PS3 doesn't recognise Seagate external HDD.

[Blade Runner]

Hey,

I wanted to connect my Seagate external HDD to my PS3, however the PS3 is not recognising that it is even plugged in.

Google results show others experienced the same problem but I can't find a solution for it.

I've tried formatting it (Windows utility) but it makes no difference.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

[Decider-VT]

Up late too?

Are you trying to format it to FAT32? If you're using Windows 7 then you might be out of luck, as it only formats to exFAT and NTFS. PS3s won't recognise an NTFS-formatted drive, as I found to my cost with a 500GB WD USB drive yesterday.

[Blade Runner]

Up late too?

Are you trying to format it to FAT32? If you're using Windows 7 then you might be out of luck, as it only formats to exFAT and NTFS. PS3s won't recognise an NTFS-formatted drive, as I found to my cost with a 500GB WD USB drive yesterday.

Hey dude, yeah...

I formatted to FAT32 in XP but no difference...

Did you buy your USB drive to transfer to your slim?

I have a lot of TV shows on my PS3 (transfered by 1GB USB stick) which I was hoping not to lose if/when I change to a slim model.

[Decider-VT]

It's mainly for university work but it was going to be used for backup/restore duty for the transfer to the Slim, yeah. Bit weird that you had the option to format to FAT32 in XP though, as I tried using XP to do that yesterday and ran into exactly the same problem as I did when using Win7.

How much data are you looking to transfer, total? If you're not planning on changing the internal HDD on either machine you can always do the Data Transfer over ethernet to keep your TV shows. You can also set up media sharing on your PC and re-download your shows from shared folders on there, although I've only ever tried this wirelessly and it's always been a bit patchy.

[Blade Runner]

It's mainly for university work but it was going to be used for backup/restore duty for the transfer to the Slim, yeah. Bit weird that you had the option to format to FAT32 in XP though, as I tried using XP to do that yesterday and ran into exactly the same problem as I did when using Win7.

How much data are you looking to transfer, total? If you're not planning on changing the internal HDD on either machine you can always do the Data Transfer over ethernet to keep your TV shows. You can also set up media sharing on your PC and re-download your shows from shared folders on there, although I've only ever tried this wirelessly and it's always been a bit patchy.

I did the format on the external HDD a couple of weeks ago, I'm quite sure I remember having the FAT32 option, but looking now I only have NTFS... Unless I did also format it to NTFS and now it's not reversible ??

I probably will keep the 120GB as it is enough for my needs. How is the ethernet cable method done? Is there an option in the menu once two systems are linked? If I give up the TV shows I have very little data to transfer.

I have done the wireless transfer before although it was a bit of a nightmare to setup, but I was transferring from PC to PS3, is it possible to see the PS3 from my PC and transfer files back?

Thanks.

[Decider-VT]

I don't know what the limits of FAT32 are regarding drives of a certain size, so it might have been FAT32 before or NTFS. If it's a relatively new drive with a large storage capacity then it was most likely to be NTFS-formatted out of the box.

You just use an ethernet cable (straight or crossover) between the two PS3s. Go online via the PSN and deactivate your system via Account Management beforehand- do this for each profile. Connect both PS3s to televisions (or the same screen via different inputs). Switch over to your old PS3 and go to System Settings > Data Transfer. Select the option to transfer data from that PS3 to the new one. Then, switch over to the new PS3 and go into the same utility but select the option to transfer data from another PS3 to that one. The consoles will start shifting data over once the new PS3 has quick-formatted its HDD. I deleted lots of episodes of gaming shows from my HDD and all of my downloaded games prior to the transfer, so the whole process only took two minutes- quick and easy. The only downside is having to redownload everything from the PSN again and sitting through the MGS4 install again at some point in the future.

I don't know if you can see the PS3 from your PC. It might be worth trying to see if it's on the list of authorised sharing devices in Windows Media Player, although I doubt that you'd be able to remotely access any PS3 files from there.

[Blade Runner]

Ethernet way seems quite easy, but I may not be able to do it, due to me having to trade in my console to upgrade... In the PS3 backup does copy protected save files successfully transfer with a restore on a new console?

As I've seen all the shows on my PS3, I may just give them up for the switch.

By the way, I don't know if I should wait for the 160GB (but trade in now to get best trade-in price), do you know if it's going to be priced the same as the 120GB?

[Decider-VT]

I think it might be. I'll check at work later today.

Apparently credit for my PS3 had gone down by £10 in the last couple of weeks so you might want to trade sooner rather than later.

[Strolls]

I did the format on the external HDD a couple of weeks ago, I'm quite sure I remember having the FAT32 option, but looking now I only have NTFS... Unless I did also format it to NTFS and now it's not reversible ??.

First google hit for "format external drive fat32 ps3":

http://www.ps3pad.com/ps3-help-guides/2008/03/16/how-to-add-an-external-usb-hard-drive-to-the-ps3/

[Blade Runner]

First google hit for "format external drive fat32 ps3":

http://www.ps3pad.com/ps3-help-guide...ve-to-the-ps3/

But it wasn't working when it was FAT32, which was how it arrived.

[Strolls]

But it wasn't working when it was FAT32, which was how it arrived.

Are you sure about that? Because you told us earlier in this thread "yeah, I formatted it FAT32 in Windows XP", which was mistaken. You told us that when you looked again only the option to format in NTFS was available - that latter statement is correct, as XP doesn't like to format large drives in FAT32 (for good reason). That's why you have to use a utility such as Swissknife.

Also: you admit having formatted with your PC, so it is now NTFS. So format it FAT32 using Swissknife and it should work.

[Blade Runner]

lol @ 'admit'.

Are you interrogating me?

But yeah, when I first bought the external HDD, I connected it to my PS3, it didn't read it but it was working with my PC... I read on the net I had to format it, so I did, and I remember having multiple options to format it as. I am quite sure I formated it as FAT32 and it still didn't work with my PS3... During various formats I must have selected NTFS while trying to get it to work.

Anyway, my stuff is backed up now using a longer method.