PS3 Slim Hard Drive Upgrade

[elaniel]

Hey everyone, my 160GB slim ps3 is full and want to get a bigger 500GB hard drive.
How do you go about doing this as I don't want to lose my saves (as some are copy protected)? I have looked around and most people recommend an external hard drive to back it up. is this the only way?

Or could I just get a USB stick and then transfer my saves and use the PS+ cloud storage for protected ones. Then retrieve them onto the new hard drive after the transfer?

[J0e Musashi]

You'll need an external as well as your new internal HDD, if you want to keep everything. If you use PS+, you'll have to install all your games again.

[elaniel]

It's just the saves I'm worried about, so is it possible to just transfer all saves to USB and Cloud storage? Then just install the new hard drive and then re-download all the rest?

I don't mind downloading/reinstalling everything.

[ETC]

Easiest way is a new PS3 to PS3 Ethernet transfer but you would need a new (or borrowed) PS3 to transfer to (and back if its a borrowed one) copies everything and wipes the original but worth it

[J0e Musashi]

Just use PS+ for all the saves. Combining it with a USB key just extra adds hassle. Remember to de-activate all the accounts on the old HDD before you do any swapping too.

[elaniel]

So just to clarify, send all saves to cloud and that's all I would need to do?
De-activate what accounts? You mean like Netflix and stuff?

I'll probably still need to use the USB stick for my PS1/PS2 game saves though (if they will even transfer)

[_SD_]

I have a barely used 1TB 5400rpm drive spare that I pulled out of me Mac Mini. I'm not sure if the newer PS3 HDDs are 7200rpm, or if it would even realistically matter. Let me know if you're interested....

[GluedOnBeard]

I thought you could remove the drive, put it into an external enclosure - clone it. Then attach the second drive into the enclosure and clone the image you made back to that drive and put that back in the PS3 or does it detect a different sized drive and force a format?

[J0e Musashi]

De-activate your PSN accounts most importantly. Lovefilm also.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

does it detect a different sized drive and force a format?

It auto formats it when you put a drive in.