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Hard Drive Upgrade Guide


mrawdtsi

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Hello fellow PS3ers. Yesterday I wanted to try what the majority of the internet said was impossible. Upgrade my PS3 Internal hard drive to a 1TB internal.

 

Many sites/forums said this was impossible due to the size of the drive, but with very little modification, I completed the upgrade yesterday.

 

I wanted to share this with you so that you may use these steps in upgrading your own PS3. Many people use the HD in the PS3 for media etc, so this is the perfect "next step mod."

 

This is a link to the Hard Drive i purchased for this upgrade:

 

Newegg.com - Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10TPVT 1TB 5200 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

I went with a Western Digital Scoprio Blue 2.5" SATA 5200rpm.

 

The next step was to backup all of my old data (game data, game saves, user profiles, themes etc)

 

Under the System icon in the XMB, choose Backup. Make sure you use an External HDD or thumb drive that exceeds the amount of data on your PS3. in my case it was ~ 150G.

 

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7215/backupq.jpg

 

The backup took roughly 1.5hrs. Once you start the backup do not cancel it or touch your controller. it will stall or halt the backup.

 

Now that you have backed up all of your data, go ahead and unplug the PS3, and locate the HD door on the bottom of the ps3 (if vertical) or left hand side (if horizontal)

 

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/4141/hdcover.jpg

 

Now, take a flat head screw driver and pry off the plastic door. After that remove the blue screw with a small phillips screw driver, and slide the tray containing the HD out towards you.

 

You now hold the Hard drive and the tray that will need to be modified to accommodate a larger 1TB drive. In my PS3 (80G fat model) the OEM drive was a Hitachi.

 

remove the 4 screws that hold the drive into the tray.

 

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4051/hdtrayscrews.jpg

 

Now you will need to do the only modification necessary to make this possible. On the tray itself, there are 4 raised bumps in each corner that lift the OEM HD into a centered position to ensure alignment of the SATA ports. I used a hammer and finishing nail punch to pound these flat. see pic:

 

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2889/hdtray.jpg

 

Now that these have been pounded flat, put the new HD in the tray, and insert it into the PS3 drive bay. You will need to give it a little pressure pushing it back in. When re-seated properly, the new HD and tray should sit roughly 1/2" deep into the ps3. Screw the blue screw back in and put the plastic HD cover back on.

 

At this point you can plug everything back in and power up the PS3.

 

Your PS3 will give you a message that it cannot find the new firmware necessary to start up. Go to PlayStation® - PS3 and download the 3.55 firmware to a thumb drive. Make sure on your thumb drive, you have a "PS3" folder, and within that folder you add a folder called "UPDATE" download the firmware to the "update" folder and insert the thumb drive into the ps3.

 

Connect a controller via the USB cord, then hit [start] and [select] at the same time to force the PS3 to search removable media for the firmware. The PS3 will automatically format your new HD to FAT32 and install the firmware.

 

Once the firmware update is complete. Go to System in your XMB and choose restore from backup.

 

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5011/restore.jpg

 

This process will take some time. it took me roughly another 1.5hrs.

 

Once the backup is complete. you Have a brand new 1TB PS3. If you go to system information in your XMB you can check it.

 

see pic:

 

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/6803/photo1qd.jpg

 

It was a fun little project, including the backup and restore i would estimate about 4hrs total time invested. I wanted to do this because so many people said it could not be done. But i proved them wrong!

 

Side note: i have a temp sensor monitoring the temps of the new drive right now, so far so good. its running at room temp ~68F and left it on all night. no issues at all.:cool:

 

Happy PS3 upgrading!

 

*note: i will take no responsibility if you damage your PS3 attempting this upgrade, however it is very straight forward and you shouldnt have any issues whatsoever*

Edited by mrawdtsi
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Sony has a guide too. There are Youtube videos and you should add PS3 Slim Images too. There are members that have slims, and the HDD in the slim is pretty well hidden. Great job overall. Maybe centering the images would help.

 

EDIT: If its a guide you should have a Mod remove 1TB from the thread title, not everyone will upgrade to that much memory.

Edited by GODCHILD1020
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Sony has a guide too. There are Youtube videos and you should add PS3 Slim Images too. There are members that have slims, and the HDD in the slim is pretty well hidden. Great job overall. Maybe centering the images would help.

 

Thanks for the advice, i will look for PS3 slim images, but having first hand experience with a PS3 fat, i was reluctant to say "it works!" for the slims as well.

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Just editing my comments.

 

Sony has a guide too. There are Youtube videos and you should add PS3 Slim Images too. There are members that have slims, and the HDD in the slim is pretty well hidden. Great job overall. Maybe centering the images would help.

 

EDIT: If its a guide you should have a Mod remove 1TB from the thread title, not everyone will upgrade to that much memory.

This is not your average run-of-the-mill HDD upgrade. The process involves modding the external drive to fit into the PS3.

 

The ones you are talking about are standard sized (in both thickness and height) installations.

Edited by Asura
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How can you possibly use up 1TB anyway?

 

the issue i ran into was i didnt delete old game data, i tend to jump from game to game a lot and do trophy clean up later. i cant grind them out as fast as most of you guys, so i like to leave the game data on the machine.

 

Additionally, i like to use the PS3 to store music videos for when i have company over.

 

the way i see it, i will never run out of space now :D

 

how would i go about contacting a mod, and whos the best one to contact?

-still learning the ins and outs of the site :)

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nice guide mate, i think you should make a guide that applies to all hdd's and provide information on what drives to go for aswell and get a mod to sticky it, theres always loads of threads with "how to back up" "what drive to get"

 

I'm pretty sure there is already a stickied guide on how to upgrade any other HD. (can't find it but I know I saw one at some point). This one kind of stands alone in the fact that it does "the impossible". Might deserve a sticky or an Encyclopedia add at least for those of us who dare to attempt it. Very good guide though. I now know where to go if I ever use over 500 gigs on my system. Thanks.

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How do you first back up? What format is the drive in? NTFS? FAT32? Does the PS3 reformat it once it goes internal? Do you connect it externally as a FAT32 first?

 

In your XMB, there is a system icon. In that menu, there is a system backup utility. Follow the instructions and back it up to an external HDD or thumb drive, if it is large enough.

 

Once you have installed the new Hard Drive, download the Firmware from the playstation site, and then hit [start] and [select] at the same time to force the PS3 to search removable media for firmware.

 

It will then prompt you to format the drive to FAT32, and install the firmware.

 

Once that is complete, go back into the XMB and system icon, to restore from backup and you're all set.

 

my understanding is that the FAT32 file system is limited to 2TB. So that would theoretically be the largest internal drive you can add. Pending the physical dimensions of the drive itself.

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In your XMB, there is a system icon. In that menu, there is a system backup utility. Follow the instructions and back it up to an external HDD or thumb drive, if it is large enough.

 

Once you have installed the new Hard Drive, download the Firmware from the playstation site, and then hit [start] and [select] at the same time to force the PS3 to search removable media for firmware.

 

It will then prompt you to format the drive to FAT32, and install the firmware.

 

Once that is complete, go back into the XMB and system icon, to restore from backup and you're all set.

 

my understanding is that the FAT32 file system is limited to 2TB. So that would theoretically be the largest internal drive you can add. Pending the physical dimensions of the drive itself.

 

A 2TB PS3 HDD :) :applause: :dance: <3

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how would i go about contacting a mod, and whos the best one to contact?

-still learning the ins and outs of the site :)

 

in the FAQ forum there is a link to each mods profile so you can contact them. Some are online more than others- funkyweed, Mendel and Shadowstrife are on a lot so they are good choices...

 

Here's the link- http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/faq/42974-how-contact-staff.html

Edited by SolidSnakeNZ
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