Problems with PS3 Back-up Restore - Help?

[tintin]

Hi,

I'm having problems restoring my PC from a back-up. Process so far:

Backed up onto a FAT32 partition on an external hard drive successfully
Removed the existing 500GB drive and replaced with 5400rpm 1TB drive, recognised OK and formatted
Back-up utility sees the back-up on the external drive and starts the back-up process

The back-up is large (nearly 500GB) and suggests 12 hours.

The problem is i've tried twice to run the back-up now and both times its just halted itself. No error message. Just sitting there as if the process is still going on (it will let me cancel/abort cancel) but nothing is actually copying. First time it reached 84% and got to this stage, the second time, it got to 78%.

Like an idiot I deleted all the data of the old drive so I really need to find a solution for this. Anyone know what might be going wrong here?

Thanks for your help,

TT.

[J0e Musashi]

It's the partition that's your problem. You did deactivate your accounts before you started too right?

[tintin]

Could you explain? Why is the partition the problem?

Also, what do you mean by deactivating my account?

[J0e Musashi]

Your PSN accounts need to be deactivated before you change HDD's, and then reactivated on the new HDD before you start the restore. It would have definitely told you that on-screen. Also, you can't use partitions.

I think you've possibly lost all your data, and you could be frozen out of your accounts for up to six months. You can manually reset them from Sony's website however, but only once every six months.

[tintin]

I think you're getting confused with the data transfer between 2 PS3s. When you're upgrading the HDD on the same hardware you don't deactivate the account.

Can't see any reference anywhere to not being able to use partitions. Do you have a link?

[J0e Musashi]

I think I'm not getting confused, but you are. You realise that the transfer tool and the backup/restore tool both do exactly the same thing right? Just in different ways. Both tools move data from one HDD to another. You need to deactivate your account in both instances. You also need to be on the most current firmware, which is now 4.46.

Well you can't use partitions. I don't have a link either.

Considering you seem to know so much about it, why do you need any help?

[J0e Musashi]

http://store.playstation.com/login.gvm

Go there to reset activations.

[tintin]

Look on the online manual at playstation.com - look at the different instructions relating to console to console transfer and normal back-up/restore. They're not the same thing.

No, I don't know everything.

Just that when someone makes such a definite statement it would be nice to have it backed up with something.

[J0e Musashi]

Both tools achieve the same outcome. It's obviously an easier process to hook up two PS3's via ethernet and do it that way, but this isn't going to be possible most of the time, which is the reason there are two tools.

I've done this many, many times myself. I know you can't use partitions, because every time I tried to, I was unsuccessful in the transfer.

[tintin]

Agreed they have the same purpose but one removes the digital rights management from the hardware, the other doesn't.

Appreciate the heads-up on the partitioning issues though.

[tintin]

To update, I still have issues. I purchased a 1TB drive, formatted it Fat32 and copied the PS3 back-up file over from the partition. Got to 80% restore and the same hanging issues came back. At this point I can only assume that the original restore file is corrupted - possibly as a result of saving the original back-up to a partition. I guess we'll never know. Pain in the arse, frankly.