PS3 General Discussion

[Furinkazen]

Last few months my PS3 has had a lot of issues, mainly with GT6 causing them. Sometimes it will freeze, and I have to plug a DS3 in via USB, and I am given the option of this. However, after doing that sometimes when I hit the power button to turn on it just shows a black screen, and sometimes no beeps when I switch on the PS3. This is happening more and more lately. I've rebuilt the database and file system but it still keeps happening. Console is a 320gb Slim, bought with launch of GT5. Should I be more worried and is this a sign of the PS3 failing?

EDIT Also for air flow, does it make a key difference where the PS3 is? I have always had it on the bottom of a TV cabinet, would putting it higher make any difference?

 

[Tornado]

I like how GT5 is specifically listed under "when a game crashes".




Based on what you're saying it sounds more like the hard drive is on the outs, though.

 

[HKS racer]

Also for air flow, does it make a key difference where the PS3 is? I have always had it on the bottom of a TV cabinet, would putting it higher make any difference?

For airflow my PS3 stands on the floor vertically 20 cm near tv cabinet, no longer inside it. I changed position this summer because it was getting too hot and didn't bother replacing it inside cabinet for winter.

 

[AerodyManiac]

Hello everybody,
I've decided to install an internal hard drive in my PS3, which currently only has a 12 GB flash drive. Since I know virtually nothing about HDDs and stuff, I'd like to ask:
What are the requirements for the HDD to be compatible with PS3?
What should I do in order to backup the files originally on the flash drive onto the HDD?
Is there anything else that I should know before performing the installation?

 

[GBO Possum]

Hello everybody,
I've decided to install an internal hard drive in my PS3, which currently only has a 12 GB flash drive. Since I know virtually nothing about HDDs and stuff, I'd like to ask:
What are the requirements for the HDD to be compatible with PS3?
What should I do in order to backup the files originally on the flash drive onto the HDD?
Is there anything else that I should know before performing the installation?

This article covers most of what you need -

https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5006/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDE5NDI0NDMzL3NpZC9XRGxKUEhhbQ==

However, while the article suggests using a 5,400 rpm drive, I would strongly recommend using something faster.

You have three choices, the first two of which will not be quite as fast as you are used to having with a flash drive

1. A standard 7,200 rpm drive, or for more speed...
2. A hybrid 7,200 rpm drive (it has a flash component which is automatically used to store the most frequently accessed data, or for even more speed...
3. An actual flash drive which plugs into the standard 2.5" hard drive carrier

In each of these choices, I would strongly recommend that you choose a large capacity drive, one that is very much larger than your needs. In options 1 and 2, having a very high capacity will mean that the physical accessor movement will be very short resulting in much improved performance. In my main PS3, I have a 750GB 7,200 rpm hybrid drive made by Seagate, which is nearly as fast as a flash drive. My drive is not much more than 10% full, which is one of the reasons why it's so fast. Load times are noticeably faster with this setup than either my second fastest PS3 which has a 500GB 7,200 rpm standard drive, or my slowest PS3 which has an 80GB 5,400 rpm drive.

If you have the budget for option 3, you should know that flash drives become slower over time. The smaller the flash drive, the sooner the speed degradation sets in, and the faster it degrades.

Finally, another recommendation. Buy an external disk drive to backup your PS3's hard drive on a regular basis. I use a 500GB drive in a USB carrier. It's probably a 5,400 rpm drive since speed is not so important. Format it as "FAT", plug it into your PS3's USB port (any one), and run the Backup Utility which under System Settings. When the backup drive is getting close to bring full, delete the oldest backup(s), again using the Backup Utility.

I have only once needed to restore my PS3 from a backup. That was a good lesson!

If you are paranoid, and you should be, you will plug the backup drive into your Mac or PC and make a copy of your most recent backup onto that computer.

"There are two types of drive in this world. Those which have failed, and those which are going to fail."

 

[NixxxoN]

This article covers most of what you need -

https://support.us.playstation.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5006/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDE5NDI0NDMzL3NpZC9XRGxKUEhhbQ==

However, while the article suggests using a 5,400 rpm drive, I would strongly recommend using something faster.

You have three choices, the first two of which will not be quite as fast as you are used to having with a flash drive

1. A standard 7,200 rpm drive, or for more speed...
2. A hybrid 7,200 rpm drive (it has a flash component which is automatically used to store the most frequently accessed data, or for even more speed...
3. An actual flash drive which plugs into the standard 2.5" hard drive carrier

In each of these choices, I would strongly recommend that you choose a large capacity drive, one that is very much larger than your needs. In options 1 and 2, having a very high capacity will mean that the physical accessor movement will be very short resulting in much improved performance. In my main PS3, I have a 750GB 7,200 rpm hybrid drive made by Seagate, which is nearly as fast as a flash drive. My drive is not much more than 10% full, which is one of the reasons why it's so fast. Load times are noticeably faster with this setup than either my second fastest PS3 which has a 500GB 7,200 rpm standard drive, or my slowest PS3 which has an 80GB 5,400 rpm drive.

If you have the budget for option 3, you should know that flash drives become slower over time. The smaller the flash drive, the sooner the speed degradation sets in, and the faster it degrades.

Finally, another recommendation. Buy an external disk drive to backup your PS3's hard drive on a regular basis. I use a 500GB drive in a USB carrier. It's probably a 5,400 rpm drive since speed is not so important. Format it as "FAT", plug it into your PS3's USB port (any one), and run the Backup Utility which under System Settings. When the backup drive is getting close to bring full, delete the oldest backup(s), again using the Backup Utility.

I have only once needed to restore my PS3 from a backup. That was a good lesson!

If you are paranoid, and you should be, you will plug the backup drive into your Mac or PC and make a copy of your most recent backup onto that computer.

"There are two types of drive in this world. Those which have failed, and those which are going to fail."

I have an additional question... how do you transfer your data from the original, small HDD, to the new, large HDD??
Simply connecting them to the PC and "copy and paste" all the stuff, and that's it??

 

[FoolKiller]

I have an additional question... how do you transfer your data from the original, small HDD, to the new, large HDD??
Simply connecting them to the PC and "copy and paste" all the stuff, and that's it??

You need to backup to an external drive while the original HDD is in the system. Then after the new drive is installed and formatted you restore the backup from the external drive.

 

[GBO Possum]

I have an additional question... how do you transfer your data from the original, small HDD, to the new, large HDD??
Simply connecting them to the PC and "copy and paste" all the stuff, and that's it??

The data on the PS3 HDD is in a special format. You can't get a PC involved. It's a copy-protection thing. A PC can't read a PS3 system drive.

If I recall correctly the link I provided covers the special case of a 12GB flash drive and you don't need to involve an external drive. Unfortunately the Sony site is down at present, so I can't re-read the article. IIRC, you buy a cradle for the HDD and physically instal the HDD into the PS3. Then you have both HDD and Flash Drive in the PS3.

If you have a regular HDD-equipped PS3, then you backup to an external FAT-formatted drive, remove the small drive, plug in the new drive, instal the PS3 system software, and then restore from your backup.

 

[NixxxoN]

Ahhh... thats too bad...
It makes everything much harder and slower. I dont have any USB pendrive memory that big.

 

[GBO Possum]

Ahhh... thats too bad...
It makes everything much harder and slower. I dont have any USB pendrive memory that big.

The external drive only needs to large enough to take a copy of the data on your hard drive, and not the whole drive.

From your response, I take it that you never back up your PS3. I hope you have a plan for when the drive in your PS3 dies, because, trust me, it won't last forever!

 

[NixxxoN]

The external drive only needs to large enough to take a copy of the data on your hard drive, and not the whole drive.

From your response, I take it that you never back up your PS3. I hope you have a plan for when the drive in your PS3 dies, because, trust me, it won't last forever!

Of course I have a plan, and this plan is immediate, thats why I'm here asking. I have a small 40 GB HDD and I want to replace it with a much bigger one.

I've had to delete stuff lots of times because of no HDD space, and its mainly because of GT5/GT6 updates.


And... well, I'm screwed because the largest external drive that I can connect to the PS3 is a 4GB pendrive so I can't use it. And I also have an external 1,5 TB HDD but I think the PS3 doesnt recognise it. Perhaps I should try to make a 40+ GB partition in FAT32 in this HDD and see if the PS3 recognises it.

 

[GBO Possum]

Of course I have a plan, and this plan is immediate, thats why I'm here asking. I have a small 40 GB HDD and I want to replace it with a much bigger one.

I've had to delete stuff lots of times because of no HDD space, and its mainly because of GT5/GT6 updates.


And... well, I'm screwed because the largest external drive that I can connect to the PS3 is a 4GB pendrive that I suppose it won't be enough to store some of the stuff.
And I also have an external HDD but I think the PS3 doesnt recognise it.

An external hard drive is much better than a pen drive, so that's good news!

My guess is that the PS3 is not recognizing your external hard drive because it's not formatted the way the PS3 wants.

You must have it formatted as "FAT32". On a Mac that's easy, you just use Disk Utility, choose the hard drive and format it as FAT32. I hear that Windows can't format a drive to FAT32 if it's larger than 32GBs, and you need some 3rd party software to do the job. I have never done this, so I'll leave it to you to Google for the best method.

My (external) HDD is 500GBs, it's about 60% full, with each backup being about 90GBs.

 

[NixxxoN]

Thanks, thats what I will do, I have plenty of space and I can do a FAT32 partition no problem. And yes now I have it on NTFS

 

[GBO Possum]

Thanks, thats what I will do, I have plenty of space and I can do a FAT32 partition no problem. And yes now I have it on NTFS

I'm glad to hear that my guess was correct. Most PC people have their drives in NTFS format, and many never get to touch FAT32!

In my experience, backups run at about 30GBs per hour. Thought this might help.

Good luck.

 

[NixxxoN]

Of course, because as far as I know NTFS stands for Windows NT File system, all the modern Windows are based on the original NT, and the last Windows to use FAT was the 98 one. Therefore its been more than 15 years and FAT32 is long gone for Windows, dont know about other OS though.

 

[craigatm]

I've got a quick question to ask. Didn't see a point in creating a new topic for it as I feel it's a question that can be answered in one reply, so would be a waste of a thread...

I got £100 in Christmas money and I've decided to finally get myself a PS3, reckoning that it's still got a few good years left in it. That and there's many great games on it that I am yet to play, as I've never had a system to do so. I'm considering buying a used 12gb model due to budgetary constraints.

Now I'm aware this is a very small amount of storage space and that for those who download their games, it would be strongly advised to aim for a model with more. However seeing as I prefer hard copies I am wondering PS3 discs simply install all the game data to the HDD, and then run off that? Or if the game simply runs off the disc, like in the PS2 and other older consoles? I am of the believe that if it is the latter, 12gb should be fine. Of course I could be wrong, as I don't know how large game save files are. So any advice on that would be appreciated as well!

 

[CinnamonOD]

Some people call the 12GB version a shameless scam.

It's great if you're replacing the HDD with one with more than 250GB (160GB it's alright)

But 12GB is not getting you anywhere if you're planning to play more than one game, especially the newer ones, which some of them use more than 12GB...

Yes, they install the game in your HDD

 

[craigatm]

Some people call the 12GB version a shameless scam.

It's great if you're replacing the HDD with one with more than 250GB (160GB it's alright)

But 12GB is not getting you anywhere if you're planning to play more than one game, especially the newer ones, which some of them use more than 12GB...

Yes, they install the game in your HDD

Ah, okay. It's definitely no good then; will have to fork out a bit more for a 120gb. It isn't much more expensive anyhow. Cheers for your help!

 

[CinnamonOD]

If you're struggling with money, buy the 12GB and then buy an HDD with a really big capacity and swap it

Remember the HDD must be formated as FAT32

 

[craigatm]

If you're struggling with money, buy the 12GB and then buy an HDD with a really big capacity and swap it

Remember the HDD must be formated as FAT32

I'm basically trying to get a PS3 and Gran Turismo 6 to begin with, within a £100 budget (although going a tad over won't bother me). I'm aware the older bigger PS3's are usually cheaper than second hand slims, and offer reasonable storage. But to be honest I'm a little skeptical about their reliability.

 

[stiggygonzalez]

I need a little help please.
My PS3 seems to struggle more and more at reading discs.
Today I had to insert/eject GT6 about 5 times before it could be read.
Strange thing is,when it try's to read a game(unsuccessfully)it makes the eject sound,but doesn't eject??
And that's how I know I need to re-insert,and this happens when it can't read a game discs.

 

[shepzki]

I need a little help please.
My PS3 seems to struggle more and more at reading discs.
Today I had to insert/eject GT6 about 5 times before it could be read.
Strange thing is,when it try's to read a game(unsuccessfully)it makes the eject sound,but doesn't eject??
And that's how I know I need to re-insert,and this happens when it can't read a game discs.

I had the exact same problem on a previous PS3 Slim, all I did was clean the lens in the disc drive. Had to take the PS3 apart to get to it, then put a tiny drop of warm water on a cotton bud/qtip, give it a good clean then dry it with the other end. Worked perfectly after that, like new.

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

So, recently my PS3 has started making this odd thing with GT6.. Whenever I would finish a race and try going to menu after getting credits, it would freeze on the loading screen. Same thing happens when I play online, and I need to shut off the whole console from the main power switch in the back.. Funnily enough, it doesn't happen with any other game I've tried, just GT6. Any ideas?

 

[Team THRT Drift]

So, recently my PS3 has started making this odd thing with GT6.. Whenever I would finish a race and try going to menu after getting credits, it would freeze on the loading screen. Same thing happens when I play online, and I need to shut off the whole console from the main power switch in the back.. Funnily enough, it doesn't happen with any other game I've tried, just GT6. Any ideas?

Same with my PS3.

Try deleting the game data. Let's hope it's one of the updates and not the GPU.

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

Indeed.. I might try transferring the game data to external hd, then reinstall game and put the files back.. not a fan of the idea of losing everything

 

[gtracedriver1]

I am going for 1gig HDD for PS3 in few months time. PS3 is a great console and so many games to play. I think I will be happy till I get GT7 PS4 bundle which may not even be in 2015

 

[FoolKiller]

1gig? Not a lot you can do with that. I hope that was a typo.

 

[gtracedriver1]

1gig? Not a lot you can do with that. I hope that was a typo.

lol yeah I mean 1TB. Although I am having second thoughts now. My old laptop has 500gigs which I no longer use.

 

[Harsk100]

I got one question: What is the best PS3 to buy? PS3 Super Slim or PS3 Slim?

And how I can put an HDD drive in my new PS3?

 

[AerodyManiac]

Hello again guys.
How do you backup the contents in your PS3's flash drive onto an external storage drive (such as an USB) when you are installing a HDD into the PS3? I want to do this, just in case something goes wrong and I lost all the original contents inside.
Also, has anyone here ever installed a HDD into a PS3 without using the official bracket? If so, can you tell me how likely it is to suffer damage from 'external disturbances', such as shakes and rattles?