Low on HDD Space & Changing Internal Drive

[SOCOM326]

I've tried to unscrew the case but the screws just wont budge (i have the right screw driver because the heads havent been stripped yet). I've also tried using needle nose pliers also with no progress. Does anyone no any other way to loosen the screws without damaging the hard drive or the case?

[mixpix72]

no... i stripped my screws after an hour. i had to call ps3 and ask for a new caddy and screws they sent it to me in like 5 days including the weekend so may i suggest calling sony and tell them you tried to get out the hdd but it wont budge and ask for a new caddy it's free.

[Yip-Man]

I've heard from one or two people that Sony are very good at sending out new caddies free of charge if people strip their screws... so if you have give them a call.

may actually put this in the orginal post.

[Sct-I/On]

Just ordered Western Digital Scorpio 320GB, 5400RPM, 8MB cache.

Opted for this because according to the reviews the data transfer speeds are up to slower 3.5'' desktop HDDs

And among the highest in 2.5'' 5400RPM. Random access speed isn't that great but I understand what PS3 mostly does is sequential read/write, unless it really includes FAT32 therefore fragmenting the HDD eventually.

I know my PS3 has defragmented the HDD once already (60 GB) so only wondering how long it will take for that 263 GB when it eventually becomes nearly full

This 82% of initial HDD capacity rule sounds really strange, of course 1 GB is 1000MB for market speech but is it because of the FAT32 that you get so much wasted space for your shiny, new huge HDD?

Every PS3 OS is the same so I can't get a grip why my precious wants to reclaim 10% of any sized HDD... At this rate 750GB HDD owners will get really bummered

Now I'm only waiting for this baby to arrive, I've got 2 external USB HDDs but I recall both are NTFS so I'll have to do some rearranging work or just for the kicks of it buy a new one altogether to move the stuff around.

[fulgore66]

After replacing the HDD and reformatting etc, what happens if you stick the old drive back in? Will it be back to where it was or will it have problems identifying it? Has anyone tried this yet. I just want to make sure I have a good plan of action in case the restore doesn't work as I expected.

[Vistrix]

Well I dont know how you guys can use a screwdriver to get those out, completely stripped all of them after going through about 10 different screwdrivers. Im now trying hopelessly with a tweezers.

[Vistrix]

OMG

Once I get these screws out, is it possible to put in your own??

[Redrider]

As I remember when the PS3 first came out there was a lot of talk about upgrading your hard drive and different drive speeds 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM, cache sizes, and seek times etc. At that time the people that upgraded reported that the 7200 RPM drives ran a little warmer than the 5400 RPM (stock speed) and reported a insignificant performance increases. Anyone seen any new data on this subject or is the recommendation still upgrading with 5400 RPM speed drives?

[Yip-Man]

Just ordered Western Digital Scorpio 320GB, 5400RPM, 8MB cache.

Opted for this because according to the reviews the data transfer speeds are up to slower 3.5'' desktop HDDs

And among the highest in 2.5'' 5400RPM. Random access speed isn't that great but I understand what PS3 mostly does is sequential read/write, unless it really includes FAT32 therefore fragmenting the HDD eventually.

I know my PS3 has defragmented the HDD once already (60 GB) so only wondering how long it will take for that 263 GB when it eventually becomes nearly full

This 82% of initial HDD capacity rule sounds really strange, of course 1 GB is 1000MB for market speech but is it because of the FAT32 that you get so much wasted space for your shiny, new huge HDD?

Every PS3 OS is the same so I can't get a grip why my precious wants to reclaim 10% of any sized HDD... At this rate 750GB HDD owners will get really bummered

Now I'm only waiting for this baby to arrive, I've got 2 external USB HDDs but I recall both are NTFS so I'll have to do some rearranging work or just for the kicks of it buy a new one altogether to move the stuff around.

Yep you got most of the stuff to do with formatting, the last thing is that the PS3 os will resverve between 5 - 10 %. the larger the HHD the larger the reserve ...

After replacing the HDD and reformatting etc, what happens if you stick the old drive back in? Will it be back to where it was or will it have problems identifying it? Has anyone tried this yet. I just want to make sure I have a good plan of action in case the restore doesn't work as I expected.

not too sure on this, think it might cause a few probs tho.. to be safe i would not

Well I dont know how you guys can use a screwdriver to get those out, completely stripped all of them after going through about 10 different screwdrivers. Im now trying hopelessly with a tweezers.

if you got an early ps3 the screws are soft, there are so many different types to screw drivers its silly really, but if you do have one that fits it does work. it is really matter of the right tool for the job.

OMG

Once I get these screws out, is it possible to put in your own??

speak to Sony mate, call customer care, and they will send you a new caddy free of charge with better screws in....

As I remember when the PS3 first came out there was a lot of talk about upgrading your hard drive and different drive speeds 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM, cache sizes, and seek times etc. At that time the people that upgraded reported that the 7200 RPM drives ran a little warmer than the 5400 RPM (stock speed) and reported a insignificant performance increases. Anyone seen any new data on this subject or is the recommendation still upgrading with 5400 RPM speed drives?

don't think there is any more info, but yes there was a small performance increase and heat increase with a larger cached 7200 rpm drive. but the speed difference, would not really be noticeable - once extra cost taken into account as well better off sticking to the 5400, least you ssticking to the orginal specs of the ps3 just a larger HHD

[SOCOM326]

I took my caddy into work and the tech guys got it out and gave me some brass screws that work nicely and don't strip. I would suggest getting brass screws if you have stripped yours because the ones that come with it are garbage.

[Harrow]

i think the OS reserves between 5 and 10% of the HHD space for itself - so, you have to add this into account when the formatting is done !

Can anyone confirm this? I just installed a 250 gb and after formatting I had 205 usable space of 232 total.

I find it kind of odd that the OS would use a percentage of the hdd. If it needs 5gbs (or whatever it is) to run on a 60 gb hdd why would it need more space on a larger one?

I am really glad I didn't get anything smaller then 250gb like I almost did. This is kind of a ripoff.

I don't want to have to switch everything again. I would recommend to anyone considering a bigger hard drive that you go as big as you can afford.

[twilkinsonkgr]

can anybody recommend a program that will format my external HDD into FAT32 please, and also the customer care is fantastic, even though i have not even attempted to remove the HDD yet i thought that i would phone up sony and ask for a new caddy because i don't want to have to wait a week for it to arive. It only took about 10 minutes and i now have a accout set up so if i have anymore problems it will not take verylong.

[Chesser19]

I'm thinking about getting a new internal hard drive for my PS3 and I was wondering if this one would be fine.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0099566&catid=

[Yip-Man]

Can anyone confirm this? I just installed a 250 gb and after formatting I had 205 usable space of 232 total.

I find it kind of odd that the OS would use a percentage of the hdd. If it needs 5gbs (or whatever it is) to run on a 60 gb hdd why would it need more space on a larger one?

I am really glad I didn't get anything smaller then 250gb like I almost did. This is kind of a ripoff.

I think percentage works well , as a simple OS install, dpeending on your HHD size, can't confirm this but if you look at the difference's between the 60 and the 250 drives, this is the onlything that makes sense a percentage used for OS...

I don't want to have to switch everything again. I would recommend to anyone considering a bigger hard drive that you go as big as you can afford.

can anybody recommend a program that will format my external HDD into FAT32 please, and also the customer care is fantastic, even though i have not even attempted to remove the HDD yet i thought that i would phone up sony and ask for a new caddy because i don't want to have to wait a week for it to arive. It only took about 10 minutes and i now have a accout set up so if i have anymore problems it will not take verylong.

Partion magic / swiss knife works well for formatting larger externall HHD's with sizes larger than 32 gig ...

Also i have just found this free tool, http://www.partition-tool.com/ . looks ok, but have not tried it - might be worth a go as its free, and works with windows - so don't have to use DOS !

I'm thinking about getting a new internal hard drive for my PS3 and I was wondering if this one would be fine.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0099566&catid=

looks fine mate, don't know about price, only thing can suggest is look on a price comparison site to make sure u getting best deal.

[samuelc]

Cheers for all the advice in this thread! I changed my HD without any problems! Just make sure u've got an external storage to store your backup data and ure sorted out!

[ROBO90]

Cheers for this post mate, can see this will help me a lot.
I have a question though for my situation.

The reason i need to do this is because my current hard drive (the one that came with the system) is not functioning.

What i want to do is format the hard drive and put it back, however by doing this, i would be left without an operating system, would i not? if so, where do i get the operating system from?

thanks

[ex nihilo7]

Cheers for this post mate, can see this will help me a lot.
I have a question though for my situation.

The reason i need to do this is because my current hard drive (the one that came with the system) is not functioning.

What i want to do is format the hard drive and put it back, however by doing this, i would be left without an operating system, would i not? if so, where do i get the operating system from?

thanks

The ps3 has to format the hard drive. You won't be left without the xmb.

[ROBO90]

The ps3 has to format the hard drive. You won't be left without the xmb.

thanks for clearing that up, pal

[PhillyPhreak]

I ordered a 320GB HDD for $100 (thanks again, PXG!) from Newegg on Wednesday and received it on Friday. I'm thrilled about the extra storage since my factory 60GB HDD was beginning to run low on space. A couple of those screws, however, were a royal pain in the *** to remove. The blue screw isn't even blue anymore. That, along with one of the other small screws, has been stripped to hell. The caddy is scratched up pretty badly, too. I had to use some friggin pliers to loosen the two troublesome screws! I made sure I didn't over tighten them when I put them back in, though. It was a major relief in the end.

That was a god damned chore, Sony. What the hell!?!

[Cloudie]

I bought a mini Philips head (+) screw driver to remove the four screws but it can't budge the screws. :/
Did I get the wrong size screw driver?

[hisame]

Just read a article from Holi (Japanese 3rd party piperline maker).
They just launch a full set of tools 250GB HDD and instruction of how to swape your PS3 HDD.
In the insturction it said if you want to pass the info from your old HDD do the following.
First run backup tool on PS3 and store the data on an external HDD.
Do the hardware change, then restore it after you formate your new HDD.
Looks like the Backup file is code to regonise machine rather then HDD.
Make sense to do that though. I might need to do this in a couple of years time.

[Yip-Man]

I bought a mini Philips head (+) screw driver to remove the four screws but it can't budge the screws. :/
Did I get the wrong size screw driver?

might have, one old builders trick, is to try to tighten first, i know it sounds strange, but a lot of the time this works, as you have to sort breka the seal type thing, and the screw has only been used to tighten, the screw may not move, but give this a go first.

if you have a early PS3, sony have mentioned that the screws are a bit pants... just call sony and say you have stripped them, Most people i have spoken too who have done this, and phoned Sony have got a new caddy sent out with better screws, would suggest this as, gives you the peace of mind, when getting out the old HHD.

[Cloudie]

might have, one old builders trick, is to try to tighten first, i know it sounds strange, but a lot of the time this works, as you have to sort breka the seal type thing, and the screw has only been used to tighten, the screw may not move, but give this a go first.

if you have a early PS3, sony have mentioned that the screws are a bit pants... just call sony and say you have stripped them, Most people i have spoken too who have done this, and phoned Sony have got a new caddy sent out with better screws, would suggest this as, gives you the peace of mind, when getting out the old HHD.

Yeah, I have the 20 gig launch. I'll call Sony up for some new stuff.

Thanks

[plAythiNG]

about a month ago, i had problems with my wd scorpio hdd 320gb transfer, seems it was a faulty drive, like it owudl pwoer on, but not computer or ps3 could read it, just got a brand ne w320gb same model hard drive. n it works great, although i have one question:

it saids on ps3, fre space : 263gb / 298gb how did i use up the extra 30 gb wen i havnt even touched it yet lol?

[Yip-Man]

about a month ago, i had problems with my wd scorpio hdd 320gb transfer, seems it was a faulty drive, like it owudl pwoer on, but not computer or ps3 could read it, just got a brand ne w320gb same model hard drive. n it works great, although i have one question:

it saids on ps3, fre space : 263gb / 298gb how did i use up the extra 30 gb wen i havnt even touched it yet lol?

The PS3's OS reserves around 10% of the HHD space.

so for a

20 gig thats 2gig
60 gig thats 6gig
300 gig (free space) thats 30 gig