
Almost 10 seconds off the install time. About 10% increase in speed.

Jericho demo
5400rpm - 2:08.629
7200rpm - 1:58.685
Again, about 10 seconds off install time. And about 8% increase in speed.

Tony Hawk demo
5400rpm - 4:11.184
7200rpm - 3:32.045
Almost 40 seconds off it's install time. Coming in at a nice 16% increase in speed.

DiRT demo
5400rpm - 1:29.289
7200rpm - 1:25.385
This one had 4 seconds shaved off. Not as good, but still about 5% increase in speed.

Notices

The hard disk is a sensitive piece of equipment and should be handled with care at all times. To help prevent software or data loss or corruption, or damage to the hard disk, carefully follow the precautions listed below:

-Do not drop the system or hard disk, or subject to physical shock or vibration.
-Do not allow liquid or small particles to get into the system or hard disk.
-Do not touch the connectors or insert foreign objects into the connectors.
-Do not place the system or hard disk close to magnetic fields such as those produced by magnets or loudspeakers. Also, do not place devices that may be sensitive to magnetic forces (such as a wrist watch or a magnetic card) near the hard disk.
-Do not put heavy objects on the hard disk.
-When handling the hard disk hold it only by the edges or metal frame.
-The hard disk is sensitive to static electricity. Ensure that proper handling methods are used when installing the hard disk.
-Store in a cool, dry location.

Click Start menu, select Run and enter diskmgmt.msc

1. Partition Wizard starts, just click next to move on
2. Select Primary Partition.
3. Enter the maximum size for the Partition Size
4. Choose assign a drive letter. I used F:
5. Select "Do not Format this partition"
6. There will be a dialog box, summarising all the previous stuff. Click Finish

Now you have a drive letter, this is what we will pass to the formatter

Now download fat32format. Extract the single EXE file to somewhere suitable, like:

C:. Click Start->Run and enter cmd.

CD (=change directory) to the where you extracted the fat32format exe, e.g. by typing

CD /D c:

Now you're almost done.

Type this fat32format f:

You should see this displayed

Warning ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure (y/n)

Now when it says this, it really means it. If you format the boot sector, FATs and root directory will be filled with zeros. By typing pressing Y and hitting return, you're also absolving me of liability for whatever was on the disk before.

Assuming you don't bail out at this point you should see something like this -

Warning ALL data on drive 'f' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Size : 250GB 488392002 sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
Volume ID is 1bdb:2c1d
32 Reserved Sectors, 59604 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
7629261 Total clusters
7629260 Free Clusters
Formatting drive f:...
Clearing out 119304 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Wrote 61083648 bytes in 0.988463 seconds, 61796609.106193 bytes/sec
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Done

Program can be found here.

http://users.on.net/~mattbriggs/Program ... format.exe

[Grudge]

now to find a cheap laptop drive

wouldnt go anything less than 320gb, and would prefer 500gb.

i've got a 500gb external hooked up to it atm, but would prefer to use that just for PC, and get a seperate one for ps3.

[Chucky]

Grudge if you find a suitable 320+ (but preferably 500) Gb hard drive from an online retailer can you link me in a PM. Cheers!

[CaptZonk]

Yeah, and i can add them to the guide aswell

[Grudge]

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/

there seems to be a few here, too expensive for my blood right now,

anyone else got any ideas?

been a long time since i bought any computer parts

[Mr.SpammY]

I got a 250gb Seagate Hard drive for $150, expensive but not bad

www.scorptec.com.au

[Grudge]

http://www.skycomp.com.au/product.aspx?id=97462

320gb for $173

[Endy]

Umart on the Sunshine Coast have 750gb Samsung drives for $110

[Grudge]

Umart on the Sunshine Coast have 750gb Samsung drives for $110

wow

[Chucky]

Umart on the Sunshine Coast have 750gb Samsung drives for $110

2.5 INCH SATA, 5400RPM?

I think Endy should take a drive for Chucky tomorrow if that is the case

[Grudge]

maybe one for Grudge too

[CaptZonk]

added Spammy's Drive to the list as we know his one works.

[tchiseen]

That's an awful lot of explainin' for what amounts to about 2 minutes of work. I think anybody who has done it will agree, replacing the hdd in the PS3 is very easy.

Also important to note is that the Backup is optional as the game-os is loaded onto an EEPROM in the PS3, and not the HDD. If you've got a new PS3 or aren't concerned about re-downloading any demos/downloaded content, then backing up isn't necessary. All the same, I recommend the "comprehensive" backup, as it's easier and well, comprehensive.

I want this drive :Oo.

[CaptZonk]

That's an awful lot of explainin' for what amounts to about 2 minutes of work. I think anybody who has done it will agree, replacing the hdd in the PS3 is very easy.

Its a step by step detailed guide for those who have never done anything like it b4, and don't want to break something

[tchiseen]

That's an awful lot of explainin' for what amounts to about 2 minutes of work. I think anybody who has done it will agree, replacing the hdd in the PS3 is very easy.

Its a step by step detailed guide for those who have never done anything like it b4, and don't want to break something

I'm not saying that it's not necessary or nothin! I'm just saying that people shouldn't be scared off by the instructions, because it is very very simple. It's much simpler then replacing a Desktop Computer hdd, which isn't too hard either. I understand that some people have varying comfort levels, and I'm not judging at all. I think that technology should be accessible to everyone. I think it's great that you've dug up a very good explanation with illustrations, and I hope that anyone who wants to mod their console a bit will benefit.