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Swapping between multiple HDDs?


LittleBlueMacaw

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Hello everyone!

With the store closing and getting issues downloading patches, I've decided to download all the PS3 games just to be on the safe side. But I feel like 1TB won't be enough...

So I have a few questions:

 

1) Is 1TB really the "max" size the PS3 can work with properly? I read on multiple sites that sizes bigger than that can get wonky or cause issues.

 

2) Is it possible to swap between HDDs on the same console? Let's say I have games from HDD-A I wanna play, but then I want to play a different game that is on HDD-B. So I take out HDD-A from the console and then insert HDD-B to play. Would that work?

 

Since it's not possible to backup your games to an external HDD, this is the only way I could think of to "keep" the games.

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1 hour ago, LittleBlueMacaw said:

 

1) Is 1TB really the "max" size the PS3 can work with properly? I read on multiple sites that sizes bigger than that can get wonky or cause issues.

 

2) Is it possible to swap between HDDs on the same console? Let's say I have games from HDD-A I wanna play, but then I want to play a different game that is on HDD-B. So I take out HDD-A from the console and then insert HDD-B to play. Would that work?

 

1) Not recommended, me personally never test it, but looking via different topics on different forums you gotta go for 1TB max, any 7200rpm HDD will do, I guess.

2) Possible, just remember to install HDD correctly -> Format it, Download games and then swap to different one.

You can also use secondary console as backup machine and don't forget about data transfer futures, just in case.

Edited by PostalDudeRus
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10 hours ago, LittleBlueMacaw said:

Hello everyone!

With the store closing and getting issues downloading patches, I've decided to download all the PS3 games just to be on the safe side. But I feel like 1TB won't be enough...

So I have a few questions:

 

1) Is 1TB really the "max" size the PS3 can work with properly? I read on multiple sites that sizes bigger than that can get wonky or cause issues.

 

2) Is it possible to swap between HDDs on the same console? Let's say I have games from HDD-A I wanna play, but then I want to play a different game that is on HDD-B. So I take out HDD-A from the console and then insert HDD-B to play. Would that work?

 

Since it's not possible to backup your games to an external HDD, this is the only way I could think of to "keep" the games.

 

 

1) Yes, 1TB is the maximum safe size, anything past can get out troubles like "invisible" files, randomly deleted stuff. I know on 360 you can go up to 2TB but it's kinda weird that PS3 only supports 1TB.

 

2) No, it's not possible. Whenever you swap between HDDs in a single playstation 3, it will ALWAYS ask to format the HDD that was just put in. So say you filled a HDD-A with 1TB and want to use a second one (HDD-B). You take out HDD-A from PS3, put HDD-B and as soon you boot up ps3, it will ask to format HDD-B, which is no issue since it's a new blank HDD. Then after filling HDD-B with games too, you decide to play a game that is on HDD-A so you swap those drives...and as soon you pop the HDD-A back in, it will be asked to be formatted, meaning all games lost. Then if you try to swap the HDD-B back in, it will also be asked to format it, meaning you just lost 2 HDDs full of games. Is it dumb? Yes, but it's the design poorly chosen for Playstation 3. On 360 you can easily swap between HDDs with not a single issue.

Edited by Otonio_Bruno
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9 hours ago, PostalDudeRus said:

2) Possible, just remember to install HDD correctly -> Format it, Download games and then swap to different one.

You can also use secondary console as backup machine and don't forget about data transfer futures, just in case.

Just to make it absolutly clear, this is not true. Whenever you place a different HDD in the PS3 you are forced to format, even if that HDD had been assigned to that PS3 previously, as Otonio_Bruno describes above.

Edited by NewDust
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5 hours ago, NewDust said:

Just to make it absolutly clear, this is not true. Whenever you place a different HDD in the PS3 you are forced to format, even if that HDD had been assigned to that PS3 previously, as Otonio_Bruno describes above.

Yeah, I've made mistake here, coz I clearly remember testing it on Xbox and PS3, seems like memory serving me bad.

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On 2021-04-13 at 2:52 AM, LittleBlueMacaw said:

Hello everyone!

With the store closing and getting issues downloading patches, I've decided to download all the PS3 games just to be on the safe side. But I feel like 1TB won't be enough...

So I have a few questions:

 

1) Is 1TB really the "max" size the PS3 can work with properly? I read on multiple sites that sizes bigger than that can get wonky or cause issues.

 

2) Is it possible to swap between HDDs on the same console? Let's say I have games from HDD-A I wanna play, but then I want to play a different game that is on HDD-B. So I take out HDD-A from the console and then insert HDD-B to play. Would that work?

 

Since it's not possible to backup your games to an external HDD, this is the only way I could think of to "keep" the games.

 

For your first question, this is what I did:

  • I bought a 1.5TB Seagate portable HDD, took it out. It's 5400 rpm.
  • Next, I had a spare 2TB portable HDD that I formatted to FAT32 (32KB clusters) using AOMEI (free version 6.0), and used it to download all my games and stuff from my PS3's 320GB HDD.
  • I took out the 320GB HDD, and then inserted the 1.5TB Seagate drive, and let the PS3 format it to FAT32.
  • Finally, I used the Back-up restore feature on PS3 by taking all my saved data from the 2TB portable drive to download it to the 1.5TB HDD inside the PS3.
  • So far, after a few months, everything works great. I'm on the latest PS3 firmware 4.87.

I'm tempted to use my 2TB HDD for my PS3, but I didn't go through with it due to many posts and articles saying that 2TB will not work. Something about how the maximum is about 1.83TB, or partitioning a HDD so that 0.5TB (500 GB) would just become unreadable to the PS3 by using a partitioning software via PC (e.g. AOMEI).

 

Sorry, I don't know the answer to your 2nd question, but I'm also curious to know if HDD swapping could work without issues?

 

 

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