Well just like I promised kids, this week I’m going to show all of you how to upgrade your PS3 hard drive. I have successfully done this process by myself and can confirm that any of my fellow readers out there are more than qualified to handle the process *that means you*. While it’s not as painfully simple as pop-off and pop-on like the 360’s hard drive, it’s also not a $180 rip off like the 360’s. Now that being said obviously you’re responsible for anything you do to your PS3, and while it doesn’t void the warranty to change the hard drive you screwing something up on your hard drive probably isn’t covered by Sony *how you’d screw it up I don’t know*. Just covering my ass boys, just covering my ass…
Now that said I was prepared to write a big and in-depth guide myself on how to do it including neat photos by my handy-dandy PlayStation Eye, but I’ve found there are guides more than capable of doing the job. But first let’s go over some little clarifications.
The PS3 can use any 2.5 inch Serial ATA *otherwise known as SATA* internal hard drive *commonly referred to as a 2.5 inch SATA notebook drive*. The PS3 also runs at 5400 RPM *it’s basically the speed* so do not go less than 5400 RPM. It is possible to use 7200 RPM or something greater than 7200 RPM but than you run the risk of heating up the PS3 beyond normal temperatures so it’s something you do at your own risk. I stuck with 5400 RPM myself *and the new hard actually makes my PS3 cooler than the old hard drive*. Seagate is the company that makes all current PS3 hard drives but you do not have to use a hard drive made by Seagate. I am using a Western Digital hard drive myself and have no problems.
So for one last time your PS3 hard drive has to be a 2.5 inch form factor hard drive, it has to be a Serial ATA drive, and I recommend you stick to 5400 RPM just to be safe. If you find a hard drive that meet these 3 qualifications it’s more than likely compatible. Now then I’ve found a nice written guide with pictures *that I used while installing my hard drive* as well as a nice video guide that does a great job showing how to do it.
If for some reason the link ever dies off or anything just Google search “installing a PS3 hard drive” and you’ll find a million links.
Now that you have a guide to show you how to do it and you know what qualifications you need for a hard drive to be compatible, let me tell you what you need. A mini-Phillips head screw driver. If you’re not sure if you have a screw driver small enough just pop off that HDD tab on the side of the PS3 and you can see for yourself. Now while I recommend you stick with the guide and get 2 screw drivers just to be safe I only had one screw driver *not a flat head* and I’ll admit I actually stripped the non-flat head screw. So if any of you are worried about stripping the blue screw be aware I did strip it and I turned out fine. Be aware the blue screw is very tight and would not budge for me, but it did come off eventually *probably because I didn’t have a very good screw driver* and after that the other 4 screws came off easy. Otherwise just follow the guide and trust me changing your PS3 hard drive is easy.
With all that said I bought a 250 GB Western Digital Scorpio from newegg.com for $135 with free 3-day shipping. Here is a link to the page where I bought my hard drive from, and I recommend newegg.com as the best source for getting a PS3 hard drive. My 250 GB hard drive is great and I definitely recommend it as a great deal *especially considering the 360 is $180 for 120 GB*. Just make sure it meets the 2.5 inch Serial SATA form with 5400 RPM and you’ll be all set for a PS3 hard drive.
As for a final passage you will need to format the hard drive no matter what once it is in. So when you turn on the PS3 and it wants to format itself don’t panic. The formatting only takes about 2 minutes and after that you are pretty much set. Although as a tip readers I recommend going back into “Settings” > “system settings” > “Format Utility” and doing a custom format and “allow 10 GB for other OS” as you have to do that if you ever want to install Linux onto your PS3. Yellow Dog Linux 6.0 becomes free to PS3 users in a couple of weeks and I’ll have a guide on how to put Linux onto your PS3 as well. Also once the PS3 hard drive is all formatted you will lose 20 or so GB, that’s normal and it’s just system info the PS3 puts on the hard drive so it runs properly. I only had about 220 GB out of 250 GB once my PS3 was all formatted.
Also once you install a new hard drive all of your saves and downloaded games are not carried over to the new hard drive *they’re gone!*, so I recommend putting in a PSP, i-pod, flash drive, memory stick, or some sort of external hard drive to back up your save files so you don’t lose them *basically copying all of your save files onto your new hard drive so you don’t lose them*. As for all of your game and video downloads go to download list in the PlayStation store and you can re-download all of your media once you have your new hard drive. All of your system settings like your friends list and account information are saved onto the system memory so you won’t lose any of that stuff by changing your PS3 hard drive.
With all of that said I definitely recommend everyone go change their PS3 hard drive to something bigger, it’s really easy. Not to mention once things like Sony’s Play TV DVR tuner for the PS3 come out your hard drives will fill up really fast. Think for the future people, upgrade your hard drives. Any further questions or requests for help can be left in the comment section or sent to my email, thanks.
SPOTLIGHTS
