Topic: New Hard Drive For Your PS3? Say Good Bye To Your Old One (Read 150 times)

PS3Scene · « **on:** March 26, 2008, 09:46:00 PM »

New Hard Drive For Your PS3? Say Good Bye To Your Old One
Posted by XanTium | 26-3-2008 22:10 EST

(IMG:http://www.burstnet.com/cgi-bin/ads/ad9520b.cgi/ns/v=2.1S/sz=300x250A/

Quote

I just learned the hard way that once you install a new hard drive into a Playstation 3 that the old one will no longer be accepted and will need to be formatted to be used again.

Yesterday I bought a 250 gig Western Digital 2.5" hard drive for my PS3. I turned on my Playstation and attempted to backup my game saves and media (videos, mp3's, pictures) through the system menu. I needed 41 gigs to do so but I did not have this space available on any removable media. No problem I thought, I would just connect the drive to my computer and copy it that way.

I put in the new hard drive, formatted it and then plugged the old one into my PC. Much to my surprise a PS3 formatted hard drive cannot be read by either Windows XP or Vista - apparently it uses some sort of proprietary file system, I'm assuming to prevent any sort of illegal copying.

Anyways, I put the old hard drive back in only to be told that I needed to format it to use it. WTF?! After installing the new hard drive, the original 80 gig hard drive that it came with was no longer accepted and needed to be reformatted to use again!

Full Story: pwnpatrol.com

HotKnife420 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 27, 2008, 09:41:00 AM »

Damn, I should've posted this when I figured it out a couple weeks ago. I thought I was the last to know myself

I'm very interested in finding a way to read a PS3 hdd, though. I wonder if they're readable in linux...

Verity · « **Reply #2 on:** March 27, 2008, 12:19:00 PM »

Old PS3 drives no longer work when re-installed? Has this been quantitatively confirmed, or is it just ramblings by this guy based on limited empirical evidence?

Windows, especially pre-XP-SP2 versions, has long been known to "mark" unknown hard drives by writing to the MBR. This has long been a problem for TiVo drive upgraders who inadvertently boot into Windows with their precious TiVo drive in the PC. Windows overwrites the Tivo drive identifier with something of its own.

I find it hard to believe a PS3 won't recognise one of its own drives. So, again, is this really a PS3 issue or a Windows issues chomping the MBR of this drive?

Ranger72 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 27, 2008, 02:06:00 PM »

That is why I backed my 40GB PS3 up to my 160GB Ipod before I installed the new 250GB HDD. Transfered all my data back to the new drive and everything was good to go.

typerdaveyd · « **Reply #4 on:** March 27, 2008, 04:18:00 PM »

Hi, i just got a new 250 western digital hdd. I already had a 250 gb hdd installed but i got another one because i wanted to run linux on my ps3. My original 250 gb had a bunch of movies and stuff on it, so i didnt want to format it. I wanted to run the linux on my ps3 without formating the one with all my stuff. after i ran the linux on the new 250 hdd and tried it out, i installed my original 250 hdd back on my ps3 and it still works.

so i believe your problem came from connecting the ps3 hdd to your pc.

The Juggler · « **Reply #5 on:** March 27, 2008, 05:09:00 PM »

Yeah, I would like to see this confirmed by a user that has not connected the old drive to a Windows system (or any system).
I have a hard time believing the PS3 stores your current HD serial number somewhere on the system to prevent you from HD Swapping.
Plus, XP and Vista are likely to try to store a page file or recover the file system of the old drive when you installed it in your PC. This would corrupt the PS3 file system. Then it would make sense that your PS3 would reject it.

HotKnife420 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2008, 02:18:00 PM »

QUOTE(typerdaveyd @ Mar 27 2008, 11:18 PM)

Hi, i just got a new 250 western digital hdd. I already had a 250 gb hdd installed but i got another one because i wanted to run linux on my ps3. My original 250 gb had a bunch of movies and stuff on it, so i didnt want to format it. I wanted to run the linux on my ps3 without formating the one with all my stuff. after i ran the linux on the new 250 hdd and tried it out, i installed my original 250 hdd back on my ps3 and it still works.

so i believe your problem came from connecting the ps3 hdd to your pc.

I overlooked the bit about original hdd's not working.

This is a bit odd. Here's my story?

When I got my 60GB PS3 back in Jan, I immediately installed a 120GB hdd I had lying around. Worked fine, decided to update the fw. Upon doing so, my PS3 had a problem, and I had to put my 60GB drive back in. Update went fine. When the 2.20 update came out, it didn't have any problems upgrading, so I didn't try swapping then.

I just (about 5 mins ago) decided to try the 60GB drive (which has only been in my PS3), and when I booted it, said it could not find the correct disk...

gtasaif · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2008, 02:37:00 AM »

possibly firmware problem? just my theory nothing to back it up with (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

This post has been edited by gtasaif: Mar 29 2008, 09:39 AM

Muzzakus · « **Reply #8 on:** March 31, 2008, 10:24:00 AM »

"Sony, the One and Only"

- Or -

"This is Living"

Not sure which is better ?

cbanks08 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 07, 2008, 03:36:00 PM »

QUOTE(The Juggler @ Mar 28 2008, 12:09 AM)

Yeah, I would like to see this confirmed by a user that has not connected the old drive to a Windows system (or any system).
I have a hard time believing the PS3 stores your current HD serial number somewhere on the system to prevent you from HD Swapping.
Plus, XP and Vista are likely to try to store a page file or recover the file system of the old drive when you installed it in your PC. This would corrupt the PS3 file system. Then it would make sense that your PS3 would reject it.

I just upgraded to a 100GB HD from an 80GB and I can confirm that my old drive (that I couldn't back up via USB Hard drive) will no longer work in my PS3. It says I need to format my disk. Now all my game saves are lost forever! Luckily all my download content was retrievable through the sony store (even some content that was available for one weekend that I thought I couldn't... Aerosmith - dream on DLC for guitar hero III). I followed Sony's tech support for swapping the HD and there is nothing that can be done (as of yet).

justtaint · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2008, 02:55:00 AM »

QUOTE(Verity @ Mar 27 2008, 12:19 PM)

Old PS3 drives no longer work when re-installed? Has this been quantitatively confirmed, or is it just ramblings by this guy based on limited empirical evidence?

Windows, especially pre-XP-SP2 versions, has long been known to "mark" unknown hard drives by writing to the MBR. This has long been a problem for TiVo drive upgraders who inadvertently boot into Windows with their precious TiVo drive in the PC. Windows overwrites the Tivo drive identifier with something of its own.

I find it hard to believe a PS3 won't recognise one of its own drives. So, again, is this really a PS3 issue or a Windows issues chomping the MBR of this drive?

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but Windows XP is the only OS that writes a signature to drives. Windows 2000 and before, there isn't the problem of the OS writing to the drive. I just wanted to clarify, because the way you wrote it I couldn't figure out if you were including the OS's prior to XP or just the service packs prior to SP2 on Windows XP.

GozuNoobKiller · « **Reply #11 on:** July 10, 2008, 12:02:00 PM »

I just logged onto my PS3 and it said i needed to re-format my PS3 so my cousin turned off the PS3 so we wouldlnt loose any of our data and everything was gone! I was told it has something to do with the new patch? Am i the only one having this problem?

?

Chancer · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2008, 02:15:00 PM »

Have you had the HDD out and put it back in? It does this if you remove it and replace it.

Author Topic: New Hard Drive For Your PS3? Say Good Bye To Your Old One (Read 150 times)