ps3 HD upgrade

[baad bwoy]

I just installed a 320 gb western digital hd, all it mentioned was did I want to format, I agreed and it quickly formatted the drive and is all ready to go. I didnt need to install the firmware or anything. I bought the drive from ebay, the link had been posted in an earlier post Anyway it now seems to say that I have 263 gb spare from 298 gb.

[SmokeMeAKipper]

Hi Guys

Just bought a 320GB hard drive (the Play.com one somebody posted before) and I'm having a problem...

The screws on the hard drive caddy are too tight! Managed to get the main blue one off with a bit of a struggle but the four silver ones are just too tight. I've already managed to strip one of them :-S

Any suggestions?

[Number45]

I managed to strip two.

Get a very small, very sharp flat-head - almost always more effective than even the right size cross-head.

[JP]

The screws are really crappy and are well known for being easy to strip if you are using an even slightly incorrectly sized screwdriver.

If you have the correct size then they'll be fine though.

If you've stripped them as I did the first time, then the best thing to use to remove them would be a set of watchmakers pliers like these.

Luckily, I had a pair and the stripped screws came out easily with them.

[Number45]

The screwdriver I used for the screws was perfectly sized, the two at the front of the caddy were just in there ridiculously tightly. >_<

[JP]

The screwdriver I used for the screws was perfectly sized, the two at the front of the caddy were just in there ridiculously tightly. >_<

I thought my first one was too but I borrowed a set of watchmakers screw drivers from a mate and there are tiny differences and going through his set the original I tried wasn't quite perfect even though it looked & felt like it was at first.

You should be fine with a few grades of screwdrivers but as they are such crap screws if there is any space at all then due to this there's a good chance of them being ruined unfortunately.

Our second PS3 had exactly the same screws tightened just the same and came out first time because of using the correct screwdriver.

Once people have removed them I'd recommend getting replacements as you'll be able to remove the better screws with pretty much anything including a garden shovel and a tooth brush...maybe!

[SuperBeatBoy]

Mine was perfectly sized, its just the screws themselves were worn down. I couldn't for the life of me unscrew one of them because of this, so i had to saw a straight groove into the screw so i could use a flat head to get it out...

[Dazzyman]

Watch the blue one their always in tight way too tight! Id seriously reccomend never putting that one back in once you take it out once and rely on the caddy. I made the mistake on my JPN model of putting it back in and it threaded on only its second attempt when the lens and motor failed (I took it out incase it was a drive fault). I ended up having to get some pliers and bend the whole metal sheet and then snapping it. Their crap and I happily used the correct size and minimal force (Im as weak as a kitten) and it still did it. Cue 4hours of ripped bloody fingers to sort it

[SmokeMeAKipper]

I'm taking it to my brother's shortly - I'll let you know how I get on. It appears to be a near universal problem which makes me feel ever so slightly better. Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions - nice to know I have a community to fall back on [gives group hug]

[SmokeMeAKipper]

Just to update - took it to my brother's who couldn't loosen the screws with any of his screwdrivers but... some pliers did the trick. Twisted them enough to loosen them and then it was easy to get them out with a screwdriver. Made sure he didn't put them back in too tight!

Just restoring my old hard drive data now - fingers crossed.

[Number45]

The bit everyone's scared of - getting the data across to the new drive - is a piece of piss. Classic Sony that they should make the simplest thing the hardest to achieve.

[JP]

I'm taking it to my brother's shortly - I'll let you know how I get on. It appears to be a near universal problem which makes me feel ever so slightly better. Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions - nice to know I have a community to fall back on [gives group hug]

Which hdd did you buy in the end?

I'm thinking of getting a bigger one and was thinking of getting something like the Hitachi 5K500 when it's released but would prefer to get one with 16MB rather than 8MB of cache. I've been reading a few artickes online and each time they test it the extra cache seems to speed access to data up on the PS3 far more than going from 5400rpm to 7800rpm does.

Has anybody upgraded to a hdd with either 16MB of cache or one that runs at 7800rpm here?

[Number45]

Nope. Stuck with 5400rpm to ensure that it doesn't generate any more heat. Would be interested to see what the difference is like for a 16MB cache model though as you say, although I hope I'll never have to change mine again.

[JP]

That was the reason I didn't go for a faster one at first, just to be sure. Luckily people have had plenty of time to use them now and they don't seem to add any additional risks.

The extra cache probably won't make enough of a difference to be paying extra for as it seems to be just over a couple of seconds or so and between 1 and 2 seconds by increasing the rpm. There may well be times when a couple of seconds can really make a difference depending on what the game is doing though.

It's not world changing but I suppose anything that makes things just a tiny bit better and don't cost anything are worth having I suppose!

[SmokeMeAKipper]

Hi John

I bought this one from Play:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3516598/Western-Digital-Scorpio-WD3200BEVT-320GB-2-5-Internal-SATA-Hard-Drive/Product.html

Not really had much chance to see if it's quicker sorry. I'm fairly sure I read an article (from Googling all of this) saying that the difference between rpm speeds was negligible. Not sure if the extra cache makes a difference though. In terms of how easy it is to upgrade it's definitely worthwhile - just watch out for those damn screws!